Into the Looking Glass

John Ringo

Jun 2005 · Looking Glass Book 1 · Baen Publishing Enterprises

About this eBook

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.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Ratings and reviews

What a fun, fast read. I quite enjoyed it. It was well paced, I found the storyline interesting and the characters engaging even if they were kinda shallow. I did think the characters were a little naive in their dealings with meeting new, sentient races. I just don't see us being that trusting. This story very much had the feel of Ringo's other books I've read where there is a war amongst alien races that we are suddenly thrust into. The difference being in how the initial contact is made. And once again powered mechanical battle suits make a prominent appearance. I was initially a little skeptical about how things were going to progress. There seemed to be quite a few characters introduced early on, but it sorted itself out well pretty quickly and the characters weren't hard to keep track of. The rather break-neck pace kept me turning pages to see what happened next. My vision of Weaver is Doc Travis, Travis Taylor, from 3 Scientists Walk Into a Bar. Most of the characters weren't well fleshed out, but there was enough there to become involved in their little stories. Weaver and Miller were the only two that had much depth, and Miller wasn't all that much. I would have liked some more on the Mreee aliens, I thought they were rather interesting. I'm looking forward to reading more in this series. The eBook was formatted well it just a couple of minor spelling mistakes. Thanks to the Baen Free Library and the Baen Free Promotional CD's.

Where to Begin...I have been reading Sci_Fi / Fantasy since I was old enough to read. Of course started with the Greats (Asimov, Bova, et al). I first read John Ringo's works when he started writing them (early 2000's). I frankly, had forgotten about him until Google brought him back in a list of "books I might like". Yes google has become scarily good at that (Get Out Off My Head Google!!!). As someone who has read Sci-Fi for 50+years, I recommend all of his works. I am looking forward to re-acquainting myself with all his works. A look forward to adding him to my e-book library as he once was in my paperback library ( alas long gone after decades of moves and life chances.). His books are enjoyable to read, and well grounded in the "science" of science fiction. You will not regret the read.

I had to give up part way through. the narrative was disjointed and impossible to follow. if it hadn't come out before the days of AI, I would have thought this was written by an LLM.

About the author

John Ringo had visited 23 countries and attended 14 schools by the time he graduated high school. This left him with a wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food. He chose to study marine biology and really liked it. Unfortunately the pay was for beans. So he turned to quality control database management, where the pay was much better. His highest hopes were to someday upgrade to SQL Server, at which point, he thought, his life would be complete. But then Fate took a hanJohn has become a professional science fiction writer, and is in the early stages of becoming fabulously wealthy, which his publisher has assured him is the common lot of science fiction writers who write for Baen Books. In addition to his own enthusiastically received and New York Times best-selling military SF series A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, and Hell's Faire he is collaborating with fellow New York Times best-selling author David Weber on a new SF adventure series: March Upcountry, March to the Sea, March to the Stars and We Few, with more to come.

With his bachelor years spent in the airborne, cave diving, rock-climbing, rappelling, hunting, spear-fishing, and sailing, the author is now happy to let other people risk their necks. He prefers to write science fiction (both alone and in collaboration with David Weber and others) raise Arabian horses, dandle his kids and watch the grass grow. Someday he may even cut it. But not today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe he'll just let the horses eat it.