Colin

So you have to read the first book "Live Free or Die" before this one, if you have then there is no reason you shouldnt be getting this book

The beginning is another view of what happened in the last chapters of the first book and introduces some new characters - you have Butch and Dana or "Comet" as she is called after what happened in the end of the first book and described in detail in the beginning of this book

The story continues more or less and there are a couple more battles ending in one crazy battle - I thought this was very well, there were those parts where it would jump forward months or years in a single chapter but its OK and as Tyler would put it "fiddly bits" - but because of this it was sorta like an abridged book even though it wasnt, its not like stuff was missing or not explained but more like you wish that there had been more of it, and the parts that were skipped were really construction parts with not a whole lot of exciting stuff in there but I am sure something cool could have been done

In this book Tyler is still in charge of most of everything but the government has control over the SAPL and other things Tyler built when there is a battle going on - there have been over a billion people killed in the plague that the Horvath unleashed in the first book and its not really a bad thing - it was mostly old people and people who were in poor health and people with crazy beliefs that didnt want the treatment - it resulted in what is called "johansens syndrome" for all surviving females, its basally that they go into "heat" when they have there period and want sex - and it turned all females into "17 year old males with choice" for about a week every month - this could be removed with gene therapy which was really expensive and was done for all women going into the service or working in space for obvious reasons, they cant have someone they just spent millions on to train get pregnant and have to take time off

highly recommended

This is the last book at the time of this review (4-29-13) but the way it ends there could be a few more, these 3 books feel like a prequel for something really huge latter on and I hope the author writes them.

The debate is over and the Humans are going to war with the Broa, its just not a normal war since the Broa dont really know that the Humans exist for sure but it will become something they are aware of soon - the only Broan to meet a Human is the one who was found on the ship in book 1 and hes not talking to any other Broa.

The way this book ends is sorta strange I thought there would be more to the story, its not like it ends incorrectly but it does end in such a way that you want to know more, what happens next sorta of thing. I don't want to give anything away here but really Humans and Broan never meet in battle like I was expecting but the way it plays out is really good - but like I said I hope the author writes more books that go into the aftermath of the end of this book.

This is highly recommended if you like space opera style books, this one not really long enough and not galaxy spanning as most space operas are like Peter F Hamilton or Alastair Reynolds but its up there.

This being the second book I will assume that if you have read the first one then you like it and this review is sorta not needed but I will say a few things, if you want to know more go to my review of the first book.

This book continues the story nicely and you are hoping that the Humans get things done, you are setup for the next book in the series which is currently the last book (4-29-13) as of now but I hope there are more to come.

In this book it is confirmed that the Broan empire indeed controls 1 million stars or more and things aren't good for the Humans if they find out they are in the neighborhood so lets hope things go the right way.

So first let me say that I have been waiting for this book to come to Audible and the others from the same author, I herd about it on Security Now with Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte from This Week in Tech over at TWiT.tv - Thanks Audible.com for your continued sponsorship of the TWiT network.

Now the review. This is sorta a review of all 3 books as you should read all of them but I will do individual reviews of them also.

The narrator is pretty good he just mispronounces words or pronounces them not as they should be by people who say them - like Toronto the "t" at the end is silent people say it like "Torono" but the narrator says the "t", many other words are like that also but its not that bad

This is a "First Contact" novel but not like any you have read before, without giving anything away that's not in the description I will say that Humans find out about a Race of Aliens that must control everything (sorta like the USA is now) and they don't know about the Humans so for now we are safe.

Humans find an Alien and go on an adventure to find out more about these evil Aliens that want to control everything.

This book goes into many of the things that would probably would be happening if we actually encountered Aliens like in this book, I think that the events play out pertty much how it would in real life but we can only wait and see when the Aliens come

The end of this book is nicely setup for what you expect in the next one and it flows nicely, this author is top notch and I am going on to reading the other 3 book series Antares Dawn next, the other one Life Probe the Makers books has a female narrator which I sometimes find problematic when they try to do male voices so I might not be able to listen to that one of The Sales of Tau Ceti but I will give it a chance.

This series of books is great but let me warn you the 3rd book ends nicely but you will want more and honestly i think there needs to be another book, I hope the author writes one or more.

So it goes without saying that PFH (Peter F Hamilton) is among the best out there for long sci-fi books and this one is long, 976 pages in print form so you can understand why its 36 hours long but don't let that put you off its totally worth it.

This isn't like the other PFH books but that's sorta like he writes, each one is different but has the same feel to it.

This is a standalone book which is not something that this author has done much of in the past, its really always been 3 books or 2 like Pandora's Star/Judis Unchained, but thats not a problem, PFH said in an interview that he likes the idea of finishing a book and having that story be over, not having to work on the next book - well this works good for me as long as he writes one every year or more ha.


