![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Author: John Ringo
May. 23rd, 2006 10:02 amI first encountered John Ringo through the March series he co-authored with David Weber, and familiar as I am with Weber, there were things I could extrapolate about Ringo. Like his propensity to kill off characters right and left. Over the course of three books, a company of soldiers (Praetorian Guard-sort) were reduced to a handful of men and women. So, I wasn't too thrilled with him. His other series, the Posleen War, is about the invasion of Earth, and again with the swathes of destruction and dying off of characters. I can usually take one or two, or, well, Weber's good at killing off the ones you like in appropriately tragic circumstances, but swathes!
Swathes of dead characters aside, he's a good writer. His characters breathe, he's obviously got the military and technical stuff down, but can explain it to the masses well without swamping us in irrelevant details, and he writes a rocking adventure.
What I didn't realize is that he's a kinky bastard, too. Heh. In the good way. I hit up Baen for material (Gotta fill the Palm for the road trip soon) yesterday and his newest is Choosers of the Slain, due out in July. Which, being Baen, means I can read about 3/4 of the book, and might get the next quarter in a couple of days. (That sort of thing makes me twitch like a junkie looking for a hit.) It's the 3rd in a series, so of course I had to go back and read Ghost and Kildar. (Reduces the twitching, dontcha know.)
It was... illuminating. Not Mack Bolan level of mindless violence and sex, but mindful of both the goals of violence (the main character Mike's biggest target is Islamic terrorists) and sex. There's quite a bit of vanilla sex, B&D with a healthy dose of roleplay, and a hint of S&M, and all very much in character. You could tell that Ringo didn't shy away from at the very least, some in-depth research of the BDSM scene. Tres hot, too - the man can write some good sex.
I didn't stick with Mack Bolan because it was brain candy - the sort of chalky mints that get rather tasteless and boring over time. Ringo I could stick with - he's like a chewy oatmeal cookie with nuts and raisins and other good things.
Swathes of dead characters aside, he's a good writer. His characters breathe, he's obviously got the military and technical stuff down, but can explain it to the masses well without swamping us in irrelevant details, and he writes a rocking adventure.
What I didn't realize is that he's a kinky bastard, too. Heh. In the good way. I hit up Baen for material (Gotta fill the Palm for the road trip soon) yesterday and his newest is Choosers of the Slain, due out in July. Which, being Baen, means I can read about 3/4 of the book, and might get the next quarter in a couple of days. (That sort of thing makes me twitch like a junkie looking for a hit.) It's the 3rd in a series, so of course I had to go back and read Ghost and Kildar. (Reduces the twitching, dontcha know.)
It was... illuminating. Not Mack Bolan level of mindless violence and sex, but mindful of both the goals of violence (the main character Mike's biggest target is Islamic terrorists) and sex. There's quite a bit of vanilla sex, B&D with a healthy dose of roleplay, and a hint of S&M, and all very much in character. You could tell that Ringo didn't shy away from at the very least, some in-depth research of the BDSM scene. Tres hot, too - the man can write some good sex.
I didn't stick with Mack Bolan because it was brain candy - the sort of chalky mints that get rather tasteless and boring over time. Ringo I could stick with - he's like a chewy oatmeal cookie with nuts and raisins and other good things.
