Novels to films, a brief history.

I have received the question, at times, about who should play characters in a film of A Pius Man.  This got me thinking about adaptations. Given the last decade of novel-to-film movies, the question becomes more interesting.



Looking at the slew of Harry Potter films, filmed comic books, etc, I find that Hollywood has obviously hired people who can read.



Why do I express surprise? I can answer that with another question.



Does anyone REMEMBER the 1990s?



Let's look at a few authors who had their work turned into films.



Michael Chrichton:



Author of such noted works as Jurassic Park, Congo, and Rising Sun, he probably had the most good fortune of any author short of Stephen King in having his books translated by Hollywood. And that's the sad part.



Anyone who's read Chrichton's work will appreciate a book I saw while shopping in London. Star Trek as Written By Other Authors—the short story as “written” by Chrichton had five charts and graphs over three pages. While no one missed those in the film versions, I'm sure they missed a few other things.



In Jurassic Park, the novel, the differences were numerous and frequent. There were dozens of Velociraptors, and part of the problem was that raptors had been escaping to the mainland. The park staff was more than the seven people we saw over the course of the film, and security was so well armed, there were moments when it looked like it was Park security versus the dinosaurs in an all out war that included missiles.



Back then, there were few complaints because, despite all the differences, it was still a fun movie, and to create a full adaptation would have required a miniseries. Elements from the first novel would be scattered throughout the next two films.



The Lost World: The sequel to Jurassic Park, the novel, was... better than the filmed version. While the novel followed up on the original enemy from the first one (the problems of Jurassic Park were caused by industrial espionage), the movie decided to make the primary adversary was the stereotyped “Evil Businessman #1.” Someone decided that the movie needed to be made into an endangered species riff, complete with an action lead played by.... Matthew Vaughn, playing an ecoterrorist? And we're going to throw in a cute kid, just because Spielberg likes cute kids. There's a reason that the third film consisted of little plot, less character, and mostly running.



Rising Sun: Someone must have been asleep on the job when looking up their cultural research. I can only conclude that Hollywood wasn't paying attention the day that the Japanese Emperor declared that both blacks and women were “inferior”... why else would they change make one of the lead policemen of this murder mystery into Wesley Snipes?







Tom Clancy: The major problem here lies in one book, one that I'm sure everyone remembers as a film.



The Sum of All Fears: The premise of the novel was simple. Middle Eastern terrorists nuke the Superbowl in order to prompt the United States and the Soviet Union into World War III. It's up the National Security Adviser Jack Ryan to talk everyone down.



I will usually grant a lot of leeway to people who adapt a screenplay. A lot. The previous film had been several years before, and Harrison Ford had moved on to other things. It would have been reasonable to have gone onto later novels, changed actors, and move on. Alec Baldwin had played Jack Ryan in the first film, The Hunt for Red October, I would not have objected to bringing him back. And they had already skipped one novel—The Cardinal of the Kremlin—due to the fact that there wasn't a Kremlin anymore. Taking the character of Jack Ryan from his post as CIA director (from the previous film, Clear and Present Danger) and making him NSA director (in Debt of Honor, the first post-Cold War novel), would have been nice and easy.



Instead, the film for Sum of All Fears was a series reboot about shiny new CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck), going up against.... wait for it... Neo-Nazis. Most of whom were taken out in an ending sequence reminiscent of a Godfather film.



So, wait, the movie comes out after 9-11-01, and for some reason, terrorists from the Middle East are inferior villains? Hollywood's racism is astonishing; somehow, European bad guys are superior to any other flavor of bad guy, especially if the Europeans are evil Nazis.







Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child



The Relic: The first book in their series about mysterious FBI Agent Prendergast, who seems to specialize in X-Files quality strange, without the space-alien level stupidity. The Relic was a thrilling tale about a monster in the New York Museum of Natural History. When the book was first written, the museum in real life looked like a great setting for a horror film. Part of this team consisted of a graduate student Margo Green, her wheelchair bound mentor Dr. Frock, and, of course, Special Agent Prendergast. The mystery starts with what, exactly, could have killed a museum security guard in two blows—one to rip open the chest, and one to smash the back of the head clean off.



