ConCarolinas Postscript

You can't turn your back on a leftist douchebag for five freaking minutes before they decide to pull something else.

The other day, I said this entire mishegas with CaonCarolinas and John Ringo was over. I even sent them a letter of congratulations. I even started making plans to talk Superversive and Silver Empire publishers into joining me in their dealers room.

And then I see this from David Weber.

THE CONVENTION ISN'T EVEN OVER A WEEK and the lefty lynch mob is trying to get the two sane members of the Con Committee, Jada and Luis, kicked off. They've even started a petition to get 600 signatures to remove them.

Weber wishes to have as many people as possible buy supporting memberships for 2019 and

post on the Carolinas Facebook page that we have done so — one by one — and why, and inform them that if, in fact Jada and Luis are evicted from the concom, they may have our money this year, but they will never get it again.

Weber continues.

For myself, I will say only this. If, in fact, Jada and Luis are removed from the concom, then ConCarolinas is DEFINITELY going back on to my list of cons I will not attend, and I will be urging everyone that I know to never attend that convention again.

We are not telling them that they cannot invite whoever they want to invite. We're telling them that once an invitation has been issued, they have no business revoking it just because of online hysteria, whether it comes from the left or the right. If the people fighting to remove Jada and Luis from the concom simply cannot or will not understand that, and they win, then this convention in my opinion will deserve to die because it will have voluntarily cut itself off from the 50% (minimum) of fandom which does not approve of banning anyone.

This is their decision. We can weigh in, we can hope to sway them in the direction of open-mindedness, civility, and sanity. We can't MAKE them go there, but if they decline, then we don't have to go wherever the hell it is they think they're going.

Weber has set up his own counter-petition, wherein he notes

We're here to support Jada Hope and Luis Diza's stance on the demands to disinvite guests at ConCarolinas based on unfounded and unproven stories posted by Internet pressure groups.

Our goal is to obtain as many signatures as possible as a way of demonstrating who is truly in favor of diversity by raising our voices. We'd like to count them in the hundreds, but we'd really rather count them by the thousand.

This is not a petition to support inviting guests who the con committee believes would be problems for the con or who do not seem, to the con committee, to be a "good fit" for the people who attend ConCarolinas. We who sign this petition are saying only that once an invitation has been issued, the guest invited should not be subsequently disinvited simply because someone else planning to attend the con will be uncomfortable in that guest's presence.

We believe that no one, left or right, should have an ex post facto veto right over who can and cannot be invited to a convention nor should the vocal minority, who do not work for the con in any capacity and are simply attending A PRIVATE EVENT of their OWN FREE WILL , be allowed to exert that kind of influence over a convention.

We believe that if ConCarolinas ejects Jada Hope and Luis Diza from the Convention Committee (the managing body of the convention) and reverses the position they have taken on the dis-invitation of guests, then no one who believes in freedom of expression should attend this convention ever again.

Some of us have attended ConCarolinas in the past, as either a ticket-buying attendee of the con or as an invited guest. Under the ‘I’m signing because...” section please indicated if you’ve attended in the past as a guest or attendee and if you will attend in the future if they are removed.

The video below shows the apology that Jada Hope made at the end of ConCarolinas 2018 on June 3rd to John Ringo and re-emphasized the con's commitment to an inclusive atmosphere for all people.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/concarolinas/permalink/10157152092094460/

See, ConCarolinas? This is what happens when you give in once, even just a little, to the lefty mob. They owned you once, even for a little while, therefore they're certain they can own you again. They won't go away until they are routed or until they win. They'll wear you down, howl for your blood because they have nothing better to do with their endless hate, and you endure them until they go away in search of other prey. They took one look at what they saw as your capitulation over Ringo, "knew" they could do it to Correia, and moved onto Origins. I expect they're going to shoot for DragonCon next, just because.

But hell, look at how low these leftists set this bar: 600 signatures. That's it? They think that's all it will take? I have more members in my author Facebook group.

I really hope that DragonCon is looking at this infiltration and going "oh Hell no." Because this is what some bozos are going to try to do to them -- maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. I am sick and tired of all of these muthaf****in lefties trying these dumbass muthaf****in tactics to screw up my muthaf****in conventions. Literally tired. I was going to go to bed, tuned into Facebook and discovered THIS BS.

