Monday Book Pick: Citadel
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
This is the second in his “Troy Rising” series and it doesn’t fail to deliver! The first book in the series was a pick last year. He said he was going to go old school SciFi Space Opera with this series, and my hope what he would go E.E. “Doc” Smith big. Let me just say that my faith in Mr. Ringo was not misplaced. A very fun read. I recommend this series to long term Ringo fans, like me, and to those who haven’t sampled his particular brand of reader crack yet.
Monday Book Pick: Live Free or Die
Live Free or Die by John Ringo.
Woot! This book was fun! Loosely based on the back story of the Schlock Mercenary webcomic, John Ringo has fun with classic SciFi concepts like First Contact, asteroid mining, and big nasty space Battlecruisers! He doesn’t think small either. Lots and lots of mirrors in space make great big solar powered Death Rays! Ringo is planning more books in this series and I’m hoping he goes E.E. “Doc” Smith big.
Quote of the Day
“The communist countries had the worst environmental record in the world; the only saving grace was that they were so inefficient they couldn’t do more damage.” — NY Times best selling author John Ringo
Monday Book Pick: Kildar
Kildar by John Ringo
The second book in the Ghost series. The story of how a wayward, Tango killing, ex-SEAL, buys a valley in Georgia (the country, not the state) and stumbles on a lost tribe of dedicated warriors who farm between battles.
Monday Book Pick: March to the Sea
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
March to the Sea by John Ringo and David Weber
Second in the Empire of Man series. Prince Roger continues his education as he and the Bronze Barbarians continue their trek across a harsh alien wilderness filled with hordes of aliens, hostile and otherwise, but mostly hostile.
Today’s Quotes
Old tolerance; allowing others a differing point of view.
New “Liberal” tolerance; declaring certain views tolerant and others not, then refusing to allow certain views to be stated because one has already declared them intolerant (normally without making any attempt to understand them).
“Bruce Campbell is to crazy cool as Chuck Norris is to roundhouse kicks”
“Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy.” — John Derbyshire
“At the heart of every liberal program lies the idea that we are entitled to something just because we have a heartbeat. Liberals tell us that we are entitled to these things not because we’ve earned them, worked for them, or sacrificed for them; we are entitled to them because we have a pulse. … Like the grasshopper in Aesop’s fable, liberals believe that the government owes them a living. It exists to meet their every need, regardless of their own efforts, or lack thereof.” — Rich Hailey
“You know, a huge drain on California’s economy is the illegal immigrants. We need to close the borders.” — Larry Flynt, Hustler publisher and CA democrat gubernatorial candidate
“Well, if I use Hispanic culture I get corruption and really good salsa music. If I use Chinese culture I get rigid thinking and decent Szechwan. If I use Islamic culture I get…not damned much of anything. And ditto for Africa although at least the rhythm is good and you can dance to it. But if I use Western European Culture I get industry, higher standards of living, longer lifespans and a generally “happier” society. Damn, I think I’ll just have to go with WesternCiv even if I do have to put up with the Lutherans.” — John Ringo
“Political Correctness is inverted McCarthyism.” — Dennis Miller
“[moveon.org] is about lies and a distortion of history.” — Simon Wiesenthal Center
“Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.” — HL Mencken.
Damn You John Ringo! Damn You!
First off, ya…I’m a big fan of John Ringo‘s books, and he’s written a lot of them. I’ve been reading the Sluggy Freelance comic, which gets a lot of references in his books, even longer and I’m a long time Schlock Mercenary fan too.
I took a peek at the leaked advanced chapters for his next book, Live Free or Die, over at Buckley’s site (ya, that Buckley) and Ringo explains in the forward that this book is “sort of playing about” in the Schlock Mercenary universe, but back when the galactic civilization first made contact with Earth.
Now to highlight what an evil being John Ringo is (something he freely and perhaps just a bit too gleefully admits), this book won’t be released until February 2010. Oh…Baen will have an e-ARC version available earlier, which could be mine for about the cost of the hardcover that won’t be out for another four months.
Ok, so both John Ringo and Baen Books are EVIL! I say that with the highest level of respect for their grasp of the capitalistic system.
While I’m here, I’ll put in a good word for Baen’s ebook sales. No DRM (i.e. the copy ‘protection’ crap that assumes that paying customers are thieves), available in multiple formats, and when new books are released in hardcover, you can pick up the e-book version, direct from Baen, for usually $6. If that is still too much for you, check out what they have on the net for free! If you haven’t read of any of John Ringo’s books, you can read seven of his book for free.
Update: It’s late January, so you can pick up a DRM free e-book version of Live Free or Die at Baen‘s webscription.net site for $6. Or you could wait a little longer and get Live Free or Die as a hardcover from Amazon for $17.16. My bet is that Baen will make more money off that $6 e-book than the hardcover with a suggested retail price of $26.
Update: Live Free or Die was my Monday Book Pick for 2/1/2010.
Tuesday Book Pick:The Tuloriad (The Legacy of Aldenata)
Filed under: Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction
The Tuloriad (The Legacy of Aldenata)
by Tom Kratman with some help by John Ringo
The latest in the Posleen War series. Ya, this is supposed to be the Monday Book Pick, but I’m late with the post.
John Carter of Mars film still in the works
A film version of “A Princess of Mars”, the first in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series has been listed on IMDB since 2005.
It’s still listed as in pre-production, with the latest in release dates as 2012. There are also some cast listings. The most interesting is Willem Dafoe as the Green Martian King Tars Tarkas.
As I said before, this film could be amazingly cool or a fiasco of epic proportions. With William Dafoe on board, I’m leaning more toward amazingly cool.
If the four armed Green Martians look sufficently cool, this could be a plus toward getting David Weber & John Ringo‘s March Upcountry made into a film. That would be a good thing.
Reynolds & Ringo meet at last
Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, interviews NY Times best selling author John Ringo.
John Ringo is known for writing Military SciFi mostly, but he has also written fantasy and won an award as romance author.
The main topic is John Ringo’s book, The Last Centurion which was my Monday Book Pick for October 24, 2008.