Ringo does Star Trek. Really.

While a sequal to Thru the Looking Glass, it is really a very different kind of story. Namely a spaceship - in this case a converted submarine - goes exploring the galaxy.

Unlike Star Trek the Captian and XO never leave the ship. Instead the Marines do the dirty work. We see navy life from the top and bottom.

While the body count is high eventually, I was shocked to be in a Ringo book and half way through with no one dying.

Very hard SF, and if you don't like physics mixed into your fiction it isn't for you.

Otherwise good book all around. ( )

the Vorpal Blade is a converted sub for space travel. Weaver and Miller and Mimi and Tuffi are all on board. The whole purpose of the sub is to explore and look for Dreen presence. They come across a couple of planets, the last which was inhabited. This book was ok. Not as much action as Into the Looking Glass, and the action that does happen seems to be mainly in the last half or so of the book. I thought Into the Looking Glass was worth owning. This was worth reading. ( )

After confronting the Dreen invasion in Into the Looking Glass, a submarine converted into a starship launches a search of the nearby systems to make sure the Dreen aren't attacking through conventional space. Reminiscent of Voyage of the Space Beagle by way of Rambo, the book is an excellent nuts-and-bolts military science fiction tale with a slam-bang finish. As with the best of the series books, it can stand alone even as its predecessor was initially conceived as a standalone. ( )

In the second installment of this series, the US converts a submarine into a spaceship, using the warp drive device that was conveniently given to Earth in book 1. Now that the Dreen menace is temporarily halted on Earth, the Vorpal Blade is sent out to search the nearby galaxy for signs of Dreen. This books features lots of physics, practical exploration of the dangers of early space travel, and the usual kick butt action of a John RIngo story. Light, funny, but technical and action packed too. I wish there was a little more exploration of the societal effects of all this new technology, but it isn't that kind of science fiction novel. ( )

The little black box Dr. Bill Weaver received from the Adar in Through the Looking Glass has finally been morphed from a world-destroying anomaly into a spaceship blaged together from "duck" tape, baling wire and an Omaha-class nuclear sub. Under an ex-fighter pilot captain, the now-commissioned Lieutenant Weaver and a company of Space Marines are headed out on their first survey mission in hopes of finding intelligent life or the Dreen.

This feels like an interim novel - lots of filler, lots of math to make sense of the filler, and a few spectacular battles to make up for the math and the filler. And a real overuse of the word maulk. No objection to swearing, but there are pages where it seems to pop up every third word. And what's with Tuffy & Mimi? Somehow their rush to be present and save the day/world didn't quite seem as critical as the opening sequence leads one to believe it might be. And of course, no Dreen in sight.... ( )