Choosers of the Slain (Paladin of Shadows Book 3)

So much corruption and perversion exists because we like easy sex and quick highs. Would be nice if a high level of the snake was cut off.

Choosers of the Slain by John Ringo We first encounter the phrase “Choosers of the Slain” when Mike Harmon aka The Ghost aka Mike Jenkins aka numerous other names, speaks those words to a Keldaran hunter. Lasko has the kind of eyesight and coordination that allows him to hunt mountain goats in the Caucus mountains, high up where the air is thin and the zephyrs unpredictable. Jenkins, the Kildar, offers Lasko the chance to choose between the living and the dead. Lasko, a man of middle years not some enthusiastic teen recruit, needs no more cajoling than that simple offer. The Kelara to a man think of themselves first and foremost as warriors. Warriors kill. “Choosers of the Slain” takes the number three position among the five books in Ringo's Kildar series. The Kildar has a mission given him by a senior US senator to track a young girl forced into prostitution in the Balkans. He and his mountain warriors must hack a trail from the Ukraine to Montenegro to find her, leaving the lifeless bodies of dozens of pimps, slavers and whore masters in their wake. Ringo combines first class, non stop mil-tech action with occasional episodes of soft core porn. He excels at both kinds of writing but we find it unusual to have such a combination. His over all plot is all too believable. The depiction of the filthy underworld of sex trafficking is all too real. The things he describes actually happen more or less everywhere with the horrors coming up faster and harder in second and third world areas with scant government control and greed unbuffered by any sense of humanity. So when the bad guys get it in the neck, we applaud. The above mentioned Lasko might properly be placed in the third or fourth tier of characters in importance. That is to say, every character that Ringo creates has a full set of recognizable traits. His foremost characters live and breathe. And plenty of characters fill Ringo's pages. By the third book we know many of them and look forward to meeting them again in the last two volumes. Ringo give full measure too. It take 564 action packed pages to tell the story. We turn every one of them and like good readers of a superior author, at the end we want more.

Mike Jenkins saves all the victims of the world Again. Another bigger badder set of bad guys for Super SEAL

John Rings is one of the best action writers on the planet! This series seems to prove that. Bar none!

Ringo's Chooser of the Slain is another satisfying installment in the Ghost series. He continues to add to the history and culture of the Keldar and to add more events and action for the reader to explore.The Keldar have been successful thus far as they are returned to their Warrior Heritage and Mike Jenkins, former SEAL, is growing in his role as Kildar. The pace of the story seems to follow a familiar pattern of status update, new threat, preparation for the new threat, initiation of movement, steps to conflict, conflict and subsequent danger... I feel like I am quoting the troop leading procedures.My problem is that I feel like Jenkins is turning into James Bond who always gets the girl and comes out ahead in the end despite the losses and injuries he sustains. There are problems, true, friends get killed, true, but in the end it just seems like we know that he will be a hero and win. I guess that I want to see him break some new ground where his money and former SEAL skills don't automatically provide for a solution. That might make the story irrelavent....It's a fun series and this book is a great installment as he rallies his troops to follow a girl into the bowels of the sex slave markets of the Balkans and finds that the reasons he has been sent are as slimy as the people who traffic in young women. Sounds like a James Bond movie, but it's still a fun story.

Such is the basic worldview of Mike Harmon, former SEAL and accidental medieval warlord. A lot of us in the uglier parts of the US military are there to channel our demons into something for the betterment of society. When your sole talent and love is plotting the deaths of your fellow men in as messy and artistic a way as possible, yet you're socialized enough as a human being to know it's "wrong", you might as well go where you're hunting for the betterment of mankind. I read this one right on the heels of Ringo's We Few, and saw elements of the conflicted Prince Roger in Mike. I know what it's like to want to kill someone so bad I could taste it, yet knowing it's just not cool to do so. Finding an outlet for those energies now that my active infantry days are drawing to a close would be nice. Too bad there's no valley of the Kildara out there for the rest of us old soldiers.While it's a novel that deals with the ugly truth of the international sex trade, it's true that Mike has his own kinks and falls into situations where he gets to exercise them. My wife, a conniseur of such fiction, rates one scene in particular rather highly.The trigger pulling portions aren't bad, but often soft on some of the details. SPR's aren't really explained for what they are, and I think there's too much use of the H&K MP-5, then again I'm not an admirer of any 9mm SMG for beyond room use.The disclaimer in the front of the book, often overlooked, actually contains one of the funniest lines in the book.

