Tag: John Ringo

Saints (Monster Hunter Memoirs #3) ★★★★☆

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saints (Custom)This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Saints
Series: Monster Hunter Memoirs #3
Author: John Ringo, Larry Correia
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 288
Format: Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

Chad blows up at MCB after the experience in New Orleans. This puts him on their Super Shit List and one of the agents starts making things personal. A bad scrying shows Chad is involved with a black magic group kidnapping virgins to raise an Old One. Turns out it is Chad’s brother but that makes Chad involved anyway. Chad takes down his brother and stops the ring. That’s enough proof for the agent AND Agent Franks. Franks beats Chad almost to death and hospitalizes him. Chad then sues MCB and while things are in full swing heads over to England to do some research at the Van Helsing Institute.

There he investigates why some of the occurrences are happening in New Orleans. Turns out, his brother has slightly awakened an Old One’s cocoon. The Agent in charge of MCB in New Orleans has taken MCB being sued by Chad extremely personal so he does nothing when even Earl Harbinger tells him there is a baby Old One about to wake up and eat the world. That means its up to MHI to toe the line again and stand between the Earth and total destruction. MHI wins. Was there any ever doubt? Of course, they get a little help from the Fey and a High Hunt.

The books ends with Earl taking over and describing the events at the Christmas Party where Ray Shackleford IV almost destroys MHI. Turns out it is Earl and Chad who close the Portal to the Old One and Chad gives his life to allow Earl to do so.

My Thoughts:

This was a great wrapup to the trilogy. A nascent Old One growing under New Orleans? Man, how much more of a threat can you get than that? Everything leads up to that though, so the story goes from threat to threat to threat.

Everything isn’t directly connected, so things feel a little discombobulated sometimes. The whole thing with his brother ends so quickly that there was no tension and besides it leading into Chad getting the snot beat out of him, was rather anti-climactic.

Chad’s time in England was boring. It didn’t help that the story about the ghost and the super special metal was included in the Monster Hunter Files anthology so I kind of felt cheated. Him teaching was just as boring.

The final battle was EVERYTHING I want out of a Monster Hunter International fight. Guns, bombs, flamethrowers, Holy Water, and so many monsters. So many, many monsters. Ringo and Correia did a fantastic job of making this a pulse pounding fight!

The ending, with Chad’s sacrifice, was how this trilogy needed to end. Chad’s story had a beginning and this was his end. For all his philandering, dickheaded braggodocio and general arrogance, Chad goes out like a hero.

Overall, this was a worthwhile read in the MHI universe, even if a little bit off from Correia’s style.

★★★★☆

 

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Sinners (Monster Hunter Memoirs #2)

~ Bookstooge ~ 13 Comments

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This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot,, Booklikes & Librarything and linked at Goodreads & Mobileread by  Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

 
Title:       Sinners
Series:    Monster Hunter Memoirs #2
Author:   John Ringo & Larry Correia
Rating:    3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:     Urban Fantasy
Pages:     270
Format:  Digital Edition

 

Synopsis:

Gary Stu bangs an underage Elf [she was only 45] and when her vengeful trailertrash relatives chase him down, he requests a transer to the New Orleans MHI office.

Once there, the action is non-stop, the monsters relentless and the MCB are the good guys too. Magic is on the rise, for no reason anyone can tell and even two-bit sorcerers can suddenly raise powerful elder beings.

But even Gary Stu can’t kill ALL the monsters. Shackleford the IV and Earl come into town with the Happy Face group to help out. But Mardi Gras is coming and things are going to go apocalyptic.

 

My Thoughts:

This was MUCH better than Grunge. Most of it was that Chad, otherwise known as Gary Stu, is just too busy to do anything else except narrate MHI adventures. Which means that there was only theological reference [which was sketchy as all get out] and two cockhound stories about girls.

