So you, dear readers, were treated to an introduction of the works of John Ringo and his Legacy of the Aldenata super-series in a previous exciting issue of Geek Speak Magazine, via my review of the first book, A Hymn Before Battle. So I says to myself (a common occurrence) "Self: why not review the first book of the last series in that universe? It's about an invasion and thus fits the topic for this month!" Quite the good idea, Self, and may I just say that you're looking exceedingly glamorous when you're in reviewin' mode! Thus, presented to you, dear readers, is a review of Eye of the Storm.

Some background. The original Legacy of the Aldenata series was four books focusing on the war between the Galactic Federation and the Posleen, a seemingly unstoppable hoard of centaur-like aliens. This series focused on Mike O'Neal (among many other characters), as he effectively led the charge for the humans against the Posleen. Since that series there has been the follow-up spin-off series known as the Cally's War books -- these take place many decades after the original series (though have some of the same characters, thanks to über-fancy Galactic technology), and center around Mike's daughter Cally, who is part of a secret underground movement to overthrow the Darhel, the race effectively in charge of the finances and politics of the Galactic Federation. Besides those, there are also three different single spinoff books, co-written by Ringo and Tom Kratman, that center on parts of the Posleen war on Earth, but away from the USA.

Got all that? I hope so, because Eye of the Storm brings back characters from all of those books. The main plot of the book (and the beginning of the series) is that the Galaxy is now threatened by a new menace known as the Hedren. Unlike the Posleen (which were more like a juggernaut, moving through the galaxy because they knew no other way), the Hedren involve a whole group of races with new and different abilities (and much more intelligence than the Posleen), so the current state of the military within the Galactic Federation is not equipped to deal with the threat. Enter, once again, Mike O'Neal, to take charge and fight the Hedren.

I could attempt to go into more details about the plot, but doing so would take up too much space and probably not make all that much sense, as it would entail attempting to describe the intricacies and motivations of characters from all of the above-mentioned previous books. Because Eye of the Storm brings in characters and plot lines, it makes for either a) great fan service, or b) a huge mess o' people to keep track of. Possibly both. I say both, leaning toward "b", as it is way too many characters, and the re-introduction of them all takes a decent amount of time and space. As such, this book really is just setup for the rest of the series to come (at the moment, there are two more books forthcoming), and the book ends right when things start gearing up.

But besides the set-up-esque nature of the story, there are still quite a few good and interesting ideas. Ringo does well with military sci-fi, discussing tactics and technologies necessary, and that is apparent here yet again. And the writing style is fast-moving, which helps. This book is not terribly deep, nor does it require all that much thought (other than trying to keep track of characters).

If you've read any/all of the previous books in the series, than that means that you like Ringo's stories and his writing style, so there isn't much reason not to read this book. If you haven't read the previous books at all, there isn't much reason to read this book. Are you missing out by not reading this series? Well, it's fun, but not terribly groundbreaking of anything, so it's up to you. If you've read the previous books but aren't sure of this one... well, also up to you. I had fun with this book, and will read the rest of the books when they come out. But it still felt like fan service and something Ringo was writing for fun, and wasn't necessarily putting a lot of thought into. And there are way too many characters.

Bottom line...not the best of his works, but an enjoyable enough read. Perhaps opinions will change when the rest of the books come out. Until then... for fans of the super-series only.

   -- K. Burtt