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Book Review: John Ringo, ‘The Last Centurion’

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‘The Last Centurion’  by John Ringo was a frequent recommendation over at the AOSHQ Sunday Book Thread. (Yes, Morons can read.)  I received a paperback copy as a Christmas gift and finished it off about a week ago. The book takes place in the not-too-distant future (2019) in a world that has been hit by three catastrophic events. 1. A devastating plague caused by a mutation of the Avian Flu kills off somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of the population. 2. The onset of a mini ice age resulting in massive crop failures. 3. Hillary Clinton is President of the United States.

OK, she’s not actually called ‘Hillary Clinton’ in the book, but it’s totally Hillary Clinton.  And her response to these crises is absolutely believable in the vein of ‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’ The disruption in oil supplies leads her to undertake a Chavista-like nationalization of the oil companies. The crop failures and impending food shortages leads her to nationalize agricultural companies and farms; which are distributed to left-wing cronies. By 2020, she has used her emergency powers (granted by a Democrat majority Congress and upheld by a leftist majority Supreme Court) to shut down all opposition radio and TV networks, and throw her Republican opponent in prison.

But that’s all background. The plot is about an Army Captain and his company who have been left behind in Iran as the USA withdraws all forces from around the world to deal with its domestic problems. He has to, somehow, get his men home. Their fight across a war-plague-and-famine ravaged Middle East forms the journey of the novel.

So, was it any good? I’m not a big fan of the first-person narrative style, but I got past it. I liked the cultural, sociological, and political observations, and the way Ringo used the crises as a way to demonstrate how they would play out. The battle scenes were kind of perfunctory. Maybe it’s because I’ve been laboring for almost a year to get a battle scene ‘right’ in my own writing that I felt his could have used a bit more clarity and detail. But I can recommend it, and I’m at least going to check out some of his other stuff.

Comments

  2. Last Centurion was written to be like a War Blog done after the fact to clear up well known things. Kinda like “Hey, I was there, and THIS is what happened for real” (“So there I was, No Shit”).
    Ringo’s Zombie stuff is great too(more mutated virus stuff there), I recommend them, and the compilation of shorts based in that world (He even has a Eric Flint story in there. There’s a bit of history between them …Flint being a commie you might get why). So Under A Graveyard Sky et al are definite reads Myself, I’ve never gotten into the Posleen stuff (But those seem very popular too) and I await the next Empire Of Man book with bated breath (those are done with David Weber). They finally got a plot, and someday it will get here . . .so “he who doesn’t finish series” says (he is self noting of this, making it jokes in some of the books).
    The Council Wars stuff is good … 4 books there.
    Then there is the origination of “Oh John Ringo, NO!” catchphrase. Ghost and the other Paladin of Shadows books.
    Yeah. Story got stuck in his head, so he wrote it, was shocked people who read it liked it, but he decided it bordered on porn and was going to maybe offer it under a pen name to another publisher but Jim Baen said “Hell NO! Gimme that” and to his embarrassment it was way popular, but the main character “…collects hookers like a crazy cat lady collects cats”, but the middle ones are good Spec Ops writing (with hookers, and Beer).
    His works with Travis Taylor (of Rocket City Rednecks fame) are also great, but some sodding fools complain there is too much science in the Science Fiction.
    Head over to Baen.com http://www.baen.com/baenebooks and check out his other stuff. One can read a few chapters for free.