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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781416555216
ISBN number: 1416555218
Label: Baen
Manufacturer: Baen
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: February 05, 2008
Publishing house: Baen
Sale Popularity Level: 15573
Studio: Baen
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In the midst of recovering from their successful if casualty prone very first mission, the crew of the Alliance Space Ship Vorpal Blade are suddenly scrambled back into action. All other priorities take second place as word arrives on earth of a gate colony which has fallen to an unidentified alien assault. As the only space ship currently available to the Human-Adar Alliance, the Vorpal Blade is dispatched to find out what happened to the colony, rescue any survivors and learn the identity of the attackers.
With new complexities added to the universe started in the novel Into the Looking Glass and continued in Vorpal Blade, Manxome Foe continues the tradition of non-stop action, valorous if quirky characters and rigorous science drawn from the frontiers of current theory. The odd-ball crew of the Vorpal Blade is an unlikely savior of earth, but none dare say they quail at engaging the Manxome Foe.
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Rated by buyers 
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I have enjoyed the series and read the last book in one night!! paid for it the subsequent day, but worth it. Looking forward to the subsequent book in the series.
Rated by buyers -
Manxome Foe (2008) is the third SF novel in the William Weaver series, following The Vorpal Blade. In the previous volume, the converted submarine flitted around exploring various planets with little luck and numerous casualties. Then they reached the forested moon of Endor. There the crew were attacked by various types of demons, including spacefaring dragonflies with laser emitting eyes.
The Vorpal Blade crew also found nonhostile sapient aliens who looked like oversized chinchillas. The locals were also being attacked by the demons and asked for assistance from the crew. Eventually, the locals -- with a little help from Mimi -- saved themselves and the humans from the demons.
In this novel, William Weaver is enjoying a little vacation after the refitting of the Vorpal Blade when he is recalled for an emergency meeting in Norfolk. A scientific expedition had been sent to an interstellar planet via a Looking Glass Boson gate. Apparently the base had been attacked with kinetic missiles.
A major explosion had been detected from Earthside and a response team dispatched to the site. The team found the base destroyed, but did not find any living thing -- human or alien -- on the other side. As usual in a Dreen attack, even the bodies were missing. The gate was then destabilized with a small nuke and moved to the Antarctic secure area.
The Vorpal Blade is being sent to conduct a more thorough investigation of the incident. Unfortunately, the warpship will take up to thirty days to cover the five hundred and fourteen lightyears to the planet. All personnel are recalled and the ship is secured for takeoff.
In this story, the lost crewmembers have been replaced with more of the same type. William Weaver is still the Astrogator on the Vorpal Blade. He is also the science officer and general font of information on spatial affairs. Captain Blankemeier -- Spectre -- remains in command, but a new Executive Officer and Commander of Space Marines have been added. Other crewmembers have been replaced and several have been promoted.
Only five marines survived the very first voyage. Eric Bergstresser is now a Sargeant and has received the Navy Cross. Two Guns has become a legend among the Space Marines.
Berg also has a new girlfriend. She knows about the casualty rate on the very first voyage and is concerned for his safety. He is reluctant to become involved with anyone because of his risky profession, but what can one do when true love hits?
Since the mission doesn't involve spatial exploration like the very first voyage, the scientific team is left behind. Only the Special Forces team and Miriam Moon -- the linguist -- are going along. The outward flight is very boring to Mimi, so she wrangles herself into the maintenance crew, doing low priority repairs. The crew already had a high opinion of her talents, but these newly demonstrated capabilities won their hearts and souls.
The nonmaterial hitchhiker in the waste-heat system finds a new home on the outward trip. During a chill cycle, it detects the mind of Mimi and moves into her brain. She starts hearing a voice in her head, but works harder to distract herself. Then it starts making sense.
This tale takes the Vorpal Blade to the destroyed camp, where they find one survivor. Then they begin looking for the attacker. In their investigations, they come upon evidence of a spacebattle and three stranded alien survivors. They also find the remains of Dreen ships.
The previous novel was a story of space exploration, but this story is more space opera with a hard SF background. The Vorpal Blade crew finds their ship to have definite deficiencies in their battles with the Dreen foe. Fortunately, the friendly aliens have some equipment which increases their effectiveness.
The subsequent volume in this series is Claws That Catch. Enjoy!
Highly recommended for Ringo & Taylour fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of space battles, alien contact, and a touch of romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Rated by buyers 
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This book, like its predecessors, is an utterly ridiculous space blast-em-up with aliens, spaceships, power armour suits, and a thin veneer of science to make it seem like you're learning something in the process.
It's still an entertaining read though. The action is good, the dialog is snappy, and the ideas are novel enough that the book isn't as predictable as some in the genre.
Thing I didn't like were the not-swear-words in the book, the wholesale importation of characters and language from other series ("Shiny!", from Firefly, and Portana, from the "Down to the Sea" series"), mainly because they were obvious nods to fandom.
The way the book ended on an anti-French note, of all things, after cool action sequences was just jarring. The crew of the Blade informing the President of the US that the French aren't allowed to defend the planet, because, they're, well, French, was ridiculous. Chinese? Ok. Russians? Sure! French? Hell no! They aren't allowed to contribute to the defense of the planet and help prevent the extinction of Humanity! (Except the French Foreign Legion!).
David Weber's Armageddon Inheritance did an excellent job of presenting a fairly reasonable and interesting look at the gearing up of Earth to fight alien invaders to-the-death, without falling back into right-wing hyperbole. I've read more than a few rah-rah-America technothrillers in the past, but there's a line at where it becomes just silly and detracts from the book, and this book managed to just cross that line at the end.
Rated by buyers -
The crew of the Vorpal Blade has barely returned from their dangerous and challenging very first mission before they are called back into action in "Manxome Foe". When word reaches Earth that a gate colony has been destroyed, investigation soon shows not one threat but many. The Marines and sailors of the Vorpal Blade find themselves on an impossible mission to stop a dangerous Dreen enemy in this exciting, involving military fantasy, recommended as a top pick for any lending library where military science fiction is popular.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Rated by buyers -
Well, the author pretty much put his foot in his mouth in his wrap up chapter in the previous book. He basically stated "The heck with critics. I'm going to teach physics!!!" That did not last long, or work out well. Hard SciFi is great - but not over the top. This book treats the physics and science as it should be - part of the story, not damn boring lectures. The action was much improved, the pace was faster, and overall this was a much better book. Miriam Moon in getting interesting, interesting, interesting - and hot.
The title of the book "Manxome Foe" - like Vorpal and Looking Glass, is right out of Lewis Carroll...
"Jabberwocky"
"He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought..."
It's also unusual for so many hard cover titles to come out in such a short time for the same series - that's what comes from jobbing it out, and the publisher having confidence in the books.
Great SciFi, decent writing, another interesting plot, and a new alien race.
One part of the book that was really, really poorly thought out was the final page. I won't spoil it. My analogy (from memory) was from "Fail Safe." Two airmen are in the computer room when a circuit fries. One of the guys smells the burning electronics and comments on it. The other twit basically answers that it's him burning up because he's mad. No followup, nothing. Why have all that security, checking, testing, etc., just to totally ignore the results? "Fail Safe" really FAILED on that point, and the book does as well.
The two well known characters that are missing from this book, well, have no place in this book. Come on, they hardly had a place in the previous book!
The final battle in this book - a page turner!!
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