Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

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: Amateur Night

Monday, August 19th, 2013

Amateur Night: A World War II Historical Adventure by C.P. McKechney

An interesting, but long, story about a Nazi attempt to knock out the Panama Canal just before the US becomes involved in WWII. The plot is foiled by a collection of ‘expendable amateurs.’ This book was interesting to me personally in several ways. First, I’m a more than average history buff, I enjoy military fiction, and most of the action occurs in the Canal Zone, where I lived for a couple of years as a kid. There are some interesting characters in the book, some of which are slightly more filled out than your typical cardboard cutout character. The action scenes are well written and are clearly carefully story boarded. There is also a very good, and shorter, book trapped inside this novel waiting to get out. I was reminded of an interview with an author who pays his mortgage with sales from e-books, in which he points out that he budgets for an editor for all of his books. Those carefully story boarded actions scenes I mentioned, you read almost all of them multiple times as the author provides multiple viewpoints for each fight. These are not blended together to provide a fast narrative that conveys the chaos of combat. You get the full action sequence played out, in full, from two or more perspectives, one right after the other. If you enjoy this type of book, and have the time to kill, give it a go. If you don’t have the patience to slog through a book that really is much too long, then don’t start this one.

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Monday Book Pick: Scope of Justice

Monday, April 29th, 2013

Scope of Justice by Michael Z. Williamson

The first of MZW’s MilFic Sniper series. The story of two US Army snipers taking on a dangerous mission in Pakistan to take out a high ranking al Qaeda member. It’s full of SNAFU, FUBAR and TARFU. In other words a good description of a military mission. An engaging and interesting read.

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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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Monday Book Pick: OSS Commando: Final Option

Monday, October 1st, 2012

OSS Commando: Final Option by Charles Sasser

A military thriller set in the final days before the D-Day invasion in 1944. The hero is Captain James Cantrell, a former Chicago homicide detective, now a member of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). His mission is to keep the secret of the D-Day landing location from the Germans. He has a landing craft sunk underneath him, survives a bombing attack in downtown London, parachutes into Nazi occupied France, breaks into a heavily guarded castle, and has not one, but two beautiful women to deal with. One a Nazi spy and other a member of the French resistance forces.

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Friday B-Movie Pick: Sharpe’s Challenge

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Sharpe’s Challenge

After a long break from the Sharpe series of movies, Sean Bean returns to the role of Richard Sharpe. This time he has to travel to India to save his ex-NCO, played by Daragh O’Malley. They had the budget to actually film this in India, so ya, really nice location shots, and a beautiful Indian actress to play the femme fatale. A good solid action flick set in the hayday of the British Empire. It stands alone well, but you may want to watch the entire series before watching this. I did, and it was time well spent. After watching these, you will know how to fire three rounds a minute from a musket!

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Monday Book Pick: Eye of the Hammer

Monday, August 20th, 2012

Eyes of the Hammer (The Green Beret Series) by Bob Mayer

Fast paced military fiction set the 1980s with that late 80s Golden Age of Tom Clancy Techno Thrillers feel. In this case it’s Columbian drug lords being targeted by Green Berets and the rest of the Special Operations Command. The Drug Lords have their moments, but they don’t fair well against in the long run against the U.S. Military. A good read with Good Guys and Bad Guys, and most of the Bad Guys get what is coming to them. There are the standard themes running through that you can pick up in other Military Fiction, typically written by former enlisted or NCOs, including the concept that the only good officers are mavericks.

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Monday Book Pick: SEAL Team Six: The Novel

Monday, May 14th, 2012

SEAL Team Six: The Novel by Chuck Dixon

A nice action novel about SEALs in the unit formerly known as SEAL Team Six. Here they are hunting Islamic terrorists who are finding and grooming “home grown” terrorists. It’s not about the fancy gear, or the politics behind the scenes, it’s about Good Guys finding and killing Bad Guys. For a $0.99 Kindle ebook, it certainly delivers value for your money. When I finished it, I was happy to find out it was the first in a planned series.

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Monday Book Pick: Knox’s Irregulars

Monday, April 16th, 2012

Knox’s Irregulars by J. Wesley Bush

Nice bit of Military Science Fiction. It has powered armor, drone attacks, high tech aircraft and down and dirty partisan Guerrilla warfare.

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Monday Book Pick: Seize the Day

Monday, August 29th, 2011

Seize the Day by Richard Marcinko and Jim DeFelice

Wow, the Rogue Warrior series is up to fourteen with this installment. It’s a good action yarn, and Marcinko like to remind you that he does have a Masters in International Relations and has more than “shooting and looting” in his world travels. In this book, he reminds that you sucks to be an average Cuban under Castro’s brand of Communism and that there are worse prisons on the island than the terrorist holding cells at Gitmo. My favorite in the series is still the first one, his autobiography written to pay his legal bills.

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