Rating: 
Summary: Read Read Read
Review: I've read this in WebScrip and ordered my hardback copy. This isn't one of those 'starts slow' books. It's well paced and well written with plenty of action. Pick a good time to start reading or you'll be up way past bedtime.The story is set between a rock and a hard place, humanity is offered the only way out of a bad situation and has no option but to accept. The bad aliens are really really bad and the 'good' ones aren't all that nice either. The threats are many, and not all from the legions of Posleen thugs, who'd be a lot less scary if they were merely Chaotic Evil.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent Read
Review: I've also been reading this book in e-text format with WebScriptions. You get the first half, amonth later the next quarter and the following month the remainder. This occurs up to about a month before publication as a paper book. The book is excallent and I found myself continually awaiting the next part as I wanted to know what happened. The author is working on the next book in the series but this book stands well alone. Highly reccomended.
Rating:
Summary: A MOST auspicious debut!
Review: It's books like this that make me a loyal Baen Books reader. John Ringo has crafted a universe in which some aliens, themselves incapable of violence or, apparently, military strategy, have decided to use humans as literal "army ants" to destroy some other aliens who have been taking their worlds away from them one by one. And, of course, once the job is done and we're no longer needed... Of course humanity has long had a history of wriggling out of binds and generally playing merry hell with expectations made of it, and in this book, we are no different. I won't spoil the fun, but it's interesting seeing Ringo deal simultaneously with High Strategy and Low Tactics at the same time, while giving us characters we can care about and follow around as they attempt to keep humanity alive. This is the first book in what promises to be a series well worth following. The ending ties up the current set of loose ends very neatly, but I'm already salivating in anticipation of the sequel, which will be out in April, 2001, and I've already bought my "webscription" copy. Read it and enjoy. Me, I'm going out to get a copy as a gift for my brother, and watch the smile on his face.
Rating:
Summary: Clancy, Move Over!
Review: There's a new name on my "must buy" list, John Ringo. Not many authors make it, and only two write military fiction -- Clancy and Bujold. As for the rest, Ringo just left them in his dust! You want a gripping storyline? It's here. You like characters so real, you could be standing in their skins? You got 'em. You're looking for sheer storytelling power that grabs your mind and heart and will not let you go? Be prepared to sign up for the duration. Learn a new definition of "long-range patrol." Know the frustration of dealing with higher-ups who care more about scoring points with the brass than about fighting the battles... or keeping their troops alive. Live the fear and confusion of broken comms, fractured chains of command, desperately depleted supplies, and an unstoppable enemy coming straight down your throat. Look out over shattered rubble that used to be a city and wonder if your hometown will be next. Knowing it will be. This is life and death, glory and shame. This is combat as I've seldom seen it portrayed, with the human spirit stripped down to the bare essentials where it, alone, can say whether to go on or lay down and die. Ringo said he wrote this for soldiers. As a veteran, myself, I say, "Thank you, John. You did us proud." So move over, Clancy. Edge over a bit, Bujold. John Ringo deserves to share that spotlight. I can hardly wait for the next installment from this incredibly talented storyteller.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I got the chance to read this book and I loved it. It has high drama, loads of action, lots of humanity and just enough humor to make everything work. If you like hard S/F get this book!
Rating:
Summary: Read This Novel Already!
Review: If you have not been fortunate enough to read A Hymn Before Battle on WebScriptions, you are in for a treat. Mike O'Neal, a web designer, gets called back to the Army by a friend who is now a general. The general has some good news and bad news: the good news is that aliens exist, the bad news is that one species, the Posleen, has embarked on a genocial war of conquest. And Earth is in the path of destruction. Complicating matters, the alien "allies" are incapable of violence themselves. Some of them have their own agenda. I won't say any more. It is an interesting, absorbing, exhilarating, frightening, fun read. So order it all ready!
