Rating: 
Summary: Hard to put down!
Review: Having read all of the Posleen war books ("Hymn Before Battle", "Gust Front", "When the Devil Dances", and "Hell's Faire", as well as "Cally's War")I can truthfully say they were all excellent. My biggest problem was that they were not all read in proper sequence so I had difficulty with the connection between them. Going from Hymn to Devil Dances to Callly's and back to Gust before finishing with the Faire is NOT the way to read the series.
By the time I got to "Hell's Faire" I was totally enthralled with the whole series and couldn't put the book down! It took me one whole weekend to read, and I got nothing else accomplished. At that, it was well worth it!
Some repeating ofmany of the explanations got a little cumbersome after the first one or two, but I waded through that pretty quickly to get to the good parts.
Since I was born and raised in Tidewater and Northern Virginia (my Dad was a career Combat Engineer), I can identify with and recognize all the places mentioned even without the map helps. As such the story is much more real to me because it is about real places. Thankfully they are fictional events that happened to those settings.
As for the incident with the mistaken gain control setting on the geiger counter, I did that myself once (I was stationed on a Nike Hercules site in San Francisco) so I know it is an easy mistake to make if you are not very careful. Fortunately I caught the mistake before anyone got their butt in a sling so all I got was a lot of ribbing for being a newbie.
I plan on waiting a few months and then re-reading all of the books of this series IN ORDER so I can get the proper perspective and full flavor. And I highly recommend anyone else to do the same!
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly enjoyable climax to the quadrilogy.
Review: A satisfying ending to the Human-Posleen conflict. These four volumes (originally intended to be a trilogy, as explained by the author in an epilog) have given me hours of enjoyable reading. The characters are great, the action superb, right up there with the bolo series. There are quite a few loose ends that (I hope) the author will pick up in the future, but the overall story line was completed in a very satisfying way.The four volumes cover the story of humanity's introduction to, and subsequent war with an invading horde (a very big horde) of centaur-like creatures known as the Posleen. The four volumes are:
1 "A Hymn Before Battle"
2 "Gust Front"
3 "When the Devil Dances"
4 "Hell's Faire" There is interstellar intrigue, war-based action, and a good dose of humor. These books are a must read for those who enjoy military Sci-Fi. A special treat for Sluggy-Freelance fans but you'll have to wait til you get to volume three, -I'll say no more.
Rating:
Summary: Pick..pick..pick....
Review: Authors used to be able to write one book of about 200 paper back pages and no one complained. Now, the chief complaint is that this book is too short. Does it occur to anyone that if you liked the book so much that you complain it was too short then you probably shouldn't be complaining? John, write another one, Bean can charge double, and I'll buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Pick..pick..pick....
Review: Authors used to be able to write one book of about 200 paper back pages and no one complained. Now, the chief complaint is that this book is too short. Does it occur to anyone that if you liked the book so much that you complain it was too short then you probably shouldn't be complaining? John, write another one, Bean can charge double, and I'll buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: Hell's Faire is the fourth novel in the Legacy of the Aldenata series, following When the Devil Dances. In the previous volume, the Posleen have begun their main assault, overcoming all fixed defenses everywhere in the world except the eastern United States and Canada. Their drive to Asheville through Rabun Gap has been stopped temporarily by a nuclear bombardment. There is a short lull in the fighting as both sides reorganize and refit. In this novel, Mike O'Neal and his 555th Mobile Infantry are inserted into Rabun Gap to prepare for the upcoming Posleen assault. However, Tulo'stenaloor, senior Posleen commander in the forces attacking the Gap, has learned a little about the human method of warfare and sets up an ambush for the 555th. Mike's daughter, Callie O'Neal, is alone in Cache 4 on the O'Neal farm. Mike's father had been caught on the surface during the nuke blasts and, when Callie found him, his body was cold and buried under the debris. Now Callie prepares to leave the farm, but just then the defense forces drop a salvo of strategic nukes on three passes near Mountain City. Since things are a little hectic outside, she decides to wait a while before venturing out. Sergeant Major Mosovich and the refugees are only a few miles from Cache 4, but are cut off from the defending forces. Moreover, his AID advises them that the nukes are incoming. They have been running the ridgelines, but these are too exposed with nuclear blasts on the way. Jake leads his party back to Cache 4. Meanwhile, the maintenance brigade for Sheva Nine -- Bun-Bun -- has finally caught up to the monster weapon. They bring with them Paul Kilzer, one of the designers of the Sheva gun platform. He has a few ideas for enhancing the weapon. Moreover, he looks like Riff in the Sluggy Freelance cartoons. BTW, some reviewers have referred to Bun-Bun as a supertank. On the contrary, the Sheva Nine is a lightly armored self-propelled gun, with very poor mobility. The weather shield is not an armored turret, but rather a relatively thin screen to keep out rain and small-arms fire. Notice that the heavier Posleen weapons