Kildar - John Ringo

Baen, Copyright 2006, 462 pages

ISBN: 978-1-4165-2133-4

Read: September 2011 (at age 33)

First time read.

This is the sequel to the epically bad Ghost.  It’s not as bad, and also not as good.  Don’t read this one first.

From the back cover:

Problems, problems, problems!

All Mike Harmon ever wanted to be was a SEAL.  But after problems in the teams, college student was a decent second best.  However, trouble seemed to follow him where he went.  Now, after having angered every terrorist on Earth and at least five governments, college was no longer an option, and buying a farm in a third world country was looking pretty good. 

Of course, nothing was ever simple for the Ghost.  With Chechen terrorists knocking on the door and tenant farmers with a truly Byzantine culture, the question was whether he could drag the Keldara into the 21^st century before the Chechen blow them back into the 6^th.

Reactions after the break. There are spoilers, but you've already this read, right?  There aren't as many as in there.

Overall:

The “Oh John Ringo No!” quotient was way down in this book compared to Ghost.  It didn't make the book better.  The characters took a few steps toward verisimilitude, but it’s such a long trip that they didn't make it remotely there.  There was an attempt at a story arc, rather then the vignettes shown in Ghost, but it wasn't a good story arc.  Instead, it was kind of a lame castle defense story about spending money.  The “climax” was so telegraphed that it wasn't particularly climactic.  Essentially, the things that were so outrageous to be good in Ghost were toned down, and the things that were so terrible in Ghost were improved to merely bad.  There wasn't near so much hate on for liberals, but there was WAY more of the “lets make you all Americans because Americans are so much better than everyone else” vibe that also gets my hackles up.

Probably the best part of the books was the disclaimer at the beginning that I’m going to quote in its entirety:

This is a work of fiction.  All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual people or incidents is purely coincidental.

So far so good  Then it gets interesting:

This book and series has no connection to reality.  Any attempt by the reader to replicate any scene in this series it to be taken at the reader’s own risk.  For that matter, most of the actions of the main character are illegal under US and international law as well as most of the stricter religions of the world.  There is no Valley of the Keldara.  Heck, there is no Kildar.  And the idea of some Scots and Vikings getting together to raid the Byzantine Empire is beyond ludicrous.  The islands described in a previous book do not exist.  Entire regions described in these books do not exist.  Any attempt to learn anything from these books is disrecommended by the author, the publisher, and the author’s mother who wishes to state that he was a very nice boy and she doesn't know what went wrong.

Awesome.

One Rant:  There was a story arc, but it was so obvious that it was more of a relief that it finally ended than an exciting climax.

Another Rant:  The porn scenes weren't anywhere near the quality of the previous book. 

One… question:  Will this book set up a ramp up to an interesting story in the next books?  It was a quick read, and I’m intrigued as to where the story’s going to go.  It certainly didn't go much of anywhere in this one.

I think that that’s enough of a review.  This really wasn't a good book.  It read all right, and the A-team vibe was kind of cool, but they didn't really do anything other than spend money.

Rating: 2

Other opinions:

A while ago, I found a nice write-up on a Canadian military forum.  I can't find it back to link it, though.  

The write-up in Hradzka's Journal covers this book as well as  Ghost.  Read it, if you haven't yet.