Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good, but lots of rough edges
Review: This is the first in an ambitious series of military science-fiction novels. Most of the book is preparation for or execution of battle against the Posleen, an enemy with a low IQ and a large appetite.The plot and action scenes were well done, and for the most part it felt very "real". I got quite wrapped up in the story. Occasionally things would knock me back out of the story. The graphic depictions of what happens when you introduce high-velocity projectiles to the inside of a well-armored suit were crude and unnecessary. (If you're going to document the revolting parts, that's fine, but kindly remove references to spaghetti. Thanks.) There were several reverential references to military SF authors (one by name) that were out of place and silly. Praising the people you admire is all well and good, but turning them into the salvation of humanity is stretching it. There were political issues that came and went with no apparent effect on the outcome of the story. Perhaps they will factor into the sequel? There were "major" threads and "minor" threads, the latter distinguished from the major only by the speed with which the pertinent characters met their demise. The story had a lot of recurring faces on parallel plot lines, but switched between them haphazardly, as if the author got tired of telling us about the recon squad for a while and decided to come back to it some other day. What is at fault, I think, is less the writing and more the editing. The author has a tremendous talent that isn't well honed in this novel. When he finally gets down to business for the last half of the book, though, the result is captivating.
Rating: 
Summary: What's not to like?!
Review: This is a REAL guy book! Lots of action, body count in the gazillions, and a realistic look at all aspects of an alien invasion scenario.
John Ringo's first book is a real treat for those who have read all the David Drake, Jerry Pournelle, R.A. Heinlein, and other military sci-fi books. Aside from the lead protagonist, character development is a bit stilted. And it's a bit refreshing to have a hero who is NOT six feet of dashingly handsome perfection.
I look forward to the further writing of Mr. Ringo.
Rating:
Summary: Pulse Pounder
Review: Robert Heinlein meets Tom Clancy. Nonstop reading thrills.
You will miss sleep, miss meals and be late for work. You won't get much done til you finish this book as you'll drift off wondering what's going to happen next. Be prepared for a unique read. Ringo raises the genre a quantum leap. Buckle on your swashes, lock and load, and put on your safety harness. This is a ride you won't forget.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Freshman Effort
Review: A Hymn Before Battle is a very good novel even if one fails to take into consideration that this is the authors Freshman outing. The plot is not terribly unique and the characters are for the most part familiar but I say this not as a failure but an observation. I think that it is far more important to pace the story and make the characters believable then to come up with any mind shattering new concepts. Novelties are good for a few pages but rarely for an entire book and never, in my opinion, for an entire series. All this being said the book is solid, witty and rarely suffers from the "over the top" syndrome that seems to plague so many Science Fiction novels of today. This is again even more remarkable considering this is Mr. Ringos first novel. As far as negatives go there were a few I want to mention but they are minor and did not distract a great deal from the story. First, There were far too many scenes were the dandruff was described falling from the various characters heads. There are many minor details I care about in a book but dandruff is generally not one of the points I look for in a good yarn. Second, I found the author tried to be too specific in his description of various technologies. I am not talking bout the combat or munitions items. These are out of my realm of experience. I am talking about the computer related terms bandied about for no apparent reason but to show off the author's techno skill. The problem with doing this is unless this is what you do for a living you are probably going to get it wrong and it will bug someone who does do it for a living....i.e. ME. Why say the data was stored on the BIOS FLASH Disk when you can just say the data was stored in the suits memory banks or drive or some other generic usage. Far less distracting in my humble opinion. No a big deal but something to take note of. To be fair it is noteworthy to note both of these traits are greatly reduced in the second novel, Gust Front. A very good novel that begins a somewhat open ended series of alien invasion of Earth with pacifist aliens in our corner against other big baddy aliens. Pretty good read by a very promising new talent.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed this book
Review: Started reading SF again after a pretty long break. AHBB was surprisingly good, and launched me back into the genre again. Characters are better developed than most, and tech concepts are well described without giving that "tech manual" feel on other SF books I've read. Plus, if you did around, you'll find a free ebook of AHBB circulating around...
