Into the Looking Glass

Written by John Ringo

Narrated by L.J. Ganser

WORST TWO OUT OF THREE

When a 60 kiloton nuclear explosion destroys the University of Central Florida, terrorism is the first suspect. But terrorists don't generally leave doorways to another world in their wake. Or, rather, a generator of doorways to multiple other worlds.

With time of the essence, the Secretary of Defense scrounges up the nearest physicist with a high level security clearance. With doctorates in everything from nuclear physics to electrical engineering, William Weaver, PhD, is the egghead's egghead. On the other hand, with skills in everything from mountain biking to screaming electric guitar, he's also fast enough and tough enough to survive when the alien gates start disgorging "demons."

As a snap decision, he appears to be the perfect choice, smart, tough and capable.

Now if he could only patch things up with his girlfriend, get his boss off his back and get his cellphone bill paid. Oh, yeah, and figure out why the heck these gates keep opening. Okay, so sometimes he's got priority issues.

As the gates spread and evil aliens spread with them, it is up to Weaver and SEAL Command Master Chief Miller to find a way to stop the proliferation and close the hostile gates. The problem being that the only way they can see to save the earth is destroy it. Then there's not going to be any more girlfriends or cellphones or bosses …

Hmmm …
Okay, two out of three of those are bad. They're really, really bad. Bad on toast.
Bad like the Pacific is watery. Every day a Monday, bad.
One and a half at the very least. Worst two out of three.
Gotta prioritize. Guess Weaver and Miller are just gonna have to save the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 5, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440718915

John Ringo

John Ringo is author of the New York Times best-selling Legacy of Aldenata (Posleen War) series, which so far includes A Hymn Before Battle and nine sequels, the technothriller series starting with Ghost, a dark fantasy titled Princess of Wands, and many other novels for Baen. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Ringo brings first-hand knowledge of military operations to his fiction.

Reviews for Into the Looking Glass

[Bob Edwards · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent as always with this author. One of my top five

[DSpaceNine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

How much fun was that?! What a great read, not to be taken too seriously.

[nickhowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book opens with a bang...a nuclear detonation in Florida that turns out to be non-nuclear. The explosion is the end result of an experiment that leads to the opening of a gate to another world...and the gates still opening. Some of those gates open to an onslaught of organic killing machines. This is a nuts and bolts science fiction tale of alien invasion, the first of a series but happily self-contained. Ringo has a lock on action novels and this is no different. Smooth reading, the plot pulls you along. You'll enjoy it.

[isotropicjoseph · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I love good science fiction. I can't call this good science fiction. Why? Perhaps it was the idea of the god-like neo-con physicist. Maybe it was the Americentric xenophobia. Then again, it could have been the constant vitriol the main characters express regarding the media or academia, or anybody who disagrees with his political values.

I like books that challenge the reader with different perspectives but this book doesn't challenge. It insults anybody who doesn't fall into step with the beliefs espoused throughout the story.

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book, and there are some parts that made me actually laugh. This is very similar to Ringo's Posleen war series, except this time the aliens are 'demons' invading from another universe/other planets via gates that mysteriously open on Earth. Instead of powered armor suits, this time we're fighting back with larger Mechwarrior style mechs. Still no Air Force involved to speak of, this is still strongly slanted towards infantry. The demons don't use technology, instead they breed various types of warrior creatures, including several nasty biological 'tanks'. Good military sci-fi again.

[jvstin_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Never let it be said that I don't give people second chances. After my unhappiness with the story buzz-killing politics found when I read his The Tuloriad, I decided to try John Ringo, straight up, to see if another novel of his might have more of the good stuff and less of the thud and blunder.

And so I picked up Into the Looking Glass, a completely different series and world, and unlike the Tulorian, written without a co-author.

The set up and the basic scenario are interesting and clever: A high energy particle accident opens up potential gates to other worlds. Through these gates come contacts of several different kinds, including a malevolent force intent on turning the Earth into more territory for itself by an endless churning out of units that reminded me of the Zerg in Starcraft.

A ragtag group of soldiers, a "redneck physicist" and others fight to keep the aliens off of our turf, make contact with friendly aliens, and try to keep a situation spiraling out of control from going completely off of the rails.

I liked the basic premise as far as it went. The strength of the basic premise allowed me enough forward momentum to continue the book. Although implausible, I liked the "battletech" prototype technology employed against the hostile aliens.

However, the negative aspects of the book outweigh the positives.

After a good opening, the second half of the movie drags and loses momentum. Ringo also leaves a lot of dangling plot threads that seem more sloppiness than setting up a sequel. And the out-of-nowhere epilogue with trying to build a star drive is one of the worst tacked on last portions of a book I've read since Ender's Game. It almost seems like to me that Ringo was writing the book to frantically get the plot and scenario to the situation where we get that star drive, but the book is too short to make it plausible. It's a leap too far.

