Watch on the Rhine by Tom Ringo and Tom Kratman

Watch on the Rhine is another addition to the Posleen War series and helps to answer one of my main complaints about the series in that it only showed what happened to the USA during the invasion and barely mentioned the rest of the world.

The Watch on the Rhine fits into the series by starting just after the events of Gust Front and finished before the events detailed in when the devil Dances, with a epilogue that occurs some time after the events in Hell’s Faire.

Germany is facing disaster. With most of its modern army off world, they have few remaining veterans to turn to,( The aliens have technology allowed people to be rejuvenated to their early 20s) to train their armies in time for the coming invasion. With the invasion of the USA bringing home the reality of the horror they face the German Chancellor is faced with an impossible decision. Do they hope that their armies will be ready in time with their current resources or does he turn to the one group that they swore never ever to recall. Does he make a devils bargain or will the cost be simply too high? This group?

The few remaining survivors of the Waffen SS.

This is not an attempt at Nazi glorification by any stretch of the imagination. The authors do not attempt to white wash the misdeeds of the SS or portray them as whiter then whiter heroes. They have written a very dark and gritty story that poses the question does the need for survival cancel out our programming? Will we do whatever it takes not matter the cost?

The level of detail in describing what happens to Europe during the initial invasion waves is excellent and fills the void nicely. If you have read the first four books you already ‘know’ that the German forces can’t win but you can’t help but hope. By the end of the book all of the old SS are dead. But the military training they have given to the younger generation allow the surviving population to reach safety in the Alps and prepare to take the war back to the enemy.

The description of the Posleen in this novel is much more chilling and they seem a much more dangerous enemy then the mindless foes they have appeared to be previously. A good example of this is a scene where they attempt to cross a bridge by carrying children as human shields!

The book also conveys that War is indeed Hell, that evil men can do good deeds and in the same vein good men can also do evil deeds and that mere survival is not always enough.

I would give this book four out of five. However you should keep clear if you are easily offended.

Hell's Faire by John Ringo.

It’s the 4th book in John Ringo’s Posleen war series and events are coming to a head.

The defences in the USA have been breached. The Aliens are now flooding through a vital pass and seem in danger of over running the last Human held bastions. The end of the War on earth is coming but who will be left holding the smouldering ruins of earth when all is said and done?

We left the series main hero at the end of the previous novel ready to fly with the rest of the unit to a vital pass in an attempt to block the flood of Posleen. Convinced it’s a suicide mission the ACS prepares for a last stand facing odds even worse then those faced by the Spartans.

Their only chance is one of the most powerful human War Machines in existence, the hastily repaired She-va gun nicknamed ‘Bun-bun’. Leading the Human advance on the pass it’s a trace against time. Can the ACS hold out, Can the Posleen over run them and continue their advance and just how much Posleen butt can Bun-bun kick!

This is the last book in this arc of the Posleen war series and the ending is bittersweet as the main character although victorious has seemingly lost everything including most of his family.

However at the want of spoiling things for anybody I won’t say anymore but there is a clue in that last sentence which sets up the next series set in this universe.

Still it is good end to a great series.

When the Devil Dances by John Ringo

The third book in the Posleen War series continues the story started in a Hymn before Battle and its sequel Gust Front and Mankind is in serious trouble.

Taking up the story five years after the end of Gust Front all five expected Posleen invasion waves have hit the Earth. Most of the planet has been over run with the exception of mountain ranges and a few scatted areas where the temperature is not to the Posleen’s liking.

The exception to this is the USA where due to luck and geography they still hold out in a pocket protected by the rockies. With the population sheltering in underground cities nicknamed ‘sub-urbs’ the posleen are held back by massive multi-layered fixed defences in every pass supported by Artillery. So an un-easy stalemate has developed with the Posleen unable to over run the Human defences and the Humans lacking the numbers to drive the aliens off the planet.

Earth is also effectively cut off from the rest of the galaxy and the thin trickle of supplies reaching the planet is insufficient to keep the ACS units ( soldiers equipped in armoured combat suits, the elite of the army) up to strength. So when we rejoin the hero of the first two novels he is in command of the last remaining unit which is slowly dwindling in numbers.

The ‘benevolent’ darhel do not have mankinds best interest at heart as the Navy intended to protect Earth has been devastated in a series of actions and they firmly refuse to let the remaining vessels and forces off world to return home.

Then in a flurry of action an alien leader who has learnt his lessons too well breaks through the defences and leaves everything in the balance.

This book is good but I found a few minor nitpicks with it. The first is the time jump at the beginning of the story. We’d been building up to these massive invasions in the first two books and we essentially ‘miss’ them with only a thin time line to fill in the details of the events during these five years.