Rating:
Summary: I want to read more Ringo's books
Review: This was the first of Ringo's books that I have read. It has a facinationg premise and is a great start for what I hope will be a long series.
Rating:
Summary: THOUGHT PROVOKING 1ST NOVEL
Review: I have been following the reviews of this book with interest and the book itself sounded interesting and I finally got the time to read it. Hmmmm, lets see, personally I thought it started out with a fresh and interesting story on an alien invasion with LOTS of characters both good and bad. Then the storyline tended to wallow in too much military jargon and political intrigue for me. The ending was very action-packed but by then I had found myself skim-reading just to get to the end. There was just way too much goings-on from the middle to the end for me to keep my interest going. Too many unimportant military people to follow bogged down this great idea of a story.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a first work...
Review: A Hymn Before Battle is the first in what is bound to be the first in a long series of books about huanities forced alliance with a feudalistic federation of aliens, and their war against another group of aliens known as the Poslien. Humans, happening to be the only race in the Alliance that is willing or capable of fighting a war become cannon fodder, against the Poslien who have an interesting habit of using their POWs for food. It is in a very real sense strictly military science fiction.
A Hymn Before Battle is not the first John Ringo book I've read. Before this one, I read the the books he co-authored with David Weber, March Upcountry and March To The Sea. I did not give either of those books very high marks mainly because in their attempt to create military Sci-fi, they forgot about Characters, plot, and the fact that Aliens probably would act, well, Alien. Unlike the aforementioned novels, this one managed to keep my attention throughout, though it did not avoid all of the complaints I had about the other novels. The character development is shaky at best. While I have no military experiance, I found some of what the characters did and their reactions to certain situations to be contrived and unbelievable. The alien tactics however, and human responce to them seem to be well thought-out. Unlike the aliens in the aforementioned novels, the Poslien truly do seem to think in an alien fashion about warfare. I do think we could have done without the "Poslien point of view" snippits in the way they were presented, as they only serve to humanize the threat, and weaken its overall impact. Overall, A Hymn Before Battle is entertaining and imaginative. I wouldn't suggest it to anyone who isn't into military fiction (the death count in the book ranges into the millions, if you count all the aliens as well as humans), but if you enjoy books by David Weber, David Drake, Heinlien, and the like, you'll probably enjoy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I enjoy military sci-fi, probably because of my background as an Army officer, and eagerly looked forward to starting a new series by an author who has cowritten with David Weber. However, I was disappointed by the book, A Hymn Before Battle. While John Ringo does very well in conveying the sense of the "fog of war," I didn't enjoy having that fog spill over into the rest of the book. The characters were barely developed and the book moved locales and changed scenes in a choppy manner. It bounced from one thing to another and there was little coherence in the movement of the story. It was hard for me to care about characters, the action scenes were hard to follow, and the unremitting idiocy of the "bad" good guys was annoyingly sterotypical. I could not develop a sense of the universe the author was trying to create and kept coming out of the book into the real world by my jarring feeling of irritation and the jagged writing. I haven't written a review before, but felt compelled to warn other unsuspecting readers to save their money. Wait for the paperback or borrow it from the library. I'm not even going to offer this book as a used book to sell because I'd feel guilty about profiting from the foisting of this work off onto another.
Rating:
Summary: Fun Book to Read
Review: Enjoyed Reading the book a lot. Full of action and very addictive. Bit frustrated on areas that were over looked or sketchy. Look forward to book 2. I did think the author was a bit too negative on the Military ability to adapt to change. If this really had happened, war gaming I believe would have led to changes in tactics very quickly. US Military has shown an amazing ability to learn from it's mistakes. From the Vietnam, Iran Hostage Rescue, Grenada, Desert Storm, Somalia, to Afghanistan. Impressive how the Military how much the Military has changed (still has a long way to go).
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