Enough is enough.

On the bright side, a side by side comparison at the moment between the two petitions ... is no comparison. The numbers by the fake lynch mob are laughable next to the steamroller that is Weber's petition. I think there are some people at Con Carolinas is going to look at the "remove Luis and Jada" petition and face palm, wondering "Why did we ever believe these a-holes were a threat? There are so few of them." I mean, the only way that the lefties can get their petition through is if they borrow all of the Chinese bots from File 770. And right now, I wouldn't put them up against Weber's army.

When Weber says "fire for effect," he means it.

Anyway, if you want to drop comments on the idiots and make fun of them for trying this in the first place, click here.

If you want to join the wave of people at Weber's petition in support of sanity, click here.

And if you've done that and you have the time, the Dragons are coming, go nominate stuff over there. If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options. Just remember to vote.

And if you've done all of that...
Here, have a book about vampires and Vatican ninjas
Something to relax to. Because they have no politics.
[And, book two]

Now pardon me, I'm going to bed.

Ringo and ConCarolina, Finale

Okay, and everything is done.

Remember how John Ringo was uninvited from ConCarolinas because of online Lefty bullies screaming for Ringo's blood? That Ringo agree with CC to not show up because they were worried about being unable to protect him? And then, somehow, the message released by ConCarolinas looked that Ringo was the problem?

Well, they admitted that they done screwed it up. 

But more importantly, that this wouldn't happen again. That if someone whines that "I feel unsafe with this guest," ConCarolinas will tell these people to suck it up.

Congrats, guys. You admitted the mistake. You fixed the mistake. You won't do it again.

Okay, I'm happy.

This comes hot on the heels of DragonCon also doing the right thing with regards to insane lefty BS. The woman running their fantasy track strongly cheered on one of the psychos who went after Larry and got him banned from Origins.

"Charlotte" in this case, said....

Yeah. She went went to her personal DragonCon page, ranted and raved about how dare DragonCon allow everyone a seat at the table, "making victims sit next to their abusers" .... and we're still talking about Larry and Ringo, by the way.... and that she would lobby to never have them on her track at DragonCon.

.... And now she's gone.  I would give you links and screen grabs, but the entire page has been shoved down the memory hole. I'm not entirely clear if she quit or was fired.

Nor do I care.

DragonCon stood up for fun over politics.

Before this woman disappeared her page down the memory whole, I left a comment on Charlotte's page. And someone else was wise enough to

After all, DragonCon really didn't like Charlotte's fascism.

But yeah, I'm still proud of DragonCon for being wonderfully sane.

And I'm happy for ConCarolinas proving me wrong, and coming to the right conclusion at the end of the day.

As I said in my last post about this:

On the one hand, Ringo isn't the only Baen author they have as guests. Dave Webber, Tedd Roberts, etc. These are only a handful of the guests from previous years that I'm aware of. Are the Social Justice douchebags going to stop? No, they're not. They never do, they never will, and they never shall ... unless they meet actual, genuine push back for their stupidity.

So, the question is not "Who boycotts the convention over Ringo?" The real question becomes "Who's next?" The SJWs have tasted blood, and they're never satisfied, and thus they will become hungry for more. The NEXT question after that is "how far does the lefty horde go before the ConCom tells the horde to go screw off?"

Apparently, the lefty horde had already crossed the line, they just didn't know it.

And, between sane people like David Weber leading the charge of calm discussion, and the flack ConCarolinas took, sanity prevailed.

Now all Jon del Arroz needs to do and take over WorldCon after his lawsuit, and we can see just how crazy the lefties will really get.

While I think of DragonCon, the Dragons are coming.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

Grab the Popcorn

Part of the trend in all the various and sundry lefty lynch mobs is just how violent they are. Now, sure, I will occasionally have thoughts of beating people to death with a blunt object, or my bare hands, but I try not to say it to someone's face. Or even behind their back. I beat them to death in my books. Simple, easy. Murdering people is such hard work, especially if you want to get away with it.

But these lefty psychopaths coming out of the woodwork are like they're rejects from a Murder She Wrote episode.

