Or "skiffy" as Sato would put it...anyone get the reference?

Here is what's in my cart at Audible:
 Live Free or Die; The Last Centurian; or Under A Graveyard Sky.  I never read Ringo before, so not sure what to take.  LFOD sounds the most "sciffy", though.  But I've never read a zombie book, either, so graveyard should be good.  A little help, here, please!

This came up as a recommended selection and sounds good:  Cast Under an Alien Sun: Destiny's Crucible, Book 1;  by Olan Thorensen .  "What if you were thrown into a foreign society, never to see home again? What would you do, and could you survive?

Joe Colsco boarded a flight from San Francisco to Chicago to attend a national chemistry meeting. He would never set foot on Earth again.

On planet Anyar, Joe is found unconscious on a beach of a large island inhabited by humans where the level of technology is similar to Earth circa 1700. He awakes amid strangers speaking an unintelligible language and struggles to accept losing his previous life and finding a place in a society with different customs, needing a way to support himself and not knowing a single soul. His worry about finding a place is assuaged when he finds ways to apply his knowledge of chemistry - as long as he is circumspect in introducing new knowledge not too far in advance of the planet's technology and being labelled a demon.

As he adjusts, Joe finds that he has be dropped into a developing clash between the people who cared for him, and for whom he develops an affinity, and a military power from elsewhere on the planet - a power with designs on conquest. Unaware, Joseph Colsco has been poured into a crucible where time and trials will transform him in ways he could never have imagined.

Cast Under an Alien Sun is a story that's science fiction in premise, adventure in execution - a cross-genre adventure with elements of science fiction, history, hard science, epic fantasy, time travel, romance, alien contact, and space colonization. "

EDIT:  I read "cast..." and thought it was pretty good for that type of book.  I'll likely read the next one.  Not quite as action packed as janissaries but good nonetheless.

Read book 2 of this series and ordered book 3

Sounds best if you read that intro in that cigarette and gin addled movie promo voice but I'd fo, sounds interesting.

Try the Posleen War series by Ringo. Great series. Gust Front is the first.

The Ringo "Graveyard Sky" series is excellent.  
It's the only zombie books I've ever seen that make a realistic case for "zombies".
These zombies are not the dead who rise again, they're victims of a virus that literally fries the brain, destroying higher functions.  They never died, but have no minds, just an instinct to kill.
This is far more realistic then something that's dead being reanimated.
Rousing good adventure too.

"The Last Centurion" is also a good read.  It's a single stand-alone novel that's a little odd at first because it's written as though it was a blog.
Again, rousing good story, gets into the failure of organic farming to be able to feed masses of people, and does a great job of describing "ants and grasshoppers" in a near-collapse of society.  Ants get up and start work.  Grasshoppers sit down and wait to be saved and served.

"Live Free or Die" is more then it seems.
It starts out as a straight Sci-Fi story with a crazy premise about what aliens can become addicted to.
Then it goes serious with some extremely interesting info on different cultures and their ability to survive in space based on the cultural ability to do the hard and dirty work of maintaining machines, or leaving it to the "lower classes".
Fair warning.... The series has never been finished, but it's not in a blatant cliffhanger.

I tried "Cast Under an Alien Sun" and just couldn't get into it.  It was too much like any of a number of similar stories of a human thrown into a medieval level alien society.

If you want to dive into a really HUGE situation, pick up "1632" by Ringo and Eric Flint.  This is an entire series of books, including novels written in the 1632 universe by other people, and includes a long series of "Grantville Gazette" short stories that come out once ever month or so.  Right now it's up to 76 volumes.
"1632" has spawned the largest "universe" in Sci-Fi history.  It dwarfs the Star Wars and Star Trek universes by the vast number of people writing in it and the number of books.

You don't have to dive in too deep, just try the original "1632" to see if you like it.  It's one of the most interesting of all the time travel stories.

Ringo is very prolific and has a good number of books and series out.  Unfortunately, like several other top Sci-Fi writers, he has a problem with finishing a series.
Some good ones are the distinctly odd, and rather filthy but hugely fun series "Kildar" , and many other series, most of which leave you hanging and unfinished.

