A Hymn Before Battle (Posleen War Series #1) (original 2000; edition 2001)

baen ebook

This was one of the Baen Free Library books that I read a long time ago and was sort of surprised to really like. A lot of it is inside-baseball military jargon that I find surprisingly fascinating, and the rest is pure jingoistic shoot-'em-up fun. The setup is sort of perfect - the aliens are almost completely unrelatable and therefore cause no one shooting them any moral qualms (they eat everything, including their own children!) they're tough enough to require a great deal of blowing up, and dumb enough to allow themselves to be blown up with easy-to-follow tactics. Mike O'Neal, the main protagonist, is a ridiculous author-insertion fantasy (massively strong, super intelligent, tremendously competent, absurdly brave, married to a hot ex-military ex-stripper, and, naturally, a scifi writer.) It's sort of charming how perfect he is.

Pure brain-rotting fluff, this book. ( )

There is a galactic war going on and it is about to hit home. The Galactics are a group of peaceful species living throughout the universe and the Posleen want to destroy them. The Galactics, in an act of desperation, come to Earth. They offer humans access to incredible technology and new weapons and medical techniques, all in exchange for earth helping fight the Posleen. The Posleen are essentially the Mongol horde and are sweeping across the galaxy, Humanity agrees to help, because it is only a matter of time before the Posleen make it to Earth. This is an ambitious novel that visits the politics of war as well as the nuts and bolts of the fighting man. The characters are well drawn out and very interesting, and the action is very engaging. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series. ( )

More interesting after a second read and having read some of the later books. A bit too confusing otherwise. ( )

Hard-core sf in the grand battle tradition

This book was available free through Baen as an e-book. I read it online. Very violent, graphic, and hard-hitting, most of the book is one giant battle. Ringo knows the military well, and those who have served will recognize the personalities, techniques, and humor...almost to the point where it gets a bit tedious if you've "been there, done that." Ringo doesn't pull his punches on both the military's brilliant courage and ridiculous stupidities. Lots of characters, hard to track who is who sometimes, and the jumping around of the dates forward and backward in time don't help. Entertaining, but needlessly confusing at times, this is certainly one of the most realistic imaginary alien war I've ever read. ( )

This is an interesting book in that it lays down a reasonably believable scenario and then doesn't really resolve it. Its obviously setting up for a series, and while the local micro plot is resolved, there is clearly a larger story arc that wants telling here. The book isn't happy or uplifting, it is downright depressing in places. Regardless, I still finding myself hanging out for the next one in the series.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/John_Ringo/A_Hymn_Before_Battle.html ( )

Another one of those books i couldn't put down. The premise was an alien race conquering worlds on the way to earth. A non aggressive alien race helps earth with the promise that they would supply the solders. Followed a young officer in learning about the alien technology and using it to turn the tide during one of the first big battles ( )

Humankind is tapped to kick galactic ass and chew bubble gum, but they're all out of bubble gum.

When mankind is first contacted by alien intelligences, the shit is about to hit the fan. A galactic federation of non-warlike races is being overrun by an insatiable newly discovered race, and mankind has been elected to be the cannon fodder to counter this threat. New technology is infused into the human industries, but there is a price, and all is not as it seems to be.

A great romp of battle and adventure, with some hints and implications that will develop in later books. ( )

Really kicks the series off with a bang! For the most satisfaction, read all them slightly out of series order. Hero and Watch on the Rhine are really stand-alone books set in the same world and presuming knowledge of the series. A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances and Hells Faire should be read together, as all of them feature the same cast. They're going to make the most sense when you can keep the characters. Ringo tends to have a lot of players, and they have a tendency to pop up in the middle of things at all sorts of important points. ( )

Read Online: http://webscriptions.net/10.1125/Baen/0671319418/0671319418.htm

A decent army biased sci-fi war epic. The alien Posleen show up and start kicking butt all over the galaxy, opposed by the humans, with some help from more advanced alien species. As usual, they recruit humans because we're violent and vicious and stubborn, but it looks bleak when the Posleen invade earth in superior numbers.
The Posleen have suspiciously simple tactics, and Ringo obviously dislikes our current reliance on air power, but this was still fun to read. ( )

Another "fun to read" author of military science fiction. Ringo puts a lot of detail into military encounters in this book/series, yet the book doesn't end up being terrible dry by any means. Lots of action, very gritty, highly recommended for ex-military (or current for that matter) sci-fi readers. ( )

being a fan of genocidal(vis a vis Aliens)War The John Ringo Series of Earth invaded
always get my blood rushing. ( )

The Posleen are like battlefield locust, eating their own dead and wounded as well as their enemies’ bodies and any other organic materials. They have cut a swath through the Galactic Federation, and their path is leading straight towards Earth. The Galactics are so completely nonviolent that they have a hard time even discussing violence. With no history of conflict, the Galactics are leery of any species capable of violence – including humans. However, the inevitability of defeat drives them to strike a bargain: if the humans will provide the personnel, strategy, and tactics, the Galactics will provide the technology necessary to defeat the Posleen. Together the two groups may be able to stop the Posleen. The Earth military personnel let their imaginations roam free to design weapons and tactics, and the Galactics delivers. As the series progresses, the risk multiplies. Even if the humans manage to stop the Posleens, will they be able to survive the Galactics’ manipulations? ( )

This is the debut novel by John Ringo, a former solider turned author a la David Drake. Unlike Drake’s works, Ringo is able to weave grand strategy into a story with compelling tactical level battle scenes. At the beginning of the book we discover that the Earth is within the borders of a peaceful Galactic Federation. The representatives of which have arrived to inform us of this happy circumstance and gift us with technology that will end famine and disease, stave off old age and give us interstellar flight. There is just one catch; there is another civilization out in the stars and its…less friendly. In fact, the Posleen are on a drive to wipe out all other intelligent life in the universe. And Earth is smack dab in the way of the slow moving scourge that’s expected to arrive in 5 years. So the Federation has an offer we can’t refuse: help them defend the worlds already under attack and they will bring us up to speed technologically so we can defend ourselves when it’s our turn. You see, some where along the last few thousand years the Federation has forgotten how to fight and they noticed that we see to have an aptitude it that regard. Well, I won’t give away any of the plot details, if you are a fan of alien invasion stories, this is a definite must-read. No big morals, no big proclamations about pseudo-morality and philosophy that seem to pollute so much of modern fiction. Fair warning though, this novel is the springboard for a series that is four books in this plot line and two other related ones so far. So the beginning is a little confusing as we get a lot of people and plots thrown at us. But then things take off like a bat out of hell. ( )