The second is continuing the focus on the USA in the same fashion as Gust front. I’ll admit that there’s good reason why it focuses on the USA as it is the last bastion of Human resistance after all but the fate of the rest of the planet is pretty much skimmed over in less then a paragraph and I think that weakens the whole ‘mankind’ is in danger theme and turns it more towards ‘the USA’ is in danger.

Still asides from this the book is very good and it ends on one heck of a cliff hanger.

Five stars out of five.

Gust Front by John Ringo

Gust Front is the second book in the Posleen war series and a direct sequel to a Hymn before battle which I reviewed here.

Despite the victories in the first novel, the best of Earths forces are still stuck in bloody stalemate defending two alien planets. Over three years have passed since the events of a Hymn before battle and the first wave of invasion is less then two years away. Earths defences are still being built and the navy is still under construction in the shipyards. In the early chapters there’s a real sense of urgency but a hope that things may come together in time for the first wave of invasion.

Unfortunately nobody told the Aliens the schedule and some of the Alien forces arrive early. It's not hard to guess that all hell breaks loose.

Most of the action in Gust front occurs in the USA describing the landings their. There are a lot of references to roads and cities which probably make more sense to American readers but despite that the action is still fast paced and relatively easy to follow.
It's good to see that despite the nature of the story it's still believable and easily draws you in. Despite the threat of invasion hanging over the earth, people still fight, still bicker and put their wants and needs first. Politics is also still around and the actions of politicians almost lead to disaster for the US forces.

You rejoin the main character and his family and experience a lot of the action through their eyes. However it was extremely shocking to me when one member of the family does not make it through the book as I really wasn't expecting it. Several other characters also fail to survive and casualties among the Earth forces mount with horrific speed.

The Aliens are defeated if only just. However the cost is huge as a large part of the earths planetary defence centres are in ruins, several cities are lost, casualties among earth forces are high and this was only a small attack, the first invasion wave will be ten times as big. The situation is desperate and you realise that the Earth needs some kind of miracle if it's going to survive.

Four stars out of five and this is only because the focus is kept firmly on the US relegating the consequences of the landings around the rest of the world to a few small paragraphs. The world is in danger so let’s hear about it rather then just the USA!

A Hymn before Battle by John Ringo

Humanity is not alone in the Galaxy, which many people consider good news. Unfortunately for Humanity that is the old good news to come from first contact.

The bad news is that a nasty alien species around who are over running planet after planet, who have a thing for gold and they treat any alien races they come across as walking, talking snacks. The only main galactic power to oppose them is run by accountants who can’t kill anything without going into a zombie like state and has a small worker like race who can build almost anything but can’t fight at all. So what this galactic power needs is a new race well versed in the art of war and has the anger, ability and stubbornness to take on these new bad guys and where could they possibly find a race like that hmmm?

A Hymn before Battle is the first book I’ve read by John Ringo and it’s great. He comes up with a very entertaining take on the first contact between Aliens and mankind, (they simply call the world leaders on the telephone) and the problem that Humanity faces is a big one. It’s not simply a case that we go and fight these Aliens, we have no choice. The Aliens are coming our way and Earth has only five years to prepare before we’re invaded.The Aliens have the technology but no idea how to use it so it’s up to Mankind to come up with armour, ships and weapons to beat the Aliens back. This is also another entertaining part of the book as the military call in science fiction writers to help in the design process.

Of course as the Aliens are very stingy accountants we’re not getting all this technology for free. In order to raise the funds to buy the technology and weapons for mankind to survive we now have three planets to defend. But as revelations follow it becomes clear that not everything is as clear cut as it first appears and with friends like these who needs enemies.

But then again Earth’s forces are doing quite enough damage to themselves through ignorance, politics and general infighting.

This book is the first in a series so it does end on a very foreboding note. Earth forces may have won the first battles but we certainly haven’t won the war. The Alien technology introduced may be advanced but it’s believable. There is no mega weapon that will be able to win the war and you do get a sense that even if mankind wins the cost will be heavy.

There is also a curious ‘backstep’ in our military forces as the bad guy’s weaponry means no aircraft, aerial or orbital surveillance of any kind. Missiles are also out, leaving Artillery as our only ace in the hole. All the fighting in this war will be up close and personal.

Most of this book focuses on one character and I’m sure that the rest of the series will stay focused on his him, his wife and children to give a view from the army, the navy and the home front as it were.

A few other characters are also introduced which I have the feeling we will also be seeing more of. Especially interesting ( and humorous) are the ‘rejuvenated’ former military characters who in some cases served in the 2nd world war who thanks to Alien technology are now back to their early 20s and having trouble adjusting to being young again.

I’m interested to see where this series will go. There is lots of potential in this series and lots of areas to explore. I hope the author doesn’t blow it.