Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Monday Book Pick: The Last Centurion

Monday, November 8th, 2021

The Last Centurion by John Ringo

Given the last year and half (and a bit), I’m going back to an early 2008 pick. John Ringo’s tale of the “time of suckage.”

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Monday Book Pick: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners

Monday, December 19th, 2016

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners by John Ringo and Larry Correia
Oliver Chadwick Gardenier is back. Seattle got a bit “too hot” for him (How was he to know that elf chick was only 40?), so for his sins, he is sent to New Orleans. Vampires, werewolves, and giant naked mole rats. Oh my! As fans of the series know, the job of the MCB is to keep knowledge of monsters and the “supernatural” from the public. This is a problem in New Orleans, since most of the locals already know that “HooDoo” is real. There are enough outbreaks of zombies and ghouls that cemeteries in New Orleans are built with fences and locked gates. Then there is the full moon. Things get really weird then, and very, very dangerous for Monster Hunters. Like any John Ringo book, the action scenes are very well done. It is the little touches that had me giggling through this book. Like the male bonding sessions with Chad and Milo (Milo is on the roof the car, trying to pick off zombies on a golf course, and Chad is rocking the car…something my own asshole of a brother would do (love ya Fred, but don’t try to deny this). There is a also the Cajun member of “Team Hoodoo” that thinks monsters make good eating. That includes the afore mentioned giant naked mole rat. Monster Hunting in New Orleans is different that what fans of the series have come to expect. For one thing, the MCB publishes a supermarket rag of the local events. Think “plausible denial.” Team Hoodoo are local celebrities, and yes, Chad uses that to get laid. Their “landlord” is a local drug gang, who makes sure nobody bothers the building or their cars. Those drug dealers are out on the streets, at night. Zombies and vampires are bad for business. In all a fun read. The only downside is that there is one more book in this series (The memoirs of Oliver Chadwick Gardenier), and it isn’t out yet.

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Monday Book Pick: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge

Monday, August 29th, 2016

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge by John Ringo and Larry Correia
As my gentle readers know, I’m a big fan of John Ringo and Larry Correia. So when John Ringo decided there was a few Monster Hunter books in him that just had to come out, of course I was there. This is the first in a series of books detailing the life and hard times of one Oliver Chadwick Gardenier, a hot shot monster hunter during the 1980s and early 1990s. Returned to Earth by a fisher named Peter, who said “the boss” had a job for him. That job was hunting monsters. Interesting fellow Chad, genius with a gift for languages, who studied the ASVAB tests so he could make sure that he was made a Rifleman when he joined the Marines. Then there was Chad’s relationship with his parents, especially his mother. Let’s just say they didn’t get along well. One of the cool parts of the book was the “Pro Tips” Chad scatters around his memoirs. Here are some examples: “Pro-tip: If you’re going to be cutting off a lot of heads, get a really good katana.” “I don’t care how big and muscle bound you are, things like yoga and ballet are useful. That’s the pro-tip.” Then there is what to wear when jogging in the dark in an area you know monsters live in. A fun read, like most of Ringo’s books, there is a fair amount of humor mixed with really, really good actions scenes.

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Monday Book Pick: Kildar

Monday, September 15th, 2014

Kildar by John Ringo

The sequel to John Ringo’s military thriller Ghost, which also won an award as a romance novel. At the end of the first novel, our (anti) hero has been touring Eastern Europe and sampling its pleasures. Kildar starts with him lost in a snow storm in Georgia (the country, not the state). A series of events result in him buying a farm, complete with a manor house and tenant farmers. The “tenant farmers” turn out to be the descendants of a long lost band of famous warriors. This book tells how Ghost, now known as “The Kildar”, trains up a company of commandos (with plenty of expensive help), and breaks them in by killing a lot of bad guys trying to sneak into their valley in order to kill, pillage, rape, etc. It also tells how the Kildar just happens to obtain an harem of teenage girls, and is forced into hiring an older (26), and incredibly beautiful harem manager. So Ringo is continuing the themes that won the previous novel that romance award. Additional books in the series pick up the pace, with more killing of bad guys, and rescuing of young women, some of which just happen to be submissive enough to warm the cold, hard heart of a Dom like the Kildar.

