Jack Burrows' "John Ringo: The Gunfighter Who Never Was" is a well written book that focuses on what other writers have had to say about this legendary figure. Unfortunately, Burrows' concentration on the words written by others, overall detracts the book from telling readers about who John Ringo was or what he did during his life. The first impression one receives is that there is not much information about Ringo and that his reputation was largely achieved through the writings of latter day authors. Yet, Burrows' critic of other writers seems excessive at times. A reader who has little knowledge of Ringo other than his glorified reputation generally will like this book. But, there is far more information known about John Ringo's life than what is presented in Burrows' book. While I do recommend Jack Burrows' book, readers interested in an in-depth presentation of John Ringo's life must look elsewhere. Fortunately, biographies of John Ringo are not lacking. After reading Jack Burrows' book, readers should read Steve Gatto's recently released book "Johnny Ringo." When it comes to presenting information about John Ringo's activities throughout his life, Gatto's "Johnny Ringo" is vastly superior to Burrows' "John Ringo."

A well researched and (mostly) interesting book, although even an Englishman like myself had to have a dictionary to hand which made it hardgoing at times! (Where did he learn all those words?!!) Dr Burrows did tend to knock other authors of Western history, but I guess that is useful as we are at least able to take the mentioned books with a 'pinch of salt'.

This is one of the best books ever written on the subjects of Tombstone, The Earps, Clantons and of course, the "deadliest gunfighter of them all" Johnny Ringo. Burrows has carefully and fully researched his subjects and has also taken the time to research the other researchers whom he spares not at all. His writing style is free wheeling and hilarious. Burrows convincely proves that the man called John Ringo wasn't the educated,charming and deadly gunfighter of myth but rather but rather a small time criminal and lonely figure. Before you decide you know all about the Tombstone story, read, John Ringo, The Gunfighter Who Never Was. You will discover how much you didn't know and what you did just may have been wrong .

Ringo and Baen have let down their fans with this book and its predecessor 'When the Devil Dances'. Braen for thinking it was a good thing to charge the fans the price of two books for one and then using 9/11 as the rational. (loss of one star) Ringo for not playing fair with the reader. In the first two books of this four volume trilogy Ringo set up some very definite things about the antagonists (the Posleen) and why they act the way they do. In this book he now says, opps that isn't so they really do it for these reasons. For me this totally shattered the 'willing suspension of disbelief' that is key to enjoying a whopping good story. (loss of another star)

To give Ringo his due, he has told a good story, just not well. His characterization is top notch, with everyone, even the Posleens, being both believable and enjoyable. I really enjoy the way he makes engineers fun to read about while still keeping their 'Engineer-ness'.

My recommendation: What for the paperback.

First let me say that perhaps the most enlightening portion is the author's comments at the end of the book. The odd cliffhanger ending of the previous book is explained. These four books were originally planned as a trilogy with a longer story arc to follow. Eventhough more from Aldenata is to come the wait will be longer that avid fans will like.
My dissappointment may be based on very high expectations but I still highly recommend the entire series including this book. For those familiar with the series, it is more "Bun-Bun" than Michael O'Neal and the rest of the large cast.
The inclusion of the free CD should not be overlooked since it includes the previous 3 books on it in addition to many other extras. See the publisher's website for more details.

It is very difficult for some of the people here to excuse John Ringo for not including Hell's Faire as part of the earlier book. It's not a stand-alone - instead out of 325 pages of text, it's 315 pages of action, and about 10 pages of explanation.

Apparently these people have never suffered from writer's block themselves. Given the background of John Ringo - it would be very difficult for him to try to write a fictional story of the world falling apart when the real world was falling apart on our TV screens.

The Amazon price is fair for this - I wouldn't pay full price for it, since it's only 325 pages, and it only took me two and a half hours to read. The CD included, though, has another $100 worth of books on it, which is great for Baen to do this.

There will be other books in this series - there are a lot of things to resolve, such as Mike's other daughter, plus what his father and Callie do for the Bane Sidhe. That the Darhel are attempting to bargain again with the Posleen only screams additional series.

