Posted on 08/27/2012 6:00:36 AM PDT by Gideonwoulfe
This week we interview author John Ringo. He has had several books on the New York Times best seller list and he has over two million books in print. Ringo’s specializes in military science fiction.
The Hitchhiker asks…
Question 1- After reading There Will Be Dragons I had a sense that Heinlein had influenced your writing. Are you a fan of his work?
Very much so. Heinlein is the absolute sine qua non of science fiction authors. While I haven’t read all of his works, I’ve read most and he’s definitely my favorite SF author influencing both my writing and my life. Among other things, that bastard Sergeant Ho in Starship Troopers tricked me into joining the infantry.
(Excerpt) Read more at thefreehold.us ...
I enjoy his writing, but its quality is very uneven.
It should be military/science fiction.
I first found out about John Ringo when I bought ‘Ghost’ by him. Great, great book, and mine came with a CD with some cool stuff on it, like ‘March of Cambreadth’ by Heather Alexander. Seems like Ringo likes using music in his books.
By the way, the main character in Ghost is an inactive SEAL.
(because there are no ex-SEALs)
Quite agree about P of S, particularly in the first book.
But as the series continues the character seems to actually kind of grow up to some extent.
The sheer level of pervert wish fulfillment in it remains a little hard to take, IMO. Without this the series would have been great.
Baen Publishing has a bunch of free ebooks by their various authors here, including a few by John Ringo (check out "A Hymn Before Battle")
Thanks for bringing this interview to my attention, I had forgotten about “The Freehold” and have now locked it into my bookmarks. As a long-time fan of Heinlein, I recognize that the name of this site is (perhaps) based on Heinlein’s arguably most non-PC novel, “Farnham’s Freehold” (1965).
I submit that this novel could not be published today as its theme is a post-apocalyptic world run by Africa with white slavery and white slaves as food (cannibalism). Heinlein loved taking cultural memes and turning them on their heads to show what he believed to be true human nature. “Farnham’s Freehold” was/is definitely not my favorite Heinlein book but it does stick in ones memory archives.
You are correct Farnham’s Freehold could never find a publisher today and the book is meant to be a parable about the sins of racism. But the racist PC crowd would not see it as such.
The object of the freehold site is to realize part of Andrew Breitbart’s vision and take back at least one small segment of popular culture.
Uh, I'm guessing he meant non plus ultra. An author should know the meaning of the terms he uses...
The object of the freehold site is to realize part of Andrew Breitbart’s vision
Since you can state this blog's objectives, we'll assume it is your blog.
There is absolutely no reason for you to have excerpted this blog post.
and take back at least one small segment of popular culture.
And perhaps to "take" a few free blog hits from Free Republic?
You will save yourself much grief if you NEVER AGAIN use the excerpt feature when posting from your blog.
I'm sorry but I fail to agree. RAH remains the most honored SciFi/SF author by his peers and public. It can be argued that he made SF acceptable to the non-pulp reader by his acceptance by Saturday Evening Post and others. Thus I believe that calling him an essential for the genre is a correct view even for those who dislike his writings. The "Non plus Ultra" expresses a personal view that he can never be equaled. This is only true if you are comparing him against himself, otherwise it is a bet against an unknown future. My example: Sir Isaac Newton was the non plus ultra of physics until Albert Einstein.
Sine qua non (/ˌsaɪnɨ kweɪ ˈnɒn/; Latin: [ˈsine kwaː ˈnoːn])[1] or condicio sine qua non (plural: condiciones sine quibus non) refers to an indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient. It was originally a Latin legal term for "[a condition] without which it could not be," or "but for..." or "without which [there is] nothing."
Non plus ultra: Latin and Greek phrases. Definition of: ne (non) plus ultra ne (non) plus ultra: Nothing further; the uttermost point; perfection.
I think he meant Heinlein was the essential Science fiction writer.
Since this was the bloggers and personal area I thought it was appropriate to post here. I am also used to excerpting articles on every site. It is a habit. If I can generate readers for my site here I will do so.... If what I write is of interest to people here. Those interested people will view it those not interested are free to mock it. :)
Humblegunner, Please have a little more tolerance here. Yes, Gideonwoulfe, is a newbie and yes, we long-timers have experienced many bloggers self-promoting. Still let us reserve the shouting for those who are perennial abusers and just be mild in our suggestions for our new comrades.
Gideonwoulfe, please see my post #16. Like every place else, there are people who let off a blast and regret it later, I hope that this applies to humblegunner. I cannot speak for him, but I too have launched posts for which I dearly desired a [retract] key a second later. This is the human condition and thus here we are. Anyhow welcome to your FR membership and hope you will be with us for a while.
I read through the whole series after getting hooked by the free one at Baen's free library. I'm telling you, Jim Baen (RIP) was an evil dude. He put free books on the internet without DRM just to hook suckers like me. The entire series is excellent, and highly recommended. Actually, everything of his that I've read is good.
It is appropriate to post here, however, the owner of this site prefers that if you're posting from a personal blog, to post the article here in its entirety as a courtesy. If it's a good read, I can pretty much guarantee you'll get lots of hits even if it is posted here without excerpting.
Tomorrow I will be posting my interview with conservative comicbook writer Mike Baron on the Freehold. (he worked for many years on The Punisher comic is the creator of Badger and co-creator of Nexus) I hope I am allowed to post the interview here.
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