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[JuntaJoe]

I've always been a fan of hard scifi or military scifi. Never been a big fan of fantasy. The protagonist is set upon by evil thingies until all hope is lost and then *poof!* magic saves the day.

So I was skeptical when a favored military scifi writer tried his hand at it. Even had to be given a fat discount on the first book in the series by my book dealer who makes gobs of money off me.

It's actually quite good. John Ringo writes a fantasy tale with a good twist. The magic is never there when the protagonists really need it. He sets up a futuristic world where earth has evolved into a utopia because unlimited power is free, technology is so advanced that it looks like magic, and a global AI runs all the drudgery work. Life is all about hobbies, entertainment, and pleasure seeking. Then someone stops the music. The antagonists try to bring the world back to older times of responsibilty. Fine on the idea, but resistance is met with bloody force and the AI locks out most of the power. Earth has already devolved back into a pre-human tech state with the idle citizens living in enclaves. So everyone ends up being thrust back into the primeival world with no preparation.

The protagonist side falls back on a cadre of "re-enactment" troupes to revive age old technology. The books on science and technology is there, but there is no tech base to immediately revive everything. So society is forced to return from the stone ages with all the books and no tools. There is still a smattering of "magical" technology around that is primarily based in the "Changed Ones". Those are people so bored that they were genetically changed into sentient animals and fantasy creatures and were caught that way when the power net was shut off.

It's a great series on military scifi that is spanning dozens of tech eras all meshed together as the people latch onto anything that works. It's also pretty neat watching the entire society rebuild from the ground up when faced with needing life's essentials that were formerly simply there for the taking. The "magic" doesn't encroach too much on the saving of the protagonists, but instead is relegated to providing color to the story.

The first book, There Will Be Dragons, has been out a couple years. The 3rd book is already in paperback. So you can already get neck deep in the series while awaiting book 4. Just check the inside cover for the sequels.

John Ringo writes in a style that never lets off the gas to wander into sideline stuff. He just slips the fluff and background in along the way so the books always stay on the prime storyline. No dull moments for this writer. You can read until you fall over exhausted from lack of sleep. If all "fantasy" were like this I might actually read more of the stuff.

His other works are all military scifi in the full future tense and are great reading as well. He hasn't put out a bad book yet.

[Brf]

Hmmm.... I dont read military fiction, mostly sci-fi and fantasy... but this one sounds to be enough of a cross-over that I might have to take a look at it.

[JuntaJoe]

He's great at spinning a good yarn. The books are definitely fun.

[Elvengirl]

i never heard before about this author, but since i like to read fantasy and scifi the most... this sounds pretty interesting, and ill definitelly have to find something from him to read

[Dochartaigh]

i have heard of john ringo before but have never read anything by him i will havta check out this series.