The Review:

This is a great story about a murder 20 years apart on 2 different planets in the same fashion the supposed killer Angela Tramelo was convicted and jailed for that murder but it seems that her story of an alien attack might be true, so this causes all sorts of problems.

This is the story of a mother who would do anything to save her sick daughter, and how she was once a rich girl who lost everything when all the other rich families conspired against hers and her father's company causing her to loose everything, she grew up and hatches a plan to rip off some people who wronged her because it turns out he daughter is sick, the kind of sick that costs so much the only people who can afford the treatment are the ultra-wealthy milti-billionaires on the planet and she was no longer one of those.

But something happens on that mission, an alien monster? or some sorta crazy person in a muscle armor suite with blades for fingers? whatever it is they go back to the planet that the original murder happened at and "look for an alien monster" because that's what Tramelo said happened, and that's where this story starts.

Although the author said hes not writing another book in this "world/universe" there could be one after this ended, its not like things were left open and misunderstood, everything is explained pretty much and the rest is obvious. I wont tell you if there is or isn't an alien monster you will have to read to find out but what you do find out is that its something that you didn't expect because that's how PFH does it.


Great book, highly recommended!

This is the end of the story that started with Ringworld written in 1970, then some prequels were written that are pretty good and a must read if you are getting into these books so start there if you haven't read Ringworld years ago.

There isn't much to say about these reviews of books that are latter in a series other to say that its good or bad because if you have read the past books and liked them then its safe to say if other reviews say its good you don't have to know much more that that - well this is a great book, its the last one but there could be many more of them if the Authors want to write more of them.

This is a great book so if you liked the others then you will like this one.

Well it goes without saying that if you liked the first 2 books then you will probably like this one, Louis Wu, the puppeteer known as the Hindmost, and Acolyte, son of the Kzin called Chmeee who was "Speaker to Animals" in the first book.

There are some people who think that this book shouldn't have been written, and in some aspects they are right. Larry Niven the Author never planed to write a second book but it had to be done to clear up some of the inaccuracies in the first book, this book sorta falls short of the others and I assume at the time it was released it wasn't that good compared to the last ones, but read as a whole this book fits in nicely in the story line with the other books.

In this book there are 2 major story lines that come together in the end of the book, without giving anything away here it has to do with the vampires on the world, more specifically a vampire protector - if any "hominid" eats "Tree of Life root" and they are of the proper age they can become a protector which is what the Ringworld needs, a "Protector"because its old and relatively week when it comes to what it can be subjected to.

This is a must read, its not as up to par as the other 2 books or the ones that follow but its a good book and fits right in the middle of the story so its worth reading if you read the second book "The Ringworld Engineers" and really want to experience more of this Ringworld and the Universe its in this is where it starts

First let me say that the Narrator isn't as good as the one on the first book but not as bad as the one for the 4th book Ringworld's Children, it should be the same narrator for all the books in a series but I guess its not possible every time

This is the start of a series of books that the author never set out to make a series, this was never planed but after 10 years and many fans point out errors with the Ringworld as well as wanting more he made this book and I am glad he did.

The author says that MIT students attending the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention chanted, "The Ringworld is unstable! The Ringworld is unstable!" Niven says that one reason he wrote The Ringworld Engineers was to address these engineering problems.

In the first book you are introduced to the Ringworld and there are some inaccurate or overlooked features about the Ringworld that were corrected in this book or at least helped to explain them better, if you read the first book and loved it then this is a must read.

Louis Wu went to the Ringworld 20 years ago and now he goes back with his friend Chmeee (the "ch" is pronounced like a guttural German "ch", as in "ach" the narrator does it correct in this book but the one for the 4th one Ringworld's Children don't) "Speaker-to-Animals" from the first book who has a name.

This book explores some of the Ringworld and you get to see more of how it works, it has become unstable in its orbit and if not corrected it will brush against its sun and obliterate everything on the surface and probably destroy the Ringworld itself but Louie Wu and hos motley crew are back to help fix the problem.

There must be a control or repair center on the Ringworld to fix the problem and they must find it, but who made the Ringworld and how long ago is still a mystery that will be discovered in this book.

There are whole maps of planets in a 1:1 scale on the Ringworld that are of Worlds in Known Space including Earth and Mars, others are unknown but you find out its the home world of the makers of the Ringworld.

other questions still remain after reading this book, some will be answered in the following books and others can be found in the prequels, still others remain a mystery for the reader to infer.

