Customer Reviews

Princess of Wands

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.)

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?

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!

John Ringo is back on track with a great new book. A serious Christian woman with a background as a martial arts expert and knowledge of weapons takes on demons trying to open the gates of hell.

Two novellas, one situated in the bayous of Louisiana and the other at a SF&F convention in Virginia start the book. The short story that follows takes place in this mom's back yard in Mississippi.

The stories are pure action with a strong dose of humor poking fun at the Fantasy genre. My favorite is the second novella with the SF&F convention. Here we meet a cast of authors, publishers and fans all loosely based upon real authors, publishers and fans. The fun is trying to pick out who is who in real life.

I can highly recommend this book for those who need a little action, but also enjoy the more humorous side of fantasy in a modern setting.

Princess of Wands (2006) is the first Fantasy novel of a new series. Barbara Everette is a soccer mom, living in Algomo, Mississippi, with a husband, three kids and an SUV. She is a devout Christian, without being evangelical about it. Yet she also has lived in various nations around the world, has a Black Belt in an eclectic mix of martial arts, and carries a licensed H&K .45 automatic in her purse.

In this novel, Barbara loves her kids, but feels the need for some time away from them. She defers to her husband in everything, but has a way around direct confrontations. Mark is a couch potato, especially during the football season, and very unlikely to even notice that he is agreeing to something that he wouldn't condone if he was in his right mind. She asks for, and receives, permission to take a vacation.

Usually Barbara goes to Gulfport on these trips away from husband and kids, but this time she heads toward Louisiana. She follows her instincts away from New Orleans, which is currently plagued with a series killer called the Ripper, and heads off the freeway onto state roads. She ends up in a dark little town called Thibideau within bayou country.

The hotel is older than the nonexistent hills and doesn't even have locks on the stateroom doors. The bathroom is down the hall. There is no phone in the room or at the desk, but there is a payphone outside the Piggly Wiggly.

Barbara is warned not to go out on the streets at night, as the bull alligators wander through the town looking for mates. She spends the night in her room, with wedges holding the hall door tight against the frame. The next morning, she ventures out to continue her trek, but finds that her car won't start and no rentals are available. She is stranded in the town until a part is delivered and installed.

Detective Sergeant Kelly Lockhart of the New Orleans Police Department is working on the Ripper case. All the victims so far have been prostitutes, many of whom are professionally known to Kelly. There are no leads, but plenty of evidence. The FBI has been called in, but hasn't contributed anything to date, although they have lost a large scale found on one body.

Kelly develops a lead that takes him to Thibideau and meets Barbara. They have a mutual aversion to Chief Deputy Etienne Mondaine. The local sheriff had died a month before and Deputy Mondaine was now responsible for law enforcement within the county.

Augustus Germaine is an FBI consultant on Special Circumstances, i.e., the supernatural. He arrives in New Orleans after Kelly leaves for Thibideau. Germaine briefs Kelly's boss, Lieutenant Chimot, on their findings; there are definite indications of demonic manifestation in the Ripper murders.

In this story, Barbara and Kelly find that something supernatural has taken over the town. Chief Deputy Mondaine organizes an armed manhunt for the two of them. When his men capture Kelly and invade Barbara's hotel room, she escapes and evades the hunters and accidentally discovers Kelly's whereabouts.

The confrontations are violent and bloody, but the demon gets fried. Germaine arranges for Barbara's release from local detainment and later recruits her for a special demon-hunting group. The members of this group have a wide variety of religious convictions, but Christians are notably absent.

Her first assignment is at an SF convention. Someone has been ritually killing young women who have recently attended such conventions. In most cases, one writer -- K. Goldberg -- had also been present at these conventions. Barbara, the adept Janea and FBI agent Donahue are sent to the Virginia convention being attended by Goldberg.

This story is full of inside humor and twisted names. But some characters are probably not whom you think they are. Moreover, one of them is possessed by a demon.

This reviewer is rather appalled by Barbara's subservient attitude toward her husband. Few Christian denominations nowadays expect their women to subordinate themselves to their husbands, but there are some fundamentalist groups that have such attitudes. After all, Paul -- writer of the New Testament book of Romans from which such churches mostly get their misogynist views -- did himself appoint several women to positions -- church bishops -- with authority over both men and women.

Then I realized that this is the first volume of a series. There will be plenty of time for Barbara to develop her character. With her take charge attitude, Mark better learn to listen and make notes after Barbara fully matures in her religion.

Highly recommended for Ringo fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of desperate struggles, demonic terror and Christian warriors.

-Arthur W. Jordin

This is a good story - excellent in its first segment, and not as good, but still interesting in its later stages. A Christian wife and mother finds herself caught up in a fight against a diabolic manifestation. She triumphs, and becomes part of an "inter-faith" team fighting the forces of supernatural evil in the world. Not as preachy (John Ringo's recent books have been pushing the political line of right-wing republican views fairly strongly) and entertaining, but John has done better. Hopefully there will be a sequel which will be better.

This book is an oddity in the occult adventure genre. I can think of only one other book whose hero is from a mainstream religion(and follows it), and that is Harry Turtledove's "The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump."

