The Last Centurion

I've been reading military sf for a long time. Occasionally a book will stand out to me due to its premise and I'll snatch it up. Ofttimes I'm rewarded with, at the worst, a halfway enjoyable experience that (if nothing else) is enjoyable. I bought this one for the same reason only to realize not only is the book not enjoyable, but it's also a vehicle for the author's politics to the detriment of literally everything else. I get that sf authors have opinions and biases, that I expect, but not since Starship Troopers have I spent so much time reading vanilla flavored para-fascist theory hoping for the author to remember he was writing a novel and not a manifesto, only to be disappointed.

This is my first John Ringo book and I can say with 100% certainty that I'll be reading much more of him. As a conservative, this book hits it big with me. But I can definitely see where the other liberal reviewers got angry with it. The first 150 pages are the entire back-story to the main part of the book. This might have driven me away if it wasn't so EXCITING and FUNNY to read. I couldn't put it down. The only time I did was when I got to the meat of the story and had to sit back and process everything I had just read. You probably won't like this book if you're a liberal. If you're open-minded enough, however, it might change your mind on certain things. Bottom line, I finished this book in a day, that was how good it was. Don't let the negative reviews stop you from getting this.

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.

This is another of Ringo's books I couldn't put down. Although many of the themes that exist in both the Paladin of Shadows series and the Looking Glass series really are trumpeted in this book, I am not sure I would call it Science Fiction. All of the tech in the book is either in use today, or near release, the theories espoused are currently being discussed, etc. To those who slam the book as a conservative diatribe I say be careful. This book may or may not reflect JR's personal views, just as Stranger in a Strange Land may or may not have reflected RAH's views. What are presented are the views of the CHARACTER, which I find interesting. I am not an expert in any of the fields discussed, but I can tell that experts were consulted. The book does make it clear that the character has biases, and makes no bones about them. I agree with many of the points brought up in the book, especially about the media. I also feel that many liberals go to almost religeous extremes and ignore fact in favor of "feeling good" about their choices in life. The slam of the female president was a bit over the top (no matter how much I dislike the model for the character personally), I think it was a bit much, but I can see how a soldier would feel that way. Anyway, these are just my thoughts on the book. If you are of a conservative mindset, or can simply read the book for entertainment, it is interesting. If you are a liberal who takes offense easily, then this book will probably infuriate you.

What more can be said? Written very much "blog style" by "Bandit Six", "The Last Centurion" is a story in three parts. The first part is the "framing" story, of how bad the world gets. The triple-whammy of a plague, a fast-upcoming global ice age, and utterly clueless White House very nearly destroys things and wrecks the nation. The second part is the Thrilling Heroics-basically the 10,000 with tanks. Trapped deep in Iran due to a foolish White House, with the crap getting deeper and deeper, Bandit Six pretty much drives from Iran to Iraq to Turkey, and reshapes the Middle East. All with a touch of very black humor and very sardonic comments on the nature of the area. The little anecdotes have the feel of somebody that has actually Been There and Done That. The third part is the "cleaning of the temple" portion of the book. The black humor is very, very apparent and Bandit Six has a good level of navigation of the whole "Puzzle Palace" that eventually culminates in the last battle of the book. If there is a issue to the book, there are so many statements that Bandit Six makes (references, for example) that a Tom Kratman or Michael Crichton-style set of endnotes of his cites would be very useful, since the book does not have hyperlinks. Good reading, I recommend.

The Last Centurion (2008) is a standalone SF novel of the near future. It is set about a decade from the present when two natural disasters hit simultaneously: a virulent disease and solar cooling. It is presented as the draft of an autobiography by the main character, but also has a few comments by his wife (whom we never meet, although some hints are given). In this novel, Bandit is the scion of farmers. He grows up on a farm in southern Minnesota, is the captain of the high school football team and goes to agriculture college on a football scholarship. Since pocket money was scarce, he joins Army ROTC and receives a small stipend. Bandit graduates with a degree in Agronomy and is commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. The Army sends him to Infantry Officer Basic course and then to the Third Infantry Division in Savannah, Georgia. Soon his unit is deployed to Iran. He enjoys the tour, although two of his troopers are killed in action. Returning to Savannah, Bandit is promoted to First Lieutenant and attends the Advance Course and Jump School. Then he is sent to the Ranger course. When he returns to his unit, they are preparing for another deployment. Since he is too senior for a line platoon and too junior to be an Executive Officer, Bandit is assigned as the Assistant Operations Officer of his battalion. The S-3 himself is a wuss, so Bandit does all the work. He learns a lot about training and operations while holding down the job, but this tour is not as much fun as the previous one. Returning to Savannah, he is still the Assistant S-3, but his new boss knows what he is doing and passes on his knowledge to his subordinates. The next time he is sent to the sandbox, Bandit is given command of the battalion Scout Platoon. Since the battalion commander is using this platoon as his own special ops unit, Bandit has a really fun tour, kicking down doors and ambushing insurgents. He returns with scars and a Purple Heart. In this story, the weather is turning cold. Although the President's party is still crying global warming, the Army meteorologists have gotten word that the Sun is cooling down. They start planning for another (hopefully not full blown) ice age. The Army has also gotten word of a new form of Asian Bird Influenza that can be spread via humans. It can lie latent on doorknobs or other surfaces for up to four days and then show no symptoms in the infected individual for another three days. It is spreading as fast as the refugees from the infected zones. Worst, the flu mutates rapidly and all current vaccines are mostly ineffective. The Army inoculates all its troops, despite their griping, with an experimental vaccine that uses a different and more effective approach. When the flu hits the USA, almost every soldier (and every other American serviceman) is immune to the disease. This story is written in the first person, so most of the story is an expression of Bandit's opinions on the Army and politics. And