Hell's Faire (Posleen War Series #4) - Hardcover

Ringo, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743436040 ISBN 13: 9780743436045

Publisher: Baen, 2003

Synopsis

With the defences of the Southern Appalachians split apart, the only thing standing between the Posleen hordes and the soft interior of the Cumberland Plateau are the veterans of the 555th Mobile Infantry. Dropped into Rabun Pass, which will run out first - bullets or bodies?

About this title

About the Author

John Ringo is the New York Times best-selling author of the Black Tide Rising series, the Posleen War series, the Through the Looking Glass series, and more, including the Troy Rising series, of which Live Free or Die is the first installment. A veteran of the 82nd Airborne, Ringo brings firsthand knowledge of military operations to his fiction.

Reviews

Humanity's war against the nasty alien Posleens continues in military SF author Ringo's latest entry in his popular Legacy of the Aldenata series (after 2002's When the Devil Dances), but the unambivalent, almost innocent joie de combat of the earlier, pre-9/11 books is missing here. Having learned to combine human strategy with superior (although captured) technology, a Posleen overlord threatens to break through into unoccupied human territory. Opposing this effort are Major Mike O'Neal and his battalion of armored combat suits, plus conventional armor units lead by a Brobdingnagian mobile gun with a razor-wielding cartoon rabbit emblazoned on its side. The battle scenes are as vivid as ever, but the consequences lie more heavily than before on the warriors, as when O'Neal approves a nuclear strike near where his remaining family are located in order to save his command. It becomes increasingly clear that some alien "allies" would prefer that the humans and Posleens destroy one another and leave the galactic status quo undisturbed. Attentive readers may notice some overlap with When the Devil Dances, which Ringo explains in an afterword. Despite the overall dark tone, the author's trademark gallows humor shines through ("This is what you get for letting rednecks play with antimatter, boss"). So does a bit of hope: Ringo concludes his afterword by asserting "the good guys always win in the end."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The fourth and final novel (for the moment, at least) about Earth versus the Posleen--the same kind of glorious jumble of a book as A Hymn before Battle (2000), Gust Front (2001), and When the Devil Dances [BKL Ap 15 02] each was--brings the war for human survival to a thundering climax. Cally O'Neal and her father, Mike O'Neal, are armed and dangerous in the forefront of the action, along with a right good crew of relatives and friends. The supertank Bun- Bun and its crew also hammer their way through the Posleen, and are hammered in return. They are ably supported by voluptuous MI Major LeBlanc, now a tank battalion commander, and the superweapons created by Dr. Miguel Castanuelo; ably opposed by the Posleen, whose smarts and courage ensure real suspense right up to a slightly deus-ex-machina conclusion. Ringo most probably plans to resolve the human conflict with the Posleen's secret puppet masters, so, as before, enjoy in the expectation of more to come. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Baen
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743436040
• ISBN 13: 9780743436045
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336