History Literature / PaladinOfShadows

* ''Unto the Breach''(2006): A Russian microbiologist is forced by unsavory characters to abscond with biological weapons and Mike must retrieve him. With dubious Russian assistance and the Chechens on their tail, though, things are going to get complicated fast.
* ''A Deeper Blue''(2007): Mike and the Keldara are called back to the US to help foil an imminent chemical weapons attack. However, Mike's head is not in the game and the local agencies are uncooperative.
* ''Tiger by the Tail''(2013): In operations against pirates in the seas around southeastern Asia, the Kildar and his team stumble upon a highly valuable and highly classified cargo originally bound for Myanmar. Mike and the team investigate to get to the bottom of what's happening in the newly democratic (as of the novel's setting) nation.

* ''Ghost'' (2005): Mike finds himself in pursuit of terrorists who are into abduction and WMD smuggling. Afterwards, he settles into the "boat bum" life in the Florida Keys, where he accidentally stumbles onto (and foils) another WMD smuggling plot. Having had enough of that, he them embarks on a "sex tour of Eastern Europe" vacation, where he stumbles into ''yet another'' terrorist plot, this time aimed at Paris during a Papal visit.

* ''Ghost'' (2005): Mike finds himself in pursuit of terrorists who are into abduction and WMD smuggling.

* UnfortunateNames: A Lieutenant Britney Harder in ''A Deeper Blue''.

** Also ties into the good doctor's WorldOfCardboardSpeech:

* BestialityIsDepraved: Father Ferani, in ''Unto the Breach''. See also NeverLiveItDown.

* AwesomenessInducedAmnesia: In ''Unto the Breach'', in a [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge vengeful berserker rage]] about deaths from a trio of armed bunkers her overloaded helicopter is forced to fly over, Kacey takes the armed [[ReportingNames Hind]] helicopter back to the bunkers, and in a whirling dervish of destruction to the sounds of Music/{{Dragonforce}} leaves them "fucking vaporized", as an observer to the carnage describes it. Afterward, however, in the narration it's noted that she doesn't remember any of it, between her vengeful thoughts and being "In The Zone".

** In ''Choosers of the Slain'', MI6 agent Charles Calthrop pulls out a Winchester .454 revolver, after initially reaching for a service-issue Walther to fight back against multiple gunmen in the defense of [[spoiler:Katya and Natalya.]]

* SpyFiction: {{Discussed|Trope}} in ''Choosers of the Slain'', between Mike and an MI6 agent killing some time during a lull in the action, particularly how the TuxedoAndMartini variety is incredibly unrealistic, with the [[TrenchcoatBrigade Stale Beer]] that's actual intelligence work is rather boring. Later in the series the actual spycraft by Katya is of the Stale Beer variety, although with some high-tech enhancement thanks to the US government in ''Choosers''.

* OneOfUs:
** InUniverse, Ranger Captain Guerrin in ''Unto the Breach'' reads Creator/RobertAHeinlein and watched ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.
** In ''Tiger by the Tail'', Mike has discovered Firefly too and gave out callsigns based on it.

*** She does show up, having matured and acquired a medical degree, in some non-canon crossover snippets involving how the Keldara would have fared in the zombie-apocalypse universe of Ringo's ''Black Tide Rising'' series.

*** OTOH, the scene in question was a screening of {{Roots}}, which Mike gets thrown out of for laughing out loud during the "whites chasing and capturing blacks" scene. He'd done enough library research to know that slavers usually ''bought the slaves directly from the tribes.''

-->'''''Dr.'' Arensky''': ''Because as you were bundling me about and threatening me I was slipping three small needles into your thigh. ...You probably didn't notice the slight pain what with everything else. One of them was coated in a product derived of argot. That's bread mold to you. It causes a reaction called Saint Vitus' Dance. Think of it as LSD. Psychotropic, hallucinogenic, very effective. You're probably already feeling the effects; it's fast stuff. If that didn't get you, the second was coated in a nasty little microbe that is found in sink drains world-wide. Very rarely kills anyone despite that; most people don't eat food they pick out of the sink drain. However, if it is cultured by an expert and then stuck into someone's thigh, it will spread through the bloodstream rather fast. Oh, it's not going to kill you for three or four days, but that one was ''guaranteed.'' The last was, I'm ''pretty'' sure, botulinus toxin. One of the tins of meat you left us was rather swelled and the resultant culture sure ''looked'' like botulinus. And botulinus is nasty. A teaspoon would kill a city. The amount I gave you would only kill, say, an elephant. By the way, that would have killed me if I'd eaten it. Such great care you took, too...'' (cue car crash)

--->'''Dr. Arensky''': ''Let me give you one piece of advice. Take it for what you will. Piss off terrorists, piss off mobsters, piss off your president if you wish. But never '''ever''' piss off a microbiologist.''