Last, if you want a year or two of solid reading, tackle the "Off Armageddon Reef" series by David Weber.  This is a 9  huge book series that does have a satisfactory end to the series.

And, a huge series by Eric Flint and David Drake, "The Belisarius" series.  This is a thundering, giant series that's a must read for all Sci-Fi readers.

That’s a great rundown but now I’m even less sure what Ringo to start with—maybe the one-off “the last centurion”?

So, the Posleen series sounds a lot like what I;m reading already--steel world etc by scalzi.  So I'm gonna snag the zombie ringo.

The Ringo zombie series is five books.
It's worth it.

In modern Sci-Fi, especially military, the top dogs are....
John Ringo.
David Weber.
Eric Flint.
David Drake.
Larry Corriea.
Tom Kratman.
Michael Z. Williamson.

They often collaborate on novels.  
Most anything written by these guys is going to be good.  Unfortunately, some of them have the bad habit of not finishing series before starting another, and David Weber especially writes MASSIVE books upwards of 700 to 800 pages.  
Thing is, if you like the subject you just get sucked in and wish they were longer.

Just these guys alone could keep you reading for the next 10 years, unless you read like I do.

If you prefer audio books, my mil-sf Glory Boy and Recon: A War to the Knife (as well as the rest of the Recon series) are all available as audiobooks.

Yup all my reading is audiobooks

If you just want to dip a toe in, go with "The Last Centurion".

Honestly, with John Ringo, you can't go wrong

@ RikWriter I've enjoyed the 4 or 5 books of your's I've read.

I just finished "Last flight of the Acheron" today.

OP should give this author a listen. Or better yet, a read.

My 2 cents:

The Lost Fleet series, by Jack Campbell
The Expanse series, by James Corey

both well written, engrossing series

Ringo would probably be very entertaining as audio as his books are very punchy.  The 1632 series would probably be very entertaining too. That said, I have no idea how Weber would be in audio - either very descriptive or mind numbingly boring, with no in-between.  Weber uses a dozen words (or pages) where one would suffice, so I suspect the latter - which is too bad because his stories minus the droning are good, but his publishers must love his ability to turn a trilogy into an unending saga.

I just picked up a new audiobook but haven't listened yet.

"We are Legion.  We are Bob"

Anyone have an experience with it?

I’ve heard of that book but not listened...

I started the expanse but didn’t like the second book—caliban’s war—as good as the first so dropped the series

Under a Graveyard Sky was fantastic.

I read the dead tree version. It wasn't bad.

And check out the Galaxy's Edge Series. They just started showing up on Audible. That is the first two books, Legionnaire and Galactic Outlaws. They wanted to make Star Wars but not Star Wars. They put out a book a month and they've all been pretty great so far, picks up slow but is rolling right along now.

I recommend you try the Posleen books when you are done. It's my favorite " alien invasion" series.
I'm not a fan of Under a Graveyard Sky.

I finished up "dust world" and started "graveyard" today, im about three hours into it.  It's OK, but I sure hope it gets better.

Yes, I've read 3 of them. They're pretty good once they get going.

"Graveyard" does get better.
When you get to the point where "What happens in the compartment, stays in the compartment" you'll be hooked.

The scene where they find 12 gauge for SheWolf's Saiga always makes me smile.

All of Baens ebooks are DRM free. So you can go back and redownload a prior purchase, in a different format, as many times as you want. And for books in popular series, the hard covers of new releases usually include a CD with the previous books on it. Also, Baen has sample chapters available for all their books.

Live Free or Die, first book in the Troy Rising series is actually a on canon prequel to the Schlock Mercenary web comic. https://www.schlockmercenary.com/

If you like John Ringo, check out the Baen Free Library. http://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012.

