Rating: 
Summary: Shafting the Reader
Review: I understand the need to keep readers involved so they'll buy the sequels. I'm quite willing to play that game, just continue giving me interesting characters in interesting situations, and I'll keep buying. But this book cheats. It meanders along for almost 700 pages with what are basically a bunch of subplots, some of which are fairly boring. The series' main character barely appears. A climactic battle is elaborately set up--and then the book ends before it happens. Ringo capped off the two previous books in the series with terrific, extended battle scenes. Here, he might as well have written on the last page: "HA HA HA, I sure fooled YOU! Get your money ready for the sequel!" Sorry John, I don't like being shafted and I'll be spending my money elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: S'wonderful, s'marvelous
Review: I'd been avoiding When the Devil Dances because it was the third book in a series, but every where I went there it was begging me to buy it. So I did and I can't say enough about it. I haven't been a big fan of military sci-fi but this book kept me up and wouldn't let me put it down till I finished and now I can't wait for the next one. I do have one complaint though, for those of us silly enough to start in the middles I would have liked to have known what an ACS was (for sure) before I got to page 402. I'd come up with a lot of possibilities but none of them right, but then again the scene where Elgars drapes Mueller over her shoulder and takes him to bed had me laughing so much.This is a great book, even if I started in the meddle of the series and with the exception of the ACS I had most of the other stuff - even knew about the Barrett, course my NRA magazing had an article in it this month and that helped me remember. Way to go John Ringo. More, more, more!!
Rating:
Summary: S'wonderful, s'marvelous
Review: I'd been avoiding When the Devil Dances because it was the third book in a series, but every where I went there it was begging me to buy it. So I did and I can't say enough about it. I haven't been a big fan of military sci-fi but this book kept me up and wouldn't let me put it down till I finished and now I can't wait for the next one. I do have one complaint though, for those of us silly enough to start in the middles I would have liked to have known what an ACS was (for sure) before I got to page 402. I'd come up with a lot of possibilities but none of them right, but then again the scene where Elgars drapes Mueller over her shoulder and takes him to bed had me laughing so much. This is a great book, even if I started in the meddle of the series and with the exception of the ACS I had most of the other stuff - even knew about the Barrett, course my NRA magazing had an article in it this month and that helped me remember. Way to go John Ringo. More, more, more!!
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, but incomplete
Review: I've read all three books in this series, and I think they're fantastic. I read a lot of SF and military SF, and I think Ringo rates right up there with Drake and Pournelle. The writing in When the Devil Dances is consistent with the rest of the series, with tight action scenes, plenty of mystery and suspense, and good character development. The returning characters have changed somewhat during the five years that elapse between the close of Gust Front and the beginning of When the Devil Dances, adding layers of complexity and maturity. The new characters are entertaining, especially the crew of SheVa Nine ("Bun-Bun"). My only quibble with the novel is where it ended. A Hymn Before Battle covered the entire arc of events of first contact and Diess, and Gust Front covered the first Posleen landings on Earth. When the Devil Dances moves forward to the lowpoint of the war for the humans -- the only human-held territory left aside from the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee Valleys are areas too mountainous, heavily jungled, or cold for the Posleen to conquer. The story begins with a huge battle in and around Rochester, NY, and then the action shifts down to Rabun Gap in Georgia. A massive blitz by "smart" Posleen is threatening the last free lands in America. The action is heavy in the final 2/3 of the book, and there is a desperate fight to prevent the Posleen from cutting off retreating and relieving human forces. However, this battle does *not* involve the ACS/Mobile Infantry forces commanded by Mike O'Neal. They are moving into position when the novel ends, but the question of stopping the Posleen is far from answered. I'm not sure if this was done under pressure from Baen to make the third novel smaller than the second or just a pacing decision by Ringo, but I found myself stopped short by the end of the novel; wishing that the battle would be resolved so that the next novel in the series would move on (hopefully) to the human reduction and elimination of the remaining Posleen on Earth and the inevitable confrontation with the Darhel. At any rate, the book is an excellent addition to the series, and now I just have to wait another year for the next installment.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Militray Scifi
Review: If you like military Science fiction this book is for you. The only problem is it ends with a cliffhanger. Go bun bun."IT'S KNIFE FIGHTING RANGE, WE'RE BUN-BUN! FIRE!"
