Author Review: John Ringo, Part 3, the Thrillers. (Still, with Free Books.)

Here we go again.



As mentioned, John Ringo has written a LOT in the past decade.  He's only been writing since 1999, but he's been pumping out almost three to four books a year ever since.



However, despite the previous posts, he hasn't written only political-heavy science-fiction and fantasy novels. But, they're all published by Baen, so they're still free for download.



To start with there's this one character of his who's a navy SEAL ....

The Paladin of Shadows (series)

.... This one is odd.

Ghost --- This first book is made of a series of three vignettes, and stars one Mike Harmon, a veteran who is not a very nice person, but he does qualify as a good man. Ringo opens this book with a quote from George Orwell -- We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to do violence on our behalf.



Mr. Harmon is one such rough person.



“Ghost” is the code name of former Navy SEAL Mike Harmon. Trapped on a far-left college campus, the veteran feels isolated and discriminated against. But when he sees a co-ed being kidnapped, he charges in to save the day, only to find 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.  It's a thirty thousand word story that's twenty thousand words of bondage porn and deep-sea fishing.



Vignette three finds Harmon in Eastern Europe, and he finds himself hip deep in a plot to nuke Paris.



Kildar—Harmon, still moving through Eastern Europe, finds himself trapped in the middle of a valley during a snowstorm. He buys lodging to hold up in during the winter, but this new home comes with an interesting piece of real estate -- the entire valley.  The home also comes with a title for the owner.  The title is Kildar.



However, Harmon still has a problem.  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.



Unfortunately for the Chechens, killing is what Ghost does best.



Choosers of the Slain: A US Senator has a problem.  The daughter of a major money donor has been disappeared into the Balkan sex slave trade.  Here's five million dollars, could Harmon and his merry band of mountain warriors do something about the matter?



And when Ghost and company discover that some of the clientele in this sex trade happen to be from Washington D.C. ... well, there's a reason I picked up certain songs from this author.



And, there's a reason that the cover looks like the movie poster for a James Bond film.



Unto the Breach.  After the incident with the slave trade, people in Washington figure that Mike "Ghost" Harmon is a great person to call upon when the situation is both dire, and politically inconvenient.



This time, a scientist has been kidnapped by terrorists.  The problem?  He's an expert in biological warfare.



And that's not even the problem.   The problem is when the terrorists follow Harmon home, back into the valley he has lived in for years. But the local people are warriors by culture, and by blood, and they've been itching for a good fight. And all Hell breaks loose.



Remember when I mentioned where I first heard Dragonforce?  This was the book.





A Deeper Blue.





Biological weapon at Disneyland, with a shootout at the Holy Rodent Empire.



I think that's all you need to know for this one. It was fun.













The Last Centurion. I'm still not sure what to make of this one. To start with, this is a non-Mike Harmon novel.  Technically, it's science fiction, but only because it's set a few years into the future.  The United States has invaded Iran, beaten it, and is still there, even though President "the Bitch" has ordered a half-asses withdrawal. This book was published in 2008, so you can guess who he means.  The world has been hit with a global pandemic, the Earth is in crisis, and American army officer "Bandit Six" is trapped in the middle of Iran, with no support, no help, and the only way out is through the hostile territories of six countries..



This is a heavily political novel.  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 this one. He shoots at Fox news, environmentalists, the army, the peaceniks ... pick someone, he shoots at them.

Honor At Stake, and publishing

Cedar Sanderson

Last week, I announced the news: I've been picked up by a real, honest-to-God publisher. Notice I didn't say much about it. I'm not exactly excited about it. I'm not gushing about it.



Imagine if you just finished moving furniture for a whole day.  Are you going to go out to a party to celebrate by dancing, and getting more sweaty, or are you going to plop down on the couch and take a nap?



I've been moving this particular piece of furniture for ten years. And I tripped over it. That was it. Dumb luck, and an acquisition editor with a high reading speed and an empty in-box.



Do I regret the self publishing? Hell no. In fact, if I weren't trying to be social online, I wouldn't have tripped over this, so, saying that God works in mysterious ways isn't exactly true. Mildly annoying ways, sometimes, but not much on the mystery.



The book is a vampire novel entitled Honor At Stake, and it's going to be include all the usual vulnerabilities you ever read in a copy of Dracula, because removing the religious defenses against vampires is just bull. It allows vampires to be your standard overpowered enemies, and we only survive based on their good graces.



And, second, REAL VAMPIRES DON'T SPARKLE. Period.



Now that I'm going to be working with a "real publisher," who will help me market my book, pay for an artist to cover my book, get me into actual bookstores, what does that mean for The Pius Trilogy?



Well, the publisher, Damnation Books, part of Eternal Press .... yes, I now work for Eternal Damnation, Inc ... will not touch self published novels with a ten-foot pole. They might take the sequel to Codename: Winterborn, mostly because it won't be so tied to the sequel that you can't read one without the other.



If you've read A Pius Legacy, you realize that book three, A Pius Stand, isn't going to be that easy to read without the other two books.  So, yes, A Pius Stand will come to an Amazon shelf in short order.



