Rating: 
Summary: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing...
Review: I'm really only reviewing content in chapter 26. In this chapter, Mr. Ringo gives enough information to make a horse sick or die. In this chapter, the protagonist sets out on an all day ride to learn techniques of herding other animals. The horses are pushed hard frequently cantering. At rides' end the riders play a modified game of polo, which also works the horses hard. At some point, fresh horses are supplied and the riders continue on their merry way learning more riding techniques-without learning how to take care of their mounts. It would be easy for Mr. Ringo to state that the techniques used to care for a horse are no longer necessary because of gene modification. But he can't say that because one of the first things he states is that the gene pools for horses haven't been modified: Cross-breeding, yes, gene modification, no. Thus all the frailties a horse has still exist in this time-frame. At the end of this training day, the riders are encouraged to ride their horses down to the baths (to get even more riding experience) and get cleaned up. Meanwhile, the protagonist's horse is staked out to graze while his rider bathes.
First of all, if you ride hard, you must balance the workout with an equal amount of cooling off period-even humans today are trained to do that in their own workouts. A cooling off period means that the horse is walked until dry and certainly is not given access to food. Otherwise, the horse is in danger of foundering, which can kill a horse-especially in a society that doesn't have access to veterinary tools and medicines. Also, last we knew the horse was bridled, and not equipped with a hackamore. Grass can catch in a bridle and cause a horse to choke; horses can't throw up and so would suffocate.
Second, you never take care of yourself first. You always take care of your mount currying, brushing, and feeding (after cooling off) before you take care of yourself. Learning to ride in a virtual game doesn't train your muscles. Most of riding is training your muscles to move in different ways to give signals to your horse. This cannot be accomplished in a few rides. It takes training and time. Horses are not easy to ride; especially horses whose spirits haven't been "broken." When being ridden, horses are constantly thinking and making decisions based on their observance of the territory around them and their confidence in the rider's decisions. Some horses feel responsible for the safety of their riders and are on the alert throughout the ride. This can make it more difficult for the rider to stay on the horse's back because a tense horse causes a jagged ride.
This lack in the content about horses and riding is in contrast with the details Mr. Ringo adds to the content. For example, the horse owner, Kane, suggests that the protagonist, Herzer, saddle his own horse. Herzer hesitantly states that he doesn't know how, so Kane tells Herzer to watch so he can saddle his horse the next time. It's unlikely that watching without training is likely to teach a new rider how to handle a saddle. I'm not suggesting that Mr. Ringo describe how to saddle a horse properly. I am suggesting that he add a few sentences something like this:
[Kane called Herzer over to where he was about to saddle his horse. "I'll show you some techniques to saddling a horse that are true regardless of which riding technique you use." Herzer brought Diablo and the saddle over to Kane and imitated the steps Kane went through in saddling his horse.]
Little things like mentioning a "hackamore" and other details are too defined for the lack of description about riding and caring for horses. Again, a few little sentences here and there would not give the reader the wrong impression of horses. For example:
[Kane stopped about halfway through the day. "Ok folks, an important rule about horseback riding is taking care of your horse. We've ridden hard today. You never take a horse back to his stall lathered or wet or breathing hard. When the day is done, walk your horse home, never let him run. If he's still not dry, take the saddle and blanket off, cover him with a light horse blanket and walk him till he's dry. And never feed him till he's cooled off and dry."]
Those two little paragraphs teach the reader respect for the being that becomes a partner in your job.
Rating: 
Summary: Yeech--You coulda done better!
Review: I've read other stuff by this author and liked it--especially the "March To..." series. But this was deadly. Deadly dull, deadly slow, deadly stupid. The heroes were almost too dumb to live--just couldn't figure stuff out even tho' it practically BIT them on the ass. The dialogue was stiff; the characters were 2-dimensional; there were several unneccessary scenes that slowed the action; BACK-story IN the story and missing explanations! And the dragons of the title still hadn't appeared by page 411 when I quit reading in disgust. Yeech! Ringo needs a much better editor--or SOMEone to tell him the facts of "story."
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting Fantasy/Sci Fi mix
Review: It's not often I read a book where the author mixes low-tech fantasy with high-tech science fiction and makes it interesting. But John Ringo does a darn good job of it in this book. He takes a future Utopia, where all the work anyone has to do is say "Genie, another beer", and asks the age old question, "What is the worst thing I can do to these characters short of killing them?"The result is a high-tech war between feuding Council members using Clarkian level technology (indistinquishable from magic), while the rest of the world is suddenly denied the energy net that provides just about everything in their lives, and has to fight a low-tech war with nothing more advanced than cold steel, just to survive. I highly recommend this book to any fans of sword-and-sorcery fantasy, as well as anyone else who likes Baen's style of books.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful
Review: John Ringo has figured out how to combine many of the strengths of SF and "High Fantasy" credibly. I found the story interesting and often moving, and the details of how the inhabitants of the nanotech utopia respond to the "Fall" fascinating. All in all, a delightful romp with underlying streaks of seriousness.
