The Last Centurion | John Ringo | Unexpected Pleasure

The Last Centurion | John Ringo | The Kumbayas

books:

The Last Centurion

	The Last Centurion John Ringo Baen, 2008 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 60 reviews view larger image
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Unexpected Pleasure

Wow. I was in a hurry, looking for a book to read on an upcoming long haul flight and purchased this book for one reason only - the quote on the flyleaf: "I am your Centurian. This America shall not fall!"

I did not know the author or any of his prior books and expected something like Escape From New York or a literary version of the Gears of War commercial.

After finishing the book in one (admittedly long) day, I'm not quite sure what I just read, but it wasn't Escape From New York.

It could have been a Masters Course in Sociology, a Concise Politics of the World, or a graduate course from West Point on military strategy and tactics. Whatever it was, it was amazing and difficult to put down.

Authors who are successful in using an unusual voice (1st person) to present their usually limit that format to the first chapter or two and then revert to a more standard format for the remainder of the book. I wasn't expecting something along the lines of a blog or diary to persist throughout the whole book. That does make for prime script dialog though!

As with any book, there is far more material than could ever be presented in a movie, but I can already envision several approaches to a movie series along the lines of Mad Max and would love to work up a treatment for this.

My only criticism and it is hardly worth mentioning is that the while the flyleaf might lead you to believe that the story is mostly set in America, virtually none of it is. I kept thinking that the material presented in the first half of the book would be used as backstory for something set in the US, but it never really got there. Perhaps that will be where a sequel takes us.

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The Kumbayas

This is the first novel by John Ringo that I have read. I enjoyed it very much. It is a great story. "Bandit Six" is a very fresh and interesting protagonist. His attitude meshes quite closely with the attitude of our military today.

His metaphor of the ants and grasshoppers is brilliant. I hope always to be an ant.

I think John Ringo has coined a new name for the left wing of the Democratic party. No more liberal or progressive. It will now be the "Kumbayas".

Action-Adventure for real men and women!!!

Engrossing action adventure novel that is thankfully free of any leftwing indoctrination, politically correct whining or 'flawed heroes' that have flooded the genre of late. Ringo tells a story which combines excellent military action with social-cultural issues that many of us will identify with. It does take a few chapters to get used to the blog style the story employs but before long I was immersed in the style as well as the story. Hopefully there will be more of Bandit Six to come!!!!

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Military Novel Fans LOOK at this one!

It took a little time to get past the blog style writing but when I did, "Katy, bar the door." Page-turner, couldn't put it down, etc. It is, however, not for the faint of heart. It is very disturbingly real and the idea that it is possible, is very scary. Makes me wish for some "REAL NEWS!"

Great Concept, Flawed Delivery

The novel's premise rates five stars: A military story in a world struck by global cooling and a pandemic, compounded by political incompetence. Unlike some reviewers, I was not offended by the blatant political stand taken by the writer, although his President Warrick was probably much stupider and less pragmatic than her actual inspiration (Hillary Clinton) would have been.

The novel's delivery, however, only rates three stars. I was put off a bit by the writing style, and it tended to be a bit repetitive. Worse, the book was riddled with typographical errors, as well as some obvious factual errors (referring to the Kurdish peshmerga as "Perg Mersha," for instance). Somebody should have done a better job of editing and proofreading. I enjoyed the book, warts and all, but it could have been better.

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