The zombie apocalypse marches on, and so do our heroes

As our heroes begin to find more bodies than survivors on ships, they turn an eye to dry land in John Ringo's To Sail a Darkling Sea.

Note: To Sail a Darkling Sea is the second book in the Black Tide Rising series. For a review of the first book, click here. Otherwise, read on!

Most preppers can only dream of being so ready for apocalypse

John Ringo, known for his military SF, fantasy and dark humor, tackles the Zombie Apocalypse in his new novel Under a Graveyard Sky.

Steven John "Professor" Smith isn't one to be caught with his pants down. His daughters know how to handle firearms, his wife encourages his having bug-out bags and burn phones, and he's got friends who would be some of the first to know when the shit hits the fan. So when his brother sends him a text that decodes to "Biological, viral, latent, wide-release, previously undetected, currently no vaccine, hostile activities parameter", it's time to go into bug-out mode.

Unlike many 'preppers,' Smith and his family actually know what they're doing. His two girls. Sophia (15) and Faith (13), while at the beginning skeptical about Uncle Tom's sources that the zombies are coming, nevertheless are mature enough to take direction from their father and help load the boat that was acquired under...questionable...means. Likewise, their mother Stacey jumps into her role as organizer, keeping stock of food supplies and making a rather suspicious run to Costco to buy them out of toilet paper and feminine hygiene projects.

For good reason: there's a virus out there that makes bath salts look tame. A strange, man-made combination of the flu and rabies, it's airborne in the respiratory phase and blood-borne as a neurological agent. Whoever created this, whether in a governmental lab somewhere or in a biohacker's basement, they've done their research. It's completely unaffected by any antivirals, and the neurological damage it does is almost certainly irreparable. The only hope would be a vaccine, but the world's resources are rather limited at the moment.

John Ringo is well known for his dark sense of humor, excellent characterization and attention to detail. Both girls react to and help with the crisis in their own way. The elder, with a calmer temperament and a mind for science, ends up initially helping her uncle work on the vaccine. The younger, a bit more reckless but good with a gun, stays behind with her parents to hold down the (floating) fort and search for survivors. Because in this situation, there's no hanging back and waiting for the government to save you. It's everyone for himself, and the more allies and shared resources you can discover, the better.

Under a Graveyard Sky is a Zombie Apocalypse story for the Libertarian at heart. The people who survive are the ones who take their own survival into their own hands. It's not pretty, and it's not always fair, but it's realistic, and a great read.

Highs: The way that Faith deals with the horrors of clearing boats in which the infected made it on board is heartbreaking.

Lows: The fact that we'll probably never find out how this all started is understandable, if frustrating.

Verdict: An addicting, quick read, and with the next book coming out in February, the reader won't have to wait long for his next hit.

Further Reading: To Sail a Darkling Sea, Princess of Wands, V-Wars

If I raised a cat from the dead, I'd name it Lazarus, too.

Barbara Everette is back, fighting for the Light in the second Special Circumstances book Queen of Wands by John Ringo.

Note:  Queen of Wands is the second book of the Special Circumstances series.  The review of the first book, Princess of Wands is here.  Otherwise, read on!

Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer finally have a grown-up demon fighter to follow.

Most 'Chosen One' stories deal with teens or children as their main characters.  Both are tumultuous times in a person's life, and while so much is going on, it makes sense that one would come into his powers then, too.  But sometimes a situation calls for a special person, with a special connection to his god, or God, and age doesn't matter terribly much.

Such is the situation in Princess of Wands by John Ringo.  More a collection of three novellas than a proper novel, the stories center around Barbara Everett, a good Christian woman and soccer mom of 3.  Raised a military brat traveling the world, she learned from an early age to defend herself both through extensive martial arts training as well as modern weaponry.  Her fierce temper, however, she has come to control through a close, personal relationship with God.


A very close relationship with God.


We get to know Mrs. Everett in 'The Almadu Sanction'.  Even though Barb is the consummate housewife and PTO member, even she occasionally needs a break..  So she tells her ESPN-watching husband that she's taking a weekend for herself down in Louisiana.  But on the road, instead of heading for one of her usual haunts, she takes an impulsive turn off to a backwater parish, looking for some "authentic" cajun food.