* ''Ghost''(2005): Mike finds himself in pursuit of terrorists who are into abduction and WMD smuggling.
* ''Kildar''(2006): Taking a wrong turn in some Georgian mountains and giving a lift to a reluctant but beautiful stranger, Mike unwittingly kicks off a series of events that lead to him becoming the new lord of the mysterious and deadly Keldara.

-->She wasn't sure what Mississippi was, but it must be a horrible thing if it was used as a mantra for the guns.

* ''Ghost'': Mike finds himself in pursuit of terrorists who are into abduction and WMD smuggling.
* ''Kildar'': Taking a wrong turn in some Georgian mountains and giving a lift to a reluctant but beautiful stranger, Mike unwittingly kicks off a series of events that lead to him becoming the new lord of the mysterious and deadly Keldara.
* ''Choosers of the Slain'': A powerful US senator asks for Mike's help in locating the daughter of one of his constituents, who has been taken by sex slavers. Not all is as meets the eye, though, and the secrets Mike and the Keldara uncover may be more dangerous than the armed men in their way.
* ''Unto the Breach'': A Russian microbiologist is forced by unsavory characters to abscond with biological weapons and Mike must retrieve him. With dubious Russian assistance and the Chechens on their tail, though, things are going to get complicated fast.
* ''A Deeper Blue'': Mike and the Keldara are called back to the US to help foil an imminent chemical weapons attack. However, Mike's head is not in the game and the local agencies are uncooperative.
* ''Tiger by the Tail'': In operations against pirates in the seas around southeastern Asia, the Kildar and his team stumble upon a highly valuable and highly classified cargo originally bound for Myanmar. Mike and the team investigate to get to the bottom of what's happening in the newly democratic (as of the novel's setting) nation.

* InformedFlaw: Mike's joints are said to be bad, which forced his retirement from the SEALS, but other than brief mentions, particularly when first starting up in the morning or after significant periods of sleep, it doesn't seem to really slow him down all that much. Of course, the ''real'' reason he retired was political; when he was first transferred from training to a Team, he pointed out some RecklessGunUsage, but was ignored. The resulting "[[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace accidental weapon discharge]]" resulted in a wounded operator, but the team closed ranks around the guilty party. The brass was forced to choose between an untried newbie and an experienced team, and showed Mike the door.

** For the series as a whole, we have Katrina Devlich. The first Keldara Mike meets in ''Kildar'', she's obviously set up for more (with a desire to be "Kildaran," a position that isn't explained but is strongly implied to be essentially the Kildar's wife) during ''Kildar'' and ''Choosers of the Slain'', but her presence is markedly reduced in ''Unto the Breach'' (apparently in favor of [[spoiler:Gretchen]]), and then she '''completely vanishes''', not even mentioned in ''A Deeper Blue'' or ''Tiger by the Tail''. This is most likely because Ringo got cold feet over Mike being pursued by a '''''[[{{Lolicon}} fourteen-year-old girl]].'''''

* InformedFlaw: Mike's joints are said to be bad, which forced his retirement from the SEALS, but other than brief mentions, particularly when first starting up in the morning or after significant periods of sleep, it doesn't seem to really slow him down all that much.

* AndShowItToYou: [[BadassGrandma Mother Lenka]], in ''Unto the Breach'', rips the heart out of a captured Chechen fighter, and drinks his blood from it, the last thing its former owner sees before dying.

A modern military fiction series written by Creator/JohnRingo, focusing on Mike "Ghost" Harmon/Jenkins, a [[RetiredBadass former Navy SEAL]], and all-around AntiHero. The first book is a self-admitted author wank piece with a significant focus on BDSM that was originally not intended for publication; it was written specifically to get it out of Ringo's head so he could move on to other work. However, between fan response to a snippet posted on Baen's Bar, and the head of Creator/BaenBooks (at the time, Jim Baen, who has since passed away) insisting that it be printed, it was published for release to the public. Works later in the series (starting with ''Kildar''), however, tend more towards, as described elsewhere in the comments to the linked LiveJournal entry, below, "man builds stuff and gets lots of pussy".

* DroitDuSeigneur: Mike is reluctant to follow through with a tradition that requires the Kildar to deflower a newly married Keldar woman, with the reasoning that you don't have sex with the brides of men who have guns at your back, but is eventually convinced to accept it by the village elders. The Keldara men are actually pretty cool with it, though[[note]] [[{{Badass}} Oleg]] is positively ''thrilled'' that "his" firstborn child carries the blood of the Kildar[[/note]]. A few books later, he figures out the real reason for it and refuses to do it again. [[spoiler: The Keldara don't really care about the dowry that the tradition is nominally about; they use it to introduce fresh warrior genes (they only brought it up once Mike had proven himself "worthy" and a "true Kildar") into their otherwise-isolated community...]]

