Maple syrup

John Ringo’s Troy Rising trilogy (I’m still hoping there will be a fourth book! 🙂 ) is one of my favorites and one that I keep coming back to whenever I need a “pick me up”. It’s got everything you could possibly ask for in Military SciFi: inscrutable aliens? CHECK. Huge space battles? CHECK. Insurmountable odds? CHECK. Cool technology? CHECK. Humanity triumphant? CHECK. It’s the kind of series where you can tell what’s coming and still enjoy every step of the way.

I’ve read each book a couple of times now, and I’ve also listened to the excellent audio versions, which give a slightly different nuance to the characters. Each book is slightly different, and while there’s overlap in terms of viewpoints in books 1 and 2, it’s different enough to still keep you engaged. I’ve already written about other Ringo books, including Von Neumann’s War and Into the Looking Glass, but I realized I hadn’t included this series, and I think it’s one that definitely needs to be listed here.

Live Free or Die

The first book in the trilogy tells the story of Earth’s first contact with the rest of the universe. It does an excellent job of describing what impact this sort of first contact would have on our own IT industry (basically decimating it) and also on the whole field of SciFi, which is really cool as most books don’t cover this element at all and in fact tend to ignore it completely! When an alien race “takes the orbitals”, however, Earth is relegated to nothing more than a slave race and, unfortunately, options are limited.

Fortunately for humanity, not everyone has given up, and one good ole southern boy, Tyler Vernon, discovers a trading item that another race of Galactics desperately want. You might find references in other SciFi titles to “Maple Syrup” being the ultimate trading good, and this is the book that introduces it! It funnily enough happens to be something we all enjoy on our pancakes, namely maple syrup. In the Maple Syrup wars he’s able to get one race of Galactics (the Glatun federation) onto Earth’s side, and they help him kick out the Horvath, the aliens who were previously using Earth as slave labor.

Tyler quickly sets up an orbital infrastructure to diversify his holdings and further increase Earth’s abilities. Called the “Sapple”, this mining laser, powered by the Earth’s sun, is able to literally cut apart the next Horvath vessel that chooses to attack the Earth. The Horvath, however, have left some surprises for Earth in the form of tailored viruses that decimate the population, so we don’t get off completely scot-free by any means. Tyler realizes that the only way to truly protect Earth is by blocking access through the gate itself.

To do this he creates a monstrous battle ship (in my eyes similar in size and shape to the Death Star) which he inflates from a nickel-iron asteroid. With walls over 1.5km thick and a circumference just shy of 10km, and the ability to use the Sapple itself as a weapon, this immense base completely decimates the next fleet of starships sent against Earth. Named the Troy, this base becomes the primary defense of humanity.

The audio versions deserve a mention too. Listening to the books gives the characters a bit more personality, and the big battles hit just as well when you’re hearing them as when you’re reading them. It’s a great way to revisit the series if you’ve already read it, and it’s something I’d recommend if you commute or like to listen while you work.

Citadel

While Citadel is a continuation of Live Free or Die, the first half of the book actually repeats a significant portion of the elements of Live Free or Die, this time from a completely different point of view, that of Dana and Butch. In all honesty, while their stories are interesting, I missed Tyler, and the fact that he was only included in the latter half of the book made this one my least favorite of the three. Dana is trained as an Engineer but eventually becomes a hot shot pilot, and Butch is an optical welding technician.

They’re probably introduced to appeal to a different (younger) audience and help explain the impact of the Johansen virus on humanity, but they end up taking away from the most interesting character in the story, namely Tyler Vernon. In addition, while probably important to some people, the majority of this book seems to focus on military rules and regulations, which are nothing if not boring! (If you like your military SciFi a bit more action-focused, my Kindle Unlimited military SciFi picks are a good place to start.) Fortunately when Tyler does show up, the book really does pick up again, and while the Horvath seem to have been defeated, their partners, the Rangora, are now on the scene.

Previously portrayed as an aggressive species looking to expand throughout the sector, the Rangora set their sights on Earth’s friends and allies the Glatun. In addition, they decide they need to remove the upstarts on the galactic scene, those pesky humans! With some quite interesting insights into the aliens and their overall understanding of humanity and Earth’s capabilities, the Rangora high command send two separate waves of attacks against the humans. Their second attack involves a fleet of their largest ships, called AVs (Assault Vectors), which are specialized in storming defended gates.

Tyler, however, has not been idle, and while Troy was enough to rebuff the earlier Horvath and Rangora attacks, he’s realized that more will be needed if Earth is to remain secure. Thermopylae is Earth’s second battlesphere, and with the modifications made to it and Troy, Earth is once again triumphant, defeating the vicious alien horde!

The Hot Gate

The third and currently final book in the Troy Rising cycle is The Hot Gate. Once again it starts off on a somewhat different tangent, namely Dana’s character being moved from the Troy to the Thermopylae to “help” improve their abilities. Ringo is always pro-America in all of his books and this one is no exception, so when the Thermopylae was crewed primarily by Alliance personnel, people from South America and other European countries, they unfortunately did not have as high a performance rating as their American counterparts. I’m not sure I’d 100% agree with his assumptions here, but at the same time I can’t 100% disagree, so I’ll leave that aside.

Butch is notably absent from this book, and while there might be a budding romance between Dana and Tyler, it isn’t really explored to a significant extent. What is explored with perhaps too much detail is, again, the military rules and regulations, and also diplomacy, or the lack of it, between the humans and the Rangora. While Citadel ended with a mobile Troy able to traverse the gate network, The Hot Gate took way too long to get to the meat of the matter and the eventual confrontation between the forces of light (humanity) and dark (the Rangora).

Once we get to that point though, boy-oh-boy, hold onto your socks! The action is fast and furious (it’s the same sort of big fleet fun I got from the Saiph books), and just when you think defeat is imminent, humanity manages to pull out one other trick. While I didn’t think this one was as good as the first book, Live Free or Die, it was one I definitely enjoyed more than book two, Citadel. I am, however, very curious about a possible addition to the trilogy, as while the sequence does seem fairly complete, there’s room I think to continue writing in this universe (perhaps an outside force that threatens humanity and the Rangora, forcing them to work together?).

What strikes me each time I go back to it is how well the three books fit together. The first is the underdog story of a man who finds a way to bargain with the Galactics, the second shows what it takes to man and defend the station he builds, and the third takes the fight out to the gates themselves. It’s a nice progression, from a single clever idea to an entire war, and it’s why I’ve read the books so many times. Even the parts I’m less keen on, like the rules and regulations in Citadel, feel like they’re building toward something.

Why I keep coming back to it

Overall it’s an extremely good series and one that will keep you entertained for quite a few days. Without a doubt it’s one of my favorite Ringo books, and Military SciFi in general.