Will I party that day? No. But I'll flop on the couch and take a nap.



But Declan, you ask, what does that have to do with the cute redhead on your page?



The cute redhead is Cedar Sanderson, a fellow author. This coming Saturday, her book, Trickster Noir, is coming out as a freebie on e-book


Cedar Sanderson is interesting. She's half-way through a degree in microbiology, "just getting to the interesting bits." A former military brat, she grew up in Alaska (when the family became nailed down to one place). She grew up learning to hunt, fish, trap, garden, forage wild edibles, prospect for gold and gems, survive in the wilderness, camp, can, butcher, cook, bake, paint, research, and blow stuff up along the way. After Alaska, her adult life, was spent in New Hampshire, before moving to Ohio.

So, she's got a colorful little background....AND she's a cute redhead.  Yes, I have a thing for smart women. And cute redheads. Shut up.



The book is described as follows.

Book two in the Pixie for Hire series,
Trickster Noir picks up where Pixie Noir ended. Lom, the little pixie
with the tough-guy mentality, has proposed to Bella. All should be
well, but their happily-ever-after is in grave danger. Threats from
both Underhill and the human realms are closing in on them, and the
fairy princess raised Alaskan redneck has to learn on the job, and
fast!   

So, while you're waiting on A Pius Stand, you might want to check out her stuff.  Seriously, you can't beat free, now can you?

Redemption in Death -- Christianity in fiction action.

Yes, I stole the title theme from a JD Robb series, if not a straight title rip-off.

Today isn't really a blog post, but a notification or two.  More like a blog posting board.



First of all -- you can get A Pius Man on Kindle for free every Friday this month.  No, free.  Honest.  Just do me a favor, and please pound out a quick, 5-star review on my Amazon.com page, here.  4 stars are also nice. I'll even take 3.



Yes, I'm desperate.  I'm at the part of a media blitz where I'm the one who's blitzed.



Next, Karina Fabian is still doing her blog tour for her latest Dragon Eye novella. So, go take a look at the lat two days.



Third and finally: I've written a guest post for the blog Catholic Once Again.  Which sounds like an Irish rebel song I heard once or a hundred times.  It's about redemption in fiction -- and not just for bad guys.



Because when my heroes go bad, they go really, really bad.



I'm going to go back to editing A Pius Legacy.  Enjoy.

Vlog: FREE BOOKS. And interviews

So, that was painless.



On Thursday, I was part of a Twitter interview in the #Writestream thread.  You might still be able to find it kicking around.  However, if you missed that, you can find me on ... a radio interview online.



I've got a fan, and it shows.



Coming soon, I'm going to have a tab for reviews and interviews. Normally, I'd separate the two, but there are some interviews that are just so filled with effusive, positive feedback that I can't NOT have them lumped together.



Next step, continue working on The Main Webpage.



And did I mention my interview at CatholicFiction.net?



Things are busy.



Oh, nuts, and did I mention THE FREE BOOK?



Details below.

Saved by a superhero

And here I thought I would have nothing to talk about, I'm saved by Rebekah.

You remember Rebekah Hendershot, don't you?  You may not, it's been a while since I wrote about her, and her strange, strange little universe of Masks. News items and essays she dealt with have inspired a few blog entries, and even a few stories .... my story "God Hates ... Superman?" is actually stolen from her original blog title of the same name. Masks has appeared all over the blog, including: “So, you want to be a writer?” and Disasters to Marvel At: A Comic Discussion, and others.

Madam Hendershot inspired my Writer's Rules For Villains; and The Masks Blog beat up on Fred Phelps before this blog did.

Masks also made a brief appearance in one of the first stories on this page, Boys of the Old Brigade.  As well as the direct sequel, Coyote Christmas.

Now, what the hell is Masks?

Masks is a novel series written by Rebekah Hendershot, who has been a friend of this blog and its supporting pages since day one. Seriously, she provided the first comment on the entire blog.

Masks is, essentially, what would happen if you had someone who wanted to seriously write an original novel about superheroes. She's it. Unlike some novels, like Soon, I Will Be Invincible, or other novelists who spend more time making fun of the genre than actually enjoying it, Rebekah is having fun with it. Imagine if Jim Butcher wanted to write an original comic book, you get Masks.

Masks also tries to make superheroes "real"-- rule one, NO SPANDEX.

It's a book written for those people who want something more edifying than Twilight, and without a retarded fanbase... Rebekah is far too polite to beat up on Twitards. Obviously, I don't have that problem.

Her premise: Something killed off the superheroes of Los Angeles. And it's still there. Cue Dracula theme.

Now, the only thing standing between the civilians of LA and supervillains is .... a sixteen-year-old girl with a snark function permanently set to "kill." She has allies ... after a fashion. She's aided by a screwed up Tim Drake meets Winter Soldier, she has a demon coyote who's stalking her, and a cowboy grim reaper seems to have an interest in her as well.

There's a love story in there as well, but I can only cover so much.