Unfortunately, Thibideau, LA deserves all of the horror-novel-style creepiness that pervades the place.  Detective Kelly Lockhart has a lead on some murders down in New Orleans, and his investigation is leading him places that he never could have imagined.  He's approached by an FBI agent from Special Circumstances.  These agents are only called in when some sort of supernatural or occult activity is suspected.  It turns out that there has ben some Construct DNA found on the murdered women's bodies, and with that knowledge, Kelly is sent to find the man last seen with one of the victims.


When Detective Lockhart and Barb meet up in the local bait-shop-cum-restaurant, and both realize that their cars have been disabled, it's up to them to get themselves out of the bayou alive.  Will Barb be able to draw on her undiscovered connection to the White God's power to save both herself and Kelly?


In 'The Necromancy Option', Barb is called away from her family, this time for a religious retreat of sorts. The Foundation for Love and Universal Faith is more than a day spa with prayerful overtones. All the attendees here are fighting the good fight against evil, but no two people get there in the exact same way.  These retreats are a good way to share information picked up in the field, take time out for good, old fashioned book learning and research, and to pick up new assignments.  There are, however, very few good Christian soccer moms in a place like this.  And the people who have connected to other gods have generally had bad experienceds with the popular girls like Barb.  So beyond learning how to identify demons and the like, along with a host of other topics that Barb certainly never thought shed be dealing with, she also has to learn how to fit in with people from many, many different backgrounds, and with very different ways of connecting with their gods.


After a week at the Foundation, Barb gets sent out on her first field assignment.  There's been a string of murders out of Ohio and Virginia, and they've been tied to science fiction conventions.  So after a week of sharing a camp with devotees of every religion under the sun, Barb now has to deal with her first taste of fandom.


Life just isn't fair, sometimes.


But when the convention is hit by a blizzard, and both roads and cell phones are out of commission, things turn bad quickly.  Back-up is unreachable and bodies start piling up fast, but Barb and her teammates are particularly suited to take on such a problem.  Will the team, aided by some very...well-equipped military SF fans, be able to handle things on their own?


And in 'Broken Sabbath', the Circumstances hit much closer to home.  Barb's oldest daughter Allison has a new softball coach, and he's setting off Barb's creep radar.  At first, Allison's sullenness and late-night, student-only meetings could be shrugged off as the natural state of high school girls and sports.  But as she becomes more run down and after an uncomfortable meeting between Barb and Coach Sherman, will Barb have to call on her newfound abilities to save one of her own?  Because there is nothing more frightening than a Paladin of the Light protecting her own child.


Fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" who grew up watching a teenage blonde fighting evil with find lots to like here, with a new late 30s blonde doing the same thing.  Barb, for all her unintended preachiness and strangely sheltered yet experienced background, is a truly likable person.  She hasher metaphorical demons, including a vicious temper, but does her best to control them.  While parts of 'The Necromancy Option' feel like a bad fanfic, with Barb being introduced to all the cliques at a local convention, once the action picks up again that feeling goes away.  It's also obvious from the descriptions that Ringo gives of the women at the Con that he's more accustomed to writing for his military science fiction fanbase.  When writing fantasy, with a much higher female readership, it might behoove him to remember that they don't need to know the chest size of each female.


But Ringo has some of the best characters and humor in the genre today, and fans of his more famous series would do themselves a disservice by passing this one by.


Highs:  Barb having to remind Janea several times that the White God would frown on joining in on her escapades.



Lows:  If she's travelled so, why has she never encountered any of these countercultures?



Verdict:  Not Ringo's best fantasy, but a light read that stays fun to the end.



Further Reading:  There Will be Dragons, Spirits in the Wires

Can maple syrup really save the world?

Live Free or Die is a really strange take on the First Contact subgenre of science fiction. Of course, when we’re first approached by an alien race, we’re vastly outclassed. We’d have to be, since we don’t have anything near the technology necessary to initiate contact with another world ourselves.

The first race to contact us is a friendly race of traders called the Glatun. But the Horvath…not so much. They put in an orbital, a space portal to quickly traverse long distances, and declare Earth their property, to be mined by the Humans for basic materials.

Since Earth is so very outgunned, and the more peaceful alien races have no interest in fighting our battles for us, the leaders of Earth have no real option but to capitulate to the Horvath’s demands.

