Strands of Sorrow-John Ringo

Strands of Sorrow

John Ringo

Baen, Jan 6 2015, $25.00

ISBN 9781476736952

Having developed a vaccine, begun mass production, and inoculated the fleet; US Wolf Squadron chief Steven John Smith changes the mission emphasis from island hopping to a North American land invasion to take control of the continent from the insane diseased.  The deployment initially focuses on finding survivors on military bases in order to increase the trained warfighting force.  As such Chief of the Pacific Fleet Commodore Montana leads his ships in the San Diego area where he encounters unexpected obstacles like an active unmanned reactor.

However, as military personnel are liberated, the transition of bringing them into the zombie-fighting force leads to conflict between the pre-apocalypse and the new order.  Few if any career soldier or sailor accepts orders from teenage girls even if they are Commander Smith’s commissioned officer daughters and elite experienced anti-zombie warriors.  This political in-fighting slows down the efforts to take back America and if not resolved may end the world’s last hope.

The fourth Black Tide Rising apocalypse thriller (see Islands of Rage and Hope, To Sail a Darkling Sea and Under a Graveyard Sky) is an engaging military tale especially made fresh by John Ringo satirizing the internal war between old and new Navy.  Although over the top as the first daughters have become the equivalent of DC comics Wonder Girl, series fans will appreciate the Smith family and associates efforts to take back the United States.

Harriet Klausner