A Hymn Before Battle: Legacy of the Aldenata

This book, really the entire series, is quite excellent. Some sci-fi is deep and makes you think, some sci-fi is cool with all kinds of fancy tech, Ringo's sci-fi has a little of both of those but a whole lot of FUN. After reading this, I read the whole series and have started on some of his others as well.

If you want to enjoy a good read, get it.

This is military SF written by an author with military experience. If you judge books by PC standards, skip this one. It's violent, pro-military, pro-US, hilarious in places, and extremely satisfying. It's thick with rank, tradition, jargon, and tactical detail, but even if you don't like that it's still worth the listen just to get to the "Immigrant Song" scene.

I listened to this book while I was recovering from the flu and it was amazingly fun. John Ringo delivers the story in a way which is satisfying for the sci-fi enthusiast the gun geek and arm chair generals alike.

Combined with the masterful reading delivered by Marc Vietor. While I wish there could have been a bit more of range in the voices Marc Vietor did an awesome job of delivering the gruff battle toughened voice of the main character and the click-clack sounds of the "Tchpth".

While I wish I could say I saw the ending coming I did not, however it was immensely satisfying. The action pace combined with intrigue that was woven into the story definitely has me coming back for more!

I like the narrator of this series and the author makes a good story and a good hero. the only thing is the amount of rank and sir's you have to endure in all his books. but i had allot of fun listening to it and have listen to the whole series.

The first 2 chapters of the book are boring,but once you get out of those, it's awesome.

Great audiobook. Narrator's marine drill sargent voice is perfect for the military sci-fi genre and varies his voice well for different characters. Battles are outstanding. The writer lets the reader do the imagining on much of the aliend world detail, but the soldiering and action are reflective of the author's military experience. Sometimes the story gets a little "jargonny" for the non-vet, but bearing through it should not confuse the average reader in the end. Stories are not so out of touch with today that we can't relate to the equipment and the people. However, it is clearly written pre - 9/11/01, so some lee-way has to be given to the story line when it discussed life without war in 2001 and 2002.

Some ETs have arrived to warn us that we've got five years to prepare to be invaded by really hungry, really dangerous aliens. This story is the start of a series that seems to get better as it goes (not that the first books aren't great!). The action is almost nonstop, and you can't help wondering how we're going to survive the roller coaster of preparation, off-world battles, and political change in the face of invasion.

This is the first installment of a great series by John Ringo. It is where John Wayne meets Tom Clancy to kick baddy butt.

This is my first time reading a John Ringo book. I found it well written and an interesting plot. The military jargon was realistic and the battle action exciting. There was lots of action and suspense along with some comic relief. The Posleen are conquering worlds and the Galactic Federation has sent the humans from earth out to be the warriors to stop them but can earth trust the federation? Marc Vietor does an excellent job narrating the story and the did great with the various alien voices. Looking forward to reading more in this series.

Well told suspenseful classic combat sci-fi. The first in an epic series. Ringo knows his military jargon first hand. This is the juice. A+