Over the last few years, she has supported gamers, comic books, and Young Adult fiction that men can read (YA fiction that isn't Twilight.)

When you check out her blog ... and what are you still doing here reading mine? .... you might notice some common themes between her blog and this one. A lot of writers are similiarly warped. We're weird that way.

And Lord knows that any fantasy elements in Masks is about ten times better than any fantasy used in Star Wars recently.

One day, Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden will come up against a mad scientist, and it'll look a lot a Masks novel. Or, Butcher, or even Laurell K. Hamilton, will try to write something that is a solid mystery, and it may be as good as the Agatha Christie-like Zephyr Street.

All in all, it's a fun ride. If you have the time, you might want to get on. And buckle up

Because her book is released!!!!

Now, go buy it. You're welcome.

Author Review: John Ringo 2

Last week, I mentioned the author John Ringo.  He does several genres -- science fiction, thrillers, speculative fiction, and a bit of fantasy.

And you can get most of his novels for free.  Right here.  100% legal.

Last week, I had briefly covered his fantasy novel Princess of Wands, this time, let's try something a little different.

Prince Roger / Empire of Man

The Anabassis is an old story.  It's also known as the story of the ten thousand.  It's translated as "The March Up."

The original story is about ten thousand Greek mercenaries who went to work for a Persian king.  Unfortunately, their employer lost, and they were stranded in the middle of enemy territory.  Their only hope was to march, northward, to the sea.


This is the John Ringo version.

So, of course, John Ringo (writing off of a very heavy outline by veteran author David Weber), called his first novel in the series "March Upcountry."  And the second book is  March to the Sea.

However, instead of ten thousand mercenaries, Ringo starts with Prince Roger, the tertiary heir to the "Throne of Man," an Earth Empire that is based in Washington DC.

And Prince Roger is a royal bastard.

And I mean that literally.

Roger is the unwanted heir.  He acts out, has no sense of his place in the empire, feels like a waste, and every time he wants to say something noble and diplomatic, it comes out as a whine.  He's like a teenager permanently stuck in the awkward stage.

Which means that Roger's bodyguards dislike him with a burning passion.

However, when the Empire's enemies, known simply as "the Saints," try to assassinate him by blowing up his ship, Roger and his bodyguards are marooned on the backwater, the hostile planet of Marduk.  The terrain is hostile, half the population is hostile, and -- oh, yeah, did we mention that the tropical humidity makes the plasma rifles explode?  What do you expect when they're produced by the lowest bidder?

And, one more thing: there's only one spaceport, it's about eight months march and an ocean away, and it may be held by the people who had just tried to kill Roger and his people.

You can never say that Ringo makes it easy on his characters.

On the one hand, it's a growing experience for Prince Roger. He's going to grow up, or die.  On the other, what does he grow up into?  And, should he make it out of there alive, what will the empire look like after he's gone for who knows how long?

One of the interesting things about this series is how Ringo plays it. Not only does he have  several fully developed cultures, as well as an assortment of futuristic weapons, but -- due to the plasma weapons blowing up -- comes up with a great way to limit him and his men to local weaponry.  So, as they march across the planet, they go from fighting like Roman legionnaires, to medieval warfare, to a battle that looks like it came out of the Napoleonic wars of Richard Sharpe.

At the end of the day, this might be one of John Ringos best series, and the least political.  The only politics in the entire novel involve local, tribal politics of the planet Marduk, and (very briefly) of the Empire Roger is heir to. It mostly focuses on strong character, and it even keeps up as the actions sequences are ongoing.  And, while Ringo focuses heavily on infantry, even his space battles are well-done, and reminiscent of David Weber or Timothy Zahn.

All-in-all, it's fun. And, it's free. 

Author Review: John Ringo, Part 1 (Free Books, and Princess of Wands)

When Jim Baen was still alive and running Baen books, he had several principles.

1) He hated agents
2) It didn't matter what your political philosophy was, as long as you stated it well, you could be published by his company.
3) He  figured that giving away the books was the best way for people to get into them.

I'm quite serious about #3.  However, this was before the rise of the e-readers, and Mr. Baen died before that.  The company hasn't changed that stance, however....

So, you want a book for free?

Today, I'm looking at author John Ringo .... who, by the way, has no relationship to outlaw Johnny Ringo, of the old west.  If you look at his novels, you can see he's somewhere around libertarian / right-wing ... however, he actually has reasons for what he believes in, and when it's relevant, he'll explain. When it's not relevant, politics won't enter into it -- usually because too many people are busy shooting at our protagonists.

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 a dozen 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.

And, you can download most of the books he's written for free, here.   And it's 100% legal.

Now, Ringo has only been an author for about ten years now.  He's published 35 novels. Thirty-five.  I've been writing on my own for fifteen years, and I only have about twenty-four.  So, professionally, I hate his guts. Personally, I have enjoyed everything he's ever written.  However, due to the sheer quantity of what he has published, I'm going to have to break him up into several series in order to get this into a readable format.

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.

Book one ....  [below the break]