Max von Sydow Books

East of the Sun and West of the Moon has always been my favorite fairy tale and I collect different versions. I was excited to find an audio version until I heard it. The music is very distracting and makes listening to the words difficult. There is nothing wrong with just reading a story. The human voice is melodic enough that you don't need to add all that other stuff. It changes the whole mood of the story and I really didn't like it.

Love Ringo. Liked this series in the begining. This story carried series forward but was not a classy effort by Ringo. Guess it is time he wrapped up the characters and the series with some resolution and farmed out the world. I'd rather he spent time in the looking glass universe, Ghost, Posleen war, or general invasion books - so I can spend more time in these. John is great at military and action but not so good on intrigue.

This was an entertaining read. But. it is not up to the standards this author is capable of. It has flashes, but. This suffers from the excellence that this author is capable of. There is even an interesting - potentially - Orc. The characters are not as deep. The action scenes just not as gripping. It is just an average book. I do not know if the author is running out of steam in this series or just in a hurry to put out books and capitalize of previous success while sacrificing quality.

I have enjoyed all of Ringo's books so far, and this one is better then nothing, but I get the feeling that this one was written just for the pay check. This is probably the worst book that Mr. Ringo has put out. I will continue reading him but with more books like this I am beginning to wonder if he has lost that edge that made him a really good author.


I guess I would recommend this book just becuase it is not the last book in the series and you will have to read it just to make it to the next one, which hopefully will be a better book then this one. The next book has not come out yet, so there might be a little waiting.

This book was so disappointing it forced me to write my first review ever. So without giving any of the story away,,,,,,,,

The whole book felt mailed in with no effort being put in to making you care about any of the characters or the plot. You really get the feeling that Ringo just did not know how to write this book. From start to last I was left waiting for the fun to begin. I was looking forward to several of the plot developments. The very few plots he addressed did not meet my hopes for the series. I will say with all the unaddressed things left I am looking forward to the next book. Hopefully Ringo will put the effort in the next book that it deserves.

The fourth book in the series which began with "There Will Be Dragons" and should have been the last.
I was hoping Ringo would wrap it up with this one, but he didn't. I hope he'd not planning on spinning it out endlessly. It won't work. That approach ruined his Posleen series.

The fuel ship, mentioned in the first book as going to return in four years, is now returning. The two factions of the warring council and their mundane-living partisans are going to have to fight to see who gets it and its potentially balance-tipping load of fuel.

Of course our hero, Herzer, is going to be in the thick of the fight. Only now he has a real girlfriend, Megan, who became a council member by killing Paul Bowman and taking his key.
Megan was a very interesting character in Against the Tide (the best part of that book, actually) but in this book she fades to a much less stand-out role of bureaucrat and lobbyist.
Only four or so years from the crash and already we've got congressmen-equivalents larding up laws with pork for their districts at the detriment of the country as a whole during time of war. Depressing commentary on current events.

The space scenes were disappointing; a lot of sneaking and running around while the reader starts to wonder if this story is going to have any ultimate resolution.

Note to Ringo: It's OK to end a series. In fact it's encouraged. The pay-off of a good story is a good ending. If it's dragged out indefinitely readers will get frustrated. So far this is a good series. Give us a good ending. And DON'T turn it over to a co-author like you did with the Posleen. That ruined the whole thing, and damaged your reputation.
I know you sent off Bast and Roc to elfland so they could come back later. Let's get them back, let the good guys win in a satisfying manner, and END IT. You can always start another.