have little trouble penetrating the weather shield or even the hull itself. The Shevas were originally designed to kill Posleen landers and C-decs, which they do quite handily. Anti-personnel actions became possible only with the addition of the MetalStorm turrets. Even then, Bun-Bun would not have survived close contact with the Posleen without her escorts (and the oversized Claymores). Back on the campus, Dr. Miguel Castanuelo, a graduate of Georgia Tech who is now a professor at arch-rival UT at Knoxville, is an expert on micro-containment of anti-matter. He has been trying to devise a way to use anti-matter as a fuel for cars, trucks and other small vehicles. After studying the Indowy methods of containment, he concludes that it is a religious thing and returns to his previous notions. He manages to develop a process of encapsulation in bucky balls, but the results are rather radioactive for several days afterwards. Of course, this isn't a problem with an area denial weapon, so he produces a big orange surprise for the Posleen. This novel is a continuation of the previous volume. In fact, it would have been incorporated into When the Devil Dances except for the events surrounding 9/11. Although the author is apologetic about the lapse in his writing that caused this portion to be delayed, the final results may have been even better than the originally planned trilogy. This volume contains 330 pages (including the Sluggy Freelance cartoons) and the previous volume contains 494 pages. Even eliminating the backstory verbiage, the combined volume would be larger than some of the Wheel of Time books. My guess is that the paperback would have been split into two volumes anyway. This volume ends the Legacy of the Aldenata series for now. The author mentions further tales about the backstory and other aspects of the events and characters in this series, but the Posleen invasion is terminated. Highly recommended for Ringo fans and anyone else who enjoys military science fiction with the ring of authenticity. New readers, however, are strongly encouraged to start with A Hymn Before Battle to get the full effect.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmm...
Review: Hi, it's John. I understand some of the reviews (I'm ignoring the ones that boil down to "I don't like John Ringo Books") and some of the reasons that reviewers were dissatified. But others I'm not quite grokking, especially comments about the "rushed ending." For general information, the book ended almost exactly as I had intended when I wrote Hymn Before Battle. (I always think of series as "meta-stories" and have the ending for the last book generally worked out in advance.) I, personally, loved the ending, as a writer and a reader. So I feel a necessity to understand your concerns. I'll mea culpa on the fact that I had to split the books. I explain why in Hell's Faire. If you don't like the explanation, sorry. It's the honest truth. Oh, one comment on one of the most atrocious reviews. Glennis LeBlanc, as described, physically and personality, is a friend of mine, a book-seller based in the South East. The scene that is so "controversial" was based upon three or four real life incidents and the honest progress of the story. I, myself, made the same (mental) mistake that Kilzer did (physically) and had to go back and rework my calculations, only realizing afterwards that... well I made the same mistake. From there the scene proceeded naturally. It was not "set-up", it was truly classic writing. And Glennis thought it was hilarious. If anyone wants to personally comment, discuss or debate, my e-mail is available at Baen's Bar (www.baen.com) or on my website. (Amazon tends to strip them.) Feel free to contact me and ask any questions you would like including about the future of the series. Thanks, John Ringo PS: Amazon requires a rating. I gave it four stars because I probably would as a reader. Go figure.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to put it down
Review: Hi, it's John. I understand some of the reviews (I'm ignoring the ones that boil down to "I don't like John Ringo Books") and some of the reasons that reviewers were dissatified. But others I'm not quite grokking, especially comments about the "rushed ending." For general information, the book ended almost exactly as I had intended when I wrote Hymn Before Battle. (I always think of series as "meta-stories" and have the ending for the last book generally worked out in advance.) I, personally, loved the ending, as a writer and a reader. So I feel a necessity to understand your concerns. I'll mea culpa on the fact that I had to split the books. I explain why in Hell's Faire. If you don't like the explanation, sorry. It's the honest truth. Oh, one comment on one of the most atrocious reviews. Glennis LeBlanc, as described, physically and personality, is a friend of mine, a book-seller based in the South East. The scene that is so "controversial" was based upon three or four real life incidents and the honest progress of the story. I, myself, made the same (mental) mistake that Kilzer did (physically) and had to go back and rework my calculations, only realizing afterwards that... well I made the same mistake. From there the scene proceeded naturally. It was not "set-up", it was truly classic writing. And Glennis thought it was hilarious. If anyone wants to personally comment, discuss or debate, my e-mail is available at Baen's Bar (www.baen.com) or on my website. (Amazon tends to strip them.) Feel free to contact me and ask any questions you would like including about the future of the series. Thanks, John Ringo PS: Amazon requires a rating. I gave it four stars because I probably would as a reader. Go figure.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit of a let-down.
