Claws That Catch

Written by John Ringo and Travis Taylor

Narrated by L.J. Ganser

Best-selling author John Ringo-a former member of the elite 82nd Airborne Division-and real-life rocket scientist Travis S. Taylor bring an unmatched level of authenticity to their action-packed military science fiction. Claws That Catch is the fourth volume from their popular Looking Glass series. Humankind's only interstellar craft, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to investigate an ancient civilization that may have left vital technology behind. But when the crew finds more than they bargained for, they'll have to scramble to survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 12, 2010
• ISBN: 9781440789922

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 Claws That Catch

[nickhowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The fourth in the Looking Glass series. The Vorpal Blade sets forth on a third trip to check a system where their mysterious power source originated. There they find a huge fleet of Dreen with no chance of beating them. Great story, again ups the ante. A new commanding officer is being broken in, along with sergeant-turned-lieutenant Two Gun Bergsstrom. Two Gun gets an interesting insight into leadership from the new CO and other bits of business are shared with the reader as the Vorpal Blade gets to its destination. Excellent story. Highly recommended. I don't care for series books too much, but I can't wait for the next in this series.

[karlstar_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the 4th book in the Looking Glass series, and again features many of the same characters in the new and improved Vorpal Blade flying around the galaxy fighting. This one is less about discovery and more about the combat, though its not quite as tense or desperate as in previous books. If you like John Ringo books you'll still like this one, but it is not my favorite.

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Vorpal Blade II is gearing up for her first real mission. With the Dreen presence looming and the rest of the world suddenly in on the interstellar secret, the crew is back together, the newly married (and promoted) Two-Gun Eric Bergstresser, XO Bill Weaver, of course Miriam, are off again. Ringo takes a couple of side-trips into domestic life and military day-to-day, and trots out a few old jokes. Entertaining as always.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At this point it's become pretty strongly a Mary Sue adventure. Ringo is prone to those - though he manages to write ones that are interesting for multiple volumes, which is kind of amazing! Eric is the unquestioned hero, to a ridiculous degree - and I'm sorry, the anime bit didn't help _at_all_. Weaver gets to be XO, which means he spends most of his time on paperwork and personality/authority clashes and none of his time (that I recall) on science. His greatest scientific contribution this trip is convincing the new captain that Miriam really is useful, despite being a civilian woman. Oh and by the way, at the end of the last book she picked up an alien hitchhiker...who hated heat but has no problem with human body heat, apparently. Why it settled for her implant, if it did...Miriam spends the first half of the book in bad with the Captain - and he never even knew she'd brought the cat on board. Good thing she did, stupid action, poor plot point (maybe the Cheerick could have caught the spiders?). And just where did Tiny go when Miriam was on the Tree? And she complains once that he spends no time with her and once that he won't leave her alone (though that was deus ex machina to get him hopped up on catnip). And so on. This one feels much less like a smooth, connected story and more like a series of neat scenes stuck together with...space tape? Heavy authorial intervention. And Two-Gun has gotten seriously boring (actually, I liked him when he was with Brooke and when he was trying to deal with the paperwork, much less so when he was Two-Gunning). Not terrible, but nowhere near as good as Looking Glass. I really hope he doesn't write another in this series...but I bet he will, they haven't even encountered the Dreen in force (let alone the people with the big ship or the ones with the concert hall/weapon (Tar-Ayim Krang?)). Sigh. Science goes by the wayside, replaced by two-gun mojo and the invocation of 'quarks' at every opportunity. Oh, and by the way, it's spelled 'whelm'. Not 'welm'. There's a chapter near the end where there's an 'overwelm' or 'overwelming' on just about every page - arrrrrrrgggggghhhh!

[redwebmonk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An good continuation of the ongoing story of the A.S.S. Vorpal Blade and most of the heroes of the previous books. It is definitely a link in a chain of books, and standing by itself has so many dropped issues, unresolved storylines, unexplained absences, and out-of-the-blue happenings that if you have read the others this will be a very frustrating book.It may still be a frustrating book because of all those things even if you are following the series. There are now a multitude of interesting characters and developments that have been developed over the course of the series who are completely missing. In several areas, Ringo and Taylor also seem to be getting too cute for the story's good, and it has a definite danger of becoming a farce of a story. At several points the story has completely ludicrous happenings and situations that destroy the general believability (or at least suspension of disbelief) of the story.But, over it all, there is the rollicking good adventure story of the crew of the Vorpal Blade saving the galaxy and kicking Dreen whatever-it-is-they-have-in-place-of-an-ass.Note: this review is based on the ARC and there may be revisions before the book is finally released.