Vorpal Blade is the sequel to Into the Looking Glass and since it is a sequel, first some background.

In that book a science experiment gone wrong generates a 60 kiloton explosion, destroys a chunk of Florida around the University of Central Florida, and opens portals to other worlds. Not surprisingly considering Ringo’s previous books, what came through the portal were really nasty creatures that would like to make our planet theirs without the inconvenience of sharing with us. These are the Dreen.

William Weaver, a genius in multiple fields, is handy and, perhaps the only one capable of understanding what’s happening. He is pulled into the response. Weaver, along with SEAL Chief Miller, manages to close the portal to the hostile world. Non-hostile worlds are also found. One race, the Adar become allies, and givesthe humans a mysterious object, the purpose of which they don’t understand. Weaver discovers that it is capable of destroying solar systems.

Another interesting occurrence at the explosion is the survival of the young girl, Missy Jones. She walks out of the site, the only survivor, accompanied by a spider like creature named Tuffy. Tuffy is now apparently her guardian and mentor. She was taken out of our universe at the time of the explosion. She doesn’t know why and Tuffy isn’t talking.

This brings us to Vorpal Blade.

As it begins we learn that Bill Weaver has wrangled a direct commission into the Navy as a lieutenant commander. The object given to the humans by the Adar is a faster than light drive that has been installed into a submarine which has been made space worthy and is about to leave on its first mission to explore the universe. Weaver decided to join the Navy in order to become part of the mission. Tuffy tells Missy that she and, now retired, Miller must join the mission or it will fail. Since there is some speculation that Tuffy might be God or a representative of God, she and Miller are accepted as crew.

As the submarine, now christened Vorpal Blade, begins its exploration, the focus is mainly on the marines making up the security force, the first ever Space Marines. They go from star system to star system, hoping to find other life and signs of the Dreen threat. By the end of the mission the Space Marines have been blooded and have a better appreciation of what they need to prepare for a potentially hostile universe.

If you haven't read any of John Ring's books, he writes hard military science fiction from the view point of troops at the pointy end. You are guaranteed a lot of action, acts of sacrifice and courage, and a high body count.

Vorpal Blade is an excellent action story but has other features that made it interesting for me. The first battle fought was political; which branch was going to launch the first interstellar mission. The Navy wins over the Air Force, one of the arguments being that the Navy is better equipped to handle long term missions.

Ringo does a good job describing the Marines, particularly the enlisted men. As someone who grew up in a military family and who spent some years as an Army enlisted man, I appreciated that he treated them as intelligent people and not just muscle. There is humor as well as when the Chief of Boat demonstrates his ability to hold his mug of coffee in extreme circumstances in space. In real life, it isn’t unusual to see a senior NCO with a coffee mug apparently permanently attached to one hand. You also get a taste of the graveyard humor prevalent in the military services, something people who have not spent time around the military might find in macabre bad taste.

The authors also get across that a new type of enlisted man will be necessary in the future. A significant part of the book as the marines coming to grips with quantum physics. Some readers might think this takes away from the action but for me it makes an excellent point; with advances in technology we are moving toward a military where even a common soldier will need advanced degrees to operate in combat.