The adversary of the novel was a genetic mutation that was about eight feet long, like a cross between a panther and bug... it had an exoskeleton like an insect's chiton, only bulletproof. It survives an encounter with a SWAT team with full assault rifles and a grenade launcher.



The film... eliminated multiple key characters (one being Prendergast, goodbye series), killed off several who were necessary for any possible sequel, replaced everyone remaining with pure cliches, and made the creature a thirty to sixty foot monstrosity. This extra large beastie is supposed to have slipped into a small employee restroom to kill a guard, when it couldn't even fit into the hallway leading to the restroom. It manages to kill an entire SWAT team because they all run like scared rabbits—possibly frightened by the horrid graphics—and it starts bleeding because it took a few rounds from a .9mm handgun (to quote the governor of California, if it bleeds, you can kill it). But, no, in this film, they had to try blowing it up with bad CGI fire.







I'm going to cheat for the next few books. They are not the nineties, but they are film adaptations that went horribly sideways.







F. Paul Wilson—The Keep.



This one is interesting. F. Paul Wilson, Fordham graduate, agnostic, and all around interesting person, who even created a character with a rabid following—one so rabid Stephen King is President of the fan club.



One of his earlier books was called The Keep. It opens in 1943, with the German High Command getting a communication from an outpost in Transylvania: “Something is killing my men.” In another area of Europe, a man awakes, and knows he has to get to The Keep before everything ends. It essentially starts out as Dracula and ends as Lord of the Rings.



Enter: the movie. The author himself has concluded that the set of The Keep had a lot of white powder going up a lot of noses. Frequently. Not even Ian McKellen could save this train wreck. The synopsis of the film is as follows: creature kills Germans in WW2; a professor in the Keep makes deal with creature. Professor's daughter sleeps with guy who comes out of nowhere. Creature kills everyone in the Keep. Guy who comes from nowhere has an entrance with lots of light, creature goes away. Credits roll. Audience goes “huh?”





Clive Cussler—Raise the Titanic!



Before there was Indiana Jones, there was Clive Cussler. His main character is Dirk Pitt, one part old fashioned swashbuckler, one part nautical engineer. You may have seen the movie Sahara, made from another of his books—not a great film, but a decent popcorn movie. Better than this one.



Premise: there is an element that might be able to power a sonic-missile shield for the United States (this is the 70s). The only known sample was on board the Titanic, so, we—guess what—RAISE THE TITANIC! (this was before anyone knew how badly the ship had been totaled, so go with it). The book had everyone sail away on the resurrected vessel after a tense shootout with Soviet agents who had found out about the plan and tried to steal the precious material.



The movie, of course, had to have the Soviet bad guys come on board, and our hero scuttles the ship to make sure they don't get it. No victory, just a draw.



Movies of the day suffered from the Hollywood's idea of detente—there are no victories, only draws. If that was the only problem Raise the Titanic suffered from, it might have been salvageable. Instead, Hollywood took a fast paced, tightly written book, and turned it into a slow, ponderous mess. To tell you how bad it was, Clive Cussler saw Raiders of the Lost Ark and cried—mainly because it captured everything that he put into his own writing.





Today, I look at several adaptations—if you have major kvetches, I suggest holding off of them until my conclusions.



Lord of the Rings: Scenes lifted directly from the pages, dialogue from the novel, subplots taken from the appendix. You don't get much better than this. The major quibble I can conjure up is the buildup to the climax of the second film, The Two Towers—and I can blame that on the director's fondness for the buildup in the film Zulu, which felt like nothing but screaming “WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE.” Aside from that part of one film, I couldn't complain even if I wanted to.







Harry Potter: I read the books. They weren't bad for YA novels, and a nice parody of the English school system. The more you know about British culture, the funnier they were. Frankly, I thought the films improved on some things. Granted, some of what was left out of the films confused me... in movie three, there's no explanation for a major device of the film, or how another character knows of it. In #4, our protagonist asks why something went odd with his wand, and no answer is given. I say its odd because both “problems” could have been corrected with about three lines of dialog each. And, while confusing, no big deal. The end.







