Rating: 
Summary: Great series, but wait until this is in paperback
Review: I'm probably neither the first nor the last Sluggy fan to read John Ringo because of his inclusion of Sluggy elements into his book (and thus free advertising on the site). That said, I must thank Ringo for an excellent trilogy. A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, and When the Devil Dances were an amazing series, and got me into Military SF (my first was Hymn). However, as the author explains in the afterword, the series really was intended as a trilogy, and was - until September 11th. After that, he eventually had to send an incomplete third book to press -- and later, a year later, completed it. This is that completed book. It suffers from two things. First, it is simply too short to be worth buying in Hardcover. Second, he had to add too much filler into it, either in the form of "This is what happened before", or in the form of slightly longer scenes and/or more in-between stuff, to make the book long enough to justify publishing -- meaning, that it is not very satisfying. Certainly worth reading, Ringo is a good enough author that I'd read his notes from ninth grade science class (Literally -- ever go back and read YOUR notes? =); certainly a good idea if you've read the rest of the series, as it does tie up a few loose ends. I just wish he had either decided to make it a genuine fourth book (and played around with his plots to add more potential scenes), or e-published a few thousand words on ... with "Print this and add it to the end of WTDD" at the top.
Rating: 
Summary: John Ringo is an accidental author
Review: John Ringo never expected to become a published author. Would that his expectations had been fulfilled. Occasionally gratutius violence can be enjoyable, provided it has a bit of plot to go with it. However, all of this series could have been condensed into one decent book instead of a series of bad ones.
Please do not encourage John Ringo to continue to inflict any more of his bad writing upon the world by buying any of his books.
Rating: 
Summary: Good enough, but read the three preceding books first.......
Review: This book rather makes up for the abrupt ending of the previous one in the series. There is a hint that the author was burning out on the series, but I felt that he established a good stopping point with a promise of more to come, although future installments will undoubtedly be going on a new track. There are shortcomings here, but I felt a stronger intensity which compensates for the shortcomings. The primary characters are interesting enough for most of us to want to know more. Pappy O'Neal, Cally, Mike especially are good, but I hope to also see more of Shari, Anne Elgars, Tom Sunday & Wendy also. I don't down Ringo for cutting WHEN THE DEVIL DANCES short, and making a shorter book as an addendum to bring us to an intermission. His writing reveals his own military background. 9/11 had to be especially traumatic for him and undoubtedly affected his whole thinking on the war situation. In this concluding volume, he gives us all the ground war action and description one could hope for while establishing the more personal threads in each character's life. I do hope the wait for future volumes isn't too awfully long, and am quite interested in seeing how he shifts our attention more and more to the Darhel. Contrary to one of the reviews, we were given hints in the first book that indeed, they are the true enemy. And that's a story I will enjoy reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: This is a very good book, but not one that stands alone. If you like David Drake, you will LOVE Ringo, but don't start with this book first. This book is an excellent ending to When the Devil Dances, but start at the beginning with A Hynm Before Dying. Four books in the series so far, and no immediate plans for more (but there had better be!!)so it is an excellent series to read. Not many really good military SF writers out there, and fewer that really served, so when one comes along, I always try to read them. Sorry I waited so long to start reading Mr. Ringo. My advice is to read ALL his books. They are worth the time. As to this book, not a good stand alone book, but he TOLD us it wouldn't be. Kind of leaves a lot of loose ends, but then when you have a galatic war, how do you wrap it up in four books? Still, would have liked more ACS in this, and less Bun Bun. And I was an airborne tanker (3/73 Armor) so I know asking for less Bun Bun is making me sound like a heretic, but from my viewpoint the books ARE about ACS(and O'Neal). WTDD had a lot of Bun Bun, so I was very much looking forward to a LOT of ACS in this last book, and just finish the Bun Bun storyline. Maybe some more charactor development of minor charactors in O'Neals company, and more combat. Of course, I freely admit I'm really spoiled, and with writers like Drake and Ringo, I plan to stay spoiled. Overall, I loved the book (read it in a day because I HAD to see what happened), and thought it brought THIS trilogy to a nice conclusion, but it made me want a new series RIGHT NOW. Hopefully next year will bring a new one. Hint Hint
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