Character development is implausible. Our physicist hero goes from never firing a gun to being an expert in a shockingly short amount of time. Other characters are flat, wooden and without personality. Also, the government response to "tuffy", an extra-dimensional alien that may literally be a manifestation of God, is implausible, at best.

Female characters are another problem in this book. Sure, the novel mainly focuses on soldiers and a military response to it, but the number of significant female characters is thin on the ground. I expect better in a modern SF novel.

Now the politics. I dislike novels which turn into political tracts and grist for the mill to promote a political viewpoint rather than an actual story.Into the Looking Glass takes pot shots at liberals and the French. However, what he has to say about Arabs made my blood boil. The schadenfreude the author and the characters seem to have at the plight of those in the path of a Gate in the Middle East disgusted me.

"Any word on what we we're going to do?" Bill asked.

"Well, the Teams are sitting back, watching the tube and laughing in their beer." Miller answered. "The Ayrabs (sic) can't fight for shit. There's a lot of cultural reasons for it...Wait a year and there won't be enough mujaheddin left on earth to bury the bodies...The ragheads will also see,clearly, what the U.S. can do if it cares enough to send the very best. Nuclear weapons rising where the mullahs cannot ignore them."

If I want to re-read an alien invasion novel, I will read Pournelle and Niven's Footfall. There are two authors, no liberals they, who understand how to write an alien invasion novel, make it believable, and not take every opportunity to score political points.

Sorry, Mr. Ringo, I'm done trying to read your work. Good luck in your future endeavors.

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When a physics experiment gone awry blows up a good chunk of Florida the closest scientist with the right background and clearances is one Bill Weaver. The explosion does more, however: it also opens up a series of shiny portals to other worlds. Just luckily he's in both mental and physical condition to take on not just the mental gymnastics of the explosion, but also it's aftermath, when it turns out there's aliens in them thar holes. And not the happy Disney kind.

The science is more than a bit over my head (not that I'm complaining), but the story makes up for the math. Ringo has an endearing habit of fully describing his characters right before he kills them off - not surprisingly, it enhances the storyline, as there are a very great MANY people getting blown up, eaten, dissolved, turned into alien goo.... At any rate, this was a re-read for me, as I grabbed it when if first came out. This time round I was able to read the continuations in immediate sequence. I was really looking forward to more of Tuffy & Mimi.

[cahallmxj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One fine day in the near future the world is operating much as it does today... that is until a scientist researching a theory on quantum mechanics pushes the run button on his experiment. The result of which causes a 60 kiloton explosion that pretty much erases the University of Central Florida and causes a vortex to open on what used to be the site of the lab. Of course this vortex seems to be causing other vortex's to appear and not all of them open up to friendly worlds or worlds with friendly inhabitants. In fact quite a few of them open up to a world conquering race named the Dreen (think Borg combined with the Zerg). Fortunately for Earth it does have a few aces in the hole. There is the alien being known as Tuffy, a short purple stuffed animal creature,(who may or may not be the conscious of the universe). He may hold the answer to closing the gates, if he can dumb down the answer enough. There is the Adar who have been fighting the Dreen off for thirty years. They may help or if it looks like a losing battle, they will blow the planet up so they don't have to fight a war on two fronts. So what's earth got to offer? A jack of all trades physicist named William Weaver and Command Master Chief Miller and his team of SEALS. There are going to be explosions lots and lots of explosions.
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This is the beginning of another great adventure series by Ringo. Is does have similarities to the posleen saga (mecha suits, alien alliances), but that's not a bad thing. Weaver and Miller are a bit over the top and the politicians all cooperate and the good and evil lines are clearly defined. This is a straight up military adventure and Ringo's political leanings are evident, he even says so in the back of a few of his books. It doesn't interfere with the book much (I will admit there are few instances where I went, wouldn't happen at all. But hey its his world) and really the focus is on blowing up the evil alien things. I hope the next book keeps up the trend. I wouldn't say its as good as the posleen saga but it's definitely near it. I would recommend this to anyone who like military adventure and scifi. M.a.c

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second time I've read this. It's not bad. I like William Weaver, the science is neat (if way over my head), the aliens are interesting in many different ways (pity about which ones are real allies and which ones are fakes, though). The fighting is rather too bloody and detailed for me, but then it's a Ringo. I sort of skim it - the same way I skim Weber's acceleration numbers. Though I have to say, if Ringo really wanted (as he says in the afterword) to make a book that had real science in it...he could have left out Mimi and Tuffy. Of course then Weaver would have had to have been even more of a genius, with eurekas happening regularly instead of only occasionally without any trigger. But whatever. Fun story.

[tandu_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was interesting. It was John Ringo's standard pro US military propaganda, but it also had interesting characters, quick action, and an interesting theological twist.