John Ringo

[suciul]

John Ringo apparently wrote an ultra-right-wing piece of polemic called The Paladin of Shadows (or something) which is by all accounts up there as one of the worst books ever written. This led to this blog post and the coining of a new catchphrase which was all over the internet in days: "OH JOHN RINGO NO!" There are now T-shirts and everything.

Apparently Ringo repented the work afterwards, and took the whole thing in good humour.

I've heard his other books are much better, well, at least in the fine switch-off-your-brain-and-enjoy/David Weber tradition.

Well, the Ghost/Kildar series which is also known as Paladin of Shadows is not for everyone - Mr. Ringo enjoyed that rant and allowed T-shirts to be made and sold for a non-profit helping victims of white slavery. The series has been a big bestseller though as mentioned after book 3 I increasingly became bored with it

In terms of worst book ever - well, I enjoyed Ghost a lot but I agree that the s&m hard core scenes may be a turnoff - I do not care either way - while the right wing message is not worst than Morgan's left wing message so again it depends on taste.

I do enjoy Ringo and RK Morgan and they are both similar in my mind in many ways in their fiction, while polar opposites ideologically.

Ringo's books are not easy fluff though since they are dark, explicit, violent and he kills off characters left and right including favorite ones that you would believe safe.

Most of his books are free online at the link above, so just check them out and see for yourself.

[Michigan]

I do enjoy Ringo and RK Morgan and they are both similar in my mind in many ways in their fiction, while polar opposites ideologically.

I thought Altered Carbon was pretty good so that's a good sign. The Looking Glass series is the one that caught my eye, I'll probably pick it up but right now I found this Matt Reilly guy who writes some pretty exciting millitary thriller stuff.

[kcf]

Oh John Ringo, No

[Dawoad]

Well, I'm a speed reader so the stuff that John ringo writes tends to be right up my alley.
1)There's A LOT of action and if I'm just reading cause im bored thats a good thing
2)I can skim alot of the right wing fanaticism "there aint no such thing as climate change!!!"(the Last Centurion) and "Green= Death of the World"(legacy of the Aldenata series)
3)I can also skim most of f*cough* sexual *cough* stuff . . .(paladin of the shadows)
4)he's usually fairly good at keeping books somewhere within the realms of realism (except when he goes off about climate stuff)
5)he writes ALOT! the legacy of the aldenata (+side stories etc.) kept me occupied for a good 2 days. I haven't found anyone but Weber who could say the same (at one sitting that is. I've read Starship Troopers so many times its not even funny anymore). (and I do mean that i read all those books in two days . . .twas fun . . .sorta.

[tnprogrammer]

Yep, Ringo seems extreme right, or at least posing as one, up to the point of denying global worming and hating tofu and other low-fat food. For some obscure reason he think low-fat food is unpatriotic

Edit: I mean "global warming"

Denying Global Warming just makes him that much smarter in my book

[Chuffalump]

I've read and enjoyed the Prince Roger books and a few more from the Baen Free Library. If you like mil-sf then he's a fun enough read but he certainly doesn't stand out from the crowd.

[tnprogrammer]

I really enjoy Ringo's stuff. Military SF is always a good read when you want something that will grab your interest quickly and it's usually a quick read. I'm sure that most of us that have been heavy readers all of our lives can blow through books rather quickly when we want. Somtimes you want to read something that takes more time and intellect to follow, and sometimes you just want to be entertained

[Match]

Wow first post.

I like John Ringo when he is writing about what he knows, and not about what he believes in. And I fin I like better his first, and sometimes second, books in any saga, but by the 3rd book, his writing turns more boring than fun. My favorites of him are the first book in the Pooslen War and Looking Glass.
I started reading recently Live Free or Die and while I find it entertaining at parts; it becomes, well, dumb and boring, too much author filibuster, and the hero, who is better in every way than the evil, incompetent government, because taxes and governments are always evil, puts forward some political and social views that are, for a right wing non-american like my self, well, laughable at best.