Rating: 
Summary: When the Devil Dances
Review: In short, Earth is a total write off regardless if humanity survives. It takes humans close to 20 years to produce a new crop of warriors, it only takes the Poseen 2 years to replace thier losses. Based on the previous boooks, I expected a better sequal than what I ended up purchasing. If you intend to read this book be prepared to buy the fourth book for the finish of this book. In other words Ringo comes off as incompentent as the leaders of the Earth he has created to destroy. Out of 700+ pages, most of which is geographic description rather plot advancement description, could have been removed to make room for Hell's Faire. The Posleen are granted a higher level of intellegence than previously seen. The leaders of the humans on the other hand, seem to be fighting a war of survival/extinction while playing serious Political Correctness. While the Posleen get to develop new weapons and the ability to hack into the human, computer netwook as well as the AIDs from the Galactics. This also includes the ACS units. We on the other hand seem to think it is unfair to use nukes on the alien invaders, even under the worst situations. There may be a possible way for humanity to survive; but; I doubt Ringo will be capable enough to pull it off. He is too married to the ACS units concept to permit the full development of this potential.
Rating:
Summary: When the Devil Dances
Review: In short, Earth is a total write off regardless if humanity survives. It takes humans close to 20 years to produce a new crop of warriors, it only takes the Poseen 2 years to replace thier losses. Based on the previous boooks, I expected a better sequal than what I ended up purchasing. If you intend to read this book be prepared to buy the fourth book for the finish of this book. In other words Ringo comes off as incompentent as the leaders of the Earth he has created to destroy. Out of 700+ pages, most of which is geographic description rather plot advancement description, could have been removed to make room for Hell's Faire. The Posleen are granted a higher level of intellegence than previously seen. The leaders of the humans on the other hand, seem to be fighting a war of survival/extinction while playing serious Political Correctness. While the Posleen get to develop new weapons and the ability to hack into the human, computer netwook as well as the AIDs from the Galactics. This also includes the ACS units. We on the other hand seem to think it is unfair to use nukes on the alien invaders, even under the worst situations. There may be a possible way for humanity to survive; but; I doubt Ringo will be capable enough to pull it off. He is too married to the ACS units concept to permit the full development of this potential.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the wait but goes too fast
Review: It's a shame that a complex story can't continue to pour out of the bookstore like a weekly serial. When the Devil Dances continues the great series of the Posleen Invasion. (I recommend reading Gust Front first. That book is really a keeper). This is a bridging book in that the author admits that due to the distractions of 9/11 and his subsequent fame as a Fox and NY Times correspondent he simply couldn't get it(this book) to where he personally wanted to end. But character empathy will tie you to this one.
Rating:
Summary: It starts with a bang! More bangs! Then it ends with .. er
Review: John Ringo treats us to yet another cornucopia of inventive and lethal sci fi weapons systems, high tech, rendered in tender, loving detail. The star of the show is the SheVa gun (shown on the back cover of the hardcopy version), weighing in at 7,000 tons and 100 meters in length. It is fueled by a pebble-bed reactor and unfortunately is so big it has a tendency to crush small villages in the way of its present mission. Its crew calls the infantry that gets in the way "crunchies." Har har. Read all about it and there's a lot of jarhead humor in here for you. And lots more weapons systems. The bad guys are aliens, who have mastered interstellar flight but are completely hopeless when it comes to ground battles, where they get waxed over and over again in fights with Americans. Somehow they can handle powered missiles but not ballistic artillery. They overran the rest of the planet without much problem but the good ol' US of A has what it takes to fight a holding action with kill ratios of thousands to one. Problem is there are so many of the enemy it is a losing war of attrition. If you can get past the implausibility, you have a setup for plenty of heroism, which is what Ringo is clearly after in this story. In this kind of story there is no one central protagonist, so you are never really sure who is going to die and who isn't. The pace is quick and detailed, so it keeps your interest. The story is leavened with plenty of non-violent scenes, to give the "human" side of events without which we would have nothing but a series of battles. The non-battle events seem disjointed and almost random, which gives the impression that Ringo is anxious to get that part done and back to the joy of mayhem. Either that, or there is a sequel in the making. It is clear that Ringo has problems with people who can not (do not) draw a distinction between "good nukes" and "bad nukes." Ringo makes sure you know the difference, with pointed comments about how this or that geographic feature is going to be "fertile again, someday" even though it is the site of a nuke explosion. The Chinese, you see, have "bad nukes" which means the Yangtze valley is going to be contaminated for about 10,000 years, but the "good nukes" the good guys use can wipe out the enemy at the expense of losing use of the land they were on for just a few years. (For the record, the science Ringo uses on this point is sound.) As I said, there are plenty of problems with "Dances" but I'll give it four stars, because when all said and done Ringo tells a good story, making the result better than three stars. The jacket says he is collaborating with David Weber, who is better at this kind of fiction than Ringo is. It will be interesting to see what they come up with.
Rating:
Summary: keeps getting worse
Review: Just terrible- A Hymn Before Dying was decent, the second book was mediocre this one was just wretched. You cannot call this military scifi-this was the script for a crappy B-movie. It doesn't matter if he left you hanging with this book because it isn't worth the effort to keep reading his stuff.
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