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Manxome Foe  By  cover art

Manxome Foe

By: John Ringo,Travis S. Taylor
Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
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Publisher's summary

A leading voice in military SF, best-selling author John Ringo teams with real-life rocket scientist Travis S. Taylor for an explosive entry from their Looking Glass series.

Recovering from their first mission, the crew of the Vorpal Blade - humankind's first interstellar craft - is called into emergency action when an alliance gate colony is attacked. Who was the lethal alien enemy? What exactly happened at the colony? And dare the Vorpal Blade's battle-weary misfits engage a potentially superior force?

©2008 John Ringo &Travis S. Taylor (P)2009 Recorded Books, LLC

What listeners say about Manxome Foe

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Keeps me sitting in the car

I love Ganser's voice, goes well with the story. As usual with a male narrator, the women often sound a little dippy, but he does better than most, and there aren't that many women. The series is full of the mechanics of physics and military rules, battles, strategy, etc - fascinating and informative, in my opinion. Not much character development, and in this particular book I had a little trouble believing the story line about one of the main characters falling in love, but a relatively minor plot point. If you enjoy dry/wry humor, lots of testosterone and good ol' boy/Brere Rabbit/aw shucks American/Southern ingenuity that kicks the butt of aliens with advanced technology, the occasional deus ex machina, edge of your seat battle scenes, and alien worlds which seem unremittingly to have unbreathable air and inedible foods, this series will appeal to you. I've felt that all books were equally good so far. I listen to them while driving, and often stay in the car after arriving somewhere, so I can keep listening - definitely engages the attention. In the Looking Glass and Live Free or Die series, the main character has a lot of similarities - a man with advanced degrees, non-military but works closely with the military, over-achiever, good ol' boy whose drawl hides a steel trap mind, somewhat megalomaniacal, and can't sustain a long-term relationship with a significant other. Very US-centric, which I found a little unrealistic given the premise of this story line, but hey, author's choice. Despite the small picky points, I can't wait to listen to the next book in both series.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Gripping Story Line, Hilarious in Spots

Really fun story line, excellent suspense building, and some honestly laugh-out-loud scenes. I don't laugh out loud at books, but so far there have been scenes in each book of this series that have made me roar. I even enjoyed the battle scenes although military fiction is not usually my cup of tea. Quirky and odd and hilarious - a very satisfying respite from reality.

Note: I think this series is Christian friendly but not preachy, however there is a fair amount of pseudo-cursing and some coarse talk among the soldiers in the story - enough to be realistic (realistic? It's a flying submarine!) but not overdone. Still, sensitive readers should take this under advisement.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Waiting for the next one!!

well ringo did it again here i sit waiting for the next one. real good a little first contact gone wrong and right, we see some characters really step up, left me hanging for the next book. after the firt book i didnt care for the narrator now i am real used to him and hes great.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A fun book.

I enjoyed this book in general. The whole series is a fun bit of fluff Sc-Fi. The reason I wanted to write this review, though, is to pick on a couple of things that annoyed me, though not enough to remove more than one star from the overall picture.

The completely unnessary, tacked-on love story should have just been removed. Eric (Two-Gun) goes back home for a visit and starts catching the eye of this girl. They go on one date, and all of a sudden she's promising to not date other men and to wait for him to come home in spite of the odds against his survival.

Okay, it's not too unrealistic for something like that to happen. Teenage girls (and boys too) often get swept up in their feelings of the moment and all that. But nobody else in the story seems to think it's a little too much. After she receives a message from Eric, Eric's mother asks her if she's going to be her mother in law soon, and she replies "I hope so!".

Seriously? Nobody's saying, "Hey, you two have basically just met each other and been on ony one date! Don't you think you should slow things down a bit?"

And the scenes where she's pining for him and watching a video montage to a song from the war on terror... kind of cringe-inducing. I guess it's just some video that gave the author the feels and he felt he needed to work it in. He should have reconsidered.

By the way, spoiler alert, though not by any means a big one, he asks her to marry him when he gets back and she says yes.

*SIGH*

Also, the dig against France at the end there was completely unnecessary and historically innacurate. It was just the authors feelings on the subject being thrown in ham-fisted.

But like I said, it was an entertaining bit of sci-fi fluff overall. I'm just the kind of guy who loves to nit-pick.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Much better

While Through the Looking Glass is still the best of this series by far, the third installment has already surpassed book two. Thank the gods the idiotic "alien swear words" issue has been throttled back (by a lot). IMO, still too much fucking stupid "we're swearing but we're not using words that censors will freak out about and we can claim they are alien in origin or from an alternate timeline" BS. FFS, just fucking swear already.

This story is more engaging that in book two, I feel. Still a lot of hand waving science wise, but enjoyable all the same. My suspension of disbelief was eminently satisfying.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good Continuation

As good as th first book in this series. Will be happy to read more.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Xb
  • 07-16-23

More Action Packed

A vast improvement over the previous 2 books. This one was packed with action in the second half.

Like the others it started slow, but the quantum physics technobabble was far more subdued in this one.

Like many other reviewers, my main complaint is the love story. It was cringey, fast, and shallow.

Also, as other reviews have stated, he tends to drop stories and characters for seemingly no reason. What happened to Mimi and her alien/angel friend from the last book? Or what about the Philippino dude for the first half of the book?

Either way, a much better effort. I'm looking forward to the last book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Muuuuuch better than book 2

Better pacing, tighter story, and technical details kept to reasonable levels. Significant improvements that motivate one to continue the series

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the Best Sci-Fi book series....

I have always loved this series. I just wish John Ringo would continue it past book 4. If i had a complaint there would just be one, the made up sci-fi cuss word?!?!?!? Oh well.

Farscape had it, Battlestar Galactica had it.... why not the Looking Glass Series lol.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it.

I love the book. can't wait for more. will upload the next today.

the vorpal blade goes forth to quick more dreen butt. two gun is two gun and blows large holes in aliens. weaver keeps coming up with great ideals

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