If you're a Sluggy fan and found Ringo due the references, hang in there. Read the books from the beginning - and remember, don't let rednecks play with anti-matter!

Dave Johnson spends more time bashing previous authors than he does on the facts of the life of John Ringo. Despite bashing other authors and talking about bias, he is decidedly anti-Earp -- to the point that it dominates the book. In this book he becomes exactly what he criticizes others for being. I expected more...

Like many people I have been intrigued for a number of years about the mysterious life of John Ringo. So it was with much excitement and eagerness that I picked up this book. I was soon left extremely disappointed.

It is a book of two halves. The first deals with Ringo's early years, from childhood to his participation in the Mason County War. This seems to be well researched and offers some interesting insights into his life, and certainly seems to clear up some of John Ringo's movements at that time.

Thereafter, the book takes an alarming turn for the worst. Much of the second half is a blatant attack on Wyatt Earp and anybody who dares to have a good word to say about him. For the record, I am neither pro-Earp, or anti-Earp (nor for that matter am I pro-Ringo or anti-Ringo) - I am just interested in learning more about these fascinating characters and the truth behind their lives. In no way can I condone such a biased, and at times, childish attempt at a 'historical biography'.

I found that I began to question the author's motives for writing the book. Was he really trying to write a biography on Ringo? Or was this another tedious, and pointless excuse to attack Wyatt Earp. It would have been much better had the author concentrated more on his chosen subject.

Instead he writes a lengthy account of the gunfight at the OK Coral (For which Ringo took no part) and events leading up to it, but paints only half the picture. He does not make mention of many contributary factors leading to hostilities between the two groups ie. Earp and Behans affections for Josephine Marcus; Ike Clanton supposedly double-crossing Earp - to name only a couple. Constantly through his book Johnson cites evidence that portrays Earp as the villain, and the the 'cowboy' elemant as honest ranchers. Remarkably he even states that John Ringo was not involved in criminal activity because he was not particularly known in local towns. Johnson says this is proved because they always spelt his name wrong. How naive! Anyone who studies Western history knows individual names were often spelt wrong eg. look at how many ways contemparies of Wild Bill Hickok spelt his name, and surely he was well known.Certainly I do not believe Ringo was as bad as he has been traditionally portrayed, but this kind of arguement is ridiculous.

The author continues his attacks against many authors. He clearly detests Stuart Lake's biography of Wyatt Earp - certainly not a new or unique opinion. Yet the irony is that Mr. Johnson has achieved a biography as one sided (if not more) than Lake's.

He continually criticizes other authors such as Jack Burrows and their arguements, using the phrase 'without documentation'. Yet 'without documentation' Johnson claims that the reason for Ringo's heavy drinking and dark moods, were because of his experiences in the Mason County War. Maybe, but the author takes this for fact. He also states catagorically that Ringo committed suicide, and does not even enter into discussions about the other possibilities. He only uses the evidence that fits into his opinion.

Surely the purpose of a historical account is to present both sides of the arguement, and draw sensible, logical conclusions. This book fails miserably to do that, and for the most part can not be taken seriously.

It is a shame that Mr. Johnson believes his opinion to be far superior and important, than historical facts and truths.

This book provides a very interesting (and researched) counter-point to the "Gunfighter Who Never Was". It is a fairly dry recitation of names, dates and facts, however, it does provide a very interesting perspective on one of the least factually known characters in the Tombstone mythos. This book will probably stand as the definitive John Ringo resource book for many, many years.

I bought this book and was excited about being able to take it right home and play along to the Beatles recordings on my guitar. I opened up to "I Saw Her Standing There" and put on my Please Please Me CD and to my surprise and dismay the book was in a different musical key than the CD, way off! I'm assuming they did that to make the songs easier to play on piano, but it wasn't what I wanted. Disappointed I took the book back and then ordered The Complete Beatles Scores from Amazon. I've been much happier with that book.