Take for example, a threat waged against Diversity and Comics, Richard Meyer, on Twitter.



And that is a comic book "professional."

Heck, Marvel author Mark Waid has decided to unleash his hordes of fans on Meyer to get him thrown out of conventions, and to get his independently published comic book removed from book stores.

Then of course, you have Larry Correia, who's had years of being libeled with every name in the book. And the recent BS with both him and John Ringo being uninvited from conventions. They like to claim that the fans are violent. And yet the leftist douchebags of Vile 770 and their ilk have sent packages to Jon's home, call up and harass his family, and go after his kids...

Hate to break it to these little nervous fuckers, but if they think we're violent just by talking to them, they should see what happens when they try to go full Anti-Fa on us and attack. Then they'll get to see what violence looks like. Granted, they're relatively spineless, so it may require a simple slap upside the head. Because after all, their violence is protected speech, our speech is violence. Morons.

But it's like they don't remember there are laws against slander and libel. There are laws against fraud. There are laws against conspiracy to commit fraud. There are laws against making threats of physical violence.

Oh look, we have all of the above.

Frankly the only thing that has kept the lefty lynch mob from our full legal vengeance is our mercy, or that we're busy getting on with our lives. Good lord, even Vox Day never bothered getting little Andrew Marston thrown into a nuthouse or arrested, apparently (or so I've heard) because Vox pities the little douchbag.

But now it's starting to get on our nerves. Larry and Mrs. Correia seem to be on the verge of fed up. Ringo has been talking to a lawyer and collecting evidence. People are archiving and screen-shotting Vile 770 to the inevitable lawsuit against Mike Glyer, and we have been for years.

Enough is enough.

When will it end? It will not end with lawsuits. I don't even think it will end when they become a violent angry mob and actually attack some people. It will end with the violent lefty douchebags are all in jail and the slanderous muthafuckas online are broke and bankrupt, because we own everything they ever had in the settlements.

These muthafuckas want to mess with us? Fine. Let them.

If they physically attack us, we will defend ourselves -- and I've seen Anti-Fa rallies, they use Molotov cocktails and gang up on people 6-to-1, so we will not be held responsible.

If they attack us online and try to destroy our businesses, we'll sue them and we'll win. [Hi, China Mike. How are you doing?]

They want to destroy us. They won't stop until they're bankrupt, in jail, or both. And they'll still whine that we started it and it's all our fault.

We'll all need money for the eventual lawsuits we file, so you might want to buy my book or chip in a few bucks to Patreon.

Grab the popcorn folks, because this is going to be awesome.

Non illegitimi carborundum.

The Dragons are coming.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

Has everyone gone insane?

The past few weeks have been strange, and it's not just me. I know it isn't.

Hell, start with 2018. Cons have gone straight downhill.

WorldCon: "We must ban Jon del Arroz! He might record us doing something untoward to him! He's wearing a body camera to prevent us from taking him outside and beating him with baseball bats! We must pre-ban him! Something we did once to child molester Walter Breen, and never to his accomplice Marion Zimmer Bradley!"

We go from that to

ConCarolinas: "Oh, people just didn't feel safe about John Ringo. We had to get rid of him for safety's sake."

And now .... WTF?

Origins: "Larry Correia believes in the wrong things. We won't talk about what he believes that is BadThink, we'll just disinvite him as the Guest of Honor the same day he's announced."

Now, people were annoyed about WorldCon screwing around with Jon. WorldCon deliberately worked around their own rules to do it, but they at least tried to cover it up within the letter of the law.

People were really freaking irritated when they did it to Ringo. Ringo tried to blow it off at first, claiming that they made his life easier. Then ConCarolina worded it in such a way that it looked like Ringo was the problem.

Then, within the month, another lynch mob forms on Larry Correia and boy are his fans pissed. Origins can't even be bothered to answer Larry's questions about rescinding his invitation. Hell, they didn't even bother talking to him first -- a consideration ConCarolinas at least gave Ringo. Though Origins organizer Jack Ward seems to have more than enough time to send out consoling emails to the vendors, explaining that no one who complains was ever going to attend....