Another great book by john Ringo! He gets the details right n knows how to write action! Top knotch read!

This is the third book in the series which began with "Ghost" and continued with "Kildar." I have seen the series described by the names of both those books and also "Paladin of Shadows.""Choosers of the Slain," like "Kildar," is less outrageous, and better written, than the first book in the series but both still push the envelope hard in several places. As a rough litmus test, if you were strongly against the Iraq war, are very pro-feminist, or even slightly prudish, do your blood pressure a favour and refrain from touching this entire series with a ten foot barge-pole.Former SEAL Mike Harmon, codename Ghost, after fighting and defeating a number of terrorist plots, has settled down in a remote valley in the country of Georgia where he bought the local castle. It turns out that the castle and associated farmland came with some feudal retainers, the Keldara, who accept him as their liege lord or "Kildar" - and if that sounds wierd and anachronistic at the start of the 21st century you ain't read nothing yet. Since Chechen terrorists are a major nuisance in the area on both sides of the Georgian/Russian frontier, Mike Harmon has trained some of his Keldara as an anti-terrorist militia with the knowledge and support of the Georgian, Russian, and US governments.At the start of "Choosers of the Slain" Mike gets a strange request, apparently on behalf of a US Senator - apparently the daughter of a "major financial contributor" has been kidnapped into the balkans sex trade, and a reward of five million dollars is on offer if Mike can rescue her.As Mike and his Keldara follow the trail of the missing girl it rapidly becomes apparent that a number of the people they are dealing with might not be what they seem. The trail appears to suggest that very prominent figures in the US and British governments are involved in a ghastly crime (no, Ringo definately doesn't mean the invasion of Iraq) and Mike finds evidence which could undermine half the world's major governments. But is all the evidence genuine, or is Mike being set up in an attempt to frame some of the apparent perpetrators?The full "Paladin of Shadows" series currently consists ofGhostKildarChoosers of the SlainInto the BreachA Deeper BlueJohn Ringo normally writes military SF and most of his offerings in that genre are extremely good. This series is about a freelance war on terror. In places, and especially in the first book, Ringo seems to be in grave danger of crossing the line between challenging the reader and going out of your way to see how many people you can offend. That goes even for his existing fans among military SF readers, who are probably neither the most prudish or left/liberal of audiences.In fact the funniest part of "Choosers of the Slain" and all the other books in the series from "Kildar" onwards is not part of the main text - it is the disclaimer at the start of the books which at least demonstrates that Ringo understands and has a sense of humour about the controversy "Ghost" stirred up. That disclaimer is worth quoting in full, it reads as follows:"This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book and series has no connection to reality. Any attempt by the reader to replicate any scene in this series is 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 in 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."Incidentally, that line about "any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental" is a classic example of a blatantly false statement which escapes being a lie only because both author and reader know that it's a legal fiction which the author has to write and is not intended to actually fool anyone. Osama Bin Laden and Vladimir Putin appear in these books under their real names, certain other characters will instantly be recognised by any politically aware reader as corresponding to real world US politicians.All five books in the series contain a great deal of violence, strongly expressed and very right-wing political views, and a lot of references to sex, always utterly politically incorrect and sometimes fairly explicit. My copies of these books are stored where my children can't get at them and will be until they are adults.Provided you are not offended by the sex, violence and non-PC attitudes, these books can be quite exciting and entertaining in places. But I would advise feminists, left-wingers, and anyone even slightly prudish to save your money for something else.

Another great book in the series and hopefully lots more to come. Lots of action, more humorous comments in the story of the Millar.

Ringo at his best - lots of military action, enough sado-machismo to satisfy even the most extreme. You really need to read the first 2 installments to get the whole flavour, though.

lots of action fun fast read- thanks John

Big time ass kicking, if you like Ringo and his writing, you'll love this!Simple as that, the Keldara are mad as a box of frogs and as hard as nails.Read and enjoy!!