Von Neumann's War

By: John Ringo, Travis Taylor

Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey

Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

Mars is changing. Seemingly overnight the once "Red" planet is turning to gray. Something is happening, something unnatural. A team of, literally, rocket scientists figure out a way to send a probe, very fast, to Mars to determine how and why it is changing. However, when the probe is destroyed well short of the formerly red planet, it's apparent that Mars is being used as a staging ground. The only viable target for that staging ground is Earth.

Ranging from rocket design to brilliant paranoids to "in your face" fighting in Iraq, Von Neumann's War is a fast-paced look at what would happen if the earth was attacked by a robot race that, quite accidentally, was bent on destroying civilization.

©2004 John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor (P)2020 Recorded Books

So Surprising!

Wasn't expecting much but this was fantastic! This series will now become a series to binge.

very good story and great performance

Very good story and great performance. This is well worth the listen. Some sequences were a bit long but otherwise every enjoyable.

A Fun Read!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This is one that I know that I will be listening to again. There are so many little details that I really want to go back and check out a second time.

Anticlimactic ending

First, the narration was above average. He had a voice that was easy for me to hear. The story began well for the first few hours. Then it began to get lost in excoriating details, which would have been ok if it had gotten used later in the book.(what happened to Gecko man?) It sounded like they got tired of writing the book after 13 hours and rushed the ending leaving me wondering what just happened. Definitely no sequel needed.

an awesome modern sci-fi military story

they reference star ship troopers in this book, I daresay if you enjoyed that book you'll enjoy this one. having lived and worked in the military then the industrial military complex, I was amazed and impressed on how the authors put it all together in an interesting and enjoyable way. this is the first time I've listened to these authors, but it won't be the last.

It's Good

I like the story; I really do. However, I think it was written for someone who wants a little more technical detail in the stories. There was a lot of needless telling where there could have been showing. While the world is under attack, the focus stays too specific. The climax gets over the hill just a wee too fast. Overall I could listen to it again.

Great reat book, needs a sequel

Great read, but took a star off story for the lack of greater world building. Don't want to post spoilers, so I'll just say that late in the book a development that should have been explored or mentioned more and that had greater implications was very poorly used, mentioned, then forgotten.

Big "However"... it would provide some great hooks for a sequel, so here's hoping

Abrupt end

One really annoying aspect of the book: every male character refers to a woman as either "that blond", "that brunette", "the one with the huge knockers", "honey", and "dear" and the women, who are all either in academia or are engineers of some sort, tolerate or encourage it. If one character does it, then it's on that character. If every character does it, then that reflects on the author. I initially guessed this might have been written in the 80's then a character referenced a Bruce Willis movie and I amended it to the 90's but nope, written in 2008.

Other than that, there isn't much hard science here other than some standard military tech you hear about. Title also spoils the mystery and the science is hand-waved away when it comes to alien tech.

best listening in a long time

This is a great book, absolutely loved it. The story line is great, the narrator was great, wish it didn't end. The book had me laughing at times and cheering at times. I highly recommend this book.

Slow but different

Not the military fiction I was expecting. After a slow but enjoyable "hard" science fiction start the story rush to a somewhat anticlimactic end. I would recommend this to someone looking for alien invasion fiction that avoids the common tropes in favor of sticking with the rather interesting premise it started with. I would not recommend it to someone looking for fast paced adventure.