The rest of the book was totally focused on saving New Orleans from a huge influx of monsters. It was the type of story that I expect when I read an MHI book. Guns, carnage and death abound. Agent Franks gets involved near the end and I’ve always liked stories that included him, even before reading Nemesis (MHI #5). The end, where MHI, MCB [Monster Control Bureau] and even some civilians fight a horde of monster crawdads and just about everybody dies except Chad, Agent Franks and one or two others, was tough to read. It’s never enjoyable reading about the destruction of the good guys.

I do hope the 3rd book comes out soon, as there are several instances of burrows appearing, people disappearing and vague references to some new power arising. The local Vampire Lord calls it a “tourist” and it is apparently what is causing the influx of power. But we don’t get to that part of the story yet. It is referenced but the full implications and the real action concerning it haven’t come about. Honestly, that is what I wanted to read about.

Looking at Correia’s website however, it doesn’t appear that the third book, entitled Saints, will be ready any time soon. He just turned in his parts of it to the editor and now the fitting together must commence. But after this book, I am looking forward to it. Unlike after the first book where I really questioned if I wanted to read this one at all.

To sum up. Good MHI book, lot less bad theology, lot less boinking of chicks and the inclusion of Agent Franks. Good stuff.

star35full-custom

 

bookstooge

  1. Review of MHM #1: Grunge

Grunge (Monster Hunter Memoirs #1)

~ Bookstooge ~ 6 Comments

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This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Booklikes & Librarything by  Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission.

 

 

Title: Grunge
Series: Monster Hunter Memoirs #1
Author: John Ringo, Larry Correia
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: SFF
Pages: 320
Format: Kindle digital edition

 

Synopsis:

Oliver Gardenier, aka Gary Stu, is a boy wonder with some seriously messed up parents. He joins the marines in defiance of his mother and ends up talking to St Peter and given a mission back on Earth: to hunt Monsters. Joining up with Monster Hunters International, Oliver details his adventures.

He also details his seriously messed up theological thoughts on Jesus and God. And just in case you forget, he also states, over and over and over, how successful with women he is.

 

My Thoughts:

If this had been just an MHI story, it would have been awesome. 4stars easy, pushing 4 1/2.

First thing that pushed it down was Gardenier’s continual references to his womanizing. He justifies it by saying he doesn’t want to leave a widow and orphans behind when he inevitably dies on the job, but that is so much BS. He’s probably leaving a trail of byblows who are growing up without a dad and string of woman who wanted more than a night. Those excuses lead into the second, and bigger, reason.

Theology. Ringo, and he is the author of this book, not Correia, presents sin as something just kind of ‘meh’ and that Jesus is our Dude who tells God to chill out on our behalf. In fact, Ringo/Gardenier states that you have to do something REALLY bad to go to hell now. Ringo threw around enough biblical names, terms, etc that it is obvious he’s at least familiar with Scripture but simply choosing to twist it to allow him to do whatever he wants.

Once past those, like I said,  it is a tremendous MHI story. I’ll be reading the next book but with some serious reservations.

star20full-custom

Von Neumann’s War

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This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer.

Title: Von Neumann’s War

Series: Von Neumann’s War

Author: John Ringo & Travis Taylor

Rating: 2 of 5 Stars

Genre: Military SF

Pages: 522

 

Synopsis:

Alien probes have terraformed Mars, the moon and are moving onto the Earth. Eating all metal, the probes are destroying our civilization and eventually us.

But thanks to good old American know-how, ingenuity and super-science, we ARE fighting back.

 

My Thoughts:

In many ways, this was reminiscent of Ringo and Taylor’s Through the Looking Glass, but with about 10,000% more military jingo, gun porn and scientific babble.

First off, this book was about 300 pages too long. Nothing happens or is confirmed until about page 150. Do you get that? Nothing is even confirmed! We get science-babble instead. That was not cool.

Second, Earth is almost completely over-run and it isn’t until the last 50 pages that the rogue grumpy scientist and the redneck scientists and the gutsy  but warm-hearted military group all come together to turn the tide. 50 pages from the end of a 500 page monstrosity.

