Troy Rising #1
John Ringo
February 2nd, 2010
404 Pages
Amazon/Book Depository/B&N
First Contact Was Friendly
When aliens trundled a gate to other worlds into the solar system, the world reacted with awe, hope and fear. But the first aliens to come through, the Glatun, were peaceful traders and the world breathed a sigh of relief.
Who Controls the Orbitals, Controls the World
When the Horvath came through, they announced their ownership by dropping rocks on three cities and gutting them. Since then, they've held Terra as their own personal fiefdom. With their control of the orbitals, there's no way to win and earth's governments have accepted the status quo.
Live Free or Die.
To free the world from the grip of the Horvath is going to take an unlikely hero. A hero unwilling to back down to alien or human governments, unwilling to live in slavery and with enough hubris, if not stature, to think he can win. Fortunately, there's Tyler Vernon. And he has bigger plans than just getting rid of the Horvath.
Chris here for a little more laser pistol and a little less romance.
Live Free or Die starts off a little slow with the human race falling under the control of a hostile alien species who wants to strip the earth of its precious metals. However, it thankfully picks up quickly when the main character, Tyler Vernon, finds a commodity which a friendly race is willing to help the humans to ensure a continued supply. And by doing so manages to bring this young race on the galactic stage to the attention of some big players. With the combination of human ingenuity and alien tech he dreams of and builds Troy, and multi-trillion ton battle station.
In my opinion, John Ringo does a great job of pointing out the biggest asset humans have, the ability to adapt simple things to get great results. He explains enough of the science to satisfy my inner science nerd without bogging things down with too much detail. You can tell the author has done his homework in his use of astronomical jargon, but still explains things simply. You won't find yourself getting lost in the complex words of astronomers as Tyler Vernon, being a simple man himself, insists on using simple terms such as rocky thing to describe asteroids.
The author brings a great deal of humor to the book. Whether it's Tyler's insistence that people think outside the box or the naming of the AI in charge of the Troy after the historical figure, Paris. I found myself laughing as I immersed myself in this novel.
Overall, I give this book a solid 4 out of 5 laser pistols and recommend it to any fellow sci-fi readers. This is a good start to what promises to be a solid series.
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