Comic books.



These are clumped together, and easy.



X-Men Origins: Wolverine: For a film that was studio mandated, it wasn't bad. Originally wanting to make Frank Miller's storyline about the mutant with anger management / memory / family issues, the people who did the film were ordered to make an origin story. Considering that the details of everyone involved in Wolverine's past were essentially turned into memory goulash, it was possibly the most comprehensible version they could come up with. I'm still confused about complaints that “Deadpool wasn't done well. He was just Ryan Renolds.” Considering that Deadpool wasn't the main character, and had, maybe, five minutes on screen, I don't think you can do anyone well in that amount of time.







The Spider-Man Films: The comic book career of Peter Parker looks like a rubric to diagnose bipolar disorder. Check. The whole Goblin family drama—mostly. Check. Parker puts on the black suit and turns from nerd to.... evil nerd. Big check. Though he could have taken tips from Neil Patrick Harris on being an evil nerd.



The biggest complaint has been about Spider Man 3, particularly on the character of Venom... well, as Sam Raimi said, “I had never read Venom in the comic books, since they came after my time. Because of that, I didn't have a natural inclination toward him. And when I read those comics, at [producer] Avi Arad's urging, I didn't understand where Venom's humanity was. I know that kids think he looks cool, and they think he's a good villain for Spider-Man. I actually didn't. What was it about Peter's own makeup that this villain represented some weaker or darker side to? Just looking like a dark version of him is not enough for me. The more I read [Venom stories], the less interested I became.” So, I get that. Though I wonder why he bothered putting Venom in a film if he didn't really like him.



Aside from that, there could be aesthetic quibbles—why they felt they had to make the Green Goblin look like a power Rangers, I don't know.





Batman Begins: I've had some people complain about the opening of the film, and how Bruce Wayne had been trained to become Batman. My usual response is that, if you read the comic books, the way it was done in the film contained the simplest, least convoluted explanation, as well as introducing the primary villain. And if there are any complaints about The Dark Knight, the best I can come up with is that the movie should have left off with catching the Joker, leaving Harvey Dent / Two-Face to be an ominous thread to be expanded into another movie. The last fifteen minutes felt odd, but having one of your key actors die in the middle of shooting can mess up a schedule a bit.







Now, aside from the above example, I will not say that modern day Hollywood adaptations are all perfect. That would be impossible. However, without lingering on minor quibbles, I can point you to several movies made recently that were based on books and made into something... different.





Shooter, based off of Stephen Hunter's novels about a marine sniper who had been framed for murder, turned into the usual conspiracy theory film about evil government employees messing around in Africa for one natural resource or another. That it starred Castro fan Danny Glover was a hint that the book would be rewritten.





[NOVEL SPOILER ALERT] The Bourne Identity was based off of Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. A tv miniseries was made in the 1980s, starring Alan Chamberlain. The CIA had sent operative David Webb, war veteran, after assassin Carlos the Jackal, seeming to be another assassin and competitor named Jason Bourne. During the operation, he is shot in the head while fleeing a ship at sea, and awakes with amnesia. In piecing together the story of his life, he believes that he really is an assassin, the CIA thinks he has gone rogue, and the assassin he's hunting is returning the favor, and a civilian he saves from being gunned down in the crossfire is a female accountant who grows attached to him.



The movie: Boat, amnesia, perfect operative, check. Carlos the Jackal is replaced by African Dictator #1 from the nearest cliché yard, and the CIA isn't interested in listening to what happened to him, they all just want him dead. Period. Everyone involved on the CIA end dies, except for Julia Styles, using her amazing blonde powers. Bourne hooks up with a backpacking, gypsy-like female with no discernible education, intellect, or personality.



The Bourne Supremacy – The novel: elements in the government want to use David Webb to flush out another assassin, only this one has taken over the name of Jason Bourne. So, they kidnap his wife, the accountant he saved in the first novel, leaving clues that end him after this new Bourne. The CIA isn't the bad guy, but they are manipulative, which pretty much goes with the trade. Webb's other friends within the Agency lend him aide as he tries to find his wife.



