The third anthology in the Black Tide Rising universe. As with the previous two, there’s good and there’s bland. Fun if you’re a fan of the universe.
We Shall Rise (Black Tide Rising IX) – by John Ringo & Gary Poole G(Ed.)
At the End of the Journey (Black Tide Rising VIII) – Charles E. Gannon
Following the events in At the End of the World, Alvaro and the now augmented group continue towards their mission, penetrating the Guiana Space Centre launch facility at Kourou in French Guiana in order to prevent the rapid deterioration of GPS. There’s just one catch, Kourou is overrun with infected.
Like the first book in the couplet, this provides decent action without much originality or depth. It is easy to root for the protagonists and to mourn their losses. A quick and easy read if you enjoyed the rest of the series.
At the End of the World (Black Tide Rising VII) – Charles E. Gannon
Geeky late teenager Alvaro is sent off on a long sailboat cruise, more akin to a youth camp. He joins a motley group of peers on the Crosscurrent Voyager, an oceangoing ketch. The captain is an enigmatic and dour Englishman, with a past in the special forces. The group is mid-journey in the Southeastern Pacific at the time of The Fall. As the world descends into zombie-fed apocalypse, the captain decides to press past Cape Horn to South Georgia Island, hoping for a temporary respite.
While the novel is reasonably entertaining if you enjoyed the previous books in the series, there is not much originality on display. The concept of teens left alone in a crisis is well utilised. However, these youngsters seem unusually rational and insightful for their age. A fun diversion with some action thrown in.
River of Night (Black Tide Rising VI) – John Ringo & Mike Massa
The sequel to The Valley of Shadows follows Tom Smith, Risky, Astroga and the rest after their escape from New York. The plan is to establish a settlement with adequate defenses, and also very importantly electrical power. However, a band calling itself Gleaners, set up by a scruple-deprived man called Harlan Green, has similar plans. And they lack the morals of Tom’s group.
The zombies are still around in this installment, but they act more like nuisance monsters than a major threat. Fittingly, the biggest danger to humans is other humans. There is some fine action as always, with a major set piece battle capping the book.
Saints (Monster Hunter Memoirs III) – Larry Correia & John Ringo
In the third and final (?) Monster Hunter Memoirs book, Chad finds a great evil lurking under New Orleans, which might explain the unusual density of supernatural events in the city. He suspects this might be why Saint Peter sent him back to Earth after his death. A showdown approaches.
Saints wraps up the series, but the teasing final sentence opens up to more adventures in perhaps not a direct sequel but another spin-off. While there are some rambling tangents, Ringo’s prose is as always filled with great action scenes and bone-dry humour.
Sinners (Monster Hunter Memoirs II) – Larry Correia & John Ringo
The second book in the series is set in New Orleans, after Chad has had to hastily move from Seattle due to an ill-advised liaison with a young elf. In New Orleans, so many people believe in “hoodoo” that the local MHI branch, Â “Hoodoo Squad”, is very busy all the time. Adding to the culture shock for Chad, the population of the city seems as unusual as the monsters.
While the first book was really funny, this one is plain hilarious. The action scenes are superb. However, just as in the earlier installment, there are no real surprises, and we seem no closer to finding out what Chad’s “Divine Mission” is.
Grunge (Monster Hunter Memoirs I) – Larry Correia & John Ringo
“Chad” Gardenier grows up in an academic household, hating his parents. He enlists the Marines as quickly as he can, and is killed in the 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombings. He is sent back to the mortal realm with a mission, and instructions to look for a sign. The sign is “57”. He eventually joins Monster Hunter International as a, you guessed it, monster hunter.
The book, written in memoir form, has all the hallmarks of a John Ringo novel. The hero is self-reliant, really good at what he does, has right-wing political views and is total badass. The prose is infused with Mr. Ringo’s signature dry wit, and the action scenes especially are laugh-out-loud funny.
While it is a fun and easy read, it is disappointing that the story is not very interesting, or surprising. This is a fun little book for John Ringo fans, but it doesn’t have the same high-stakes feel as the main Monster Hunter International series. While the journey is entertaining, the outcome is very much predictable.
The Monster Hunter Memoirs series is set in the Monster Hunter International universe, specifically about 30 years prior. While both Mr. Correia and Mr. Ringo are credited as authors, the books are written almost entirely by Mr. Ringo.
