Paladin of Shadows is a series of books written by Military sci-fi author John Ringo and centering around the life of ex-SEAL Mike 'Ghost' Harmon. This series is a military fiction thriller.
Series basis[]
The series stars a hero who, under other circumstances, might well be considered a monster. Mike Harmon is fantastic in battle and when given a mission to accomplish always successful. But he's also a a self-acknowledged sexual predator with internal demons that have to be carefully restrained lest they commit atrocities that would turn him into a true monster.
However, he considers rape to be a violation of the warrior code, which he defines as; Protection of the Innocent, Courage in Battle, Loyalty to the King. He thus channels his desires into an intense sadomasochistic streak, and luckily has little trouble finding willing "bottoms".
Book 1 - 'Ghost'[]
At the beginning of this book, Mike Harmon is enjoying the benefits of being an ex-SEAL by living the campus life in the United States. The liberal attitudes of his classmates and professors are ruining the fun for him, however, so the kidnapping of a young woman by terrorists off the street in front of his eyes is a welcome distraction. This story follows him through a series of interesting anti-terrorist missions across the globe as a completely independent contractor with the US 'three letter agencies' and also introduces us to his darker side in regard to bondage, domination and sado-masochism (BDSM), often in excruciating detail. Published October 4, 2005.
Book 2 - 'Kildar'[]
In this book, Mike (In search of beautiful prostitutes) stumbles across an almost forgotten group of people in the country of Georgia. These people, known as the Keldara, are a fierce group of warrior farmers who descend from an ancient Varangian culture. Fascinated by the place, Mike purchases the castle on the hill with a quantity of terrorist bounty money and goes about learning the ways of his new 'people' who, as he is their new 'Kildar' are willing to follow his orders. Published February 28, 2006.
Book 3 - 'Choosers of the Slain'[]
from jacket: Mike Harmon’s commando-quality retainers agree: their leader, code-named Ghost, is a peculiar one. An ex-Navy-SEAL, there is no stronghold he cannot penetrate, no target he can’t take out. But Ghost is also a man struggling to keep the animal inside at bay and his twisted sexual desires satisfied with a rock-hard integrity and incredible force of will.
Now Harmon and his militia have been hired to rescue the daughter of a powerful political mover in America, kidnapped into the Eastern Europe sex trade.
Welcome to the Balkan Route: a notorious pathway for human trafficking carved with blood and brutality and passing through Serbia and Montenegro, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo to the heart of darkness itself: sexual snuff houses where powerful politicians pay to rape and murder young women for kicks. Turns out some of those politicians hail from Washington, D.C.
But now the Route is about to be re-Routed, and the balance of power is about to shift dramatically – to the smoking muzzle of one very angry ex-SEAL’s M-4.
Sometimes it takes a bad man to destroy an even more terrible evil. And the baddest of them all is Ghost. They’ll be sorry they made his girls cry.
John Ringo, veteran of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne and fivetimes New York Times best-seller with over a million books in print, delivers another blockbuster military technothriller with the latest entry in his “Ghost” saga.
Book 4 - 'Unto the Breach'[]
In this book, Mike and the Keldara are recruited to enter Chechen territory and destroy a stolen WMD. His troops undergo difficult trials just to reach the weapon, which is being sold to Islamic terrorists. Their attempt to fight their way back to the valley of the Keldara is blocked by a flood of Chechen terrorists and they fight a battle reminiscient of Rorke's Drift.
This mission is complicated by Harmon facing a self-conflict as he has never before experienced. The Keldara practice droit de seigneur with suitable Kildars to replenish their small gene pool, and in the course of one such ritual "opening", he finds himself seriously infatuated with the woman in question. He is thus torn between his sexuality and his honor; send the woman's husband into battle to die so as to take her for himself, or stand aside as is his duty as Kildar.
From jacket: Michael Harmon has been there and done that. Rescued co-eds, killed major terrorists, stopped nuclear assaults. Now he'd just like to kick back and relax with his harem of lovelies. Unfortunately, the world keeps turning.
Mike and the Keldara are back tracking down terrorists, rogue Russian bio-scientists and the doomsday weapon to end all doomsday weapons. It's going to take some very tough, hard and nasty people to stop the end of the world. Fortunately, there's Mike Harmon.
The Hero of Ghost, Kildar and Choosers of the Slain, along with his company of elite mountain fighters, is sent on a mission to stop an advanced smallpox plague from being turned over to terrorists. But that will only be the beginning as the Kildar and his Keldara rush to stop a host of WMD attacks, coordinated to take out the very heartland of terrorism's enemies. It's a battle for culture, and this time the terrorists aren't aiming at just one building.
Book 5 - 'A Deeper Blue'[]
released July 07. Mike Harmon (A.K.A. The Kildar) is requested by the US government to intervene in a suspected terrorist incursion of the Continental United States (CONUS).
From jacket: Heart-sick over the deaths of so many of his Keldara followers, and one in particular, former SEAL Mike Harmon, hero of Ghost, Kildar and Choosers of the Slain, decides to sit this one out. WMDs headed for the US no longer matter to the Kildar. But when his best friend and intel specialist both are seriously wounded in an ambush aimed at him, the Kildar gets his gameface back on. Mike has always said that he's not a nice guy, and he's about to prove it to a boatload of terrorists and Colombian drug dealers. Set in the Bahamas and Florida Keys, A Deeper Blue is a fast moving thriller that never slows down from the first page. With the return of some old faces, the action-packed novel proves, once again, the adage that sometimes it takes some very bad people to do good things.
Book 6 - Tiger by the Tail[]
A new addition to the Paladin of Shadows military adventure series by multiple New York Times best seller John Ringo and Ryan Sear. Sequel to Ghost, Kildar, Choosers of the Slain, Unto the Breach and A Deeper Blue.
After saving America from Middle Eastern terrorists, even Mike Harmon and the Keldara could use a vacation. Of course, the Kildar's idea of a vacation includes taking down pirates in the Singapore Straits. But when he finds computer chips designed to run nuclear reactors in the pirate booty, Harmon has a new mission thrust upon him—discover how bottom-feeding thieves got their hands on top secret technology.
The chips are headed for newly democratic Myanmar, a country vital to American interests in the region. Now Harmon finds himself in a desperate race to learn who stole the chips and why. From glittering Hong Kong to the slums of Thailand to the swamps of Myanmar, Harmon and his Keldara team follow a trail of death and deceit across the glittering underbelly of Southeast Asia.
And as the path winds through dark jungle and slave labor camps to the heart of newborn democracy, Harmon must devise a way to prevent the nasty overthrow of a nation's capital by totalitarian tyrants. But if there's one thing Mike and the Keldara specialize in, it's doing what it takes to give freedom a chance.
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