John Ringo

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For the 19th century American outlaw and gunslinger, see Johnny Ringo. For John, Ringo, Paul and George, see The Beatles.
For other uses, see Johnny Ringo (disambiguation).
John Ringo
Born (1963-03-22) March 22, 1963
Miami-Dade, Florida, United States
Occupation Author
Nationality American
Genres Science fiction, military science fiction, military fiction, political thrillers
www.johnringo.org

John Ringo (b. March 22, 1963) is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several New York Times best sellers.[1][2][3] His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. To date, he has over three million copies of his books in print, and his works have been translated into seven different languages.[4]

Biography

Ringo's childhood was spent largely in transit; by the time (1981) he graduated from Winter Park High School in Winter Park, FL, he and his family had spent time in 23 foreign countries, with Ringo attending classes at fourteen different schools. Among the countries he spent the most amount of time in were Greece, Iran and Switzerland before settling with his parents and six siblings in Alabama. This amount of travel led to what he refers to as a "wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food."[5]

After graduation, Ringo joined the U.S. Army and rose to the rank of Specialist as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. During his four years of active duty, he was assigned to the 1st Battalion 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment which was reflagged into 3rd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment when the 82nd regimentally organized its 3rd Brigade on October 3, 1986, plus two years of reserve duty with the Florida National Guard. Among his awards are the Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, Army Commendation Medal, Good Conduct Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (Grenada), and the National Defense Service Medal.

After discharge, he enrolled in college and studied marine biology, picking up an associate's degree. However, he quickly discovered that marine biology would only "pay for beans"[5] and became a database manager to support his wife and two daughters. His life had settled into a fairly sedate pattern when, in 1999, he had the idea for a science fiction story that involved an alien invasion and a military response that became the novel A Hymn Before Battle, the title being a homage to the poem "Hymn Before Action" by Rudyard Kipling.

He submitted the novel to publisher Jim Baen of Baen Books. The book was initially rejected, but Jim Baen, through his discussion with John Ringo on the publisher's website forum personally took a look at the novel and quickly bought it.[citation needed] The success of the book, and the books that followed, allowed Ringo to quit his database management job and devote his life full-time to writing. Since 2000, John Ringo has been very prolific and has written or co-written with David Weber, Michael Z. Williamson, Julie Cochrane, Linda Evans, Travis Taylor, and Tom Kratman 33 novels in the past ten years. One of the appeals of his works is his inclusion of fans' names into novels as "red shirts" who die gloriously. He also has often integrated elements of the 82nd Airborne into his works, 2nd Battalion 325th Airborne Infantry in A Hymn Before Battle, his old 1/508th Parachute Infantry in Yellow Eyes, and the 555th "Triple Nickels/Black Panthers" in Gust Front and its sequels.

He has also penned a number of op-ed pieces for the New York Post,[6][7][8][9] been a guest commentator for Fox News and National Geographic,[10] and is currently working with a screenwriting partner in adapting three of his novels, A Hymn Before Battle, Ghost, and Princess of Wands to the screen.[11]

Ringo currently lives in Chattanooga, TN. Before that he lived in Jefferson, GA from 2003-2005 and Commerce, GA from 1995-2003.

Published works

Series

Black Tide Rising Series

Troy Rising Series

Main article: Troy Rising

Legacy of the Aldenata Series

Main article: Legacy of the Aldenata
Also known as the "Posleen Series" and "Posleen War Series"[13] after the name of invading species besetting and successfully conquering much of Earth.
Posleen War—Central Storyline
Hedren War
Posleen War Sidestories
Cally's War Spinoff Series
Spinoff Books
This sequel is set about a millennium after the other main Posleen series works.

Empire of Man series

Also known as the "Prince Roger Series"
Co-written with David Weber, with multiple books still under contract
  1. March Upcountry (May 2001) (ISBN 0-671-31985-X)
  2. March to the Sea (Aug 2001) (ISBN 0-671-31826-8)
  3. March to the Stars (2003) (ISBN 0-7434-3562-1)
  4. We Few (2005) (ISBN 0-7434-9881-X)
  5. Throne of Stars (August 2014) (ISBN 1-4767-3666-2)[14]
Omnibus collections
  1. Empire of Man (February 2014) ISBN 1476736243; collects March Upcountry and March to the Sea

The Council Wars Series

Paladin of Shadows Series

Genre: Contemporary era techno-thrillers, much like Tom Clancy's works with less politics and a closer to the ground level and action focus.

