Book Review: Watch on the Rhine by John Ringo and Tom Kratman

Watch on the Rhine (Die Wacht am Rhein) by Tom Kratman and John Ringo
Genre: Military Science Fiction
Bob's Thoughts "A Spin off of Ringo's Posleen War Series meant to shock. Lot's of bloody, alien slaughtering action with moral and political overtones."
Grade: C
Available at your local bookseller
100 Books 100 Posts: #2 (2/98)

Get an overview, and sample chapters at John Ring's Website.

Watch on the Rhine is listed as the 7th book of the Posleen War Saga, or Legacy of Aldenata. I read Ringo's first four books of this series about an invasion of genetically altered aliens whose job it is basically eat up humanity, and the "help" we receive from manipulative members of a Galactic Federation who give us all this cool technology, as long as we are willing to die for them. The first four books were entertaining. This is the first of the co-authored books expanding the series I have read. While not up to the standards of the original, the books are decent enough, if you like shoot em' up military science fiction, complete with cunning yet outnumbered humans, and some upgraded hardware.

The twist in this novel, is that the humans that are cunningly attempting to save humanity are Nazis. You see, one of the little gifts we received from our manipulative alien allies is the ability to "rejuvenate" old soldiers. So, henceforth, Germany, with it's back to the wall, decided to take the controversial step of rejuvenation some of it's greatest military minds, living members of the Waffen SS, the elite Nazi military branch. While meant to shock us, the authors quickly remind us that most of those who were responsible for some of the greatest atrocities in human history, were dead.

So, what we are left with in the end, are a few flawed men, who were Nazi's and one despicable Nazi. One character (a rejuvenated Nazi) explains that there were 3 types of Germans, those who truly didn't know, and were innocent, those who actively involved in the slaughter and who were damned, and those who knew, weren't actively involved, but did nothing to stop it, who were even more damned then the second group.

If the authors intended to shock you, well, I don't think it worked very well. I can accept that there were some members of the Waffen SS who weren't totally evil. Yet, I have trouble thinking of them in any sympathetic light.

There has been lots of talk about how the author's extremely conservative political ideals taint their work. Personally, it never bothered me in Ringo's first four books, because it didn't bleed into the words. Here, Kratman's characters become cartoon liberals, including one environmentalist, political advisor who believed that the war was the perfect way to solve the human's overpopulation of this planet. The character was so patently stereotypically liberal, he seemed like a joke. If this book was a satire, then, it would have added a humorous element, but the cartoon caricatures didn't mesh well with the serious tones of the book.

All in all, I didn't hate the book. It's an OK, spinoff of the world. I even find the idea intriguing, but I think the execution of it needed some work.