Rating: 
Summary: This War's For You
Review: This book is, first and foremost, about soldiers. It is about the sort of person who carries the burden of war for his (or her) society. I wrote it to try to convey my feelings about the soldier, what the soldier owes to society and what society owes to the soldier. If you want a look at some samples try... I've been told, by quite a few people including David Weber, that it's pretty good. But I wrote it for you. Read and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: A TAD TOO MUCH PEACE, A LITTLE WAR
Review: We have finally made contact with alien lifeforms in the year 2001. Thankfully, the aliens, calling themselves the Galactic Federation, are peaceful. Maybe too peaceful. They've made contact with us for a reason. As their Federation was expanding, they ran into a vicious warrior race called the Posleen. The Posleen are kinda like the Borg in Star Trek. Except they don't assimilate other species, they EAT them!!! The problem is that the races in the Federation are all pacifists and are unwilling or uncapable of bloodshed. They want earthlings, with our bloodthirsty DNA to fight the Posleen. They provide incentive by telling us that the Earth will be attacked by the Posleen within 4 years. The Feds will supply us with equipment, battleships, advanced weapons, mecha suits, etc. but we're going to have to share in the cost of building them. Also, most of the equipment won't be available for months or even years, so in the meantime, Earth must mobilize its armies and think up a plan of attack. The main problem with A Hymn Before Battle was that it had too many characters trying to share the spotlight. For the first 200 pages or so, 1 or more characters were added each chapter, so that by the end you can't remember any except for 2 or 3 main ones. As a consequence of this, there is very little if any character development. Also, the chapters jump around in time. You'll be reading a chapter set in May 2002, then the next chapter will be from January 2002, and then the next chapter will be taking place in December 2002. This lack of order really confused issues to me. While this might be a "trendy" method of writing, it seems senseless and amateurish to me. Also, out of the blue, in the last 70 pages or so, we actually get into the Posleen's heads, and they basically just speak ghetto Klingon, and use words that the author just made up off the top of his head. The Posleen's awkward entry into the narrative just underscores how unalien these aliens are. I mean I would think beings from another planet would have thought processes a little different than a Mongolian horde. I found it a little hard to be scared of the Posleen, seeing as how they have centaur-like bodies and crocodile like heads. It would have been a lot better if the narrator had not got into their heads and left them more mysterious. The armed forces of America got lousy treatment in this book. All the high-ranking commanders are incompetent. Most of the soldiers have a streak of corruptness. Our forces wouldn't do this bad. They have a higher character than this. I guess the only thing that redeems this book is its very pulpiness. It reminded me of the sci-fi of the 40s when you didn't have to reason why your technology worked and your aliens were just anthropomorphized humans. I guess it has its own mindless charm, kinda like a Spider-Man movie. I actually couldn't buy the fact that the Federation was so pacifist. I think any race that gets into space has to have an aggressive nature or else they would not overcome the difficulties of spaceflight. Another problem is that this is a mindless action book, but it takes about 300 pages to get to the action. I guess this is a thinking man's B-movie. This book was worth reading if you just want to be entertained on a rainy day.
Rating:
Summary: Slow start, but a good beginning to the series.
Review: In 2001 we encountered the Galactic Federation. The good news is that they are friendly and are willing to sell us advanced technology. The bad news is that they contacted us for a reason. A vicious alien species known as the Posleen are tearing through the galaxy, raping worlds of resources. The citizens of the Galactic Federation are far too peaceful to do anything about it, but we on the other hand....
Most of this book deals with the lead up to the actual invasion itself, including military action on other worlds. The story itself is a little weak, but John Ringo (a former soldier himself) keeps everything interesting. His portrayal of the military--both good and bad, somber and humorous--keeps the story going. The battle scenarios presented are memorable. The Posleen have far superior technology, but they have cultural weaknesses that give humans an edge, which we readily take advantage of.
If you are a fan of alien invasion stories, this is a definite must-read. No big morals, no big proclamations about psuedo-morality and philosophy that seem to pollute so much of modern SF. This is just a tale about the human race faced with an impossibly powerful foe--and how they fight them.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy first effort, but rough around the edges
Review: Before anyone guts me with a spear, let me say I enjoyed reading this book. The pacing is good, and the characters that are well developed are likeable. That said, there is much to be desired, and the more I think about this book after finishing it, the less satisfied I am.
First, whoever edited this book ought to be dragged out into the street and shot, or at least forced to read the collected works of William Zinsser and "Elements of Editing" until they have some sense of what their job entails. There are too many plot holes, and too many continuity gaps (for example, in one scene a person is perched in a tree with a rifle. Shortly thereafter, a fellow soldier is recovering the soldier's weapons from "her remains," though the author never tells us she was shot, skewered, etc.).
Second, the plot lines all scream "sequel" and, indeed, several books have followed. As Ringo's friend David Weber amply illustrates, even if you are writing a "pilot" there's no need to throw a lot of characters at the reader and then ignore them. The confusing morass of characters in the beginning makes it a lot harder to figure out who's doing what later on. Even some of the plot lines that are developed in the story-such as a special forces excursion to capture one of the invading Posleen-seem thrown in almost as an afterthought.
Finally, Ringo's plot borrows so much from Heinlein's classic "Starship Troopers" that it can't help but suffer by comparison. Where Heinlein's Rico is a believable everyman, Ringo's Mike O'Neal is Indiana Jones and the Incredible Hulk rolled into one.
Make no mistake-Ringo is a promising writer, and fans of "hard" sci-fi will enjoy this book even while they wince at some of the details. But it would be refreshing to see better editing and a bit more originality with the plot lines. As I've stated before, much of today's sci fi is pure dreck; this book rises above the morass enough to be notable, but not as far or as well as it could have, and (with a firmer hand at Baen) should have.
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