Catching up to 2008

[afuna]

I picked up Ghost by John Ringo today. I'd never heard about it before; it's not a book to walk into unprepared.

You know how you can sometimes run into something so completely ridiculous and over the the top that you think it can't possibly be real, and you turn to Google to find someone who shares your pain? I did that and I have now been introduced to OH JOHN RINGO NO.

Best review I've ever read, about the worst series I've ever run into :D


ETA: I think that review is the only thing that could have induced me to give John Ringo another try. Ghost is a horribly traumatic first run-in with any writer!

Comments

[ex_pippin880]

I still go "OH RINGO NO" at people sometimes. :D

[niqaeli]

I have the t-shirt! It is a brilliant review and a useful phrase in many situations.

To be scrupulously fair to Ringo, it was horrible godawful idfic he wrote to get out of his head so he could write the other stuff and then got talked into releasing by his publisher since people had expressed interest and Baen doesn't have enough of a profit margin to pass over profitable material. I'm not a huge fan of his overall, but, it's not all like that! And he really was good-natured and cheerful about the review and acknowledged that fair points were being made which won him author cookie points from me for NOT turning into a defensive idiot over people panning and lampooning something he wrote.

ANYWAY! I just wanted to also say that I find hradzka to be a generally interesting fellow and every so often he gives us gems like "OH JOHN RINGO NO". :D

[afuna]

Heee yeah, the review did mention it was idfic, which was part of what let me gain perspective. I'm absolutely not reading the rest of that series (it's very clear to me that I wouldn't enjoy it!) but I will probably check out some of Ringo's other work at some point. I suspect that his genre is too political for me to take it as comfort reading, but I'm not terrified of trying Ringo again (errrrr eventually).

If I hadn't read hradzka's review, I would probably have walked away from Ghost with the impression that it was standard of Ringo's work and not dared pick up anything else by him.

Oh -- that was how I found hradzka's entry in the first place. I was trying to figure out whether Ringo had set out to create a deliberately unsympathetic main character, or whether it was all unexamined assumptions, and I guess I have my answer now :)

[niqaeli]

I'm not fond of Ringo, I tend to avoid him, he's generally a genre I don't like and his politics are... not mine, which is fine, but isn't something I've patience for given everything else as well.

But not everything is quite Ghost, at least. I'm so sorry you walked into that unprepared! >_>

[vass]

Did you read the comments? There is one gem: John Ringo himself showing up and behaving with great civility and a sense of humour. For the rest of it... that series has a lot of very serious fans who show up to defend it, and mansplain to any female commenters they can find how men like the main character are necessary to protect the sheeple (actual word used) from the bad men out there.

[afuna]

I didn't see the comment from John Ringo, but I did get the impression from the entry linked in the ETA that he'd handled it with grace!

I'm not interested in engaging with anyone who'd defend the main character in that fashion; mostly I'm grateful to the entry for letting me know what's in the series without my actually having to read them all through *g*

[rydra_wong]

Oh, my. I'm sorry that you walked into that unwarned.

OTOH, I am glad that now you've found the memetic joy that is OH JOHN RINGO NO, not to mention hradzka, who is both interesting and very funny.

[afuna]

So much catharsis love!

[branchandroot]

O_O Oh my god, I am so sorry. That whole series should come with big, serious warning labels; I was lucky enough to avoid it, because I had read the Weber-Ringo collaborations and then the Aldenata books, and had figured out that he has a really disgusting taste for torturing his female characters on-screen. The Aldenata series is about as Ringo as I'm willing to go; the rest of them are just way too fucked up.

If you do want to give it another shot, I'd quite recommend the Weber-Ringo books (starts with March Upcountry), as Weber interjects a good deal of lighter and more (let's face it) liberal notes into someone who's idea of a good time really is to kill off most of his cast.

[niqaeli]

IAWTC! Weber's definitely far more to my taste than Ringo. He's generally decent on female characters; among other things, he manages a fair ratio of walk-on characters, which is nice because you get the sense that women actually do stuff.

Honor Harrington, probably his most well-known character, her life *is* kind of horrible but it was going to be since she's modeled after Horatio Hornblower and it's about a career in the navy during war. It'd be kind of bizarre and unrealistic if her life didn't involve a lot of awful things, and at least she gets a strong arc out of it.

[afuna]

I have read the Honor Harrington series, and have enjoyed it for the most part :D I'm trying to decide whether to continue though; it started out good, then started going downhill and the last book I read in the series was tedious. It felt like Weber had painted himself in a corner and had to hit a gigantic reset button in order to have some wiggle room to keep the series going. I haven't dared pick up the next book to see whether it gets better again.

I agree re: strong female characters \o/ I like that there are enough female characters around and they're in all sorts of roles, that it doesn't feel like a case of token female on deck and that makes me \o/

[afuna]

Oh thank you! I will give March Upcountry a try (I have the books from the Baen library, or maybe it was the Baen CDs, so I won't lose anything by peeking *g*).

Would you recommend the Aldenata books as well, or should I just give those a pass?

After Ghost, I feel like I only dare pick up series by Ringo that people have actually told me about :x

[branchandroot]

Hmmm. The Aldenata books are a lot more focused on a dystopian scenario. Earth is being overrun by carnivorous aliens and the people who might help are screwing everyone over. It's /extremely/ militaristic; in fact it's kind of "project real-world military getting screwed by government and suppliers onto alien races for heightened effect". He kills off major characters with gay abandon, but the Major Major ones do survive. There are utterly kick-ass women, but, um, they tend to be the ones you see getting tortured or interrogated or such, so I'm almost grateful there are only a few.

I take it in quite small doses, but I do think it's a good adventure series with some really pretty fascinating worldbuilding behind it. I just really wish Ringo would go find a good therapist for his issues with women.

[afuna]

Belatedly, thank you. I feel much better going into the series forewarned about issues *wryly*

[azurelunatic]

OH JOHN RINGO NO. Indeed.

[vlion]

Wauuuughgh.

I bought Ringos' Live Free or Die.

It was a waste of time. I liked it, sort of, but so over the top I am going to sell it to the bookstore.

[afuna]

Hee. I recommend the Baen free library for trying out authors. I'd be a bit less amused if I'd had to buy Ghost because I put it down less than halfway through (Then you can still go and buy their next book if you like them! *g*)

[pauamma]

*wince*