Last Resort

A Hymn Before Battle, Baen Publishing, $7.99 paperback edition

Burbrink Book Rating: 4/5

As an intergalactic war goes on, the Darhel must look towards the last line of defence, a group that does not even know the war is going on. To survive, they must call upon the most dangerous species they know of besides the Posleen: Human Beings.

In the beginning book of the Legacy of the Aldenata series, “A Hymn Before Battle,” John Ringo tells the story about Earth being introduced to extraterrestrial life just in time to prepare for the invasion of Posleen, reptilian centaurs that view all other species as “thresh,” which in their language is translated literally to “food.” 
The peaceful races of the Galactic Federation agree to help the Terrans prepare, for a price. Meanwhile, Michael O’Neal, former gunnery Sergeant is recalled from his job as a web designer to help develop technology to deal with this new alien threat.
John Ringo uses his signature military writing to write a story with captivating human elements. How does a planet prepare to fight a force of aliens when they can not agree politically. This novel shows the problem when the so called good old boys of the military are in charge of an operation that caters to the younger generation.
The book starts out with O’Neal being stolen away from his cushy job as a web designer to go help plan for this new war. The beginning includes a lot of plot development with showing the preparations for the war but does not bog the reader down with details surrounding the planning. Rather, Ringo focuses the planning around how it is affecting individuals, and how mankind reacts to seeing that they are not alone in this universe after all.
Science fiction readers will enjoy this book for the technology developed to fight the alien threat. Military novel enthusiasts can enjoy how Ringo uses his military background to make the ranking and military aspect as accurate as a science fiction novel can be. Personally I enjoyed how Ringo used individual characters to drive the plot line rather than relying on mechanics. This book should be picked up by anyone who wants to see how politics can interplay with military action.
The main drawback of this book is that some of the technology may be too far out for many readers to understand how it can be done in as quick of a timeline that Ringo sets out. You can buy it from your local bookstore or at Amazon by following this link.