There Will Be Dragons – John Ringo

[Jedi]

I’m reviewing this book as I just finished it last night. I’d like to first point out the author, John Ringo. This novel is not the first I’ve read by him. He was introduced to me around 3 – 4 months ago. It was recommended that I read a book called Ghost. I read it and LOVED every page. I read it in I believe 2 days. I was definitely hungry for more as that was the first book in a series of 5, so far. This series is known as the “Paladin of Shadows” series. The friend I borrowed Ghost from had the last 3 books in that series but was missing book 2. I was living in the nursing home and it was hard to get reading materials there. The closest library had a real shitty selection.

So by the time I was done with Ghost, he had me interested in another book called 1632. Awesome book, will definitely review another day. That is the first in a number of books in that particular series so I had a few novels to read. Afterwards, I decided to start another series written by John Ringo, which is now known as the “Legacy of the Aldenta” series. This is another series I’ll review later It was also very good and as I was half way through the second book, he got the second book of the “Paladin of Shadows” series. So I switched over to that and voraciously tore apart the other 4 books.

So now I am working. I’ve read the “Paladin of Shadows” and gotten through 3 books from the “Legacy of the Aldenta” series. I got to go to a bookstore and pick up a few books. I got the 4th book of the Aldenta series. I grabbed a Star Wars novel that I thought my buddy didn’t have. I bought my buddy 1632 as he HAS to read this series. I also picked up a novel in the 1632 series that my buddy from the nursing home did not have.

So, my goal was to read this Star Wars novel I bought first. Yeah well last Monday or Tuesday I was farting around looking at John Ringo’s website. I also went to BAEN’s website which is the publisher of all these wonderful novels I’ve talked about. BAEN does something really cool, which is offer some of their books for FREE! Go to Baen's Free Library. Go there and get A Hymn Before Battle. This is the first book in the Aldenta series and it is fucking awesome. If you like sci-fi military, then you WILL like this book. Or, if you like my review, go get this book for free.

“Ok, so when the fuck are you going to review the book you have in your title Jedi?” I apologize for taking so long, but oh well. I like to write. Anyways, I decided to read the first book, There Will Be Dragons, of the “Council Wars” series. As much as I loved John Ringo, I was still not prepared for what I was about to read.

The book starts off with something called “Mother” overlooking the Earth. She is thinking that it is about time for another war among the humans as it has been too long since the last one. You do come to find out that it is the 41st century. We are introduced to a few characters who are obviously living in an Utopian society. They are all humans, but science and technology are at a point where you can “Change” into anything you like. There are all types of “Changed” people ranging from mer-folk, to unicorns, to eagles, to werewolves and werebears. You even have some that have elected to go into an entirely ethereal state and become nothing but nannites. These nannites now play a significant role in the lives of humans as they are responsible for keeping everyone alive. Humans now live hundreds of years, even more in some cases. There is no disease, no poverty, no REAL sadness. Energy does not appear to be a problem due to power stations that are able to give free power to everyone on the planet. Everyone has a personal genie that gives them whatever they need and transports them wherever they want to go at any time. It really seems like an interesting life.

Some of the characters we are introduced to are extremely interesting right off the bat. There is Daneh who is a doctor in there here and now. She helps manipulate the nannites to do whatever needs to be done. She is working on a young man named Herzer. Herzer is a true “freak” of the day and age as he has some form of cerebral palsy. Even though genetic diseases have been wiped out, a few cases pop up every now and again. Daneh has been trying to help cure Herzer and she comes up with a last ditch effort. Either she can fix him, or he will die in the process. We are also introduced to Edmund Talbot. He is a man who lives in a small community of reenactors. These are people who enjoy doing things like smithing, farming, and fletching etc. They all have learned these trades for a yearly festival put on for the amusement of any who care to come and watch. He is a smith of particular renown. He has few friends and really seems to enjoy his solitude.

We are also introduced to the “council”. The council is a group of 13 people who basically run the planet. They control Mother and can only make changes to her programming based on the number of votes in this council. The most pressing issue at this time is population. There are currently only about 1 billion people on the planet. This is down from Earth’s highest population 10 centuries or so before when there were 12 billion people. The reason for the decline is very simple. Women are no longer necessary as incubators. Artificial wombs have been created and work as good as the old way. For that matter, women aren’t even needed to make a baby now. The law requires 2 peoples genes however to make a baby in order for there to be shared responsibility. Now because people live longer and don’t have to work, people, in general, don’t want to “waste” time raising a child. Also, women’s hormones for birthing and whatnot have been turned off. Women no longer have the biological urge to have children. They no longer get periods. There is simply more things to do, more fun things to do, than raise children.

There is a number of people on the council who agree with a character named Paul that this issue is paramount. He believes something should be done now to “save” the human race. He is actually in favor of forcing people to have children. While the other “faction” on the council believes it should be a priority, they feel that Paul’s idea is too much. SO Paul basically comes to the conclusion that he most force the council’s hand. He allies himself with as many of the council he can and does something which is hardly ever done in this day and time. He brings bio-engineered wasps to kill the council off and claim their positions to give them to people who will vote his way. A few of the members die in the attempt but some get away. So begins the council wars. Immediately the 2 factions start assuming control of all the power in the world to use to fight and defend against one another. This has the unfortunate side effect of taking all the power away from everyone else in the world.
Suddenly you now have people dying across the planet due to being shielded from certain elements. As an example, there are people working in the photosphere of the sun who are instantly killed as their shielding dies due to the loss of power. There are people who have Changed into the nannite clouds as I described before who basically just, die. The nannites need power! So as to be expected, the world falls into chaos. People are having to work. People now have to walk or ride a horse to get somewhere they could have transported to in the blink of an eye. There are no real roads. Why would they need them? It’s like being thrust back into the middle ages.

That is about all the story I want to tell you here. I hope that I’ve interested you enough to read a couple chapters at least. I mean, it’s free. What do you have to lose? I was hooked from the first chapter. I LOVED this book. I have already started the sequel, Emerald Sea. I loved it so much that I haven’t read any of the books I bought yet. This book has great characters, great story, great romance… I just can’t recommend a book more.

Of course, there are a lot of books I feel that way about. Hope you liked my long review. I’ll be writing more.