Vorpal Blade-John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor

Vorpal Blade
John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor
Baen, Sep 2007, $25.00
ISBN 9781416521297

Several years have passed since the quantum physics experiment at the University of Central Florida destroyed the area and opened a gateway into other dimensions that allowed the Dreen to invade the earth. Only physicist Dr. William Weaver and Navy SEAL Command Master Chief Robert Miller with rednecks and some real army prevented the deadly Dreen from annihilating the planet (see INTO THE LOOKING GLASS).

Doc Weaver places a captured alien star drive onto a nuclear submarine creating earth’s first starship, the VORPAL BLADE. Captain Steven Blankemeier and Commander Clay White are to head an exploratory expedition into worlds devastated by the Dreen in order to learn more about this malevolent species and the so called other interstellar races who came to the earth prepared to destroy it once the planet was Dreen contaminated; the theory is basic human instinct to know all you can in this case about the dreaded demons before they and the “friendly” benign others return.

Combining quantum physics with MacGyver ingenuity in space, the sequel to INTO THE LOOKING GLASS, VORPAL BLADE is an exciting military science fiction thriller that never slows down for a nanosecond; as the action-packed story line is faster than the alien engine can propel a craft through space. Although the vernacular of the kick butt military during the zillion battle scenes reminds this reviewer of my late mother-in-law’s use of profanity when she cut a finger or stubbed a toe (“your father’s mustache”), readers will go where mankind has never gone before with the prime directive to interfere in order to prepare for the anticipated return engagement.

Harriet Klausner