Into the Looking Glass - John Ringo > Reviews (1)

It all started with a bang. At 9.28am on a Saturday in early march, the University of Central Florida went up with a force of approximately sixty kilotons.

Of course it looked like a nuclear blast with the large mushroom cloud but when it was possible to send in troops there was no residual radiation. Nor had there been any warning from sky watch, and anyway the crater was the wrong shape for a meteorite strike.

Naturally the President was concerns as were his cabinet and the military chiefs. The loss of life was very bad but it seemed rather an odd place for a terrorist strike. Why not a major city?

Of course the strange sphere floating in the centre of the crater did not help, nor did the two rather strange and large insects found dying in the crater.

It appeared that a scientist had been doing some experiments with quantum physics looking for an odd particle, the type they sometimes was theorised in very large atom smasher equipment. Perhaps he had been right and had found it, to his cost.

Then came the report of a second "gateway" from which inimical forces had come and apparently killed some local population. An investigation turned into a full scale alien invasion with the Army, Police and local citizens loosing badly to some weird aliens.

So briefly starts the latest book from John Ringo. He burst like a bomb himself on the unprepared world in 2000, and has not looked back since.

He writes a good enthralling military hi-Tec adventure type of story. The action in this one starts right at page one and has not let up since. The story reminds me of a BBC television serial that I have seen and ideas similar have cropped up with other writers as to the style of the aliens.

The idea of biological weapons is in itself not knew. We tend to think of germs but that may not be the only type of biology available. What about modified animals and peoples. This idea itself has been also used by other writers. (H Harrison 'Eden' books)

The quantum theory of a multiverse is not new either but is now appearing in more works. If you really want to know about this you should ask a quantum physicist but be prepared to not understand what they are talking about.

This is an adventure military story. You need to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the story. The principal scientist character appears to be a bit of a genius. The senior non commissioned officer is a hard boiled veteran of many years service who will do what is necessary to get the job done. There is not too much background and deep analysis of these or any other characters. As this is the start of a series, there may be further developments later.

Of course this story is set in America and it is the American military who are involved. To be honest I could not imagine such a story being set in any other country being treated in just such a way. Do not let this put you off, just sit back and enjoy the story.

Getting a copy.
As this is a recent publication in hard cover, you are not going to find it in your local bookshop.

This may be found in specialist Sci-Fi shops and Amazon of course.

Amazon details are:-

Hardcover 288 pages (June 1, 2005)
Publisher: Baen Books
Language: English
ISBN: 0743498801
Priced at £12.59

Some details of the author:-
John Ringo was born in 1963. John Ringo had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by the time he graduated high school. This left him with a wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food. John has become a professional science fiction writer, and is in the early stages of becoming fabulously wealthy, which his publisher has assured him is the common lot of science fiction writers who write for Baen Books. With his bachelor years spent in the airborne, cave diving, rock-climbing, rappelling, hunting, spear-fishing, and sailing, the author is now happy to let other people risk their necks. He prefers to write science fiction (both alone and in collaboration with David Weber) raise Arabian horses, dandle his kids and watch the grass grow. Someday he may even cut it. But not today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe he'll just let the horses eat it.

Extracts from the book biography.