Excuse me, jackass-- er, Mr. Ward -- but did you consider that a bestselling author might -- just might, grant you -- be a bigger draw than .... whoever else you have on your list? (No, seriously, I looked at the image they had for their big names this year. I can't pull them out of a lineup.) And how exactly would you know that "they were never coming"? Because I know people who are asking for refunds over this. Better question: how do you know that any of the people slandering and libeling Larry are coming to the convention?

But, Hell, Origins didn't even try to cover up what they did to Larry. "Oh, he indulges in WrongThink, we're kicking him out."

Are ... you ... fucking ... kidding me? What is the point of this? "Hi, I'm going to slit my own wrists by uninviting a big name bestselling author from my flailing convention, and double down by trying to besmirch his good name behind the scenes, opening myself up to all sorts of lawsuits, BUT I'VE FLOWN THE FLAG FOR THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO LIKE ME."

There's stupid and then there's suicidal. Hence "Go woke, go broke."  Can't you just wait to see what Origins attendance is going to be next year?

You know, way back when, I tried to keep my politics low key. I generally don't like opining in public. The closest I ever wanted to come with Sad Puppies Bite Back, and that was so detached from politics, I'm happy it even made contact with reality from time to time.

Last year was insane. Last year incurred threats, rumors, lies, and BS from people who would have been on "my side" the year before.

This year, we have this BS.

 I think I'm just about done with playing nice.

Here, have the book that pissed off everyone because it was nominated in the first annual Dragon Awards.

And let's see if we can get one of its sequels a follow up nomination in horror, for Good to the Last Drop.

The Dragons are coming.

Here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

A quick postscript to the Ringoing of Correia

The other day, I discussed how Larry, like John Ringo, had been disinvited from a convention because of the hate mobs of the internet.

I then talked about being a guest at DragonCon, and idly wondered if anyone was going to try the lynch mob BS on me, and see if they could get me kicked off of the DragonCon guest list.

After some due consideration, I realize that, of the people at DragonCon this year who might have pissed them off the most (which, granted, is a sliding scale that), I might actually be in the top five. There's Michael Z Williamson, Ringo, and Richard Paolinelli and I were fairly big Sad Puppies supporters, back in the day (Being 3, maybe 4). But hey, you back it once, you're on the enemies list.

I guess I should tell DragonCon about this before the deluge starts. It's not that I really think that it's likely. Hell, who am I compared to bestselling authors?

....Though on the other hand, if the SJW lynch mob were smart, they'd start small, and see if they could come after a smaller name author.

But for those suckers who would want to try tackling a DragonCon guest (and you know they're out there)...

[dusts off meme]

While we're on the topic, please recall to vote in the Dragon Awards.

If you don't have your ballot filled out already (either IRL or in your head,) here's my list. It includes the lists of other people, so there are options.

Just remember to vote.

The John Ringo and ConCarolinas issue

I've been scratching my head for a while about whether or not I was going to do a blog post for the whole ConCarolinas debacle.

You know, how they told John Ringo that they couldn't guarantee his safety, etc. THEN the announcement they released about his not attending seemed ... poorly managed.

To be honest, I'd never heard of them until this fashla happened. So they made a great first impression on me.

So much so that they convinced to never attend their convention, as a guest or even as just an attendee.

And no, it's not necessarily "Oh, look what they did to Ringo."

I am doing something radical. I will take them ENTIRELY AT THEIR WORD that they can't guarantee the safety of one of their own guests against the angry hordes of Social Justice Zombies. 

On THEIR OWN TERMS, I should be concerned to even walk the halls as a regular attendee carrying a John Ringo book. While I have no problem defending myself, I to go conventions to have a good time. I don't want to spend the majority of the con in cuffs because some dickheads decide "You're a Ringo fan, therefore you're [insert cliche lefty insults here]" and therefore I have to beat them senseless in self defense.

In the long run, I will be interested to see how this is resolved. Because there are only two options here.

On the one hand, Ringo isn't the only Baen author they have as guests. Dave Webber, Tedd Roberts, etc. These are only a handful of the guests from previous years that I'm aware of. Are the Social Justice douchebags going to stop? No, they're not. They never do, they never will, and they never shall ... unless they meet actual, genuine push back for their stupidity.

