Paradise Lost
In the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise—and then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive.
But scattered across the face of the earth are communities which have returned to the natural life of soil and small farm. In the village of Raven's Mill, Edmund Talbot, master smith and unassuming historian, finds that all the problems of the world are falling in his lap. Refugees are flooding in, bandits are roaming the woods, and his former lover and his only daughter struggle through the Fallen landscape. Enemies, new and old, gather like jackals around a wounded lion.
But what the jackals do not know is that while old he may be, this lion is far from death. And hidden in the past is a mystery that has waited until this time to be revealed. You cross Edmund Talbot at your peril, for a smith is not all he once was. . . .
Praise for the Science Fiction of John Ringo
"MARVELOUS!" —David Weber
"Explosive. . . . Fans of strong military SF will appreciate Ringo's lively narrative and flavorful characters. . . . One of the best new practitioners of military SF." —Publishers Weekly
". . . since his imagination, clearly influenced by Kipling and rock and roll, is fertile, and his storytelling skill sound, [When the Devil Dances] is irresistible." —Booklist
". . . fast-paced military sf peopled with three-dimensional characters and spiced with personal drama as well as tactical finesse." —Library Journal
"If Tom Clancy were writing SF, it would read much like John Ringo . . . good reading with solid characterizations—a rare combination." —Philadelphia Weekly Press
"Ringo provides a textbook example of how a novel in the military SF subgenre should be written. . . . Crackerjack storytelling." —Starlog
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Product ReviewInteresting premise, enjoyable read.
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Product ReviewPity--it could have been good.
A few interesting ideas unfortunately combined with failure to explore them or even consistently bear them in mind during world building and plot construction. (For example, with the magical medical nannites available to everybody, you can turn yourself into a unicorn on a whim, but the plot assumes women won't change gender to avoid being coerced into bearing unwanted babies, for example.)
Lumps of awkward exposition, especially near the beginning, are interwoven with a Mary Sue story written for adolescent males, featuring an improably socially adept, improbably sexually attractive, improbably martially skilled teenage boy. There is plenty of 2nd amendment propaganda, but no mention of the 13th, 15th or 19th amendments, which would actually have applied to the situation.
If you are a militaristic fifteen year old boy, you'll probably love it. Otherwise, there are better ways to spend your time.Posted on
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