This book is a good story that I enjoy reading again and again. Hence, I picking it up again for light entertainment amidst all personal improvement and work-related readings.

John Ringo and Travis Taylor write enjoyable military science fiction with a dose of science thrown in. ( )

A good alien invasion book with typical overwhelming odds against the humans from Ringo.

I like the characters, though I felt they didn't have distinct plot lines, some just added for flavor.

The technical stuff just got a little overwhelming as well. Lots of hitting next page because I didn't want to learn the minutest detail of rocket construction. ( )

  This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.  Title: Von Neumann's War Series: Von Neumann's War Author: John Ringo & Travis Taylor Rating: 2 of 5 Stars Genre: Military SF Pages: 522     Synopsis: Alien probes have terraformed Mars, the moon and are moving onto the Earth. Eating all metal, the probes are destroying our civilization and eventually us. But thanks to good old American know-how, ingenuity and super-science, we ARE fighting back.   My Thoughts: In many ways, this was reminiscent of Ringo and Taylor's Through the Looking Glass, but with about 10,000% more military jingo, gun porn and scientific babble.   First off, this book was about 300 pages too long. Nothing happens or is confirmed until about page 150. Do you get that? Nothing is even confirmed! We get science-babble instead. That was not cool.   Second, Earth is almost completely over-run and it isn't until the last 50 pages that the rogue grumpy scientist and the redneck scientists and the gutsy  but warm-hearted military group all come together to turn the tide. 50 pages from the end of a 500 page monstrosity.   Thirdly, utter gratuitous violence, that while making sense in-book, just turned me off. Soldiers getting their heads torn off because of their dog-tags? Yeah, no thanks. And cannibalism, even though only vaguely referenced, was done is such a way as to import the horror without actually saying anything. Once again, no thanks. I'm not sure why, as usually I'm all for ultra-violence, but this, it wasn't good for me.   This just wasn't for me. And I'm not sure who it IS supposed to be for either. There is a sequel, but I certainly won't be  reading it. " ( )

A Von Neumann probe is an automated self replicating machine which is sent into space to map and possibly prepare for human exploration. What would happen if we were the victims of someone else's Von Neumann probes run amuck?

This book is typical Ringo in that it is about an apocalyptic invasion from outer space, and you just know that most of the worlds population is going to die. However, the book is also exceptionally detailed in its handling of rocketry, and the science behind finding out more about the incoming threat is very well done.

Overall and good book that I enjoyed, although the end is definitely fishing for a sequel.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/John_Ringo/Von_Neumanns_War.html ( )

A rare stand alone novel by Ringo. Typically, Ringo likes series and while he could conceivably stretch this to three books, it's just as well he didn't. The story that needs to be told is told.

This is one of Ringo's novels that is science heavy, which is the influence of Taylor. Ringo likes his science and scientists, but like his Looking Glass series with Taylor, there is lots of science talk and some depth of explanation. The science never gets so deep that it can't be followed, and the big concepts get explained.

There is a good bit of military action and the characters are likable. There is no human villain, which I appreciate. The world is being overrun by aliens, and a human antagonist would be a distraction in what is a nicely paced book. Lots of authors would find the need to add a human bad guy to pad out the plot and add an extra sense of peril, but that always seems kind of unnecessary to me. Written properly, world destroying aliens should be enough of a threat.

There is a nice easter egg that I really enjoyed. Those in the know will be thrilled with it.

This is a solid stand alone novel By Ringo and Taylor. Quickly paced with action, likable characters, and truly alien invaders. A nice addition to the genre. ( )

Aliens are terraforming Mars. At least that's the conclusion scientists draw when the planet formerly known as "Red" starts to turn gray. Earth's up next. Can we survive?

First impressions - lots of science, and (typical of Ringo) lots of characters. Taylor's writing blends pretty seamlessly, and Von Newumann's War is much more reminiscent of Gust Front or A Hymn before Battle than Ringo's later Kildar books. Lots less sex, and the government & scientific community get treated a bit more kindly for one thing - although corporate blindness is still lambasted, and the French turn to cannibalism. (Still no love lost there, that's for sure!)

