Emerald Sea

Council Wars, Book 2

By: John Ringo

Narrated by: Tim Fannon

Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

The fast-paced sequel to There Will be Dragons is a rollicking adventure above and below the high seas with dragons, orcas, beautiful mermaids - and the irrepressible Bast the Wood Elf, a cross between Legolas and Mae West.

Duke Edmund Talbot has been assigned a simple mission: Go to the Southern Isles and make contact with the scattered mer-folk-those who, before the worldwide collapse of technology, had altered their bodies in the shape of mythical sea-dwelling creatures. He must convince them to side with the Freedom Coalition in the battles against the fascist dictators of New Destiny. Just a simple diplomatic mission. That requires the service of a dragon-carrier and Lieutenant Herzer Herrick, the most blooded of the Blood Lords. Because New Destiny has plans of its own.

©2013 John Ringo (P)2020 Recorded Books, Inc.

pretty impressed

I'm an avid audiobook listener and this is one of the best fantasy books I've heard. It's a far future version of world and everything is gone crashing down. Herzer is a great noble hero with a past. Duke Edmund is brilliant. Other characters are great too. And the bonus story at the end is more than icing on the cake.

Author gets lost in the weeds a lot.

I like the overall story but the author sounds an inordinate amount of time explaining minutiae.
At some point even the characters are probably tired of hearing all the details about what they are doing.

good stuff

great book its got a good story,good characters, good development, wanna hear more about megan

One of Ringo's best I think

I've read the dead tree versions, loved them. I like the audiobook but this narrarator needs a LOT of work with pronunciation and storytelling. Obviously the editorial team was napping the whole time to let all the mistakes go uncorrected.

Megan's Story at the end is the best part

The overall story was good, I still liked it but (like I said in the review for the first one) it simply lacks a certain Je ne sais quoi. Otherwise it could be one of my truly great favorites. I felt like the Joel story was entirely redundant. He adds nothing to the story that we don't find out from other people. If he doesn't play a significant role in further books he would have been an utter waste of time.

Megan's Story at the end of this book was honestly the best part. It has the sex the rest of the book is missing but also a very compelling story line. I'm hoping the last two books have it in them somehow as she is a brilliant and captivating character. It's the reason the story was a 5 and not a 4.

Would Recommend With Warnings

I could definitely do without Megan's story and the consumption of one's enemies. There was a lot distasteful in this book and I don't think it's just me. The author writes villains very well and makes you not want to live in the world he's written about. The world has a very unique foundation and the story is not predictable, so I would recommend it to people whom it wouldn't disturb. Be forewarned this contains sex trafficking and Worse.

Excellent escape

Like most John Ringo books, this one has exceptional detail in characters and background. The world building is so interesting. Not a lot of action but a great amount of political intrigue. Fun listen. I am not a fan of the unnecessary underage girl in the public bath scene or the harem post story. But I'm a pit of a prude.

gritty but intriguing

there's a lot of fuel for the imagination in these stories. I keep finding myself wondering if it will turn out to be a cyclical story like BSG. All this has happened before and will happen again kind of thing. it's a very good premise to explain dragons, elves, orcs and the like. I think the Sci fi/apocalypse/fantasy mix with Renaissance reenactors turning out to save civilization was a very interesting approach.

I got annoyed at reviews of the previous book because some were having melt downs over there being rape in the story. I mean, in dark times dark things tend to happen. Having said that, this book turned out to push my boundaries too. I've never felt that good stories require sex of any kind. I dropped altered carbon right away because that's about all it was. this one was difficult to get through for the same reason. if there has to be stuff like that for the story, I'd certainly prefer it to be referenced and glossed over rather than detailed descriptions. The last third or so of this book, while I suppose it was realistic as well, was uncomfortable.

Some authors will change location and characters with a new paragraph without any notice and completely lose the listener. happens to me all the time. this author does a lot of that but in such a way that I didn't get lost once. some of that is the narrator who did a fine job. I think it was mostly that the story was intriguing enough that my mind didn't wander even for a second.

I won't quibble about some characters being very close to unrealistically over powered because there was reason or one side being unbelievably lucky because the despots were kind of stupid. I'll just say that it was enjoyable until the Meghan part near the end. then I discovered the story crossed boundaries I didn't really want to follow it past. I probably won't finish the trilogy because I'm apparently too sensitive and it seems to be heading into more of the kind of thing that I find uncomfortable and mostly unnecessary. However, if you aren't bothered by that and many won't be, this is a good story. You should go for it.

Keeps you listening

At first I listened to help me fall asleep
Then while walking my dogs
Then while working in the yard or around the house
Then while driving
Need I say more?

captivating

It's so cool how the characters are evolving and I think I absolutely Love the slow development. The fights are unique bc they can not use explosives, people get hurt all the time. Stockholm's is no joke. For the inspectors daughter, keeping her witts about her after 6 months is really difficult