March to the Sea

At two thirds of the way through the book, I can honestly say, I'm not drawn to this series. Mr Weber is a fantastic writer that I've managed to absorb to this point. I can't find a reason to LIKE any of these characters, and in fact I feel like I need a spreadsheet or organizational chart just to track who is who. Character are referred to by three different names and I can't always tell who is who. This book needed about four more drafts to be ready, in my opinion. If this is exemplar of John Ringo's style of writing, I'll stick with other writers, thanks.

Okay, love Weber, tolerate Ringo alongside Weber, but not by himself. I read the first book in this series recently and thought it was decent. Not as good as the Honor Harrington or Safehold series,' or even the Weber/Evans Multiverse series, but it was okay. I think I gave the book a generous four stars. It had some good places and dragged in some other places. While browsing in a bookstore recently, I saw the fourth book in the series and read the synopsis and it sounded pretty cool, so that meant I'd have to get the second and third books. Yesterday I saw the second book, this one, in the bookstore, so I bought it. And started reading it. But I've got to tell ya, I didn't get very far. For reasons I can't fully fathom, I'm just not show more as into this series as I am others. It doesn't pull me in, doesn't intrigue me enough. Sure, there's action. Maybe there's too much! In the first book, after all, 75 Marines slaughtered 18,000 alien warriors in a battle. That's friggin' ridiculous. I've read it's even more ridiculous in this book. The biggest literary battle slaughter of all time. And for no good reason. Stupid, it seems to me. And I really don't care about Prince Roger. Some of the Marines are interesting, but most of them get killed off so quickly, you don't have time to get to know them. And it takes three 700 page books for some 50 or 60 humans to walk halfway across a planet to a certain city? Three? Really? This couldn't have been done in one, or at most, two books? Hey Weber -- why not turn this into Safehold and make it into a 40 book series with everyone battling everyone else in one country for eternity? Yeah, that's the ticket! I'm not reading this book, more than I have, just because it seems, even with all of the fighting that becomes a little redundant after awhile, BORING. It's just not that great of a series. The concept isn't that great. It's not Honor. It's not Safehold. It's not even the Multiverse. It's pretty weak. I don't care about these people and I certainly don't want to read three 700 page books to see them slog halfway across an alien world when that could actually have been taken care of in half a book, or perhaps even a chapter, by other writers. I'd rather invest my time and energy in other, more interesting, books. Perhaps some Asimov. Perhaps some decent military sci fi by Chris Bunch. Surely I have many other books better than this. I know there are a lot of people out there who like this book and this series. After all, it has an awfully high rating on Goodreads. It's just not for me. Sorry. Recommended for most Weber or Ringo fans. For most mainstream sci fi fans, I'd say avoid it -- there's better stuff out there. show less

An old favorite revisited. I do enjoy watching Prince Roger grow up. This one is from leaving Marshad to solving K'Vaern's Cove's problem with _that_ lot of barbarians. The tech gets a lot higher - up to gunpowder, which leads to flintlock pistols and rifles, and to rockets, and to a lot more destruction - of places, and people. The scenes of destruction get...not more gory, exactly, but bigger. 15,000 Boman at Voitan, in the first book; some 50,000 Kranolta here - but a very similar bloodbath. And not all the dead are bad guys. Among others, Roger loses someone very important to him - possibly more important than anyone, including Roger, realized until he was gone. It does lead to some advancement with Despreaux, though. We also get a show more lot more information and personality from Mardukans - Rastar and Honal, and Krindi Fain, in particular. I also enjoy (though not with complete understanding) Poertena's sailing talk. I know a bit about ships - enough to have at least a vague clue what he's talking about. Oh, and the coll fish poison is interesting. And - yeah. There's a lot of good bits in here. show less

Weber, David, and John Ringo. March to the Sea. Empire of Man No. 2. Baen, 2001.
In the second volume of the Empire of Man series, the Empress’ Own troops continue their trek across the hostile planet on which they are marooned. They pick up a few allies, learn to use native weapons, ride the dinosaur-like local beasts, and slowly educate their promising but spoiled prince. The emphasis is on military character and planetary adventure. Is it longer than it needs to be? Sure. But as in Moby Dick, it is not catching the whale that matters but enjoying the hunt. 4 stars.

A very entertaining military sci-fi. I was throughly sucked in into this continuation of the Empres's Own story. Great battles, a fantastic motif of representatives of advanced civilization teaching the less developed Mardukans new, deadly, technologies and more. It is not a book with in-depth characters or gripping dialogue. But if you like military stories, old fashioned martial ideals of camaraderie and role of military as a guard against barbarianism, then my friend - you are for a treat!

In "March to the Sea" we rejoin Prince Roger MaClintock and the Emperors Own as they struggle across the harsh planet of Marduk. Just like in "March Upcountry" you'll find lots of hilarious moments mixed in with the battles and struggles to survive! There's even some new crazy beasties to make things interesting.

I will admit though that I didn't like this book as much as the first one in the series. They get too bogged down in the details of weapon development and battle strategy. I ended skimming sections to get to the good stuff. However, I have it on good authority that this is the worst book in the series and book 3 is just as good if not better than book 1! So if you read my review on March Upcountry and were considering picking up show more the series, don't despair, it's still worth it!

One thing that was done really well in this book is the character development. Prince Roger continues to grow as both an individual and a leader. There are new developments in the romantic tension between Roger and Despraux. We also learn a lot more about Palmer, a deep character with a heavy load as he tries to balance protecting the Prince, and letting the Prince have enough freedom that he can be effective! After all, Prince Roger is the best shot of them all. show less

I wish I didn't read this out-of-series. I was sort of confused as to who some of the characters were and exactly why they were stranded on a planet. I didn't notice this was part of a series until later. So, *do not* read out of order. I just finished March Upcountry and things are just starting to make sense to me.

That being said, this was a fun and light read. I can't stop saying "modderpocker" like Poertena, and I can't stop laughing at Julian's antics. And I love how Roger finally grew up, which again only made sense after reading the book in order. It's also nice to see the introduction of the Mardukans finally playing a significant part, especially with the more developed weaponry being introduced to the Mardukans and culture show more differences between the Mardukans themselves and between them and the humans - March Upcountry was pretty lacking in that regard, although I suppose that was to explain the situation that March to the Sea couldn't.

Now, unlike the past two reviewers who think this isn't a good representative of Weber or Ringo's writing, well I can't say. This is honestly my first time reading either one and I don't consider this book a waste of my time. It was more military-heavy than I would have liked, but keeping track of characters wasn't too difficult. show less