Thirdly, utter gratuitous violence, that while making sense in-book, just turned me off. Soldiers getting their heads torn off because of their dog-tags? Yeah, no thanks. And cannibalism, even though only vaguely referenced, was done is such a way as to import the horror without actually saying anything. Once again, no thanks. I’m not sure why, as usually I’m all for ultra-violence, but this, it wasn’t good for me.

This just wasn’t for me. And I’m not sure who it IS supposed to be for either. There is a sequel, but I certainly won’t be  reading it.

THE CLAWS THAT CATCH

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THE CLAWS THAT CATCH
Looking Glass #4
John Ringo
Travis Taylor
2 Stars
443 pages

the next Adventures of the Vorpal Blade II.

Two Guns is married, Dr Weaver is a sidelined character and Miriam [the genius linguist who hears the voice in the ship] has taken over from Mimi for weird/genius female role. The ship finds a big artifact, and in order to deny it to the Dreen, figure it out. Turns out to be a big, solar system sized entertainment system. They turn it into a weapon to fight the Dreen. And there are some bio-engineered purple crab thingies that turn out to be Dreen eaters. So the Dreen are fought off, again, and the Alliance of humans, cheerick and hexohaurs[or whatever] have a bit of breathing room.

I got this as a free download off of Baenbooks, and I have to say, I am glad I don’t own this in pbook format. What a waste of paper that would be.

Emerald Sea

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Emerald Sea
Council Wars #2
John Ringo
Fantasy
1 star
490 pages

Herzer and Co go south to some islands to make an alliance with mer-people to take preventative action against Paul’s plans to invade across the ocean. 


Ok, no more of this series for me. It was a naval story with dragons. And lots of sex, that didn’t have anything to do with the story other than to try to spice it up. Bleh. And mer-maid almost rape. By Orcas. Can you say Bestiality?

There Will Be Dragons

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There Will Be Dragons
Council Wars #1
John Ringo
fantasy
3 stars
719 pages

in the 41st century mankind lives in a utopia. People do whatever they feel like while a computer program called ‘mother’ makes sure that nobody kills somebody else and that everyone gets all the energy they need. 

‘Mother’ is overseen by a council of humans. It has split into 2 factions. One wants to just keep things the way they are, the other wants to return to the “good old days of hard work and character building” with them in charge, of course. A coup happens. In the ensuing fight, earth is deprived of all her energy, and hence her gadgets. So everyone has to go back to pre-coal industrial happenings. One guy rallies a town and prepares for the attack by the other people. The good guys win but the council wars look like it could be generational, so everybody settles down to live a long, pre-industrial life. 

It was quite interesting. Ringo confuses me though. One minute he is talking about patriotism, importance of a strong military and the dangers of a bloated federal govt, etc, etc and then 2 people are shacking it up like it is totally normal.

Manxome Foe

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Manxome Foe
Looking Glass #3
John Ringo
Travis Taylor
Mil-SF
3 stars
463 pages

the Vorpal Blade and crew investigate a lost communications outpost. Stumble upon a new species who are being wiped out by the Dreen. Rescue them and come back to earth with the news that the Dreen will arrive within the next 10 years by spaceship. Bergstresser, aka Two-Gun, seems to be taking over as the main protaganist. No Mimi or anything. 😦 Some things felt very shallow though. Like two-gun getting married. He meets a girl, talks to her for all of 4-6hrs, and when he comes back, they are planning on getting married. It just didn’t seem at all plausible.

I still am disappointed in this series though. The first book was JUST so good, oh well.

Vorpal Blade

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Vorpal Blade
Looking Glass #2
John Ringo
Travis Taylor
Mil-SF
3 stars
400 pages

the Vorpal Blade is a converted sub for space travel. Weaver and Miller and Mimi and Tuffi are all on board. The whole purpose of the sub is to explore and look for Dreen presence. They come across a couple of planets, the last which was inhabited.

This book was ok. Not as much action as Into the Looking Glass, and the action that does happen seems to be mainly in the last half or so of the book. I thought Into the Looking Glass was worth owning. This was worth reading. I don’t know if the libraries have any more of the series though.