the Vorpal Blade and crew investigate a lost communications outpost. Stumble upon a new species who are being wiped out by the Dreen. Rescue them and come back to earth with the news that the Dreen will arrive within the next 10 years by spaceship. Bergstresser, aka Two-Gun, seems to be taking over as the main protaganist. No Mimi or anything. :-( Some things felt very shallow though. Like two-gun getting married. He meets a girl, talks to her for all of 4-6hrs, and when he comes back, they are planning on getting married. It just didn't seem at all plausible.

I still am disappointed in this series though. The first book was JUST so good, oh well. ( )

The Human-Adar Ship ASS Vorpal Blade has been quickly refitted for a second dive into interstellar space in search of more answers about the Dreen. Blocked from entering through the multiple Earthside "looking glass" entry points from planets they dominate, humans and Adar must discover if the murderous Dreen can approach through normal space. On this second mission, the specially trained Marines...now dubbed Space Marines...have to take on a genuine Dreen threat. An exciting hard science fiction story that proposes a realistic two-sided confrontation between humans and alien invaders. Flows smoothly, draws you through effortlessly. One of the lead characters is the astrogator, a maverick scientist based roughly on co-author, Southern-fried NASA scientist Travis Taylor of TV's Renegade Rocketeers (see YouTube) who provides the physics grounding for this tale. Looking forward to the fourth book. ( )

Looooooove. Love. Love. Satisfies all my science fiction battle adventure dreams.

At first, I was a little skeptical. The whole Two-Gun and Brooke thing was bothering me, because she's like, 17 and they had one date and suddenly they're passionately in love and gonna get married and stuff? Well, okay. But it seemed somewhat sudden and irrelevant.

But then that got shoved aside and they went back into SPACE!! And it was EPIC!! Miriam makes me laugh all the time, and even though her subplot wasn't resolved, I'm still content with it. I can tell it will be continued in the next book (and it darn well better be).

Plus, Two-Gun. He definitely became my favorite of this novel, somehow replacing my beloved Bill Weaver. I mean, Bill is still cool. He just doesn't do quite as much this time around. Two-Gun gets all the action, but he's better suited to this story than Bill.

Really, this book made me want to go reread the first two and read more stuff and just read it again and again.

Also, would definitely recommend to fans of Stargate. ( )

In the list of reasons to read a new author and a new series, add this: I was upset that a sequel to the excellent [b:Armor|102327|Armor|John Steakley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1309201144s/102327.jpg|604650] was never published, so in frustration I tried this book out. If ever there was a setup for disappointment, here was a perfect example. But ... I was pleasantly surprised. [b:Manxome Foe|1624960|Manxome Foe (Looking Glass, #3)|John Ringo|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186032977s/1624960.jpg|1618980] is opposite Armor in tone, the former being light, as the butter on Panera's toast, and the latter, serious, as a bout of asthma. However, in both cases, the approach is fitting. Manxome is candy to Armor's sour core. Oddly appropriate that I would go from one to the other. The two novels' most striking similarity is the alien enemy --- unyielding, overwhelming and ultimately dumb. (Somehow, these aliens remind me of the Pak of the [b:Ringworld|61179|Ringworld|Larry Niven|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170563307s/61179.jpg|924711] books, purportedly smarter than man and yet bound by the programming of their genetics.)
Ringo and Taylor make it feel like nothing's happening, as the story flows thus: "they flew here" then "they flew there" and, then "the marines made fun of each other". Along the way, the characters meet astonishingly trusting aliens as the tale builds up to the inevitably final battle with the bad guys. There's also a lot of plausible physics to feed us SF geese, not distracting and not absolutely essential to the story, but adding to the fun. The light tone remains even through the most bloody and high-casualty scenes, as if to say, this is not what this story is about. So what is it about? To me, the book spoke of the continuity of life, human or alien, despite the inevitability of death. Quite profound, eh? In overall sum total (does that mean 3 times the whole?), I enjoyed the book. This would be a worthwhile read for anyone who: (a) has just finished Armor, and been depressed by its utter melancholy, (b) is not annoyed by military humor and gory violence, and (c) likes [a:John Scalzi|4763|John Scalzi|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1236228326p2/4763.jpg]. ( )

Not quite as good as the first two, though loaded with action. The Vorpal Blade is sent back out to find out what happened to a missing research group. Along the way they run into another alien race and the Dreen, and a big time fight. Basically similar to the previous book, with most of the same characters, but the action got a little more implausible this time. ( )