The central hero, Michael Harmon (aka Mike Jenkins) is a former United States Seal chief petty officer and a trainer of U.S. Seals, who spurred into action witnessing a snatch and grab on a street corner impulsively follows and rescues a plane load of kidnapped college co-eds, and earns the gratitude of several nations, a small fortune, and a series of high-level political connections in the process of experiencing a life change. The work is in fact three connected anti-terrorism novellas spanning about a year, backstory omitted from the last two where 'Jenkins' takes on a certain James Bond-style sole operator/loose cannon type of role and features scenes involving the interception of two nuclear devices, saving Paris and Washington, D.C. while featuring a travelogue through part of the seamier sides of the Balkans and European parts of the former Soviet Union.

In the second work, he buys an estate with an entailed ancient warrior tribe called the Keldera attached to the eastern European lands, who bestow on him the honorific "The Kildar" (Warlord, Baron, or similar title) which aid him in reducing tensions in the Caucuses, again a life transition, this time from sole shooter to local politically connected warlord. In subsequent books, the tribe, now being trained up into a superb light company goes operational and is employed as a deniable black ops force by the United States for the next several works. By A Deeper Blue some of the Keldaran force has been trained in both SCUBA and Halo; while Tiger by the Tail shows the force on an extended training mission in the Pacific gradually being trained en toto as a force equivalent to U.S. Navy Seal Teams—but with Company strength.

These books contain scenes of bondage and torture, as well as, for the United States, under age sex, as Ringo's protagonists anti-terrorism missions butt heads with harsh economic realities of commercial sexual slavery in Eastern Europe and its connection to funding arms for terrorist organizations. Ringo has mentioned he felt more or less compelled to write these novels.[15]

Looking Glass Series

Also called the "Voyage of the Space Bubble" series

All books titles in the series are phrases taken from the poem "Jabberwocky", which is mentioned repeatedly in the later novels.

Special Circumstances Series

Non-series novels

Short stories

See also

  • Sluggy Freelance, a webcomic featured in the Posleen Series books; a SheVa tank is named after the character Bun-bun. A character styled after Bun-bun is featured in the Council Wars series.[16]
  • Schlock Mercenary, a webcomic. The Troy Rising series is inspired by the universe of Schlock Mercenary at the point of first contact. (The webcomic itself takes place far into the future.)
  • The Crüxshadows, mentioned in the Paladin of Shadows series; the protagonist makes numerous mentions of the song "Winterborn" in particular.[17] The main characters in Claws That Catch also play "Return" in order to defeat the aliens.[18] The book Eye of the Storm quotes their song of the same name a few times. In the novel Von Neumann's War the song "Citadel" is the anthem of the soldiers and it is played during the final showdown.

References

  1. ↑ New York Times Best Seller List, April 2005
  2. ↑ New York Times Best Seller List, January 2011
  3. ↑ New York Times Best Seller List, May 2011
  4. ↑ The Last Centurion, www.thelastcenturion.com.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 About John Ringo, www.johnringo.org.
  6. ↑ "M Is For Mine", New York Post, reprinted on www.johnringo.com.
  7. ↑ "First... We Remove All The Lawyers", New York Post, reprinted on www.johnringo.com.
  8. ↑ "Home Of The Brave", New York Post, reprinted on www.johnringo.com.
  9. ↑ "INS Insanity", New York Post, reprinted on www.johnringo.com.
  10. ↑ "When Aliens Attack
  11. ↑ "Update on John..."
  12. ↑ http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=jringo
  13. ↑ Amazon.com listing for A Hymn Before Battle.
  14. ↑ http://www.baen.com/author_catalog.asp?author=jringo
  15. ↑ ""Paladin of Shadows FAQ"". 
  16. ↑ "Hell's Faire by John Ringo". 
  17. ↑ "Ghost by John Ringo, Chapter Nine". 
  18. ↑ Ringo, John; Taylor, Travis (2008). Claws That Catch. New York: Baen Books. pp. 299–300. ISBN 978-1-4165-5587-2. 

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