I'm a huge Ringo fan and even broke my hard and fast rule about staying out of Seattle to drive up and meet him at a book signing. John did a tour (around Grenada time frame, IIRC) as a 11C in the 82nd Airborne. It shows in his writing, adds realism to the ground combat scenes he does. Some of his knowledge is a little dated (Ricks Lounge was closed a long time ago), but he does a pretty good job of capturing the accuracy of how a regular infantry Soldier would react to fighting aliens. Ringo also did a few rants or essays on subjects. Two good ones (I honestly don't know where to find them) are Bug Hunt (on the subject of hunting OBL back in the day) and "Junior's Home RNA Kit (found it archived here on Arfcom. First book in his Aldenata (or Posleen) series is free to download as well.

Another good Ringo series is the Council Wars . Premise: Some other Baen authors I'd reccomend is David Weber. The Honor Harrington is, IMO, one of the best written book series with a female protagonist ever. The first book, On Basilisk Station, is in their free library. There are some spin off series and short story collections, which flesh out the universe also.

Weber also did a series with Ringo, called the Empire of Man series. Short version: A spoiled worthless prince and the remains of his company of bodyguards (who all hate him) get sabatoged and then ambushed in space and stranded on a planet full of giant lizards trying to eat them and 8ft tall aliens with 4 arms. They have to march halfaway around the planet to reach safety. Prince Roger has to grow up and deal with the guilt from his bodyguards dying to protect him and his bodyguards have to deal with the fact that he is probably the most lethal out of all of them. And while this is going on, they march across the planets and bring some civilization tot he warring tribes. Btw, the link above lists all 4 books, but you can save money by getting 'Empire of Man (books 1&2) and Thrones of Stars (books 3&4).

The 1632 series was mentioned. Good series, but a little heavy on the politics at times. Premise is that a coal mining town in WV encounters a aberration in space time and gets teleported to Germany in 1632, in the middle of the 30 Years War. The locals have shotguns, rifles, pistols (and one M60 that a vet snuck home) plus pickups vs the rest of Europe. So they do their best to make some friends and spread freedom.

Tom Kratman is another interesting author. He's got a book out called A State of Disobedience. Think Hillary in the White House, Texas succeeds, and the shit hits the fan. He has another series called Legion del Cid.

Michael Z. Williamson has the Freehold series. AWESOME series of books. First book, Freehold, is free at Baen.

Larry Correia is the real world example of an Arfcommer that hits it big. He's a huge gun nut, and owned a gunstore previously, IIRC. He's got a few great series out. Monster Hunter International is awesome. Think Blackwater meets Supernatural. Monsters are real, companies kill them (and recruit some) to get paid under a secret gov bounty system, while butting heads with gov agents trying to keep the rest of the world from finding out the truth. Two things make this series stand out for me. First is Larry's accuracy with gun details. The second is how he takes fantasy stereotypes and turns them on their head.

Click To View Spoiler

Larry also has a couple other series. The Dead 6 series, cowritten by Mike Kupari, is a pretty good techno thriller series. The Grimnoir chronicles Last but not least. If you're looking for good old fashioned space opera, try the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. A warning. Some of the books were published out of chronological order. I suggest the reading order here.. The first two books, the main characters are the parents of the main character for the rest of the series. It's one of my favorite scifi series because the hero isn't the classic heroic type. He was damaged as a fetus and grew up with brittle very easily broken bones and undersized on a heavily militarized planet that basically worships soldiers and his dad and grandpa are larger then life war heroes. So you have a genius who is less then 5ft tall, with brittle bones and no chance of becoming a great warrior like his dad or granddad. So of course, that's what he sets out to do.

Edit: I forgot that John Ringo did a few books in Larry's Monster Hunter universe, but set in the 80s.

^+1 Slick 556
The Vorkosigan series is a must read. There is no character in fiction, anywhere, like Miles Vorkosigan.

Yup, graveyard improved for me and it was done faster than it should have been--a good sign.  I'll probably go for the vorkoligsen saga next, for this week.

So, is Empire of Man similar to Edward Rice Burrough's Carter of Mars series?

