Second Edition (Legacy of the Aldenata Book 2) - Gust Front

Just finished up Gust Front, and am now reading the sequel. I really like this book, and the series. After the climax from A HYMN BEFORE BATTLE, this follow-u[ started off slow. A lot of build-up and fluff, but once the actions started, it was non-stop. I wish they'd turn this series into a movie!

So much potential but I wish the author would get to the point and stop wasting energy on so many fruitless peripheral story lines. They just aren't that interesting. Could be much more tightly written without loss of world building. And unfortunately not much new in the world overall.

Well written. Good narrative and descriptions.....but.....it gets tiring quickly. Its more like a "100 Ways to Die" for aliens. 1/2 the book is describing in about 20 chapters each with a different ways to decimate alien earth invaders leaving their bodies piled high. The other 1/2 is about 20 chapters preparing to decimate the aliens. He should simplify the story, use his good writing style to develop a good plot line. I only made my way about 1/4 through the book and gave up as I got tired of the same thing over and over.

Many writers produce books called Epic by critics and reviewers...most aren't. The 'Aldenata' series is Epic in a way many writers would love to have authored. I've lost count of the number of books in this series, and each seems to tell a side of the tale from a new perspective, with incredibly rich and detailed characters you want to be friends with.
The Epic tale begins with myths and connects the dots ending in interstellar wars with hundreds of years of intrigue, battles, technology development, stolen technology, and so much more...not all in the same book, but when you read the very connected series in order you begin an Epic voyage yourself.
At the time of this review this title is free...i would gladly pay vast sums for each and every book in this series...i also highly recommend the audiobook versions, it's an incredibly well narrated series with a great voice actor.
I cannot emphasise this enough....buy the books! all of them!! you will not be disappointed...you may miss many days of work and leave important chores go undone so read with caution!!

I like the overall plot and backstory to this series, and also this particular book. But the paperback version that I read was over 700 pages. It could have easily been just 400 to 500 pages with a little editing. There were pages and pages of uneccessary text. I get that you are trying to capture the mood and atmosphere of the average American and soldier, but the chapter that took place on Key West could have been deleted or shortened drastically.

Then there's the unending descriptions of the various brigades, divisions, etc. with military titles and jargon. I like military science fiction, but it's as though this author is trying to win an award for his mastery of rank and acronyms. You really need to take notes to keep up with which soldier is at what battle and who outranks who.

And despite my plea that these books be shortened, I wish there would have been a little more about how the conflicts around the world were being faught and won/lost. Over 99% of the book focused on the war in VA, with almost nothing about the battles on the west coast of the U.S., much less around the world.

All that said, I like the aliens, the technology, the subplots, etc. Just shorten it up a bit!

I just finished Gust Front by John Ringo, and Ringo is a hard man to understand. He clearly loves the SciFi genre, and with the continuation of the Posleen War, proves he can delve into the stickier details many gloss over.

The problem is he goes way too far on occasion, detailing for pages on very intricate and specific troop movements and justification. I felt like I was reading a historical account of each battle. Provided a map of the United States, I could probably have replayed each flank and counter-attack exactly as if executing a play-by-play of an Axis and Allies or Risk game. It was mind numbing, and I found myself skimming over vast swaths of copious minutiae. It's fairly obvious why this, the second in the series, was over 250 pages longer than the first.

That said, I still enjoyed the book's plotting and overall direction. I have a feeling the third book will pull back from this level of detail, if only because Ringo has brought much of the background scheming to a head, and the Earth is now firmly embroiled in the war. I have a feeling the Darheel will be outed outright in the third novel, which could make for interesting counter-movements as Earth's government attempts to escape their control while still retaining Galactic resources to fight the Posleen.

It's a fairly complex series so far, and I'll have no qualms continuing reading as everything unfolds.

More compelling and better written than A hymn Before Battle, Gust Front was a polished and suspenseful novel that improved on its predecessor in a way that all sequels should. That being said, Gust Front often feels bogged down in unnecessary descriptions, from various viewpoints, of the minutiae of battle.

This constant switching of viewpoints was particularly frustrating largely because the protagonist was such a well conceived character that viewing events from his perspective was much more enjoyable than viewing events from the perspective of various minor characters. The minor characters were decently fleshed out all things considered but they were still not as engaging as Michael O'Neal.

While the battles themselves were well conceived and ably narrated, the books focus on the minutiae of battle failed to advance the plot as well as it should have been advanced.

As with a hymn before battle though, these flaws were balanced by excellent descriptive prose and the author's mastery of all things military. The author's language in describing action was precise and appropriately technical in a way that few authors are. In spite of the flaws mentioned above, these descriptive talents and the suspenseful, motivating plot ensure that I will continue to read Ringo's Posleen War books.

