The best thing about Science Fiction, especially harder science fiction, is when you actually see the fantastic elements turn into reality.

I chalk this up to excellent research by John Ringo & Travis Taylor.

In Von Neumann’s War, the Earth is being invaded by Von Neumann style Nano Probes…  The idea is as follows:

 A von Neumann probe is a self-replicating spacecraft designed to investigate its target system and transmit information about it back to its system of origin. The concept is named after Hungarian American mathematician and physicist John von Neumann, who rigorously studied the concept of self-replicating machines that he called “Universal Assemblers” and which are often referred to as “von Neumann machines”. While von Neumann never applied his work to the idea of spacecraft, theoreticians since then have done so.

If a self-replicating probe finds evidence of primitive life (or a primitive, low level culture) it might be programmed to lie dormant, silently observe, attempt to make contact (this variant is known as a Bracewell probe), or even interfere with or guide the evolution of life in some way.

In the book, one of the characters is an military seal that has been assigned the task of evaluating new technologies for the next generation weapon systems…
Here’s a few passages from Chapter 7.

“Waiting sucks,” Major Gries muttered under his breath while he flipped through an unclassified white paper about synthetic gecko skin. This small five-employee company in New Mexico had decided that they had a new invention that would allow infantrymen to walk up walls, trees, windows, you name it. But Gries was having a hard time getting in to see the scientist who was supposed to be there to meet him.

“Oh, yes, Geckoman, funny.” Forrester chuckled like Santa Claus again. “But you see, we’ve figured it out! I think we can deliver a material that will be completely reusable and work for tens of thousands of uses, maybe even indefinitely if it’s cleaned after every few hundred uses. Here, watch this.” Dr. Forrester rummaged through some equipment on one of the cluttered work benches and found what looked like a typical toy’s remote control box.

Forrester flipped some switches and Shane nearly jumped out of his seat as a bright blue toy monster truck slammed into his stool. Forrester continued to flip the control levers on the box, then seemed to get control of how to steer the little monster truck. Shane noticed that the wheels of the truck were “oversized” to say the least. In fact, the wheels were so large that they stuck out in front of and above the little vehicle’s frame. The little toy truck must have been modified with a more powerful motor just to turn those big things over.

“Watch, watch!” Dr. Forrester said as he drove the little monster truck across the room and right up the wall.

“Holy shit!” Gries grinned. “Can I play with that?”

“Sure, go over and pull it off the wall, Major.” Dr. Forrester replied.

Shane crossed the cluttered room, being careful not to trip on some piece of equipment and break it or his neck, then grasped the toy truck. Shane pulled at the truck and it failed to unstick itself from the wall. He got a better grip on the truck and pulled harder—the truck stuck steadfast. He wasn’t sure he could get it off if he planted his feet.

“I love that bit!” Forrester gave a deep belly laugh. “I’m sorry, Major Gries. I couldn’t resist. You see, we figured out that the gecko is clever indeed. He has to twist his foot in a certain motion to release himself—we think. So, you have to do the same with the synthetic material. That’s why I drove the truck up the concrete wall instead of the drywall—I take it you noticed all the spackle in the building.”