Women look at men who watch professional wrestling as a child who doesn’t want to grow up. Women should look at professional wrestling as a soap opera for men. In that vein, I decided to review John Ringo‘s latest effort, Citadel (Baen Books), which was not too deep but a lot of fun. Think “romance novel in candy form for men” and you’ll basically have a John Ringo novel. Throw in some ‘esplodyness, science and aliens out to destroy humanity and voila! there’s your prototypical Ringo novel.
It’s been a few years since the events in the preceding novel, Live Free or Die (which I thought was an awesome title until I realized that Ringo had NOT serialized John McClane into his universe). Tyler Vernon has built his massive space station (that’s no moon, that’s a space station!) which now sits at the exit zone of the gate which had been thoughtfully distributed by friendly aliens before the bad guys took over and started running their protection racket (gives us goods, ’cause it’d be a shame if an asteroid dropped on your planet). The Troy is the only thing which protects Earth from the evil alien scum of the universe (sorry MIB), and our three new heroes are now on board to help defend Earth.
Fairly fast paced, the story around the Troy and the subsequent battle station, Thermopylae, as they defend Earth are fun. Candy, something to be eaten without taken seriously. If you go into this book with a care-free, “let’s blow crap up” attitude, then you’re going to love this book. It has attractive, no nonsense women who are capable of blowing you up or… well, yeah. It has men who and brave, strong and loyal without being condescending.
Nothing jumps out at you as “wow, this changes my life”, which is the right idea for this book, since it’s just plain, old fashioned fun. A definitely fun read that let’s you kill a few hours and not feel guilty. Ringo, to me, is turning into one of those guilty pleasures you don’t admit to unless you’re really drunk or on a panel at a convention. Have fun with this one, and just let it take you where it wants to go. It’ll be a good ride.
–Reviewed by Jason
Shiny Book Review 