I enjoyed it. That said, this felt like Act I. The bots still have Europe, and are working on the U.S., so there's more action to come. Hopefully with the stage set, the next installments will be longer on action and little shorter on technical detail. ( )

Honestly, this is a story about research and development. There are a few minor battles, and it ends with a final major battle, and a somewhat open ending. With a co-author that holds a doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering and master's degrees in Physics and Aerospace Engineering, this is not entirely surprising.

This story is written from the point of view of the doers, the people who are in charge. There is one section that references what is happening in the invaded areas of the world, but for the most part, you won't see scenes of panic and despair from the people on the street.

Despite the fact that there is not a lot of action in the conventional sense of the word, I enjoyed it enough that I sat down and read it from start to finish within a span of about 8 hours or so. ( )

I love end-of-the-world scenarios and so I picked this book because the idea of machine bots intent on attacking Earth seemed an intriguing idea.

Boy, was I *wrong*! I have read one or two other John Ringo books and so I thought this would be one of his military sci-fi type books. *Wrong*. This book was co-authored with Travis S. Taylor, and I have never read a book by Taylor, so I can only come to the conclusion that Taylor had more of a hand in writing this book than Ringo.

The first half was pages and pages of scientists coming together to talk about design and build specs for a spy satellite and sending it to Mars to get intel on the aliens. Quite dull, and honestly, unless you are an expert or have an interest in it all the descriptions of rocket launchers, core boosters, and the like, it will confuse you. I found myself re-reading sentences and paragraphs to try to understand what was actually being said because terms that an ordinary lay-person wouldn’t know were utilized.

The second half of the book was better once the action picked up and there were no more mind-numbing descriptions about how to build a rocket, but the second half of the book wasn't enough to make up for what I found was a poor effort at the whole "alien invading Earth" scenario. Not to mention the ending was abrupt and I felt it was left hanging. I suspect it's not a final conclusion and there may be a sequel in the works.

Other problems I had with the book:

The government is portrayed as hopping right to it and working together without a hitch or problem to combat this alien menace. There was no skepticism or doubts from anyone that Mars changing colors could be anything other than aliens come to invade Earth. Everybody, from the President to the scientists to amateur astronomers all come to the conclusion that it’s alien invaders and had little need of convincing otherwise. No one panics and chaos doesn’t reign even when the general population at large learns of it (there’s a few scenes of two of the scientists teenage daughters and they don’t even panic or get fearful, they just go along calm and unruffled!). All POV was told from those in the “know”, you don’t get a glimpse of what’s going on in the streets (how *is* everyone handling this??) Everything goes so smoothly that it was hard for me not to laugh at how unbelievable that was.

Okay, I know one is supposed to suspend disbelief on how things work in the “real” world and not compare to how things work in the “fictional” world, but some of the reactions and behaviors of the characters were so *not* realistic behavior that it distracted me from the story-line. I’ve read plenty of apocalyptic scenarios. From viruses, nuclear war, alien invaders, comets, asteroids, etc. One common aspect running throughout each book I’ve read is this: humans will panic and will be skeptical and may even deny there *is* a problem that needs to be solved.

That’s the whole fun in reading apocalyptic books! The chaos, uncertainty, fear, and panic that humanity goes through when they realize “Uh oh, this could be the end!”. This book had none of that at all.
Oh, another eye-rolling moment for me was the lead scientists all meet at the local Hooter’s restaurant to brainstorm their ideas of saving the world. Yah, like that would really happen.

I felt this book didn’t take anything seriously, maybe it was meant to be a parody on end-of-the-world books. I mean, guess where they get the idea that it’s machine bots invading and not some regular flesh and blood alien? From a cartoon that one of the scientists was watching with her teen daughter that had super-heroes battling machine bots invading from space. So the scientist goes back to her colleagues and says, “You know, it could be Von Neumann probes we’re dealing with because I saw it on Cartoon Network!”. Everyone is in awe and says, “You know, you’re right!”. That is how everyone figures out what kind of alien invaders they’re dealing with.LOL.

Anyways, this book must have been a satire, it’s the only reason I can think of why I wanted to laugh out loud so many times when I read this book. Even if this wasn’t a parody on apocalyptic themes, it was still one bad book. If you are looking for some good end-of-the-world-for-humanity scenarios try David Weber’s In Death Ground, Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, or Moonfall by Jack McDevitt. ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/A1416520759/A1416520759.htm

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/1416520759/1416520759.htm