Is "Dreamsongs" by Gerorge RR Martin and others good?  It's part of a buy3 for 2 credits sale at Audible.  I liked Game of Thrones but have not listened to anymore in the series, it was a bit depressing for me.

They also have "the terror" by Dan Simmons in the sale...

I like Ringo, but it’s not for everybody. I recently had an argument about that with a buddy that’s an even bigger sci-fi nerd than I am. The military technobabble gets old for some folks. He also has a slightly snotty, “I’m the smartest person in the room,” vibe that turns some folks off. Again, it doesn’t bother me, but I’ve met more than one person who couldn’t get through more than about one book’s worth before giving up.

I have become a Corriea fan, but initially his style grated on my nerves. His writing has become a lot better over the years, and I have less of a stick up my ass about what I read (or at least a smaller stick) as I get older. It’s a lot of gun porn, which appeals to me.

Webber can be a fun read, but he gets a little long winded and absolutely loves age-of-sail. If you can’t handle pages of description of wind in the rigging, you probably won’t like it.  I like the Armageddon Reef stuff a lot.

When in doubt, you can always hit the classics. I tend to bust out the Heinlein when I can’t find anything inspiring. Lois McMaster Bujold is an old school leftist gunch, but a brilliant writer. Cherryh likewise. Thing about sci-fi, there are too many flavors and too many individual tastes to make blind recommendations.

And for the record, actually reading something beats the blue fuck out of listening to someone else read it for you.

I actually picked "to sail a darkling sea".  I think im done with Ringo after this one, for awhile.

Audible didn't have the bujold proper order compilation, so I skipped it.

I listen during my commute and at work, hard to read when driving and working with my hands.  Also, my eyes are too tired to read anything but the necessary stuff anymore.  If it wasn't for audible, the only reading I would do would be when I'm on the crapper.

So...ill need a new book by tomorrow, and will take all into consideration.

Bujold is worth the expense and or effort. When you thank me, and you will, I will tell you about The Curse of Chalion.

I'm so over zombies lately.

However for Ringo my favs are the Ghost/Kildar series (military tho, not sci-fi) and the Council Wars (sci-fi/military).  And right now it looks like the first book from the Council Wars series - There Will Be Dragons is free at the publisher's website.

The only caveat is that they're not audiobooks.  Although I guess if you're handy with the Macintosh "Say" command (and convert the file to TXT first), you can turn it into one.  If you don't mind a computer voice reading to you that is.

He’s right, you know...

A big plus one on The Lost Fleet.  Damn good books!!!!!

I just gone done re-reading "Pandora's Star" and "Judas Unchained", the two part Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton.  Hamilton is one of my favorite futurists.

So my next read is shards of honor, ill give this bujold a spin.

Cordelia's Honor are books 1 and 2 combined. Book 3,, warriors apprentice, is where the series shifts to Miles as main character and it takes off.

The Earc for the newest Honor Harrington book is out on baen.com

This is not a April fools prank.

Surprised no one mentioned the "Old Man's War" series by John Scalzi.

It's one of the best things I've read, and I've been reading for 65 years.

Because Scalzi is leftist scum who managed one decent book, and rabble rouses harassment and threats against more successful authors who aren't leftist scum.

And he was a rabid supporter of child molesters. That's not a joke. Look up Jian Ghomeshi, Chris Kluwe, Sarah Nyberg, Marion Zimmer Bradley, or her husband, Walter Breen. Scalzi spent years defending Bradley and Breen, while Breen died in prison for raping kids, and only spoke out once Bradley's own daughter spoke out against her mother and the truth became widely known outside sci-fi fandom.

Authors Progressive-Left attitudes aside, "The Old Man's War" series was great.  There were four books in the series, finishing with "Zoe's Story".  Everything in that universe after "Zoe's Story" was down hill.

Other early books by Scalzi that were also really good were.....
"The Android's Dream".  Aliens demand earth turn over a rare blue sheep and make threats.  There's a serious problem with the sheep.  They soon seriously regret doing so.

"Agent To the Stars"  A Hollywood agent has to do a PR campaign to welcome aliens to earth.