Rating:
Summary: What if the power went off, permanently?
Review: John Ringo's latest, There Will Be Dragons, is an amazing crossover between science fiction and fantasy. What if you have a world so advanced that people can choose to be giants, dwarves, or dolphins? What if there are genetically engineered elves as super soldiers? Hardly anybody needs to work because there is plenty of power for all? What if somebody decides that this world is full of weakness, and brings it all down to force people to be strong? Who would know how to survive without technology? Only the reenactors have the skills for this world, and with the fall of civilization comes the horde of barbarians... Will the good guys be ready?
Rating:
Summary: A Swashbuckling Good Read
Review: John's in his usual good form, and for a change most of the bodies are offstage! The action in this book _really_ starts after the Fall, in my opinion, but the stage-setting which goes on beforehand, in the Utopia, is riveting in its own way. I'm partial to the book because of being Tuckerized (my name included as a fictional persona) in the book -- see pages 272-275 of the first hardcover edition! -- but there are bold heroes/heroines and dastardly villains, noble sacrifices and dark deeds, villains doing murderous deeds from noble motives (and others doing murder from base motives), courageous and craven people, wise men/women and fools galore. If you love a story painted in bold and clashing colors, this is the place to come -- there's no Hamlet in this story, no anguishing about the "right thing to do" while the whole cast dies around him. For a free sample of this book, see: http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200311/0743471644.htm?blurb --Phil Sevetson, worker bee in Raven's Mill
Rating:
Summary: His best book yet
Review: More of a Fantasy then his previous Mil/Sci-fi, but still full of action. In the far future, humans through genetic engineering can change into whatever they chose to be, meripeople, werepeople, unicorns, etc. Live where and how they wish, travel by teleports, food is delivered, live by virtual reality. There is a ruling council that governs and "mother" watches over earth. A Utopia if you will. A difference of opinion on the council heats up over what it is to be human and war breaks out. War in the 42nd Century is not exactly what it is in the 21st Century and it disrupts the world's power base and plunges them back into the technological base of the medieval times. Its a story of how in the future humans deal with survival, when all they've known is everything handed to them, but the few who know to work and provide for themselves - the reenactors who held renaissance fairs, must teach the others. They also must prepare to defend themselves from bandits. A story of fantasy, sci-fi, survival and good vs. evil rolled into one. This is one of those books you find yourself unable to put down until you finish it and then counting the days until the next one comes out.
Rating:
Summary: Simply amazing
Review: My idea of Television is reading multiple books at the same time. Its just like being a regular viewer of television. You read a few chapters, put that book down and pick up the next.
I was planning to do this yesterday. I had the whole day to myself and looked forward to the books I was enjoying. Until I picked up There Will Be Dragons.
I couldn't put it down. Of course I finished it yesterday and now I'm upset because I can't have more.
By the way; that only happened one other time this year. The name of that book was "A hymn before battle."
John Ringo is one hell of an author. The cover of There Will Be Dragons would make one believe that it was a fantasy story. That is not the case. It is purely Sci-Fi in its finest form. The story is set in the 40th century(?) where people have advanced to the point in which they can change their form to be anything from the most beautiful human imaginable to a unicorn.
The book begins with society being nearly euphoric. Then because of political infighting, control of the energy which sustains that euphoria is subverted and all of society reverts to a preindustrialized level.
The plot builds quickly and the momentum never stops. I dare you to pick this book up. You can't put it down.
Rating: 
Summary: Badly Staged Setup From The Beginning
Review: Ringo ends this book with his heroes battling bandits, but the entire book is a kind of robbery. First come the opening setting, a couple thousand years uptime, a paradise with virtually unlimited energy and computing power available, teleportation, and nanotechnology to build or change anything on command. Then he pulls the rug out from everything with a ludicrous "war" between ruling council members. The entire population is dropped into fourteenth century technology, except for said council members who still have all their techno-magical means. Firearms aren't allowed due to a lame excuse he has, but elves, dwarves, orcs, dragons and unicorns are provided on an equally lame basis. Even Sluggy Freelance gets dragged in! The characters are shallow, and the plot is nothing more than a series of little episodes. Some of the main characters don't even rise to the level of being "shallow". Finally everything culminates in a battle that is so baldly staged and manipulated for the author's convenience that its offensive to the reader.
If you want a sword and sorcery tale, pick one that is at least honest with itself.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Start
Review: The book is an interesting beginning to a series that bridges the gap between Science Fiction and Fantasy. The future of the Series would seem to be predictable but the way the author attacks the situations will be the telling part. I to have enjoyed the "Posleen" series and the "March To" series and also found that they ran out of steam towards the end. I hope that this does not happen in this series. The series seems to be developing on two tracks, one track with the people displaced by the war (read the Mortals) and the other track with those causing the war (read the Gods), with people who talk with the "Gods" being the leaders of the "Mortals" possible future "Wizards". If the author can keep the action going without being bogged down in detail, like "The March to the Stars" this could be a great series, but I have been burned by the author before.
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