* LickingTheBlade: In ''Unto the Breach'' [[spoiler: Oleg licks the hatchet that was just used to amputate one of his legs.]] Adams, a {{badass}} former SEAL, is disturbed.

* RealMenWearPink: It's revealed in ''Choosers of the Slain'' that Mike is, in addition to being a {{Badass}} AntiHero, a good cook, and not of simple meals like one would expect of "bachelor chow".

* InformedFlaw: Mike's joints are said to be bad, which forced his retirement from the SEALS, but other than brief mentions it doesn't seem to really slow him down all that much.
** Mike's joints mostly hurt in the morning, requiring some painful stretching to get them working for the day.
* InsecurityCamera: The security cameras at the [[spoiler:biological weapons]] facility from the prologue of ''Unto the Breech'' were positioned, thanks to what the naration calls "typical Russian inefficiency", so as to leave a dead spot in their coverage, which is exploited by intruders. Several cameras being shot out by the intruders gets only a casual look by the monitoring staff, with ultimately fatal results for the staff.

* DroitDuSeigneur: Mike is reluctant to follow through with a tradition that requires the Kildar to deflower a newly married Keldar woman, with the reasoning that you don't have sex with the brides of men who have guns at your back, but is eventually convinced to accept it by the village elders. The Keldara men are actually pretty cool with it, though[[note]] [[{{Badass}} Oleg]] is positively ''thrilled'' that "his" firstborn child carries the blood of the Kildar[[/note]]. A few books later, he figures out the real reason for it and refuses to do it again. [[spoiler: The Keldara don't really care about the dowry that the tradition is nominally about; they use it to introduce fresh warrior genes into their otherwise-isolated community...]]

* DroitDuSeigneur: Mike is reluctant to follow through with a tradition that requires the Kildar to deflower a newly married Keldar woman, with the reasoning that you don't have sex with the brides of men who have guns at your back, but is eventually convinced to accept it by the village elders. The Keldara men are actually pretty cool with it, though. A few books later, he figures out the real reason for it and refuses to do it again. [[spoiler: The Keldara don't really care about the dowry that the tradition is nominally about; they use it to introduce fresh warrior genes into their otherwise-isolated community...]]

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Katya is an absolutely frigid self-serving sadist bitch, but Kurt Schwenke's use of chemical tortures on prostitutes appalls even her.

* AnAxeToGrind: Keldara have a ''long'' history of being skilled in axe fighting, hearkening back to their [[spoiler: Viking]] heritage. In modern times, they are still very good with hatchets and axes in both throwing and melee, and prefer them over knives as backup weapons.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: In ''A Deeper Blue'' an Afghani-immigrant maintenance man is forced at gunpoint to help pump VX into the water.

* BadassBystander: ''A Deeper Blue'' has Will Carter, a former National Guardsman who helps Mike load his LMG and punches out a terrorist. Carter is a FanCameo.

* BadassFamily: The Keldara. Well, ''five'' badass families, actually.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: One of the mercenaries in ''Unto The Breach'' suddenly collapses and can't breathe. Dr. Arensky, who had cultivated a couple of lethal toxins in the kitchen sink, calmly tells him to never, ''ever'' fuck with a microbiologist.

* ColdSniper: Lasko Ferani, the best sniper on the teams, is often alone even when not on a mission, often being out hunting for food prior to Mike's arrival, and doesn't show much in the way of outward emotion. He's actually quite loyal and affectionate towards his people, but is not a touchy-feely kind of guy, so he'll never, ever show it.

* AnAxeToGrind: Keldara have a ''long'' history of being skilled in axe fighting, hearkening back to their [[spoiler: Viking]] heritage. In modern times, they are still very good with hatchets and axes in both throwing and melee, and prefer them over knives as backup weapons.
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: In ''A Deeper Blue'' an Afghani-immigrant maintenance man is forced at gunpoint to help pump VX into the water.

* BadassBystander: ''A Deeper Blue'' has Will Carter, a former National Guardsman who helps Mike load his LMG and punches out a terrorist. Carter is a FanCameo.

* BadassFamily: The Keldara. Well, ''five'' badass families, actually.

* ColdSniper: Lasko Ferani, the best sniper on the teams, is often alone even when not on a mission, often being out hunting for food prior to Mike's arrival, and doesn't show much in the way of outward emotion.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Katya is an absolutely frigid self-serving sadist bitch, but Kurt Schwenke's use of chemical tortures on prostitutes appalls even her.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Katya is an absolutely frigid self-serving sadist bitch, but Kurt Schwenke's use of chemical tortures on prostitutes appalls even her.