"Fuzzy" is a tribute to the original "Little Fuzzy" by H. Beam Piper.  Good read, but this is where I really started noticing his Progressive-Left nature.

If you want top Sci-Fi without the Lefty politics, books by any of these authors are usually excellent:

David Weber.
Eric Flint.
Tom Kratman.
A. Lee Martinez.
David Drake.
John Ringo.
Marko Kloos.
Michael Z. Williamson.
Larry Correia.

I actually read old mans war from a suggestion on another thread here.  Some of it was good,  ut o decided not to continue reading the series.  I think because i thought the undying mercenaries series was similar and i liked it better.

Honor harrington— read is he first book and thought it was good,  have not read any others in the series.

When picking Weber and Flint, always keep in mind that they have a really bad habit of writing a long series and never finishing it.
When they do they usually produce a good ending, but NOT always.
As example in the Prince Roger series mentioned above, the last book reads like a rushed "Lets finish this so I can move on".  You get built up for some things to happen and none of it does.  In addition it leaves you hanging.

One factor is both, but especially Weber is bad about is throwing in a vast space battle when they need some fast filler.
In "We Few" the apparent rush to finish has a vast space battle involving a charecter not mentioned anywhere in the preceding books.

For some fun, try A. Lee Martinez.  He's written a series of books unlike anything by anyone else.
Each book is totally different but repeats the themes of family, friends, bravery, and loyalty.

A. Lee Martinez

His first is the famous "Gil's All Fright Diner".  A team of good ol' boys vampire and werewolf are cruising the southwest and get into a "situation" in a really weird diner where things just ain't right.

His "Automatic Detective" has a former world destroying combat robot Mac Megaton taking up private detective work.

"Company of Ogres" has a new ogre company commander who has a little problem with dying.  He can't seem to stay dead.  And we better hope he doesn't.

"Monster" has a animal control agent that collects somewhat different types of creatures.   He has a jealous demon girlfriend and a little old lady trying to end the world.  Of course you meet nice people in the ice cream freezer at 711.

"Helen and Troy's Epic Road Trip" has Helen, a minotaur and her boyfriend an Adonis Asian named Troy cursed by a god and taking a road trip/quest in a classic muscle car through the Southwest.

"Divine Misfortune".  Need a little help?  Subscribe to your own personal god.  One looks like a raccoon wearing sunglasses and a loud shirt.  Trouble is, your personal god may have a little dangerous baggage....like another god who's been trying to kill him so long he can't remember why.
However, some gods cook just fantastic breakfasts.

The Eisenhorn Trilogy is a good strong, violent read. Set in the Warhammer 40K universe. It's a good intro to the series.

He is an Inquisitor, investigating treason and heresy against the Emperor of Mankind(Hail the God Emperor!)

He has nearly unlimited authority. He is judge, jury and often, executioner. On his say-so, the Navy will destroy a planet.

Lots of vicious gunfights, horrible aliens and demons.

E-Arc (ebook advance reader copy) of Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints (book 3 in the series)is out. It's set in Larry Correias MHI universe, but takes place in the 80s and written by John Ringo.

Check our Joshua guess......

Thanks. Bought it,read it, loved it.
And the last line is #perfect#!

I'm not there yet. Alternating between the book and Bosch season 4. Have you read the rest of the series? MH: Guardian earc should come out in a few months.

Thanks for recommending "Cast Under an Alien Sun".  Bought it and enjoyed it enough that I bought the rest of the series.  It reminded me of L. Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall".

Vulcan94

I'm almost done with the second book of the cast under an alien sky series, pen and sword--and considering going on to book three.

As far as the aforementioned author, Martinez, doesn't sound like my cup of tea.  but thanks, and if I'm feeling on really stretching I'll go there.

Shards of honor had me impressed more than once, I'll most likely continue the series.

Right now I'm contemplating going back to John carter's Barsoom, revisiting my childhood now that I'm a nostalgic middle aged man.

Is the Hell Diver's trilogy worth looking at?