So, the question is not "Who boycotts the convention over Ringo?" The real question becomes "Who's next?" The SJWs have tasted blood, and they're never satisfied, and thus they will become hungry for more. The NEXT question after that is "how far does the lefty horde go before the ConCom tells the horde to go screw off?"

The mob have threatened, they have harangued. And that's all well and good. Because there's only two ways for this to go.

Either ConCarolina tells the SJWs to back off, they address the "concerns" they had over Ringo's safety, so he can be invited back next year.

OR, they can continue to pander to the mob and "Go woke, go broke."

Either way, I'll be over here, using DragonCon as my honeymoon. ciao.

#CyberMonday 2017: Give the Gift of Books this Christmas

As I've done every year, this is just a list to make your shopping lives easier -- for Black Friday, or for the upcoming Cyber Monday. Because giving the gift of books is always a good thing.

You might want to try some of these items below. I've even reviewed a few of them.

In short: give the gift of books to people you care about. They're cheaper than iPods. Heh.

As with last year, I will start with suggesting my own novels. Not even all of my own novels, just some of them. The newest ones, for starters.

To start with, there's the Dragon Award nominated Love at First Bite series.  Because everyone loves this novel. Is it because it's romance? It is because it's vampires? Urban Fantasy? A little YA-ish? A little Christian-fic?

I have no idea.

But if you're new here, it's about a boy meeting a girl.  One of them is a homicidal monster. The other's just a vampire. It has Vatican Ninjas, and holy water burning vampires, and sunlight killing unholy monsters AND NONE OF THE VAMPIRES SPARKLE, DAMNIT.

Ahem. Anyway.

For the record, we mustn't forget the Set to Kill. Which is basically taking Sad Puppies Bite Back, and taking it to a whole new level of insane. It's another part of the Murder Con Series, including It Was Only On Stun!

Basically, take insane security agent who is a "mundane" at an SF convention

Drop him head first into the culture.

Drop the bodies to the floor.

Hilarity ensues.

Codename: Winterborn .... the "other" novel, also strangely well reviewed. Genre: character-driven scifi espionage. While on a mission to the Islamic Republic of France, Lt. Kevin Anderson's team is betrayed by the politicians who sent them. As the only survivor, Anderson must stop the senators involved before the next team is slaughtered on the altar of political greed. He's certain he won't survive, but he will make this sacrifice, for his Codename is Winterborn.

 I recommend this for all fans of Baen novels -- like John Ringo, David Weber, and even your straight up thriller writers, like Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, et al.

There is, of course, the sequel: Codename: UnSub, which only just came out.

For those of you who might think that distopias aren't dark enough, I bring you....

Dystopias plus a superpowered serial killer.

Yes. Because I like making things even harder than they already are.

Buahahaha.

Anyway....

Several of the following books you may have seen before.

Torchship / Torchship Pilot by Karl Gallagher: For anyone who really wanted Firefly to be good, this should be your cup of tea. Heck, for fans of: Firefly, David Weber, early David Weber, and people who would be really entertained by protagonists in an SF novel doing their calculations by slide rule.

Iron Chamber of Memory - For adults only, really...or any mature 12 year old, like I was. I don't care in what format you buy it, but you owe it to yourself to buy at least one copy for yourself, though I recommend buying half a dozen, just so you can immediately hand out copies to your friends.
Review here

The Big Sheep - Perfect for anyone who likes SF mysteries, mild dystopias, and Terry Pratchett. As far as I'm concerned, if Rob Kroese wants to keep putting out books about Erasmus Keane for the rest of his life, I'll happily use him as a substitute for Sir Terry Pratchett. (Review Here)

Chasing Freedom -- for anyone who sees the USA falling to fascism, but also sees some small hope in our future. A Dystopia that doesn't make you want to slit your wrists. Yay. (Review here)

Murder in The Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes -- if you've been reading my blog for a long time, you know that I loved this one, and I can't possibly recommend it enough.... and then there's The Watson Chronicles, which is even better.  The only books I will recommend over my own, and I'm told my books are pretty awesome, so, yeah...

The Book of Helen -- dang, this was a kickass little novel.  The West Wing meets the Trojan war, this novel goes beyond the "they all lived strangely ever after" of Helen of Troy, and follows the rest of her life after she came home from Troy.  Yes, Helen did have an "after Troy."  You know the mythology, and now, this is the rest of the story.