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Monday Book Pick: Tiger by the Tail

Monday, January 7th, 2013

Tiger by the Tail by John Ringo and Ryan Sear

The latest in John Ringo’s Paladin of Shadows series. Mostly written by Ryan Sear from an outline by John Ringo. As you should remember, the first book in the series, Ghost (a Monday Book pick in in 2009), was one Ringo felt he had to write from a personal perspective, but never thought it would be published. Not only was it published, but it was a run away best seller that won an award as a Romance novel for its open and honest look into the B&D/S&M world from the viewpoint of a Het male Dom. Tiger by the Tail follows the Kildar and his dour band of warriors to the South Pacific, where they are hunting pirates as a training exercise. Of course, things get interesting from there. It’s a fun filled action series, so expect battles, adventure, beautiful exotic women, spies, and references to really good beer. Ringo handed the bulk of the writing to Ryan Sear. Sear has been the fellow writing the current Executioner series (originally written by Don Pendleton). A gritty pulp series about an Army sniper in Vietnam who’s family has been destroyed by the Mafia, so he declares a one man domestic war on the Organized Crime families. One of the cool things about that series was the firearm gearhead detail. This is something that Ryan Sear has brought into the Paladin of Shadows series and personally, I think it fits well. The characters are a little wooden compared to the previous books, but that isn’t unexpected since this is the first time Sear is taking them out for a spin. Close enough to be recognizable to fans of the series, so as they say “good enough for government work.” Like most books in the series, there is some sex, but this primarily an adventure pulp of the old school, which is a good thing.

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Sunday SciFi: Ringoverse/Warehouse 13 crossover

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

John Ringo has slipped a non-subtle Warehouse 13 reference in his latest book, Queen of Wands.

OK, it’s more of a ‘guest appearance’ than a reference.  Artie and Claudia show up to bag and tag an artifact after Barbara Everette, and an Opus Dei strike team, finish wiping out the nest of evil people who wanted to use it to raise a demon. If you have read the first Special Circumstances book, the only spoiler there concerned Artie and Claudia.

Apparently, John Ringo is a fan of the show.

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Quote of the Day

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

“Firefly just won’t die. And that’s a good things. Browncoats never surrender, they just take up misbehavior…”

— John Ringo

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Heed the words of Bandit Six

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

So every four years we elect a king. Since people like consistency, we tend to elect the same king as many times as we can get away with. (See previous paragraph.) And the king, especially in any sort of emergency, has a lot of power. They don’t always, or even most of the time, have enough to fix things right away. But they’ve got a lot of power.
Including the power to totally screw things up.

For the kids reading this, this is a very important point. When you choose your king, forget most of the reasons you think you should vote for the king. Mostly, the king can’t do much about the economy but ruin it. They can’t make you richer or smarter (although they can manage the reverse). If you want one suggestion, think about all the contingencies under which that king (or queen in this case) may hold your lives in his or her hands. And choose wisely.

Bandit Six

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Monday Book Pick: Fuzzy Nation

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

When I first heard that John Scalzi wanted to do a reboot of H. Beam Piper‘s “Little Fuzzy“, it made my Sunday SciFi pick for 4/11/10. It’s out now, and I’ve read it (thanks Fred!), and I have to say it’s pretty damn good. Piper purists may yelp because there is no contra-grav, but it’s a bloody reboot! Expect change and embrace it. Scalzi clearly has serious SciFi author chops. He wouldn’t be my first choice for a reboot of Space Viking or Uller Uprising, but the Fuzzy books, sure. My top choice for Space Viking would be David Weber, and John Ringo for Uller Uprising.

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Monday Book Pick: The Hot Gate

Monday, June 20th, 2011

The Hot Gate by John Ringo

The third in his latest series, which is “old school SciFi Space Opera”. Ya, we got your epic space battle right here, and in case you forgot no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. They have their own battle plans, that is why they are called the enemy. Sometimes you don’t win, but not losing can still carry the day. A damn fine read. May Mr. Ringo continue providing his ‘reader crack’ a pace that destroys laptops but pays for many new ones.

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