East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The possible conclusion to the postholocaust series The Council War is a rouser in Ringo's best manner. The New Dynasty warlords are bringing in a shipload of fuel that could give them a vital edge; their opponents have planned to hijack it. Unfortunately, the first Team Icarus has been destroyed, and Herzer Herrick and Megan Travante have to improvise a new one. The sequences in which the new team trains show Ringo's military background, and since many of the new recruits are female survivors of New Dynasty harems, motivation isn't a problem. Sex may be a problem for some readers, but Ringo has the rare knack of showing it as tragic, comic, zany, and lustful all at the same time, depending on who's having it and when. The eventual conclusion of the book is one of those page-turning action scenes that are a Ringo specialty. The question remains, Is the bioengineering of the New Dynasty out as well as down? Probably not, since the book's orcs have started thinking for themselves.Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved