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With Earth in the path of the rapacious Posleen, the Galactic Federation offers help to the backward humans -- for a price. You can protect yourself from your enemies, but God save you from your allies!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I'm quite sure that this book has inaccuracies and faults. There is a feeling of hate mongering here. The enemy is faceless until near the end of the book, a species with no redeeming quality or reason for existence. However, this is escape fiction with the feeling of military reality. Maybe a little too many cliches to make it hip and contemporary abound. But for those who like the genre, military science-fiction, this is a rewarding read.
It's also a promising start to a series. Our planet Earth is being used by powerful figures from other planets who appear to be our benefactors. They give us the technology to use against a galactic horde which is conquering planet after planet and is planning on attacking Earth within five years. In return, we start battling this enemy on other planets.
This is for war buffs, action buffs and those who appreciate a wry humor. There's plenty of the typical bashing of military bureaucacy, and plenty of profanity to establish the toughness of the characters, but all in all, this is a book and a series that should fully satisfy war fans.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Ringo's own background in the military shines through in the early parts of this novel and the whole thing is structured to lead into a series. The 'B-Story' in here is a set up for future novels and otherwise only serves to comment on an almost post-Vietnam vibe that the author wants to establish.
Without spoiling anything (since you can read the details on the back of the book) I'd have liked to see a little more about how humanity reacted to the presence of alien races all around them, rather than simply agreeing to blow the heck out of them, but Ringo is - if anything - keen to get to the action. Indeed large chunks of story going missing entirely to port you from one scene into the thick of it. Though jarring on occasions, you do get used to it and then appreciate what he's taking you into.
I picked this out as a trial run after hearing the author speak at an event last month and was pleased to find that he wasn't an author who endlessly has to plug his own books (I wouldn't have bought it if he had) but that's a measure of his confidence in himself as a writer. He's never going to write high literature - not even hard sci-fi - but we wouldn't want him to. As a sci-fi military thriller this is top notch stuff.
I suppose my one complaint about the book (and it is very minor) is around the fact that he seems to rejoice a little too much in the notion that sci-fi writers would be invited to plan how to raise humanity's technology level in a matter of a couple of years. I have no problem with the idea itself - it's a good one - but I could have done without the obvious naming of his friends and collaborators. It took me out of the world he was building.
Without spoiling anything (since you can read the details on the back of the book) I'd have liked to see a little more about how humanity reacted to the presence of alien races all around them, rather than simply agreeing to blow the heck out of them, but Ringo is - if anything - keen to get to the action. Indeed large chunks of story going missing entirely to port you from one scene into the thick of it. Though jarring on occasions, you do get used to it and then appreciate what he's taking you into.
I picked this out as a trial run after hearing the author speak at an event last month and was pleased to find that he wasn't an author who endlessly has to plug his own books (I wouldn't have bought it if he had) but that's a measure of his confidence in himself as a writer. He's never going to write high literature - not even hard sci-fi - but we wouldn't want him to. As a sci-fi military thriller this is top notch stuff.
I suppose my one complaint about the book (and it is very minor) is around the fact that he seems to rejoice a little too much in the notion that sci-fi writers would be invited to plan how to raise humanity's technology level in a matter of a couple of years. I have no problem with the idea itself - it's a good one - but I could have done without the obvious naming of his friends and collaborators. It took me out of the world he was building.
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Imagine that in 5 years Earth will be invaded by hordes of alien monsters. How would the government, populations, military react. A Hymn Before Battle takes the task of preparing Earth for thier incoming attack and training for it. Along with this are undercurrents of treachery among the human's allies.
Great read and just waiting for the next one Gust Front.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Let the battle commence!
This is the first book in the "Legacy of the Allendata" series.
The series is focused on hard-core military SF with a focus on infantry combat and high technology. Read more
The series is focused on hard-core military SF with a focus on infantry combat and high technology. Read more
Published 10 months ago by D. J. Ketchin
A good book all round with a nice premice and well executed.
Im not normally a fan of Sci-fy, reading almost exclusivly fantasy. However this book grabbed my attention in short order after a friend recommended it, and I had ordered the next... Read more
Published 14 months ago by R. J. G. Bell
A war on two fronts
A well done example of the peace loving aliens needing the blood thirsty human war mongers to pull them from the brink of distruction by a perfidious enemy. So far so predictable. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2001 by mark@44systems.co.uk
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