Yellow Eyes (The Posleen War)(John Ringo & Tom Kratman) (Baen)

[Rob]

John Ringo has been busy. After essentially ending the Posleen War series with "Hell's Faire" (the fourth book in the Posleen War series written exclusively by Ringo) he publicly stated he was tired of writing the series and wanted to move on to other things.

Boy did he.

Since the 2003 release of "Hell's Faire" Ringo has authored or co-authored books approaching the number thirty. That's nearly thirty novels in six or so years. So yeah; he's been a little busy.

Since Ringo had no desire to continue with the Posleen, others rose to the challenge to join him in the tale. Julie Cochrane wrote three novels with Ringo focusing on the daughter and father of the main character from the first four books and their clandestine attempts to subvert and exact revenge from the Darhel. An evil, corporate like race that hamstrung the defense of Earth in the first four books and was essentially responsible for the needless deaths of billions of humans. 

Michael Z. Williamson penned a tale called "Hero" with Ringo that took place in the Posleen War Universe, a thousand years after the events in the first four novels. The story of a courageous Darhel (a race usually only concerned with selfish interests and arrogant beyond belief) fighting for survival against a human who has come unhinged was a little hard to take. My opinion; the book was the low point in the series.

And Tom Kratman brought an expansion of the past: first with the book "Watch On The Rhine" about the German defense of the first Posleen incursion, and later in "Yellow Eyes" a detailed description of the war to save Panama.

"Yellow Eyes" at 848 pages is more than a hundred pages longer than any other entry in the series: and you don't notice it at all. The pages fly by. This complex tale of the buildup, battle and climax of the Posleen invasion is a breathless rip through South American landscapes, history and cultures.

Both Kratman and Ringo apparently served in the U.S. Military and their service included tours in Panama. Their love of this chaotic and dangerous corner of the world is like an extra character that is in every scene and every word; traveling through the story with you. It is a tangible thing you can feel in the way the story is told.

If you have never read a Posleen War book then I can easily recommend the entire series. You should start at the beginning (just check the publishing dates on Amazon and you will keep yourself oriented) but "Yellow Eyes" is a very bright spot in a very fun series.

As Ringo has decided to continue the series on his own, bringing back his main characters and consolidating the fascinating extensions he created with Williamson, Cochrane and Kratman into a new book (the recently released "Eye Of The Storm") I'll be revisiting the series again in other reviews, but I wanted to start with the one I read most recently.

If you have only read some of this series, trust me when I tell you that "Yellow Eyes" is the Posleen War at its best.