Black Tide Rising -- For those people who hate zombies ... you can like this, at the very least.

[Review here]Ordinance 93:  I've reviewed this book (on Amazon), I've interviewed this author back when Examiner.com still existed. Ordinance 93 is a thriller that sort-of centers around abortion, but is mostly a fun chase novel. I'd actually like the next one to come up.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II .... a Catholic scifi-anthology, so, yeah...fun.

Greater Treasures -- Imagine the Maltese Falcon with dragons. Nuff said.

Stealing Jenny, by Ellen Gable: After 5 miscarriages, Jenny is about to have a pregnancy come to full term... until a psychotic woman kidnaps her and chains her in her basement with the intention of taking the child for her own. I liked this one.

Amy Lynn and Amy Lynn: Golden Angel.  Just buy them. Read them. The first one could be dark YA.  The second ... yeah, for adults only. One's a solid novel, the second one is a solid thriller. Just go with me on this one, okay?

Night Machines by Kia Heavey .... this one was interesting.  Almost Doctor Who-ish by way of Rod Serling.

And, of course, there is an endless list of books I can recommend, which happen to be a different tab at the top of the page -- includes Flynn, Ringo, Weber, Thor, etc, etc.

Tears of Paradox, by Daniella Bova, reviewed here

End of the road, by Amy Bennett: This looks like a fun one, a straight up, old fashioned murder mystery...Yes, I know I haven't read it yet, but I've been busy...

By the Hands of Men, Book One: The Old World.

Also, here's everything I suggested for the Dragon Awards in 2016

And here's everything nominated for a Dragon Award in 2016.

And everything I talked about for a Dragon Award in 2017.

And everything NOMINATED for a Dragon in 2017.

That should cover a fairly wide net.

If you have something you'd like to suggest for gifting opportunities, please feel free to mention it below.

You can also click one of the above tabs for suggested books.

Good luck with shopping, everyone.

Music blog: March of Cambreadth

This one, "March of Cambreadth," by Heather Alexander, will never get old. Ever.

I first discovered this song in a John Ringo novel called When the Devil Dances, a scifi military novel about a cannibalistic Mongol horde spreading through the galaxy, with only humans to stand in the way. While the author himself refers to it as carnography (which I can only presume means "carnage porn"), it's well designed, the characters fully developed, and there's enough scheming and political intrigue to fully screw up a war.

The images are from the tv show Babylon 5, which happens to also be a scifi war epic. I know this because I assembled the video myself.

If you haven't already, check out some of the books below.

And if you have, please leave a review.

    

Music blog Vater Unser (E Nomine)

Some things sound cooler in German. Even the Our Father. And, yes, this is the Our Father in German. Go with it. Trust me, what have you got to lose. I even hope to use this for a trailer at some point. The visuals are from a video game called Kingdom Hearts. The song is from a group called E Nomine.

The song is called Vater Unser ... Our Father.

Subtle, huh?

Yes, this was put on the blog 5 years ago. It's not there anymore, the original YouTube Video was pulled.

Anyway, awesome music.

I only heard about this piece, and this band, because of John Ringo. Shocking, huh?

But the new year is almost upon us. so time to ring it in right.

And, while I think about it?

LIVE AND LET BITE IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER!!!! YAY.

If you haven't already, check out some of the books below.

And if you have, please leave a review.

    

Review: Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners

John Ringo's second book in the Monster Hunter Momoirs: Sinners, is both better and worse than Grunge.

Our hero from the last book, Chad, is continuing his mission to be a Monster Hunting killing machine. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he has to leave Seattle, his home base in Grunge. After complaining -- a lot -- about never wanting to be in the heat ever again, MHI headquarters has the perfect gig for him: New Orleans. The Big Easy has got a lot of problems, and it needs all the help it can get.


Sinners does a great job of capturing the flavor of New Orleans, especially when you consider that standard policy can boil down to "Don't scare the tourists." Every local either believes in the dark arts, or practices the dark arts. Of course, we have at least one team member who really wants to turn every other beastie into jambalaya, shootouts in cities of the dead, and one massive shootout at marti gras.

