Hell's Faire (Posleen War Series #4)

If you've made it this far in the Posleen Wars series, you know exactly what to expect.

No, I mean really. Like as in the exact same similies, explanatory asides, and descriptions. I mean, do we really expect that people are going to pick up in the middle of the series? Do we really need to recapitulate how a grav rifle works for the fourth time? (In some cases sixth, since John Ringo seems to find it necessary to explain SheVa units multiple times in the same book.) I swear this book would be a hundred pages shorter if all the cut-and-paste repetition was cut out. The savings in pages could easily go into the glossary, where those explanations belong.

Anyway, enough complaining. Piles of yellow mush, antimatter and silver lightning aplenty, and a big bowl of SEMPER FI! with a side order of Anyone Could Die since it's the last book in the primary continuity.

Anyone not familiar with Sluggy Freelance is likely to get confused by in-jokes, and anyone familiar with it is likely to get confused by the alternate-continuity strips. To wit: in addition to a selection of Sluggy strips reprinted in the back of the book, Pete Abrams drew a few new strips dated 2006 and onwards, as if continuing his work from inside an Urb. At the time of publishing this was in the future, so the joke was obvious. In 2009, the reader is mildly confused because he doesn't recall the Posleen showing up in Sluggy Freelance. That said, it's still pretty freakin' funny...

I've come to love reading John Ringo and his style of writing. His books are always action packed and there is enough good ole boy feel to it that you can't help smile as humans stomp some Posleen. Hell's Faire certainly doesn't skimp on the action and continuous warfare. The ACS and SheVas are very prominent. If you enjoyed the first three, you would certainly love this one.

It is interesting to know that as I was reading I couldn't help but think that Hell's Faire was nothing more than the second half of When the Devil Dances, or as I finished When the Devil Dances I stopped and wondered at how strange of a place to stop a book, with the ACS heading to impending doom at Rabun Gap. All is explained by Ringo that indeed it was one book, that books 3 and 4 were originally intended as one book, until 9/11 happened.

Although this one was a little less in plot and more on mindless action, I must say I enjoyed it nonetheless. You get a feel of triumph as the SheVas kick some crunchies' butt. I can't help but wonder how much of the rest of the series has Ringo's influence or if his name was simply attached to the book. If you enjoyed the first three, you would most certainly enjoy this book as well. A satisfactorily ending to the series, although the end of Hell's Faire ended a bit abruptly and too clean. Recommend none the less.

4 stars.

You'll notice that most of the negative reviews for this book came from those that spent the extra money for the hardcover edition, and felt ripped off because of the reduced length of this volume compared to the previous three. I can see how they could gripe about that, but don't let it scare you away from reading this fine book.

HELL'S FAIRE is a rip-roaring, non-stop thrill ride the entire way through. As the previous novel, When the Devil Dances, comes to a close, you're left with a cliff-hanger in which all out battle is about to be joined. This book picks up right where that one left off and commences the carnage. There is practically no character or plot development in HELL'S FAIRE, just action, action, action. However, that isn't something to complain about when you're talking about a book from one of the best military sci-fi action sequence writers out there. For a series the magnitude and size of the Posleen War, you need a huge and action-packed finale to wrap things up. So what if that finale happens to be huge enough to warrant its own book? Bun-Bun and the ACS troops kick some serious tale in this one and you'll be hard-pressed to put it down the entire way through. No breaks, no bore, just intense and bloody action.

Also, I just have to comment on the reviewer that was offended by the scene with Glennis and the radioactive decontamination protocol. That scene was hilarious (one of the best of the whole series) and you shouldn't get your panties in a wad for something so innocent.. Go read Ringo's Ghost series if you really want something to [cry] about.

So, to me it doesn't really matter that the conclusion to the series had to be marketed as a separate book, you still get the same story with the same ending either way, you just pay a bit more for it. It was well worth it. A very enjoyable series!

I definitely enjoy sci-fi books, alt-his books, soldiers' war memories books and historical battles books.
Well believe it or not John Ringo's "Hell's Faire" is a tasty combination of all these genres and writing styles, as the previous volumes in the series!

I've already read some books of what is usually known as "military sci-fi" and with the exception of Joe Haldeman's "Forever Peace" the rest of them range from "very boring" to "just so-so".
That is NOT the case with the present volume.

Mr. Ringo instills a strange sense of reality in all battle accounts (they really made me remember Lt. Wells "Give me fifty Marines not afraid to die" prose describing his Iwo Jima experience).
When he portrays the general picture of a battle or campaign they come so true as if you were reading Toland or Beevor or even Hastings. He even provides maps!

In this fourth volume of the series (or as the author explains the second half of the third volume of an intended trilogy), the energetic "Mighty Mite" is still not the dominant character, yet he recovers part of the limelight.
In his place several figures that have emerged to the front in the last volume continue having the focus (Cally, Wendy, Elgars, Le Blanc, Major Ryan, Lt. Sunday and Captain Chan amongst other. All of them are fully described and the plot is enriched.
The super-gun SheVa is still having the floor (with some major last minute add-ons), followed and supported by a plethora of Abrams.
As a special treat, the author delivers some dark jokes and an acid sense of humor romps thru the whole novel.

If you haven't read the first three volumes, I'll encourage you to do so in order to fully enjoy this tale.
The story is as follows: five years has elapsed since Earth was faced with the first Posleen's disembarkations.
Planetary resistance is almost gone. Only the USA still keeps a big part of its territory and is entangled in a deadly stalemate.

A new Posleen war leader arrives to Earth and starts using new and more effective tactics endangering human defenses.
Humans as always put a rough defense with what they have at hand.
The novel focuses on the second part of a mighty confrontation (I dare to call it "The Return of SheVa").
Oh yes! It is the END of this segment. We may see more confrontations in the future, but they will be with new (and more dangerous) foes.
"Hell's Faire" is a high quality sci-fi novel deserving to be read by every true buff!
Do not let the series pass by!
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

"The biggest complaint I have is the deus ex machina saviors . . . "

Sums it up for me. I have refused to buy or read anything else in the series because of that ending.

Sorry, John, but there has to be some penalty. Readers had a lot invested in the series by that point. It was great until then but that just makes what felt like a betrayal even worse, whatever the reason.

I can't think of many books in the enormous numbers I have read that left me feeling this, well, cheated.

I originally read the ending with growing disbelief. It felt just as if, a few chapters from the end of a very long book in a long series, that the publisher had called and told the author that the fifth book was a no-go and this one had to end the whole story (and was still due in his hands in a couple of days).