Aliens that act (mostly) alien, intrigue, conspiracy, dastardly back-stabbing, bureaucratic SNAFUs, good soldiers and armies hung out to dry by (and for) politics, overwhelming odds, and humanity's back now squarely up against the wall... Yup! Ringo still has all the right stuff. Ringo makes the most of his material, and while he still makes a few jarring mistakes along the way, and his characterizations are still fairly weak, this is a much-improved story over the previous book, A Hymn Before Battle.
First, the flaws, to get them out of the way:
Ringo's characters are still mostly caricatures, though he has improved in this area to a degree. Mixed motivations, angst, realistic reactions to heartbreak and loss, and so on, are still weak. His soldiers, from the enterprising street kid-found-a-home to the old-timer Gunny sergeant, to the overwhelmed generals in charge, to 'Mighty Mite' O'Neal himself, are all better developed but still are fairly shallow. There are fewer physics goofs in this one, accepting and carrying forward the goofs made in the first book as a given. "GalTech," or Galactic Technology, is still treated like a magic wand for making anything happen in any way that seems to fit the story, but it receives much less attention in this story save for some of the results of scarcity: Misappropriation of �GalTech� into a largely unexplored black market.
The addition of a 'suggested soundtrack' is something entirely new in my experience, and marks Ringo's inventiveness and desire to create an immersive experience. I'm not sure, entirely, how I feel about that level of manipulation, however mild it might be. I'm much more used to allowing my own mind to create the mood when I read, and I find myself rather ambivalent towards this unique innovation.
To the good, one of my pet peeves from the first book has been avoided: The deux ex machina rescues are gone from this book, and good troops are allowed to die when overwhelmed. Sympathetic characters die in heroic stands, and in less heroic ways too. One character in particular, a resourceful young mortar platoon leader I'd hoped would survive, just vanishes into the battle, presumed dead, completely out-of-scene. I find that rather effective and refreshing close to what happens in the real world. Human resourcefulness in the face of overwhelming odds shows up all over the place.
This is a more fully realized story than A Hymn Before Battle. Black markets in 'GalTech,' bureaucratic screw-ups, personal agendas, cowardice, incompetence, malice, and simple happenstance are mixed liberally into the story, and it *works*. The suggestions of conspiracy and hidden alien AND human agendas are now emerging in the open, and it�s clear that Earth's allies are playing their own very nasty game, in which humanity is a pawn. The problem for the Darhel is that this particular collection of pawns are plotting their own moves within the larger scheme of things, and that tends to de-rail millennia-old schemes. Something will HAVE to give...
The Posleen are even more frightening than before, but humans are endlessly inventive in finding new ways of dishing out a heaping plate of hot, steaming death. The resulting brawl is very ugly, and makes some of the most compelling reading I've found. More desperate combat, more nasty surprises all around, and more innocents are caught in the gears make this book, especially that second half of it, a real page-turner. Despite some lingering roughness with his prose, and repetitive elements that still intrude, Ringo brings this story home with immediacy and flair. You can almost smell the smoke and hear the screams.
Gust Front's flaws are more than covered by its strengths. If you like stories about good heroes, really 'bad' bad guys, and realistically rendered blood-n-thunder, pick this up and give it a read!

This book, the second in Ringo's chronicle of humanity's war against the invading alien Posleen, is an improvement over the first book in the series, A Hymn Before Battle. Although some of Ringo's expositions can get tiresome, for the most part the action carries the story quite well. Fans of the first book and military SF in general will enjoy this sequel.

Still, this book disappoints in some ways because the final product had the potential to be a lot better than what reached the bookshelves. Incongruously for a military Sci-Fi novel, the civilian characters are much more memorable (and distinct from each other) than are most of the characters in the military. The characters also (with a few exceptions) tend to be either almost superhuman or complete idiots (and virtually all of the politicians mentioned fall into the latter category). And Ringo again could have used an editor with an eye for story continuity: the chapters are not necessarily arranged in chronological order, and although there are sometimes good reasons for the lack of synchronicity, the jumps are for the most part unaccompanied by enough of a description to give the reader a good sense of where and "when" he is, which, combined with the large number of characters involved, sometimes makes for a very confusing jumble. One final complaint (OK, it's a whine): the maps in the back of the book showing the scenes of various battles are so small in the paperback edition as to be illegible. If you don't want to fork over the extra bucks for the hardcover version, you can track down larger versions on the internet.

For all the qualms I have about this book, there's no question it's a good read. Ringo's writing style is easy to read, and the plot is compelling enough that you'll plow through the rough spots because you will want to know what happens next.

Aliens have invaded the Earth before...but dammit! John took it to new levels.
First, as an military engineer veteran, it was gratifying to see the Engineers given prominence. Prominence? Hell! They taught the Posleen PAIN! There's very few alien invasions that can't be resolved by the suitable application of a few million tons of claymores and C4.
But there's more than that. He managed, technically, to portray combined arms interestingly and accurately, explain the frustration of dealing with political sandbagging, while letting us see why the politicians feel equally hamstrung. He let us feel the gut-wrenching fear of troops who know they're going to die, but get the job done anyway because sometimes there's no point in giving up.
The Posleen are an alien it's hard to feel empathy for. Reptilian centauroids that are immune to most toxins, are hatched knowing how to shoot, and slice anything animal including slow-moving children into sushi as they run, they just beg to be killed. And yet, they do have a culture and are grasping at an understanding of their first real enemy, the human race. By their own standards they are moral, and they have individuality and quirks.
Add in some hysterically entertaining NSTIW stories that are axioms among vets ("This is the USS Missouri, twenty miles offshore. Glad to help, Army!") that fit into the story without being cliche while still causing one to want to pop a beer, and you have riotous entertainment, gripping action and an ancient plot that holds up amazingly well through his telling.
And the engineers get to blow up whole DIVISIONS of Posleen.
You might want to read A Hymn Before Battle first, because it's also good. But this one ROCKS.