Watch on the Rhine

By: John Ringo, Tom Kratman

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

The invaders are coming; the Posleen, a seemingly unstoppable horde who have conquered one star system after another, literally feeding on their conquests. Earth's dubious allies, the Darhel, have given the humans a number of highly-advanced technological devices, including a process for rejuvenating the aged, including trained and proven soldiers who otherwise would be too old to fight. Rejuvenation may give a critical edge, since to survive, the Earth must use every resource at hand. Every resource . . .

In the dark days after the initial Posleen attack, but before the primary invasion, the Chancellor of Germany faces a critical decision. Over the years, with military cutbacks, the store of experienced German military personnel had simply dwindled. After the destruction of Northern Virginia, he realized that it was necessary to tap the one group he had sworn never, ever, to recall: the few remaining survivors of the Waffen SS. Has he made a devil¿s bargain, or is this a chance for the reviled SS at last to fight the good fight? And, perhaps, gain redemption?

Watch On the Rhine, a new chapter in the New York Times best-selling Posleen War saga, is perhaps the most unbiased, and brutal, look at the inner workings of the Waffen SS in history. Meticulously researched, it explores all that was good, and evil, about the most infamous military force in history using the backdrop of the Posleen invasion as a canvas.

©2007 Baen (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

The German Perspective

Another very intertaining Legacy of the Aldenata tale. The change in location to the European continent and the perspective of Germany and its past sins was a great backdrop to this continuation of the story.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Unexpectedly a Very Good

The idea of getting very bad people to take on even worse people is always a good story line to me. Not using all the Gal Tech was a great twist. Not every bad person is all bad, and not every good person is all good. John Ringo's politics don't shine through as they do in other of the series. Survival cancels out programming.
John, write Back to Baton.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

BRAVO!!!

This book has it all, War,Action,Killing, a Good Story. It is so much better then the last two books, Cally's War and Sister Time. Well worth the listen!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Recycled SS versus Posleen

Great concept, Waffen SS versus Posleen. It's a great insight as to how blind cosmopolitan progressives can be when they resist the formation of a fighting force to counter the Posleen invaders which will surely devour them. Would love to see additional Tom Kratman novels on audio. PLEASE!!

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Damm just Damm.

perhaps the best book of the legacy of the aldenata. not the most fun book, but quite possibly the best.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

SS? - I guess it would have to be so

Nothing is ever just all one way, and can never be as bad, nor as good as you might hear.

"Watch ..." renders even the vaunted SS into what it is. Just people. Many good, many bad, most just trying to survive.

I take that back. Greens and Reds ARE just as bad as you've been told.

Typical Ringo & Kratman. Friggin' awesome!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great read!

Kept up with the rest of the books. I enjoyed how some people are just what you expect and some people really surprise you. Excellent!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Breathtaking

When reading this book I sometimes wondered who I thought the heroes or the villains where. Ultimately though it became clear in the end. Very clever writing with characters that I both loved to hate and hated to love. A story that definitely took me out of my comfort zone and had me pondering what it is that makes us more or less human.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Historical investigation with SciFi story

Interesting from the aspect of looking at the motivations of the Waffen-SS in WWII. Being of German decent, it is fairly accurately portrayed. Both good and bad. Even the some relationships to the Israelis in the book. There have alway been close ethnic ties between Germanic and Jewish cultures.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good, Just not on a par with the rest

I had listened to the entire "Legacy Of The Aldenata" series EXCEPT for "Yellow Eyes" (The Panamanian Perspective) and this book ("Watch On The Rhine", The German Perspective).. I skipped these two books initially because many reviewers said that they didn't add a lot to the Series as a whole, and it seemed to me that a lot of people were just skipping over these two books, so I skipped them also to get straight back to the Main Story Lines in the later books in the series ... I know, I know, Like your Mom used to say, "If everyone else jumped off a Bridge, would you jump off too"? WELL OF COURSE I WOULD (and HAVE.. Bridge Day in West Virginia.. uhhh on second thought, let's not discuss that)...

Anyway, When you listen to as many books a month as I do, for as many years as I have, you tend to run out of books that seem to interest you pretty quickly... It also seems to me that once GOOD authors start making money, they seem to just quit writing as much (until they need money again), so I find I go through long periods of "Book Slumps" where I can't find anything that interests me.... During one such Book Slump, I went back and picked up "Yellow Eyes" and found that I enjoyed it A LOT... Since I enjoyed Yellow Eyes, I figured maybe I'd enjoy Watch on the Rhine also (Hey, "It's Ringo", how far wrong can you go?)

It's a decent book. Not nearly as good as the rest of the books in the series, and it seems to wander in places, but it did hold my attention pretty well... I had to back up a few times and try to get some events straight in my mind, some parts seemed to be just "Stuck in the book as filler" with no real purpose otherwise, but after I finished it, I came away wishing there were MORE books left in the Aldenata series (and then getting bummed by knowing that there aren't any more books in the series to listen to now)...

...and I just had a feeling that if the Earth was desperate enough to "Rejuvenate Very Old Soldiers" to fill the ranks needed to fight the war, that SOME of the Rejuves in the German Forces were GOING to be Hard-Corp Nazis, with a hidden agenda to bring back "the Glory Days of the Master Race" now that they're young again... Yep, knew that was coming... HOWEVER, Ringo handled that VERY touchy and sensitive subject VERY well!! I was impressed with his handling of the problem, especially since Ringo doesn't mind "offending delicate sensibilities" just for the Sheer Joy of doing it.. which is one reason I like his work so much.. Life isn't always fair, the righteous don't always win, the bad guys don't always "Get what's coming to them", Crime OFTEN DOES Pay, etc... that's just the real world, and Ringo seldom shies away from pointing those facts out, and using them in his books.

As many other reviewers pointed out, Watch On The Rhine doesn't add a lot to the LONG Aldenata Series, and you don't miss out on much (if anything) if you skip it while listening to the rest of the series, but it's an enjoyable read even as just a "Stand Alone" book based in the Universe of the Aldenata

3 of 4 people found this review helpful