Here the hero(heroine) is a believing Episcopalian housewife, and she seriously kicks demon ass.

The third story in the book is the mildest and somewhat of an anticlimax, but sets the stage for further stories.

The adventure is well told and I had a great time trying to figure out just who the various characters at the convention were. However, even though the story moved, I feel that there were just too many in-jokes for a casual reader of the genre.

Again, the stories were well told, and I finished the book in short order.

It is good to see a serious character who is a believing member of a mainstream religion, and the further implication that every group has members of Special Circumstances is very interesting.

I can recommend the book as good tales told by an excellent story teller, very good, but not quite great.

This one is a bit different from Ringo's usual military sci fi stuff. A housewife who kills demons in her spare time would usually be the domain of those godawful vampire romance books, but Ringo injects some action; some humor; and some parodies of some familiar authors to liven things up. I recommend this book. Read it.

I nearly titled this review "And now for something completely different" because whatever you may think about John Ringo his worst enemies could not accuse him of rehashing the same plots and characters. This one is very different indeed from the rest of his books.

"Princess of Wands" is a story of battles against evil magicians, demons and dark gods which is rather like a 21st century version of Dennis Wheatley's "Black Magic" horror thrillers.

The heroine is an irritatingly perfect, God-fearing, tolerant, chaste (yes, chaste!), superhumanly patient "soccer mom" who is about as different from most of Ringo's previous male or female central characters as it is possible to get. This lady doesn't even swear!

The majority of John Ringo's work is military Science Fiction, the core of his novels usually being either conventional warfare or anti-terrorist action against human "bad guys" or invading aliens. Most of his heroes and anti-heroes are soldiers or veterans, sometimes with a very dark side to their characters - for example the "hero" of the "Ghost/Kildar/Paladin of Shadows" series is always telling people that he's not a good guy but a bad guy who is fighting on the side of good, and he proves it at one point by raping and brutalising a teenage prostitute; the heroes of "Watch on the Rhine" are semi-reformed former Waffen SS men.

By contrast this novel is an unusual mix of fantasy, horror, and comedy, and is based on the premise that there is a secret US government agency working with the FBI called "Special Circumstances" which is called in to deal with crimes which turn out to have a supernatural element.

Barbara Everette is a 33-year old "soccer mom", the very patient mother of three ordinary (e.g. occasionally naughty and always demanding) children aged between seven and thirteen, a very devout Episcopalian churchgoer, pillar of the PTA, and devoted to her ordinary husband. About her only human flaw is vanity - although completely faithful to a spouse who doesn't remotely deserve her, Barbara is used to men paying attention to her attractive face and figure and is horrified to find herself becoming very jealous at one point in the book when another attractive woman who dresses much less modestly grabs all the male attention. To give you an idea what a superhumanly good person she is, she responds to this vanity by praying for forgiveness rather than bitching at her scantily-clad colleague. (Yeah, right!)

The only thing which distinguishes Barbara from a typical if too-good-to-be-true home-maker is that her air force officer turned diplomat father has encouraged her to learn various types of self-defence skills: she is a crack shot and is so good at unarmed combat that she can often defeat one of the town's two martial arts instructors. Various bad guys in the book get a nasty shock when they discover just how dangerous this harmless looking attractive woman becomes when attacked - and at this point you realise yes, this is a John Ringo book after all!

On first reading "Princess of Wands" my wife put the book down in disgust after about five pages because she found Barbara disgustingly perfect. Trust me, there is a very good reason in the story why Barbara has to be a complete goody-two-shoes for the plot to work, which I won't explain further in this review so as to avoid spoiling the story.

At the start of the book, Barbara has taken a weekend break away from her family, and arrives in a small town in the deep south at the same time as Detective Sergeant Kelly Lockheart of the New Orleans Police Department. Lockheart is looking for a possible witness who might have information about a particularly nasty group of serial killers. What neither of them know and only the secret "Special Circumstances" group are beginning to suspect is that the perpetrators of the serial killings are even more wicked and far more powerful than any normal person could possibly anticipate ...

The picture presented in this novel is a little weird but it is reasonably internally consistent. It doesn't work for me that in the universe of this story, the Christian/Jewish/Muslim god would allow good people to end up in hell because they lost a battle with demons, but apart from that it was not too difficult to suspend disbelief in the story. Most of the characters are plausible and entertaining, and there are some flashes of very good humour in the book. Apart from Denis Wheatley's Black Magic novels, this reminded me of Robert Weinberg's books "A calculated magic" and "A logical magician."

The ending suggests that there will be a sequel and I'm looking forward to it.

Not for everyone, it is quite dark in places, but I enjoyed "Princess of Wands" and can recommend it to those who enjoy fast moving stories of the battle between good and evil.

Postscript September 2008

After the political events of the last week I'm almost inclined to wonder whether the sequel will have Barb running for Vice President of the USA on the republican ticket. I doubt if Governor Palin, let alone Senator McCain, are quite as right wing as John Ringo would like, but if you can imagine someone of whom everything that the more enthusiastic cheerleaders for Sarah Palin say about her were true, she would be Barb Everette come to life.

Good work of present day good vs. evil sorcery. Better written and with more interesting characters than most in this field!