This is pretty much a must read if you liked the first book, now some people say the next one isn't that good and that the 4th one is also not so good, I have read them all and they aren't bad, you can read my reviews of them also if you look them up

Well the thing about these books is that the Narrator does a great job but for some reason after the first book he mispronounces the character "Baedeker" and some aliens, in the first book "Fleet of Worlds" it is pronounced as "bed-a-ker" and the rest of the books it is pronounced as "beta-ker" - aliens called "Gw'oth" pronounced as "gwa-auth" becomes "guat-ta-oth" or something like that, this is stupid and if the cause was that they were pronounced incorrectly in this the first book then in the next ones where its changed it needs to be mentioned in a forward by the reader, its stranger since its the same Narrator.

Now the review, this is another great book in a great series that is a prequel to a 42 year old book by the same author, If you read the previous books in this series then you probably will read this one so there isnt much to review here other than the story continues but at the end it hasn't gotten to the next book in chronological order which is "Ringworld" so there is still room for more books to be written.

If you already read Ringworld as many people have since its from 1970 then you sorta know what happens next, but not really since there is still room for more books to be written, I have read the first 3 books in this series around the time they came out and went on to other books, when this one was released I went back and listened to them again in order and have since went on to "Ringworld" and the ones that follow, this whole story and universe that was created is so good and the fact that these books are modern (as in written in 2007 and up range) its based upon something created in the 70's and it still holds up great

No reason not to read this book if you have already read the first 3 - after this one move onto Ringworld, I know its from 1970 but trust me it doesn't feel like it

So if you dont know thi sis a prequel of sorts for the book "Ringworld - 1970" by the same author so you might have read that some years ago, if not then even though its 42 years old (as of Oct 2012, did we survive past Dec 21st 2012 lol) its not dated that much if at all, I am 30 years old and I dont like much of anything older than the 90's when it comes to entertainment but I suggest you read Ringworld after these 4 books that take place 200 years before.

There is a problem I will note right off, the narrator is someone to get used to and he really trails off with the end of words like "world" is "woorllldd" and it takes a while to get used to that - also there is another major problem with the pronunciation of the name of a, well, not major character but not a minor one either since when he comes up in the 3rd book hes back in a semi-major roll - the name is "Baedeker" but in this book its pronounced as "bed-a-ker" but in the latter books its pronounced as "beta-ker" - also aliens called "Gw'oth" pronounced as "gwa-auth" becomes "guat-ta-oth" or something like that, this is stupid and if the cause was that they were pronounced incorrectly in this the first book then in the next ones where its changed it needs to be mentioned in a forward by the reader.

Now with that out of the way, the review.

This book and the ones that follow it all pretty much follow a story that although it changes it will lead up to the discovery of the ringworld which is awesome - in this book you are introduced to the characters that the story will follow for the following 3 books and learn that one of the "races" isnt what it thinks it self to be.

Humans from a colony star-ship find out the truth behind there history, even that fact that they are called "humans" - there ship was captured by the "Puppeteers" and the survivors were in gene banks and were implanted into the living humans left and the babies were told a lie when they grew up, but the truth is found out and then things get good.

Without giving much away here the humans are looking for Earth and will do anything to find it, they break into secure places and all sorts of cool things that are made easier by the fact that the puppeteers are not very good at security and easily scared so they get away with lots after they are found out.

Read this and the 3 that follow, then go on to "Ringworld - 1970" and I guarantee you wont believe that Ringworld was written in 1970 because it feels just like these books which are only a few years old

First let me say that having read (or listened to) "Legacy of Ashes" and thought it was pretty good and I will probably listen to it again, this one not so much.

The title "Enemies" does look like the correct title since that's what Hover did create enemies, not only for him but for the whole country

Problem I think is that while "Legacy or Ashes" followed the whole CIA and how it did things where as "Enemies" was mostly about how J.Edgar Hover mostly ran things like he wanted to and really effed things up pretty good - Hover lived with his mother until he was in his 40's until she died! and he worked a normal government job not a bum or something like that, also he never ever had a relationship with anyone, never had sex ever according to all reports about him, its just strange.

After Hover dies and someone else takes over the FBI and it went to all sorts of different people in charge of the FBI because since Hover had really strange rules and polices in place that were hard to remove it was perceived by the President that they were doing things wrong.

There were some reviews that mentioned this wasn't as good as "Legacy of Ashes" and they were right, I don't know what the main problem is other than the large focus on Hover but that cant be avoided I guess when someone runs the FBI for as long as he did but it just doesn't feel as good as the other book, or as good as I think it could be.

I dont have anything to add that would make this better but I got the idea I couldn't want for the book to end until it got to the point that Hover was out of the picture.

I guess this book would be better 50 years from now since Hover ran the FBI until 1972 and then it was just cleaning up the mess that Hover left behind and forgetting the ways he put into effect, it was only after Sept 11th that the FBI started getting better so 50 years from now it would make a much better book to see how things went on from now