So, people who read John Ringo

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

What's he all about? I've been listening to the Cruxshadows for years, always wonder when Winterborn comes on and I catch the reference after a girlfriend's dad said "Oh, hey, that's about a John Ringo book," while I was listening. Of course, being lazy on a scale the cosmos cannot regard, I never looked that deeply into the matter. By deeply I mean I think I read down to "outspoken something or other and a utili-kilt" on the wikipedia and got sidetracked to something else.
So I was just wondering what, exactly, John Ringo was all about (besides writing Military Science Fiction, I remember that much and could gather it from the song, anyway), and, more specifically, what the novel Winterborn concerned.
Reccomended, nor reccmonded? If you know the Cruxshadows, anything like the song, nothing like the song?

[Mavian]

Not sure what exactly he's about, but I can fill in the Cruxshadows bit.

Cruxshadows is mentioned several times in the Paladin of Shadows series, which is a very very messed up half BDSM/half Military Fiction hodgepodge.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

They are, evidently, his favourite band. I'm simply wondering how much the song actually has to do with the book. Since everything I've gathered about him before is very different from the much larger amount I know about Rogue and his lyrics.

[Mavian]

The main character takes his code name from it, and he sings it during combat, other than that, I don't know. Never actually listened to the song.

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

Oh. That's, uh, weird. I mean, the codename thing is kinda sensible, but, singing gothic electropop in a fight? I couldn't do it. Or, for that matter, take it seriously. Thanks for the info, I think I might just give this a miss.

[Dervag]

They are, evidently, his favourite band. I'm simply wondering how much the song actually has to do with the book. Since everything I've gathered about him before is very different from the much larger amount I know about Rogue and his lyrics.The song predates the book; it is more accurate to say that the book is about the song than the other way around.

The main character is a former Navy SEAL whose character can best be described as 'warlike, basically honorable, but with extremely morally questionable personal habits and extreme political beliefs.' He happens to like the song "Winterborn" a lot, because it expresses how he feels about life very well. He knows damn well that he is quite capable of being a very evil person, but he has dedicated himself to pursuing enemies that he (with reason) deems evil, and is entirely willing to accept his own death as the price of this pursuit.

Due to a strange and improbable combination of events, he finds himself in hot pursuit of an Al Qaeda operation that plans to kidnap a large group of American college-age females and torture them to death. After the resolution of these events in the first third of the first book of this series, titled "Ghost", further adventures take place.

Frankly, the only way I can read anything in the books at all after the aforementioned first third of the first book is by fast-forwarding through the sex scenes (there are none in the first third of the first book, which is the place where "Winterborn" actually comes up). I suspect that most people would do the same if they were trying to read the books. If you do that, then as pure military fiction they are actually quite good.


The main character takes his code name from it, and he sings it during combat, other than that, I don't know. Never actually listened to the song.I can't remember him actually doing that during combat. Although at one point when he is grievously wounded and certain that he is about to die, he's sort of whispering some of the lyrics to himself, sort of as an aid to concentration.


Thanks for the info, I think I might just give this a miss.I cannot blame you in the slightest; there are a vast number of other books out there that any normal person would enjoy more or, at least, just as much.