The film: Still on the run as Jason Bourne, his girlfriend gets her head blown off by a Russian assassin on orders from a CIA administrator left over from an X-Men film .... Start your average revenge plot. Kill more CIA agents. Throw in some Russians, because they are obviously still the massive, intimidating threat that they were when they had a working government, now that they're taking orders from us, somehow.... huh? Julia Styles still manages to survive.



The Bourne Ultimatum—the novel is simple: Revenge of Carlos the Jackal. The film: obviously not, because they didn't have Carlos in the first film anyway.





In short, Hollywood has apparently become literate since the 90s—or, at the very least, is CAPABLE of adhering to source material such as novels and comic books. I'm certain that part of it has to do with a director appreciating the source material (Lord of the Rings), or a horde of slavering child fans who will tear them apart if they screw up the movie (the whole Harry Potter / Twilight franchise), or having the Intellectual Property owners run the studio (Marvel / WB). When you consider what has come in the past, things have improved.



Though, apparently, all bets are off when a film include Matt Damon or his clone (Mark Wahlberg). Still, even those films at least resemble the books they were based on to some degree. So, whenever you have a quibble about your favorite character in a novel / comic that's been adapted to film, or that elements had been changed, shifted or modified, always remember one very important lesson that I have learned over the years.....





It can ALWAYS be worse.



And if you don't believe me, ask the hordes of video game fans who have ever gone to see a Uwe Boll film of their favorite game.

If writers tend to write stuff they enjoy, what about A Pius Man?

If you've even looked at the back of novels by long time novelists, like David Morrell, you will notice that there are a lot of other authors who give him blurbs for his novels. I have noticed that a lot of authors who write books I enjoy, tend to read other authors whose books I enjoy. Authors tend to cluster like that for at least the last century. Tolkien was a friend of CS Lewis. Chesterton, Dorothy Lee Sayers, Ronald Knox, Agatha Christie, and Baroness Orczy were all connected....or well networked, if you want to put it another way. If you have no idea who I'm talking about, Amazon.com will be helpful.

So, if the author's book collection tells a lot about what he writes, then—without going into footnotes—what is the background for A Pius Man?

In general terms, anything that isn't nailed down.

What do I read that I would recommend to other people? Well, I can do a simple breakdown by genre.....

Let's the the borderline inconsequential out of the way: Romance.

Yes, I read some romance, but these usually come with thriller elements.



Catherine Coulter-- her FBI series is quite entertaining. At least for the first six or seven books. The Cove is possibly the best constructed mystery out of the bunch, and it opens with a fifty page long chase through several states. It works surprisingly well.



Sherrilyn Kenyon-- Imagine vampires mixed with Greek mythology so much that they're not really vampires. If you're a fan of Greek mythology, interweaving new mythology and modern action thrillers, read her “Dark-Hunter” series. Preferably in publication order, otherwise you can get very lost, very fast. The romance elements are there, that's her primary classification. And don't be put off by the titles or the covers, most of which are embarrassing to look at. But if I had any shame, I would probably be in a different line of work.



Andrew Greeley-- Irish Chicago Catholic priest who writes romance novels. Some people tend to have brain-freeze at that point, so take a moment if you need to. If you can, read any book of his BEFORE 2000. After that point, well, his books start to suck. They almost always have a fairly solid mystery, but there's always a romance-- however, avoid the books "Cardinal Sins" and "Love song" (Early books, awful books.). The Search for Maggie Ward was excellent, as was Irish Gold, and he has an entire Beatitude series of murder mysteries. And he has three books of an Angel trilogy which are EXCELLENT.

Now, enough of the mushy stuff. Now we blow stuff up....Thriller/ mystery authors:

David Morrell: Yes, he created John Rambo in his novel “First Blood.” However, I would suggest that it is not his best. In “The Spy Who Came For Christmas”, a wounded spy seeks refuge in a home while being chased; to keep the occupants calm, he tells them a spy's version of the three wise men of the Bible. In “Creepers”, a group of urban explorers enter into an abandoned hotel, onto to discover that they're not alone. “Scavenger,” the sequel to Creepers, finds the survivors of the hotel incident trapped into a deadly game—a real life role playing game, set in a hostile wilderness.