Oh, yes, and for the record, Mr. Ringo, I saw what you did there with those chapter titles.

Another thing Ringo did better here than in Grunge is build an emotional connection to his teammates. At the end of Grunge, one of Chad's teammates dies.  Listening to John Ringo at DragonCon, we were supposed to feel the emotional impact of the character death. I didn't then. Here? Oh yes. Characters were much better established, and for the most part, when characters died, I felt it.

Critics of Grunge will be happy to know that Chad spends less time getting lucky and more time being pummeled. There is even less sex in this book than in Grunge, and seriously, people, he spent more time on politics than sex. And for some reason, people claimed he was a Mary Sue .... to which I will soon reply with a blog post explaining what a Mary Sue looks like, because obviously, people have little to no experience with the phenomenon. Yes, he's a super genius who's good at shooting people, but he's also hospitalized every few chapters.

The only thing that's really off-putting about this novel is the marked shift from "looking backwards."  In Grunge, there is a lot of time spend on his family, and Ringo outright states that the larger evil behind everything Chad is fighting is Chad's brother. This book? Nope. Barely a whisper of Chad's family, and not a whisper about what's the ultimate evil of the trilogy. I'm wondering how much of that is editorial, or how much was in the process of the novel. These books are thinner than Ringo's usual fair, so if you told me he wrote them as one continuous novel, broken up into a trilogy, that would explain certain things.

Also, in Grunge, time was spent on the moral of the story: "Chad" wrote each chapter to illustrate a point. Here, there's no such clear lesson plan; "Chad" does have "pro-tips" scattered throughout, but the concept seems strangely abandoned. Perhaps this is due to the chaotic nature of New Orleans, where every night is insane, and the full moon is like Arkham asylum let everyone out on a day pass, so Chad is merely fitting in tips where he can.

Heh, it's a coin toss.

Final verdict is still the same: Sinners is even better than Grunge. Go out, buy it, enjoy it, consider it for a Dragon Award next year. (No, not a Hugo. Ringo will freaking skin you alive if he found out)

Anyway, if you like this review, you might want to consider one of the following books for your reading pleasure

 

#BlackFriday, 2016

Black Friday is coming, and we must be prepared. This is just a list to make your shopping lives easier -- for Black Friday, or for the upcoming Cyber Monday.

You might want to try some of these items below. I've even reviewed a few of them.

In short: give the gift of books to people you care about. They're cheaper than iPods. Heh.

As with last year, I will start with suggesting my own novels. Not even all of my own novels, just some of them. The newest ones, for starters.

To start with, there's Honor At Stake.  Because everyone loves this novel. Is it because it's romance? It is because it's vampires? Urban Fantasy? A little YA-ish? A little Christian-fic?

I have no idea.

But if you're new here, it's about a boy meeting a girl.  One of them is a homicidal monster. The other's just a vampire. It has Vatican Ninjas, and holy water burning vampires, and sunlight killing unholy monsters AND NONE OF THE VAMPIRES SPARKLE, DAMNIT.

Ahem. Anyway.

People like it. We have over fifty Amazon reviews. And almost everyone likes it. Even people I don't know like it. I'm not sure why, but there you go.

If you were a fan of Honor at Stake, I have no choice but to recommend the next book in the series...

Yes, yes, Murphy's Law of Vampires. This is the point where I answered everyone's problem of a weak final villain from Honor at Stake ... and then gave them everything they asked for and more. Bad guys? Why, yes, I can make you a bad guy. BWAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAHA

Ahem.

Anyway.

For the record, we mustn't forget the newcomer Set to Kill. Which is basically taking Sad Puppies Bite Back, and taking it to a whole new level of insane. It's another part of the Murder Con Series, including It Was Only On Stun!

Basically, take insane security agent who is a "mundane" at an SF convention

Drop him head first into the culture.

Drop the bodies to the floor.

Hilarity ensues.

Codename: Winterborn .... the "other" novel, also strangely well reviewed. Genre: character-driven scifi espionage. While on a mission to the Islamic Republic of France, Lt. Kevin Anderson's team is betrayed by the politicians who sent them. As the only survivor, Anderson must stop the senators involved before the next team is slaughtered on the altar of political greed. He's certain he won't survive, but he will make this sacrifice, for his Codename is Winterborn.