Enter Tyler Vernon. He’s yet another lone wolf, science fiction author who knows something needs to be done and will take it upon himself to make sure it does. He gets himself into a position to interact directly with a Glatun trader, and finds something that only Earth can provide that the interstellar community wants. So, simply following the laws of supply and demand, he’s able to amass quite the fortune with which to defend the Earth.

There are a lot of parts in this book that people could, and do, protest. Ringo is a libertarian through and through. Therefore, most of his heroes are lone wolf, do-for-yourself types. This doesn’t sit all that well with the more socialist, government-does-for-me type.

Also, the Horvath are essentially a slaving race. Being more advanced than current and past slavers on Earth, they can put eugenics on hyperdrive to better their slave population and cull the ‘weak’ and ‘undesirable’ from the group. Who the Horvath determine to be the ‘undesirables’ will, of course, offend even more people.

Folks, this is how science fiction is. There tend to be a lot of libertarian science fiction authors, perhaps because there’s something appealing to the libertarian about the idea of science- and logic-minded people taking responsibility for the world on themselves and working to save it. Heinlein, a ‘great master’ of science fiction was the same way and had similar protagonists. Ayn Rand’s speculative fiction Is held up as suggested reading for the libertarian movement. And in Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells shows a parallel Earth thousands of years more advanced with us, where the libertarian creed rules.

The point is, the tenants of libertarianism and the ideas that populate science fiction go hand in hand. The problem is that it’s so unpopular to be anything other than firmly liberal that any other viewpoint will be distasteful to a significant portion of the reading audience.

If the reader can get past some politics that may or may not be in line with his, though, he’ll be in for an intelligent, inventive, and simply fun read.

Highs: Lots of humor and interesting tech ideas

Lows: Starts out a little bit familiar for people who have read Ringo’s other First Contact book, A Hymn Before Battle

Verdict: Fun storytelling that shouldn’t be missed

Further Reading: Schlock Mercenaries (http://www.schlockmercenary.com/), Citadel

Oh No! Mean aliens are coming!

I’m not a military science fiction fan.  Actually, I’m not a military fiction fan of any sort.  That being said, John Ringo is one of my favorite sf authors.  Like most of his books, A Hymn Before Battle is full of military jargon and tactics and such that take me a good while to get used to, but the story itself is what keeps me hooked.

Earth’s first contact with alien species starts off rocky.  There’s a race of aliens called the Posleen who are bent on interstellar conquest and destruction.  And then there’s another group of aliens, which are rather incapable of defending themselves.  So they decide to recruit the backward, primitive Humans to do their fighting for them.  I assume that normally the leaders of Earth would tell them to fight their own battles, but unfortunately, Earth is the next in line to get taken over.  Damn.

Enter Mike O’Neal.  A former soldier who is now a web developer and sci-fi buff, he’s called back in by friendly former commanders to help head the tech development teams that will be working with the (relatively) friendly ETs to get the soldiers of Earth ready for interstellar combat within five years.  Rather a tall order, but there’s really not much choice there.

Throughout the book, we flip between fronts, from a recon group, to front-line fighters, to the people left back on Earth.  Since I’m not a military buff, I can’t speak very well on the tactics being used in the field, but it’s the interaction between people that makes the heart of this story shine.  There’s a lot of heart in this book, especially because so many people are being separated, and because war forges very tight bonds between people.  You care about the people in this book very quickly, and that makes each loss all the more heartbreaking.

Like most of Ringo’s books, even during the slower sections, there’s something to keep me engaged.  Of course there has to be a lot of dialog, and explaining, in the first book of a series.  Thankfully, the humans are clueless and need plenty explained to them.  As we’re introduced to our new extraterrestrial allies, the level of technology that we’ll be able to use is explained, as well as some basic military knowledge that some of the audience might not know.  Again, I’m not a military fiction fan, and since I have pretty much no military knowledge at all, a few parts can be a little tricky to get through, but never bad enough to stop reading.

The place where all of John Ringo’s books shine, however, is the characters.  As the books go on, you get really attached to the characters and want them to win.  Mike’s father seems like a blast, too, and I’m wondering if Cally might turn out like the girl in Kick-Ass.

All in all, it’s a great book to start a series out with, and certainly well worth your time.

Highs:  Great setup for the series, interaction between characters

Lows:  A little hard to follow the military terms sometimes

Verdict:  Definitely worth the hard parts for the story

Further Reading:  Gust Front, Live Free or Die