John Ringo, Kildar

Kildar

John Ringo

Baen, Mar 2006, $26.00

ISBN 1416520643

Former Navy SEAL Mike Harmon uses the large award he received for his recent rescue mission (see GHOST) to travel. Currently he is in the Caucasus Mountains touring the former Soviet state of Georgia looking for the Bakuriani Resort when a blizzard leaves him stranded and in need of shelter. He is fortunate, as a young girl Katrina rescues him and takes him to her home in a remote area over the objections of her father. The American likes the tranquil area and soon buys the land.

Harmon rules in his fiefdom with kindness towards the natives, but soon finds that Eden has its outside snakes. He organizes the local tribe, the Keldara, to protect them from Chechen raiders and begins to learn their customs and heritage. However, though he is their ruler, the Keldara hide some information from their foreign warlord.

Mike Harmon is a fascinating hero who epitomizes the maxim that power corrupts, as he learns that moral issues are not simple up and down votes; choices for the good of one person can negatively impact another. The storyline is action-packed as expected with a John Ringo tale, but as in GHOST, once again Mr. Ringo provides a thought provoking character driven thriller (not a military sci fi), as his champion finds the paradox of ethics means someone, often an innocent, gets hurt. This is a great sequel from Mr. Ringo.