 I recommend this for all fans of Baen novels -- like John Ringo, David Weber, and even your straight up thriller writers, like Vince Flynn, Brad Thor, et al.

There is, of course, the sequel: Codename: UnSub, which only just came out.

For those of you who might think that distopias aren't dark enough, I bring you....

Dystopias plus a superpowered serial killer.

Yes. Because I like making things even harder than they already are.

Buahahaha.

Anyway....

Oh, yes, we have a mailing list now. Free stuff if you sign up. Also an opportunity for selling ARCs, and whatever else I can come up with

Sign up for my mailing list! Emails may include Vatican Ninjas, explosions, holy water, throat punches, magic, serial killers, vampires, midgets, Pope, pre-release notices, book deals, and did I mention, explosions. No they won't explode in your in-box...I don't think.

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Signed copies and gift sets can be ordered here. Order early so they arrive on time for Christmas. Order two of everything, and you should have something for everyone on your list.

Several of the following books you may have seen before.

Iron Chamber of Memory - For adults only, really...or any mature 12 year old, like I was. I don't care in what format you buy it, but you owe it to yourself to buy at least one copy for yourself, though I recommend buying half a dozen, just so you can immediately hand out copies to your friends.
Review here

The Big Sheep - Perfect for anyone who likes SF mysteries, mild dystopias, and Terry Pratchett. As far as I'm concerned, if Rob Kroese wants to keep putting out books about Erasmus Keane for the rest of his life, I'll happily use him as a substitute for Practhett.
(Review Here)

Chasing Freedom -- for anyone who sees the USA falling to fascism, but also sees some small hope in our future. A Dystopia that doesn't make you want to slit your wrists. Yay
(Review here)

Black Tide Rising -- For those people who hate zombies ... you can like 

[Review here]

Murder in The Vatican: The Church Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes -- if you've been reading my blog for a long time, you know that I loved this one, and I can't possibly recommend it enough.... and then there's The Watson Chronicles, which is even better.  The only books I will recommend over my own, and I'm told my books are pretty awesome, so, yeah...

The Book of Helen -- dang, this was a kickass little novel.  The West Wing meets the Trojan war, this novel goes beyond the "they all lived strangely ever after" of Helen of Troy, and follows the rest of her life after she came home from Troy.  Yes, Helen did have an "after Troy."  You know the mythology, and now, this is the rest of the story.

Ordinance 93:  I've reviewed this book (on Amazon), I've interviewed this author back when Examiner.com still existed. Ordinance 93 is a thriller that sort-of centers around abortion, but is mostly a fun chase novel. I'd actually like the next one to come up.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II .... a Catholic scifi-anthology, so, yeah...fun.

Greater Treasures -- Imagine the Maltese Falcon with dragons. Nuff said.

Stealing Jenny, by Ellen Gable: After 5 miscarriages, Jenny is about to have a pregnancy come to full term... until a psychotic woman kidnaps her and chains her in her basement with the intention of taking the child for her own. I liked this one.

Amy Lynn and Amy Lynn: Golden Angel.  Just buy them. Read them. The first one could be dark YA.  The second ... yeah, for adults only. One's a solid novel, the second one is a solid thriller. Just go with me on this one, okay?

Night Machines by Kia Heavey .... this one was interesting.  Almost Doctor Who-ish by way of Rod Serling.

And, of course, there is an endless list of books I can recommend, which happen to be a different tab at the top of the page -- includes Flynn, Ringo, Weber, Thor, etc, etc.

Tears of Paradox, by Daniella Bova, reviewed here

End of the road, by Amy Bennett: This looks like a fun one, a straight up, old fashioned murder mystery...Yes, I know I haven't read it yet, but I've been busy...

By the Hands of Men, Book One: The Old World.

Also, here's everything I suggested for the Dragon Awards.

And here's everything nominated for a Dragon Award.

That should cover a fairly wide net.

If you have something you'd like to suggest for gifting opportunities, please feel free to mention it below.

You can also click one of the above tabs for suggested books.

Good luck with shopping, everyone.