Jeffery Deaver: I'm not entirely certain about the order of novels, but Deaver has a wonderful way of messing with one's mind. In my household, “to Deaver” something means to put a backspin on a storyline so hard that the audience gets whiplash. When I mean thriller, I mean it doesn't slow down-- at least not for long. The Blue Nowhere (thriller with hackers), The Bone Collector (ignore the film), The Coffin Dancer, The Vanished Man, A Maiden's Grave, The Devil's Teardrop, the Empty Chair, and other fun stuff.



Vince Flynn-- Unfortunately, offhand, you'll have to look up his titles, and read him in order. he writes about a CIA assassin named Mitch Rapp, and the first one was about terrorists taking over the white house. This was before terrorists became popular (1999), and he does a wonderful critique of what went wrong during the 1990s in the intelligence world.



Douglas Preston &; Lincoln Child: just start by reading "Relic" (for the love of all that's Holy, IGNORE THE MOVIE) and "Reliquery," then let the games begin. If you want to read either individually-- just read Lincoln Child. Preston on is own is not Preston at his best. Lincoln Child has written “Death Match” (match.com meets serial killers), Utopia (Westworld meets Disney World), both of which are at the top of the list for recommendations for these two as individuals.



Matthew Reilly-- in order of speed and publication: Contest, Temple, Ice Station, Area 57, Scarecrow. Contest is sort of science fiction, an interstellar gladiatorial slug fest in the New York City Public Library. Temple is a race for an element that makes uranium look like M&M filling. Ice Station is just pure fun. Area 57 is the sequel to Ice Station (imagine a shootout in Area 51). And Scarecrow is a nonstop running shootout. Each book involves at least a four to six sided shootout, so they don't have time to slow down.



James Rollins (publication order)-- Sandstorm, Map of Bones, Black Order, The Judas Strain.... oh, to heck with it, just look for any book labeled a “Sigma Force Novel.” Imagine scientists with guns. Rollins was writing world spanning ancient mysteries and high-tech thrillers before anyone ever took note of Dan Brown. When this man writes cutting edge, he gives the footnotes, citing articles that are, in some cases, only available overseas.

David Hagberg-- his books are about CIA assassin Kirk McGarvy; the novels improve as you read through them. The first three books can be taken or left behind, since they are still dealing with the end of the Cold War, and are rather depressing.



David Lindsay's career is, at the moment, based on four books about his scalpel wielding sociopath and serial killer named Dexter. Yes, these books spawned the cable TV show of the same name-- a serial killer who hunts serial killers. It starts with Darkly Dreaming Dexter, followed by Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and Dexter by Design. Even if you've seen the tv show, read the books anyway.

And speaking of Napoleon, David Cornwell's Sharpe series is entertaining-- a fictionalized infantry-man's view of the war against the tiny Corsican tyrant.



Joseph Garber- - his books “Verticle Run” and "In a Perfect State" are the best thrillers I may have ever read, second to Vince Flynn



Clive Cussler -- if you've not heard of Dirk Pitt, go read about him.

FANTASY

Terry Prachett-- co-author of Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens." Also creator of a fantasy land called Discworld. As far as that goes, read anything that has to do with the city of Ankh-Morpork. This covers everything from his Commander Vimes novels (mystery with fantasy), or even Going Postal and Making Money, which are sideways political comedy-thrillers (yes, that's a mouthful, and no, I don't have a better way to put it).



Neil Gaiman – I like the man. I liked his books Neverwhere (Alice in Wonderland as done in the London underground), Interworld (alternate reality commando teams—the same person from a hundred different realities), and The Graveyard Book...and I'm not even sure where to begin describing that one.



F. Paul Wilson -- ignore the film called "The Keep," read the book. It starts like Dracula and ends like Lord of the Rings. It's part of his Adversary Cycle, which can be found at the front flap of any of his paperbacks. It is fun, and epic, and Stephen King is the President of the fan club for one of his characters.

