Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

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.

Monday Book Pick Archive

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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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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: Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels

Monday, June 18th, 2012

Loose Cannon: The Tom Kelly Novels by David Drake

A pair of Cold War with Aliens thrillers sharing the same hero/anti-hero, Tom Kelly. Tom Kelly is a spy, and not the sauve, Vodka martini drinking type of spy that that era made famous. Nope, Kelly is a roll up your sleeves and get the job done, regardless of where the chips may fly type of spy. The ladies still love him, probably because is a seriously “bad boy.” Ok, not a bad “boy”, he is a man who lives by his rules, not the rules of the agencies that employ him. If you are looking for gritty action with a healthy dose of aliens, settle down in a comfortable chair and get to know Tom Kelly.

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Monday Book Pick: The Sixth Column

Monday, February 20th, 2012

The Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein

The first published work by Robert Heinlein, originally as a serial in the pulps of the 1940s. Based on an outline by John Campbell, Heinlein took some of the edge off the overt racism in the outline. Keep in mind that was written in the 1940s and incidents such as the Rape of Nanking were know. It’s good Heinlein, not great Heinlein.

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Part 2 of J.R. Dunn’s “Beating Decline”

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

Baen Books published an interesting Miltech article by Mr. Dunn, and has recently published Part 2, War in the Dirt.

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Nice Product Placement

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Damon has a copy of Michael Z. Williamson‘s new book, Rogue, on the couch.

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Monday Book Pick: Citadel

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Citadel by John Ringo

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.

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Monday Book Pick: Kildar

Monday, November 9th, 2009

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 Archive

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Damn You John Ringo! Damn You!

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

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.

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