Manxome Foe

Written by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor

Narrated by L.J. Ganser

Startling Innovations.
Cool Space Ships.
Evil Alien Butt Blasted to Smithereens!
Outpost Attack!

Gateway HD 36951 lies in ruins. All survivors slaughtered. A single, truncated message sent back to Earth. Something very bad indeed is afoot, and the A.S.S. Vorpal Blade (read: nuclear submarine converted to warp-drive space ship) is sent to investigate. But the ferocious, voracious
enemy Dreen wait for no man (or other carbon-based lifeform), and the Blade and her crew are soon the only hope for an alien species pushed to the brink of extinction. Turn back and abandon a new ally or face a heavily armed Dreen destroyer head on.

For the Blade's rough-and-ready crew, it's no contest. And now, with an infusion of technical know-how from humanity's new ally, chaos itself has become a weapon!

New York Times and USA Today multiple bestseller John Ringo joins with NASA and DOD consultant Travis S. Taylor—author of Warp Speed and The Quantum Connection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440775222

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.

[nickhowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Human-Adar Ship ASS Vorpal Blade has been quickly refitted for a second dive into interstellar space in search of more answers about the Dreen. Blocked from entering through the multiple Earthside "looking glass" entry points from planets they dominate, humans and Adar must discover if the murderous Dreen can approach through normal space. On this second mission, the specially trained Marines...now dubbed Space Marines...have to take on a genuine Dreen threat. An exciting hard science fiction story that proposes a realistic two-sided confrontation between humans and alien invaders. Flows smoothly, draws you through effortlessly. One of the lead characters is the astrogator, a maverick scientist based roughly on co-author, Southern-fried NASA scientist Travis Taylor of TV's Renegade Rocketeers (see YouTube) who provides the physics grounding for this tale. Looking forward to the fourth book.

[bryndahlquis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Looooooove. Love. Love. Satisfies all my science fiction battle adventure dreams.

At first, I was a little skeptical. The whole Two-Gun and Brooke thing was bothering me, because she's like, 17 and they had one date and suddenly they're passionately in love and gonna get married and stuff? Well, okay. But it seemed somewhat sudden and irrelevant.

But then that got shoved aside and they went back into SPACE!! And it was EPIC!! Miriam makes me laugh all the time, and even though her subplot wasn't resolved, I'm still content with it. I can tell it will be continued in the next book (and it darn well better be).

Plus, Two-Gun. He definitely became my favorite of this novel, somehow replacing my beloved Bill Weaver. I mean, Bill is still cool. He just doesn't do quite as much this time around. Two-Gun gets all the action, but he's better suited to this story than Bill.

Really, this book made me want to go reread the first two and read more stuff and just read it again and again.

Also, would definitely recommend to fans of Stargate.

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not quite as good as the first two, though loaded with action. The Vorpal Blade is sent back out to find out what happened to a missing research group. Along the way they run into another alien race and the Dreen, and a big time fight. Basically similar to the previous book, with most of the same characters, but the action got a little more implausible this time.

[dragonasbreath · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

From the Back:
In the midst of recovering from their successful if casualty-prone first mission, the crew of the Alliance Space Ship Vorpal Blade are suddenly scrambled back into action. All other priorities take second palce as word arrives on Earth of a gate colony which has fallen to an unidentified alien assault. As the only space ship available to the Human--Adar Alliance, the Vorpal Blade's new mission is to find out what happened to the colony, rescue any survivors and learn the identity of the attackers - without breaking the ship.
the odd-ball crew of the Vorpal Blade is an unlikely savior, but none dare say they quail at engaging the Manxome Foe.

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The second voyage of the Vorpal Blade. Not a good place to start the series, it's definitely action-packed. A couple of main characters (I'll let you discover which ones) are noticeably absent, but despite that the series continues to pull its weight. New aliens, continued menaces from the old ones, and plenty of over-my-head science to contend with. All and all a very enjoyable read.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Second voyage of the Vorpal Blade. The excuse seems a bit thin - given the time differential and the potential exposure to the foe, I'd have thought going through the gate would have been a much simpler way to find out what was on the other side. On the other hand, I suppose the Blade could look at the planet and see if the Dreen had taken it over, and fade away without ever being noticed (maybe). Still, seems like a lot of effort and time without much lowering the risk or increasing the benefits. Though again, a real mission for the Blade may have been worth the whole thing. I dunno. An interesting new race, and traces of a second. Hmm, I wonder if the Hexes are blind in space? Since sound doesn't propagate in vacuum, it's essentially an opaque medium to them...have to use tech to see at all. Not mentioned, but I suppose they've solved most such problems long since. Miriam gets to show her stuff (multiple flashes of genius); Mimi has apparently not come along on this one. Chief Miller did. So the entire point of this one, as far as I can see, was finding the Hexen (and _nobody_ does a Battlestar Galactica reference! Sheesh!) and learning what they know about the Dreen. Some interesting events and personalities - oh yeah, Portana/Poertana shows up. Why put the same character into two totally different series? I guess Ringo wanted to go further into him and there wasn't room in the Prince Roger series. But it was rather annoying.
Not bad, but not all that interesting. Oh yeah, and Two-Gun gets to show off some more.