Choosers of the Slain (Paladin of Shadows, Book 3)

Riverdale, New York: Baen Publishing Enterprise, 2006. AF5 - A first edition (complete numberline) hardcover book SIGNED by author on the title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has some light discoloration and shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, lightly moisture soiled, moderate tanning and light shelf wear. Choosers of the Slain (Paladin of Shadows, Book 3). 9.5"x6.5", 427 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. John Ringo is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several New York Times best sellers. His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. He has over seven million copies of his books in print, and his works have been translated into seven different languages. Paladin of Shadows. This is a series of contemporary era techno-thrillers, much like Tom Clancy's works but with less politics and a closer to the ground level and action focus. Ringo has stated that these novels stem from a nagging idea between contracted books. He believed the concept was too over-the-top and offensive to be of much interest to his usual audience, and so wrote the first book with no intention of publishing it, as a way to get the idea out of his head. However, during interactions with fans, he mentioned the unpublished story and was surprised that the premise was met with enthusiasm. The Paladin of Shadows series contain graphic scenes of rape, bondage, torture, and underage sex, as Ringo's protagonist's anti-terrorism missions butt heads with harsh economic realities of commercial sexual slavery in Eastern Europe and its connection to funding arms for terrorist organizations. The central hero, Michael Harmon (A.K.A. Mike Jenkins, A.K.A. Ghost), is a self-proclaimed sadist, repressed rapist, former United States Navy Boatswain's Mate 1st Class, and a trainer of US Navy SEALs. While walking after a class on the campus of the University of Georgia, he witnesses a woman being kidnapped. He impulsively follows the kidnapper and rescues several abducted women and earns the gratitude of several nations, a small fortune, and a series of high-level political connections in the process of experiencing a life change. The work is, in fact, three connected anti-terrorism novellas spanning about a year, backstory omitted from the last two, where 'Jenkins' takes on a certain James Bond-style sole operator/loose cannon role. The work features scenes involving the interception of two nuclear devices, saving Paris and Washington, D.C., while featuring a travelogue through part of the seamier sides of the Balkans and European parts of the former Soviet Union. In the second work, he buys an estate in the eastern Europe country of Georgia that has an entailed ancient warrior tribe, called the Keldera, who bestow on him the honorific "The Kildar" (Warlord, Baron, or similar title). The Keldera aid him in reducing tensions in the Caucasus. Again the book shows a life transition, this time from a sole shooter to a local, politically connected, warlord. In subsequent books, the tribe, now being trained up into a superb light company, goes operational and is employed as a deniable black ops force by the United States for the next several works. By A Deeper Blue, some of the Keldaran force has been trained in both SCUBA and HALO jumps; while Tiger by the Tail shows the force on an extended training mission in the Pacific gradually being trained en toto as a force equivalent to U.S. Navy SEAL Teams-but with Company strength. Other major/recurring characters in the Paladin of Shadows series include Charles Adams, a retired SEAL Master Chief, intel specialist and former USMC Sergeant Patrick Vanner, United States Army War College graduate Colonel David Nielson, a retired Special Ops Civil Affairs Specialist who serves as Mike's de facto Chief of Staff and the only American officer on his senior staff, Captains Kasey Bathlick and Tamara Wilson (call signs Dragon and Valkryie), two Marine Corps helicopter pilots, Captain John Hardesty, a charter pilot for Chatham Aviation in England/former Royal Air Force Major/Squadron leader who frequently flies Mike around the globe, Colonel Bob Pierson, the Office of Strategic Operations Liaison at the Pentagon who serves as one of Mike's primary contacts within the United States government, 2nd Lieutenant Britney "Bambi" Harder, who was rescued by Mike in "Ghost" and by "A Deeper Blue" is a junior intelligence officer at United States Special Operations Command Headquarters, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, Anastasia Rakovitch, a masochistic 26-year-old Russian-born woman given to the Kildar by an Uzbek sheikh who now serves as his harem manager, Daria Koroleva, the Kildar's personal assistant, Katya "Cottontail" Ivanova, the sociopathic man-hating whore-turned-spy and assassin, and David and Amanda Cliff, the President and First Lady of the United States. . Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.