Head to the Sound of the Guns

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Head to the Sound of the Guns
A review of Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo
2005-10-31
Article Written by: Charles Griffin

When it comes to literature, fiction is, basically, truth bent to our way of thinking. John O’Hara, for example, is one of the finest fiction writers of the 20th century—his Appointment in Samarra still holds a high place on the best books lists of that turbulent time. O’Hara successfully took the facts of his time and place and converted them into slightly modified, barely renamed recounts of lives that we might have seen and people that we might have met.

Military fiction or high-tech fiction goes a step farther by converting types of people and their tools into something the author wishes had existed. Tom Clancy is the best-known current author writing in that vein, but his literary grandpop was Jules Verne, which brings us to the topic of science fiction. We can’t go there, of course, until we address fantasy fiction—the stuff that never existed and situations that are clearly improbable, if not impossible. Elves, goblins, orcs or hobbits. Wizards whose spells actually work, or worse, misfire. The stuff of myths. The force that drives religion.

Much of what is called science fiction today is heavily laden with fantasy elements. Purists will tell you that true sci-fi is technically oriented with a basis in real science, but the best of 20th century science fiction authors combined some fantasy with technology and came up with some interesting views of life, the potential of our civilization to progress far beyond what we now see and facets of culture (read religion) that expand our concept of what that may be. Read Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land or The Notebooks of Lazarus Long to get an idea of what I’m saying.

So, what we have previously seen now becomes military science fiction. The technocrat heroes of Tom Clancy and Dale Brown join the science fiction heroes of Verne and Heinlein to become a whole genre of fiction spawned by the publication of Starship Troopers.

With a drum roll for dramatic effect, we now introduce the improbably named John Ringo, an author whose first book, A Hymn Before Battle became a NY Times best seller. Since the man apparently writes in his sleep, he has authored or co-authored 15 books in the last six years.

Ringo’s bio reveals that in addition to other active pursuits, he spent some time in the military, as an Airborne soldier. This does not appear to be hyperbole, since his work is filled with realistic action, even if in terribly improbable situations. His newest book, Into the Looking Glass, is published by Baen Books. You can download free copies of the first few books by Ringo at www.baen.com, but since Into the Looking Glass is currently available at either bookstores or in the Volusia County libraries, it is a good place to start reading any of his works.

Hereafter, I will call the book ...Glass to save time and space. ...Glass opens with the destruction of the main campus of the University of Central Florida in what appears to be a nuclear explosion. As it turns out, it was an experiment in physics gone awry. The force that set off the destruction continues to work by creating windows to other worlds, or Kansas, depending on how the window is oriented or established. The science in all this is fuzzy and Ringo amusingly comments on that before the first page. Unfortunately, human-consuming monsters pop out of one of these windows (called bosons in the book) and threaten all-life-on-earth. One hero scientist, backed by hard-eyed SEALS, explores the bosons and interacts with some interesting life forms while trying to find a way to stop the monsters. Along with those species, the protagonist, one William Weaver, PhD., gets to meet God and he nearly destroys all-life-on-earth before he closes down the fractal line of the bosons the monsters use to transit into our part of the universe.

Sounds a bit much? Think of Resident Evil, (either the movie or the game) Doom or any of the variants. ...Glass gives you as much action, as much peril and a satisfactory ending in 278 easy-to-read pages. That’s right, a satisfactory ending. Not an ambiguous and depressing ending like the critically-acclaimed The Constant Gardener. No, the bad guys in ...Glass get their asses kicked—not without cost to the good guys—kind of like the situation in Iraq. This is not a book for liberal weenies to enjoy. It is a redneck pleasure, pure and simple.

Sooner or later Hollywood is going to discover Ringo and try to make a movie out of one of his books. It’ll be watered down or made into a flawed spoof as was Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Do yourself a favor, get ahead of the curve and read a Ringo book now, so you’ll know the real flavor of his writing. A quick warning, though. As with most of his works ...Glass is the beginning of a series. If it is your cup of tea, as it is mine, you’ll go hunting the shelves for more and bug the people at Barnes & Noble for the next title in the series.

You can also get a look at what John Ringo is thinking and writing about at www.johnringo.com. If you are a liberal, just don’t go there.

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Head to the Sound of the Guns