Review: I believe John Ringo had originally intended this to be part of the previous book, and it shows. I'm unclear on why it was decided to split the story, but I'd have much preferred him to not do so. The review of this book is very similar to the previous one, "When the Devil Dances." The humans are still mostly two-dimensional, GalTech is still magic, and Bun-Bun the murderous mini-lop rabbit of Sluggy Freelance still plays way too large a role. Never the less, this is still a good read, albeit the weakest of the series. My complaints from previous books in this series remain, with some new ones: Entirely too much focus is placed on what seems to be intended as 'humorous' or humanizing elements, like the continual and annoying "Let's Rock, Posleen-boy" Sluggy references. Once is enough. Twice is plenty. Three times is too many. OK, John, we get it: You *really* like Sluggy. It's nothing new, and it doesn't need you to wave it about with the fervor of a new religious convert. Sluggy was here before you knew about it, and it'll be here long after this book has begun to fade from prominence. Lay off already. Due to the splitting, story feels truncated, and I felt cheated when it was over so quickly. The ultimate deux ex machina rescue happens, and I was left flat at the end of the story, wondering, "That's it?" I get the impression that Ringo just got tired of the whole thing, and wrapped it up in a hurry. Too bad, because he was *finally* working up a nice tension in a climatic confrontation between the battered 555th Mobile Infantry and the last gasp-assault of the Posleen. To the good, many of the stronger points of the previous books are retained. The scope of the story narrows again, somewhat, and sharpens focus on a slightly different collection of principle characters. No new characters are introduced, but some existing ones are fleshed out a bit. The Darhel schemes are left to go hang. Many story threads are left unresolved. This book has "Follow-on stories" written all over if, and I'm ready and waiting to read what comes next. Despite a weak ending, the series was very good, and I'm looking for more. If it wasn't coming after two much stronger books, I might still recommend this, if only lightly. As it is, this book is still a must-read, if only to bring a conclusion to the 'invasion of earth' story arc.
Rating: 
Summary: Meh
Review: I start off with the fact that I was disappointed by the end the most. So, be forewarned about the ensuing spoilers... The biggest complaint I have is the deus ex machina saviors, the Fleet. After all, they appeared, and the story ended a few paragraphs later, excluding the afterward. What have they been up to? What did they have to go through to get there? What about the action getting planet-side? Why did it take so long? Has anything else been happening in the universe? What about the rest of the planet; how did humanity fair? It was hinted in the author's note that some grand-scheme questions might be followed in an additional series, but that is a long time off. What started off as a story involving the country as a whole pretty much ended up with an over-sized tank, its crew, and one seemingly indestructible guy in a mech suit. Others were thrown in, but it was hard to keep track because they rated low in importance to the main thrust of the story and therefore never stood out. I don't want to be too snippy, but everything seemed to end very abruptly, with little closure or broad explanation. Perhaps I enjoy fleet maneuvers over infantry action with larger political and spatial arenas, but there was much more to detail that was left undone. Overall, series is just alright, but nothing that I would rate higher than three stars.
Rating:
Summary: Meh
Review: I start off with the fact that I was disappointed by the end the most. So, be forewarned about the ensuing spoilers... The biggest complaint I have is the deus ex machina saviors, the Fleet. After all, they appeared, and the story ended a few paragraphs later, excluding the afterward. What have they been up to? What did they have to go through to get there? What about the action getting planet-side? Why did it take so long? Has anything else been happening in the universe? What about the rest of the planet; how did humanity fair? It was hinted in the author's note that some grand-scheme questions might be followed in an additional series, but that is a long time off. What started off as a story involving the country as a whole pretty much ended up with an over-sized tank, its crew, and one seemingly indestructible guy in a mech suit. Others were thrown in, but it was hard to keep track because they rated low in importance to the main thrust of the story and therefore never stood out. I don't want to be too snippy, but everything seemed to end very abruptly, with little closure or broad explanation. Perhaps I enjoy fleet maneuvers over infantry action with larger political and spatial arenas, but there was much more to detail that was left undone. Overall, series is just alright, but nothing that I would rate higher than three stars.
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