Jim Butcher-- creator of the books which loosely inspired the short lived scifi channel series "The Dresden Files." The premise: think of one parts Philip Marlow and one part Gandalf on meth; Wizard as Private Eye. The series starts with a serial killer in Chicago who kills people by magic, with a sequel that recreates the Terminator in a police station, only with a werewolf. It evolves into a world war with vampires, and is building up to an “apocalyptic trilogy” for a finale that will probably involve wizards, vampires, the fae, skinwalkers, werewolves, demons, advanced assault weapons, aikido, and Excalibur-level swords

Jim Butcher's second series is The Codex Alera—fantasy, Lord of the Rings style. The hero is the only person in the world who can't use magic, but he can use his mind to do more damage than any spellbook. It's the second time I have seen a novel use magic as a well thought out tactical weapon. There is no “massive fireball inflicts +100 damage, kills everyone” versions of magic. It starts with political intrigue and espionage, and turns into a sweeping epic.



Terry Goodkind -- creator of the Sword of Truth series. Think Robert Jordan, only entertaining, and a lot less wordy. It is the first series that I have ever seen use magic and tactics in a fantasy setting. Wizards do not abound, but they are like heavy weapons specialists in a vast army. If you can imagine Objectivist philosophy, tempered with natural law, then put into a fantasy setting, you have the intellectual background.

SCIENCE FICTION.

J. Michael Straczynski was an executive producer on Murder, She wrote, created Babylon 5, and writes almost anything else he can get his hands on. He's written comics, tv, novels, science fiction, battling demons.... Just look him up on amazon, buy everything except for “Rising Stars” and “Supreme Power.” I'm not joking. Go now.

Timothy Zhan will always be marked as the man who resurrected the Star Wars series from it's unholy grave. He wrote three books in the early 1990s, and the Star Wars book series was born. Though, to be honest, Zhan is the only person in the Star Wars world I'll ever read. All of his books are well thought out, and no one is stupid. There are some cases you can probably say that everyone thinks too much, but a smart book is never a bad thing, as far as I'm concerned. Blackcollar is his first book and book series; the Cobra trilogy was a multi-generational examination of guerrilla warfare and high-tech implants. Angelmass was an interesting one-shot.

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This is where it gets interesting. Baen books has a marketing gimmick. The theory is that if they allow books out for free online, it will prompt people to buy the books in real life. Below, I have assembled not only the lists of series and novels for each author, but also the link to each author's current novel series. You can download ANY of the books listed below.

DAVID WEBER

David Weber writes so many series in so many worlds, even he's starting to get sick of it. Most notable is his Honor Harrington series-- a female space naval officer, usually worrying about 100-to-1 odds. Imagine the Napoleonic War done in space.

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/17-StormfromtheShadowsCD/StormfromtheShadowsCD/





The Stars At War-- title explains it all. And the books are numbered... though you might want to ignore “Insurrection.”



Stand Alone Books:



Empire from the Ashes---- What do you mean our moon has been replaced by a spaceship?



The Apocalypse Troll --- the lone survivor of a fleet from a hundred years in the future fell to earth in pursuit of a life pod that has a world-killing alien on board. They both fell through time and space... and now she has to kill it with allies in the 20th century. Assuming it doesn't kill everyone first.



The Excalibur Alternative-- humans make great mercenary soldiers... even if they are from the 16th century, abducted by aliens, and pressed into service.



In Fury Born--After 3,000 years of slumber, a Greek Fury stirs, awakened by a human whose own fury calls...

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His honor Harrington series is Horatio Hornblower meets Star Wars. I have it in recommended order of reading.



On Basilisk Station-- what do you do when you're a shiny new Captain who has to deal with a hostile crew, rioting civilians, an evil empire next door who wants your sector, and, oh, yeah, you've been left by yourself in the middle of the busiest sector in the galaxy with only one ship? Improvise.



The Honor of the Queen-- Honor Harrington is a female captain trying to save a world of semi-Mormons who think she's inferior, and has to defend them against an enemy of religious zealots who make her “allies” look tame.



