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58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The lighter side of Ringo ... for a given value of light.), January 5, 2006
This review is from: Princess of Wands (Hardcover)
Okay, from the excerpts I'd already seen, I had absolutely no clue what the book would be like, but I thought 'What the hell' and bought it because, well, *John Ringo*. Need I say more?
Imagine my delight and surprise when it turned out to be a collection of short stories about a Episcopalian soccer mom as a Ninja Warrior Of God!
Dude.
Let's revisit that concept. June Cleaver as Ninja Warrior Of God.
Only John Ringo, man, only John Ringo. Coming up with - and writing - a plot like that takes a special kind of wonderful twisted genius that I just can't imagine finding anywhere else.
The whole thing was fun, heroic, unique, gloriously pulptastic, and immensely likeable. Anyone who is foolish enough to mistake the protagonist of "Ghost" for Mr. Ringo himself really needs to read this book. It's the other side of the coin.
And aside from just the regular fictional joys of demon vanquishing with the help of good training, good guns, and the love of God, Ringo threw an extra little present in there. He set the demon hunt in the second story at a sci fi con, and made many of the major characters there thinly disguised authors and fans! There were bits where I was almost crying with laughter.
If you want the very best of the lighter side* of Ringo, in all of the delightfully and intentionally cheesy glory that it can entail, I very much suggest this book.
* (For a given value of light. Which is to say, demon tail gets kicked, righteous vengeance is enacted and unfortunate victims pile up on the sidelines, but innocent small children don't die in view of the readers.)
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I really can't understand the complaints about prosteletyzing in this book., February 9, 2006
This review is from: Princess of Wands (Hardcover)
I am a Pagan who is often quite prickly about authors pushing their own political and religious views.
I found very little of that in this book, well a bit of the political maybe, but no religious prosteletyzing.
Yes, the main character is a Christian woman with particualrly "traditional" views of a woman's place in the household. And she lives as best as she can within those self imposed strictures.
But Ringo makes it clear that Barb *needs* those strictures to help hold in her own dark side. Barb is a Christian because Christianity works for her, it helps her be a better person. (there are some suggestions that without those self imposed strictures she might make Mike Harmon of Ghost look like a Cub Scout.)
She is the ONLY hero type character in this book who is a Christian. The other members of the demon fighting organization she is recruited into are Bhuddists, Hindus, Wiccans, Asatru, etc... and they ALL kick ass for the light.
Barb is a Christian, but she is not a bigot. She judges people based on their behaviour, but not their beliefs. And she accepts behaviour from her allies that she will not allow in herself, because their gods allow and encourage those bahaviour, while her own is more strict.
Other complaints have been about the section at the sf con, I am not a con goer myself, naver have been. But "Princess of Wands" has me tempted. Too many in jokes? Maybe, but not knowing tham doesn't detract form the story, and knowing them might even add to it.
And hell, Princess of Wands is a rip roaring fun read What more can you ask?
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cleopatra Jones meets Mrs. Brady, January 27, 2006
This review is from: Princess of Wands (Hardcover)
This book is the most fun I've had reading in ages.
John Ringo, tongue firmly placed in cheek, has created a beautiful, pistol-picking, Karate kicking, demonslaying, "soccer mom" heroine. Need I say more?
The story is basically three short stories set in the Mississippi, New Orleans (pre-Katrina) area. The stories are chronologically laid out. They follow the adventures of Barbera (call me Barb) as she is recruited into a secret organization (ala X-Files) that fights demons, vampires, werewolves as well as other lesser known manifestations of the Supernatural. Barb is a "Uber-Christian" partnered with such everday partners as Doris (call me Janea) who happens to be a stripper/hooker/sword swinging worshipper of Frey that wears a skimpy, chainmail bikini. Barb however new to the orginization, has defeated a higher level demon and so has special status as a serious tail-kicker who "channels" the White God (Jesus) in order to battle evil.
Before reading this book, I had read some of the other readers reviews and saw that many of them were turned off by Barbs "traditional" values ("a man is the head of the household..."). However, they are so 50's and so over the top, it is pretty obvious to me that John Ringo was having fun with this. Ringo, rather than stating the superiority of Christian beliefs (as some reviewers saw it) makes the claim that real spritual power comes not from a specific God, but rather from a deep belief and that ultimately all "gods" are the same God. He continually says through his characters that there are many paths and names for God. However, for Barb to keep her ability to channel God, she must keep tightly to her faith...even if it clashes with the faith of others.
Barb's husband is basically an "empty seat" that she continually claims to love. Ringo seems to poke fun at this arrangement (which many here took seriously) by having Barb Kow tow to this extremely dissinterested, beer drinking, sports watching, Ward Cleaver, while at the same time doing whatever she wants anyway ("There's frozen casserole in the fridge...pickup the kids from Karate practice") and dissappearing for weeks on a demonslaying adventure.
"Princess of Wands" is a really fun read that manages to respect, while at the same time, poke fun at Christianity and spirituality in general.
I for one, hope that John Ringo writes more stories about Barb the Christian demonslayer!
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