It's Not Over Til The Skinny Lady Sings . . . Working off of a piece of intelligence from the alien Hexosehr, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to investigate rumors of an ancient and powerful civilization that may have been the creators of the ?black box? that drives humanity's only space ship. Any remnant technology would be nice but what the Blade finds is much more than they bargained for. Worse, the ship is infested by an alien species of scorpion-like arachnoids that has the potential to wipe out a world. Worst of all, instead of being Astrogator, Captain William Weaver is now the XO and he is not getting along with the new commander. And the new commander does not get along with Weaver, the ship's female savant-linguist or most of the rest of the original crew. And what is that weird noise the ship makes every time it's in hard maneuvers? Leave it to the oddball geniuses of the Blade to sort it all out. And the Dreen are not going to like the answers.
Author: John Ringo
Author: Travis S. Taylor
Publisher: Baen
Customer Reviews
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A Bit of Ringo's Mojo Returning
This is number four in this series. For some time Mr. Ringo's quality of work has been waning. The criticism of his "There will be Dragons" series made him outright quit the series. The last two books in this series shows evidence of his old self coming back again. Thanks to the use some of the character templates that brought him to the forefront of military sci-fi. Oops I meant Science Fiction. This story advances the series along slightly leaving subtle clues to what's coming next. Its mostly just short story with page fillers: political stuff here, day to day life there. Non the less I cant wait to see what happens next.
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The Vorpal Blade Rises Up One More Time
The fourth book in the "Looking Glass" series, "Claws that Catch" continues the story of the spaceship Vorpal Blade (well, Vorpal Blade 2, because the first was so damaged in the previous book, "Manxome Foe," that it had to be replaced) and its crew. The bad news about this book is that it is not a stand-alone book. The good news? All the previous books are very good. The series was begun by John Ringo (the "Posleen War" series) in "Into The Looking Glass," where an experiment in quantum physics goes wrong, destroying much of central Florida, and opening gateways into other realities, many with residents more interested in taking over our world, and seeing humans as simply a annoyance in the way.
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<br />Books two and three were co-written with Travis S Taylor, and, together, they tell a good story. Ringo is at his best when telling action sequences, and all four books give him plenty of opportunity to shine. Yet another series to add to your "must follow" list.
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Now this is John Ringo
Why did I use the title I did. Read my review of Kildar. This book as well as the others in the series just makes me more convinced that someone else using John Ringo's name wrote Kildar.
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<br />While this book differs a bit from the first three and many Mr. Ringo's other series is that the major mayhem and blood letting is pretty much confined to the last couple of chapters it doesn't hurt the book or series one little bit.
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<br />I can't argue with the many reviews that name Mr. Ringo a master of action/war novel but what makes his books and the delay in the action in this particular one a non issue is his characters and the ideals of those characters.
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<br />What can I say other then to offer my personal highest compliment by favorable comparing the richness of his characters and the ideals they aspire to to W.E.B. Griffin and Robert Heinlein. Well, at least the early Heinlein.
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<br />Yes, sometimes the hero's saving the day in impossible situations may come out seeming more then a little contrived but the fact is Mr. Ringo makes his people so real and interesting you really don't care and you are right there rooting for them.
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<br />MikeG
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