A HYMN BEFORE BATTLE by John Ringo

Book 1 (of 12) of the LEGACY OF THE ALDENATA

Narrated by Mark Vietor

Audible Frontiers

Black Ops are So Secret Sometimes They Never Happened

Combat Science Fiction punctuated throughout with Kipling Quotes at the start of every chapter.  This is one of the better written books in the Military SF category, spending equal time on character development and story plotting as it does on combat strategy and ordinance. The people in this story seem like real people. This book portrays many of the ranking military brass in a less than battle competent depiction, a concept that gives verisimilitude to the far-fetched space opera setting of this novel.

I tend to gravitate toward SF where the galaxy is populated with more advanced civilizations. It is fun to play in that world, so different from reality. Here we have recently made first contact with an advanced alien federation. These prolific aliens have superior technology but still find a desperate need for the innate human ability to fight their wars. I find it amusing that in this age of the rise of pacifists in many sectors of our society that these stories of martial glory are still so popular. Every culture has its warrior class, people that do the brutal work of killing and breaking things when the more genteel pursuits are inadequate to provide the preservation in the face of a determined and hostile foe.

I really enjoyed the performance of Mark Vietor. His character voicings are very distinct from each other and well-suited to the people in the story. He projects the sarcastic tone needed for the portrayal of the many soldiers. 

This is a review I wrote on 6/26/14. DDE