Black Tide Rising (Black Tide Rising IV½) – edited by John Ringo & Gary Poole
A short story collection set in the the Black Tide Rising universe of zombie apocalypse. Some stories are really good and some are average. On the whole a fun collection if you’ve read the books by John Ringo. The dialogue only vignette by John Scalzi deserves special mention as it is both clever and hilarious.
Strands of Sorrow (Black Tide Rising IV) – John Ringo
The fourth and last book in Black Tide Rising sees the beginning of major zombie clearance on the US mainland, with the retaking of some large coastal bases, and planning for the re-establishment of proper civilization beyond survival. Given the clearance of the bases, more and more surviving higher officers start to appear, some of whom are unable to adapt to the “new military”.
Throughout the series, Ringo has approached the zombie problem from a logical perspective. Once the survivors have gotten through the initial collapse of society and achieved a modicum of organization, ridding the world of all those zombies becomes a logistical issue. While the discussions on said logistics are interesting per se, they do not an action novel make. Furthermore, given that what action is now relatively safe for our heroes, there is not a huge amount of tension. Mr. Ringo is as always a very funny author so the novel is still a page turner, but sadly the subject matter and the way it is treated makes this one less engaging than most of his works. The novel also verges further into “preachy” about the military and the right wing than even the author’s usual, and that part got old fast.
Islands of Rage and Hope (Black Tide Rising III) – John Ringo
After consolidating through the North Atlantic hurricane season, Wolf Squadron moves on to capture Guantanamo Bay and liberate the Marines trapped there. Our heroes then mow through a few Caribbean islands in search of vaccine production materials, a quest which eventually leads them to an unlikely place.
New Marines means Shewolf has to convince new people that her way is the correct way. Unsurprisingly, taking orders from a thirteen year old Second Lieutenant is hard for those who have not seen her in action. Unfortunately, interpersonal issues, and the organizational tangles stemming from them, take up too large a portion of the book. There are some very interesting discussions on leadership but they too often take the form of infodumps from senior officers, who always seem to have more knowledge than any average person. Having said that, this is Ringo and as usual with him the novel is a page turner, especially the last third where the action really picks up. The humor, also as usual with Ringo, is dry and hilarious.
To Sail a Darkling Sea (Black Tide Rising II) – John Ringo
Book two of Black Tide Rising picks up shortly after Under a Graveyard Sky. Wolf Squadron is now well on its way to being a reasonably organized naval military force. Faith “Shewolf” Smith is a legend after initial difficult zombie clearance actions, and her sister Sophia “Seawolf” Smith is not far behind as a boat captain. The story is fairly straight forward and mainly deals with the growing pains of squadron, the formalization of military command over it, and the introduction of new characters.
Unlike the first book, there is no backs-to-the-wall-with-everything-on-the-line combat, nor is the survival of most of the characters really in question. A setup book necessary for the continuation of the series. Having said that, Mr. Ringo’s trademark humor, his lively characters and his knack for snappy dialogue make it a thoroughly enjoyable read. I also loved the emerging anti-zombie mechanical devices.
Under a Graveyard Sky (Black Tide Rising I) – John Ringo
Steve Smith is not a survivalist in the “nutter” sense of the word. He is a former special forces soldier who takes what most would consider excessive precautions against various “end of the world” scenarios. His teenage daughters are well versed in weapons usage and know how to pack for the apocalypse. When Steve’s brother Tom sends him a coded message that the zombie apocalypse is coming (yes really!), he sets in motion a well-prepared plan to get his family out of harm’s way. Zombie apocalypse wasn’t one of the more likely scenarios, but he can deal. His thirteen year old daughter Faith is reasonably happy though. She has always dreamed of a chance to kill zombies.
This is an unusual zombie novel since Mr. Ringo has actually taken the time to make the zombie trope somewhat, and I use the word loosely, realistic. Your classic zombie might as well be a magical being. No matter how much zombie-ism is made out as a disease, zombies would still need to get energy from somewhere, and evacuate waste. “Normal” zombies don’t poop. Mr. Ringo neatly solves the evacuation issue by having the tailored zombie virus induce a very strong itching feeling when it strikes, giving the afflicted an uncontrollable urge to strip just before they go on the more traditional murdering cannibalistic rampage.
As usual with Mr. Ringo, the novel oozes dry humor. Some of the one liners felled in the middle of zombie killing action are laugh out loud funny, and the whole thing is extremely entertaining despite the subject matter. The “Last Concert in New York” scene is particularly quirky and absurd. I look forward to coming installments.