The Last Centurion

Written by John Ringo

Narrated by Dan John Miller

Centurions were the guardians of Rome. At the height of the Roman Republic there were over five thousand qualified Roman Centurions in the Legions. To be a Centurion required that, in a mostly illiterate society, one be able to read and write clearly, to be able to convey and create orders, to be capable of not only performing every skill of a Roman soldier but teach every skill of a Roman soldier.

Becoming a Centurion required intense physical ability, courage beyond the norm, years of sacrifice and a total devotion to the philosophy which was Rome. When Rome fell to barbarian invaders, there were less than five hundred qualified Centurions. Not because Rome had fewer people but because it had fewer willing to make the sacrifices. And the last Centurions left their shields in the heather and took a barbarian bride . . .

We are . . . The Last Centurions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Aug 5, 2008
• ISBN: 9781423370963

John Ringo

John Ringo is author of the New York Times best-selling Legacy of Aldenata (Posleen War) series, which so far includes A Hymn Before Battle and nine sequels, the technothriller series starting with Ghost, a dark fantasy titled Princess of Wands, and many other novels for Baen. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Ringo brings first-hand knowledge of military operations to his fiction.

Reviews for The Last Centurion

[Scott Graves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. I don't know what else to say. I was overwhelmed. John Ringo makes me proud to be an American and of my time in the Army. After being kicked in the teeth, lied to and shut down by the left its good to hear something good about those of us labeled deplorables by a certain woman who ran for president who shall remain nameless because I don't want to be found shot twelve times in the back of the head and it be ruled a suicide.

[Samson Chui · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic “what If “ of America after a plague. Worth it

[Jim · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Displays a horrible worldview by the author AND his wife.

[wunder-62679 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book certainly has a distinctive voice. It is the voice of a know-it-all who won't shut up even though you stopped buying him beers two hours ago. In this book he tells the army how they should be doing things, the middle east how they should be governed (while shooting quite a few of them), a new farm wife what to cook her farmer husband for breakfast, and finishes with an interminable, oops, stirring, speech telling every citizen of the US how to be a proper citizen. No need for personal liberty when you have John Ringo, oops, Bandit Six, to tell you the right way to think.

A wankfest for people with a John Wayne fantasy.

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A tough slog in some places but an interesting read none the less. As a preemptive right wing strike; should the US ever elect a liberal female president, it opens will a definite and quite detailed analysis of how a pandemic spreads. Then, transitions to a lost company in Iran captained by no ordinary mortal. Refuting current thinking on global warming with a well reasoned counter theory, he makes the case for industrial level agriculture as the way to feed the world. Then, he resolves most of the historic Mideast problems on his way to capture Istanbul assisted by some Nepalese turned into instant Gurkhas and the usual bevy of beautiful women.

[bgknighton · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Another good alternate history. This one on Earth, in our time. We can only hope that the armed forces have people like this in them. A no-nonsense look at a possible result of current policies.

[svfreeman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing. Strong development of theme but seemed blatant politial militant commentary

[seanr_624117 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Although this book is a prolonged attack on Blue State thinking, Global Warming, Democrats, and Hillary Clinton; it is an excellent, funny read (I am an effette Blue Stater). Written in the form of a blog recounting the prior seven (7) years or so, it describes an Earth suffering from a Plague and a new Ice Age. I hghly recommend it.

[crazybatcow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's told in the first person by a soldier post-apocalypse. As another review indicated, it's like reading someone's well-thought out blog. It contains a LOT of acronyms, vulgar language and right wing sentiments. But all the arguments put forth (community trust process, political leadership failures, emergency response efforts and etc) are backed up by some "evidence" inasmuch as you can have evidence for something that hasn't actually occurred. It has a nice ring of truth to it so if you read this and discovered after reading it that it was a true account of events (say, from a different planet) you would not think it unbelievable.It's not badly written, or badly argued, and even though it's right wing, it's not loopy-loony or anything. In a way, it's similar to Max Brooks' World War Z where there's a believable "historical" accounting of an event that didn't actually occur.

[cauplwl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fans of John Ringo will probably enjoy this book, although he departs fairly radically from his past works in terms of writing style (although not so much in substance). The story is written as though it's a blog created by the protagonist, who has lived through a global disaster, during which a major epidemic has killed a major fraction of the world's population, combined with sudden onset of global cooling. The blog format allows Ringo to offer quite a bit of combined political and sociological commentary on his projected future -- in which a liberal President manages to push the US into terribly wrong responses to the problems it's encountering. Ringo has clear opinions on many things surrounding how to people and reality interact, and he provides arguments for his positions in the blog format -- although, like a blog, there's not much counterpoint. Despite the somewhat odd writing style, I found it an enjoyable and absorbing read.

[jjmcgaffey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Weird and wonderful. If you liked the Ghost series by him, you'll love this - it's not quite as nasty or explicit, but there's an awful lot about the technical aspects of blowing people and things up. Very heavy politics - Ringo is well over to the right. I actually find this fascinating - being a (more or less) liberal myself, I'm quite familiar with liberal stereotypes of conservatives. I enjoy seeing the reverse. Ringo displays his stereotypes very strongly ('tofu-eaters' is a frequent identifier), but when it gets down to people (only in the last third or quarter of the book) he's (character, and apparently author) perfectly willing to accept that there are decent people on the 'other side' and with training they can become quite acceptable...Interesting variant on apocalypse and post-apocalypse story. Civilization doesn't fall apart, despite a double hammer-blow of epidemic and sudden mini-Ice Age; it's all about hanging on until you can work through these problems and get back to normal. More or less. The first part of the book Ringo spends a lot of time talking about how different areas handled the problems - these are the most annoying to a liberal, because he states categorically (and with liberal use of stereotypes) that the 'tofu-eaters' fail in every possible way. The middle is the character's own adventures - not only fights his way through a destabilized Middle East but leaves it on the road to recovery (reasonable borders are a good idea, but it's a bit Mary Sue that he can produce them so easily). The last section he's back in the US and dealing with individuals instead of stereotypes - and wonder of wonders, there are idiotic conservatives and capable-of-thought liberals to be found...that's the best part - most realistic - to me. And where-o-where did that wife come from? It stops rather abruptly, I'd have liked a little more or at least an epilogue. And there's one logical hole - when he's swept off to the Pentagon. If the MSM are as much worshipers of the President and her policies as depicted, why are questions about the farm policy a problem, or why are they happening at all? Sorry, weakness.Overall a not-bad book. Part primer on how civilization can fall apart, part men's adventure story (blow things up! and girls!), part an interesting exploration of people getting things working again. Better than Ghost but very much in the same vein. I like Ringo better when he co-writes with David Weber, but I'm glad I read this and may well re-read.