Side Stories

John Ringo and Tom Kratman: Watch on the Rhine (Baen Books; August 2005; ISBN 978-0-7434-9918-7; cover by Kurt Miller).

John Ringo and Tom Kratman: Yellow Eyes (Baen Books; April 2007; ISBN 978-1-4165-2103-7; cover by Stephen Hickman).

After finishing up John Ringo's Gust Front, I had a choice in how to proceed with Posleen tales. Go on to the next solo effort, When the Devil Dances or branch off into these collaborative efforts? I decided to try these two, as in terms of chronology, they take place before When the Devil Dances, even though they were written later.

Collaborative? I should clarify. While there are two names on the jacket, John Ringo makes it clear in this episode of the podcast Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing that the books are primarily Tom Kratman's efforts. Ringo is a one-man publishing empire on his own; he had to farm out some of the side stories of the Posleen war and has done so with Tom Kratman and with Julie Cochrane (who has been the primary writer on three books dealing with a minor character from one of the Ringo solo efforts). Ringo maintains control, adds ends and odds, but most of the work here is Kratman (or Cochrane, with those books).

On to the books! Both concern the early days of the Posleen conflict and both are set on Earth. The focus of Ringo's two earlier works in the series (if you go by chronology) were the United States and offworld, these take place (respectively) in Europe (primarily German) and Central and South America (primarily Panama). (Interestingly, I am aware of two unpublished works that show the invasion in the Middle East and in England; hopefully these see the light of day sometime).

Watch on the Rhine is the weaker of the two efforts in several ways. In notes for the book, Ringo and Kratman talk about how the book grew out what was to be a collection of short stories by other author's set in the universe, and at one point the book was paired with another story dealing with Japan, the Philippine Islands and the Posleen. The book feels like a expanded short story; some areas that would receive loving detail in a Ringo solo work are hurried through. The writing was weaker (when compared to Yellow Eyes). I also found it hard to deal with the characters.

Yes, you've heard it before...the book deals with rejuvenated Waffen SS tankers fighting the Posleen in Germany. The subject of endless debate at some of the online discussion groups, the decision to use that as subject matter certainly drew attention to the book. I had less difficulty with that, than it took quite a while to find one sympathetic character and one very unsympathetic character just was never drawn well enough to make him interesting.

It's also a pretty depressing book. Sure, millions are saved...but just about every character dies (some pretty horrible deaths) and being a "middle tale" of an extended series, we dont' really come to any resolution.

On to Yellow Eyes! This entry into the chronology concentrates on the strategic assets of the Panama Canal. Knowing that this will be vital to keep the United States going during the long invasion, it is reinforced both with troops (an already stretched resource) and equipment. Naturally, the double-crossing aliens that are "helping" us are trying to keep things from going too well; while this is explored somewhat in Watch on the Rhine, it is drawn up in more detail in this tale. Information on what happens in much of South and Central America is outlined; most of the action takes place in a relatively small area in and around Panama.

The book shows how Kratman grew as an author in between the time he wrote his first entry in the series and this volume. The character's are more detailed, and there are more sympathetic characters you can "hook" onto. People still die horribly, but there are some glimmers of hope as well. And, there is one long-running sequence involving one Posleen in particular. That poor bastard...

Both books end with epilogues set downstream from these books and hint at what is to come. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with the later books, especially the next Ringo solo effort and the next Ringo-Kratman collaborative effort later this year (there is already a Ringo-Cochrane collaborative effort out and waiting for me on Mount Toberead).

Yellow Eyes is the better of the two; Watch on the Rhine was a good read (and a fast read), but suffered from being an earlier work.