The Hero

Legacy of the Aldenata

By: John Ringo

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The human was an expert sniper-and a psychopath. He had never failed in the past when he stalked human prey. But now he is on an enemy planet, and his prey is anything but human.

The Darhel are a race with a highly developed empathic sense. Long ago, they learned that they cannot deal death to another intelligent being without being destroyed by the death agonies of their victim. Even though they have been manipulating other species behind the scenes for millennia, including the humans of planet Earth, they cannot bear to kill another being, and depend on other, less sensitive beings, to do their dirty work.

But now one of the Darhel must kill or be killed. And the fate, not only of his own race, but all of humanity, is riding on his survival. The course of the next thousand years will be determined by whether or not he can learn to fight back. If he cannot, it will be too late...for the entire galaxy.

©2004 John Ringo (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

good book. great performance

I understand this book is no longer canon but it's still a good book..I reccomend it.

a hero darhel, who would have thought.

Echoing those before

While not horrible, the "chase" does drag on a bit. I agree with the other reviewers that claim this one seems to be an anomaly in the Aldenata series in that it is set far in the future and seems to have little relation to the books before it.

Still, I'm looking forward to the next book in the series!

Much better then I thought it would be

First I have read all of the books in the "Legacy of the Aldenata" series and this one should be read last since its like way in the future, but it is much better then i thought it would be and the ending is wide open for more books to follow which I hope they do.

The story starts off with a meeting of the team that is going to a planet that has a new enemy on it called the "Tslek" which are "blobs" as they are called they resemble giant amoebas but they must have something going on inside them but its not seen - the team which is all men and 1 woman meets up with a Darhel who can "sense" minds around them at a distance so its like a early warning system - the Darhel comes with the team not trusting him as no one trusts the Darhel but they need him to protect them from the "blobs"

Without giving anything away things end up where there are only 3 members of the team left alive and 1 is the Darhel, what happens in the rest of the story is nothing short of awesome as its a single story arc book and you are always in the action so to speak.

Thats the thing, most of Ringos books are multiple stories mixed into 1 or at least the location changes lots, with this one once the "act" happens and there are only 3 left and 1 is the Darhel the scene never changes to a different location or even room, its all outside on the planet they are on and its great.

So there is a planet with a suspected Tslek base on it and a team is sent to check it out, then the real story starts - the cool thing is that the planet has huge bugs on it and they can eat you if you arent careful and have a armored shell that stops most everything but a armor piercing sniper round or more powerful and some of them are like the size of a Rhino on Earth.

This is highly recommended as long as you have read the other books and fully understand the Darhel, because this one does some strange things for a Darhel.

A step beyond Gun Porn

This volume was an amazing example of Ringo's ability to write outside the "Gun Porn" genre. He really shows us a fantastic insite into the alien mind and also that heroes can come from anywhere.

The story you were reading ended in the last book

It wasn't bad. But the storyline jumped a millenia or so, and... It's basically a stand alone in an established universe.

Not bad for a distraction while driving or doing chores.

Great Stand-Alone story. NOT BOOK #5

I was completely thrown off when this book started. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the time-line.
So, I stopped it and went on to listen to Cally’s War. Then came back and still had issues with the time-line.
Finally, just listened to the damn story.
Now, I’m going on to ‘Watch on the Rhine’ hoping like hell that it has Mike and all the rest in it.
Why would they make this book #5? Why not book #12? The last book in the series?
Especially when book #4 starts the distrust of the ‘Elfs’ and ‘Cally’s War’ (book #6) really gets into the Buckley and deep distrust of the Darnels.
Just confusing as hell.

Not a bad book

I have been reading the entire Aldenata series and have so far loved it. However this book has nothing to do with the series in the order they are written anyway. It is set 100s of years after the book before it and can be skipped if trying to read the series. As far as the book goes, it is pretty good but not near as good as the rest of the series .

Great story

I didn’t think that a Darhall could be a hero but Ringo made him such. A great play on morality, and the human condition from an alien point of view.

read last!!!

While in the timeline of creation, this book takes places centuries ahead on the timeline and may (not exactly) spoil the outcome, if you truly want to engulf yourself in the struggle, it will change your mindest. well written and well narrated.

Skip it.

You can go ahead and skip this one. Not likely worth your time or the credit even if you’ve enjoyed the other books in this series as I did.