The Short Victorious War --- Robert S. Pierre and his revolutionaries have created the People's Republic of Haven. Now it's time to flex their muscles.



Field of Dishonor

Flag in Exile

Honor Among Enemies

In Enemy Hands

Echoes of Honor

Ashes of Victory

War of Honor

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The Honorverse Short story collection – it will explain a few things from the books here and there



More than Honor-- I'd recommend only the first story in this one. Seriously.

Worlds of Honor--- I suggest only the Weber stories here.

Changer of Worlds-- now things get interesting.

The Service of the Sword--- Even better.



Crown of Slaves – Takes two sets of characters from Changer of Worlds and Service of the Sword and brings them together against a common enemy.



Shadow of Saganami: Honor's graduating class from officer training has there own ship... and their own problems.



At All Costs--- Honor has lost an eye and an arm leading her Majesty's Navy... much like Admiral Nelson... and this is Trafalgar.



***************************************

JOHN RINGO.

http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/18-EyeoftheStormCD/EyeoftheStormCD/



John Ringo, who was never a member of the Beatles, started his career with the Posleen War series, which has spun out of control into about ten books by now. The first four are self-contained, however-- a battle against cannibalistic Mongol hordes from space. He's former 82nd airborne, so the battles work.



I should note now that this list of Ringo books is more or less written in order of series that I highly recommend, and that I think you will enjoy the most, in the order than I think you will enjoy them. Promise.



Princess of Wands --- what got me hooked on Ringo. Start here. Trust me.

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Prince Roger / Empire of Man – ever read the Anabassis? The story of the ten thousand? This is the John Ringo / David Weber version.



March Upcountry

March to the Sea

March to the Stars

We Few



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Series: Into the Looking glass (Book 1) --- the book that got me interested in Ringo in the first place. Military stuff and advanced physics. Aliens are coming through portals called “looking glasses”, and they all want to take over the Earth.

Vorpal Blade

Manxome Foe

Claws that Catch (do we have a pattern?)



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The Paladin of Shadows series.... this one is odd.



Ghost --- The first book is made of a series of three vignettes. “Ghost” is the code name of former Navy SEAL Mike Harmon. When he sees a coed being kidnapped, he finds himself in the middle of a terrorist plot that takes him all the way to Syria, where he lands in the middle of a terrorist stronghold, and eighty hostages, all of whom are slated to die. The second vignette... skim it. Trust me. Vignette three finds Harmon in Eastern Europe, and a plot to nuke Paris finds him.

Kildar—Harmon, still moving through Eastern Europe, finds himself trapped in the middle of a valley during a snowstorm. But the Valley is in the middle of a pathway for Chechen terrorists killing everyone in their way. Now, Ghost has to train the locals to stop the invaders, or else everyone is going to die.

Other books in the series: Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach, A Deeper Blue.

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Von Neuman's War – Robots have been sent out into space to colonize worlds for another species as they expand throughout space. Nothing personal, no problems.... until they come to colonize Earth.

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The Posleen War: Ringo's first series, which makes Gone with the Wind look like a bad television episode. There are alien cannibalistic mongol hordes who will soon have Earth on the list, and the technology to stop them are in the possession of aliens who can't defend themselves (like the French).



The original trilogy (book three interrupted by 9-11).....



A Hymn Before Battle.

Gust Front

When the Devil Dances

Hell's Faire

.........



Same time period, different parts of the war.



Watch on the Rhine—the war in Germany.

Yellow Eyes –the war in South America.

.........



After the initial war, the battle isn't over



Cally's War

Sister Time.

Honor of the Clan

Eye of the Storm

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The Last Centurion. I'm still not sure what to make of this one. To start with, Ringo WANTS to piss off everyone with SOMETHING in this book—he didn't piss me off, but I'm odd. It's a one-shot, and written in blog format, with all that the genre entails. It was written in early 2008, before Swine Flu, the rise of Obama, and the first 100 pages, you will NOT know what's going on... okay maybe you will, but it took me a few pages to get into that one. It's written in blog format, and if he pisses you off because of something he wrote, then he meant to.