A Hymn Before Battle
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A Hymn Before Battle
''A Hymn Before Battle'' is the first book in John Ringo's ''Legacy of the Aldenata'' series. Earth is introduced to extraterrestrial life by the Galactics, who tell the leaders of the World that an invasion by another alien race, the Posleen, is coming. Earth's military forces are made available to the Galactics in exchange for technology to help stop the onslaught, but it is unclear just who can be trusted as the invasion nears. Title The title recalls Rudyard Kipling's poem "Hymn Before Action "Hymn Before Action" is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1896. It takes the form of a prayer by troops to God and to Mary on the eve of battle. Publication history and reception The poem was inspired by the 1860 hymn ''The Church's One Founda ...", which is quoted extensively throughout the book. Major characters * Bob Duncan, Staff Sergeant, Chief Fire Direction Controller for the 2nd Battalion 325th Infantry Heavy Mortar section * Jack Horner, Lieutenant General, commander Join ...
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John Ringo
John Ringo (born March 22, 1963) is an American science fiction and military fiction author. He has had several ''New York Times'' best sellers. His books range from straightforward science fiction to a mix of military and political thrillers. He has over seven million copies of his books in print, and his works have been translated into seven different languages. Life and career Ringo's father "was a civil engineer with an international firm"; before Ringo graduated in 1981 from Winter Park High School in Winter Park, Florida, he had spent time in 23 foreign countries, attending classes at fourteen schools. Among the countries he spent the most time in were Greece, Iran and Switzerland before he settled with his parents and six siblings in Alabama. This amount of travel brought what he refers to as a "wonderful appreciation of the oneness of humanity and a permanent aversion to foreign food." After graduation, Ringo joined the United States Army and rose to the rank of Spe ...
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United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ...
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English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ...
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Legacy Of The Aldenata
The Legacy of the Aldenata, also known as the Posleen War Series, is the fictional universe of one of John Ringo's military science fiction series. Premise The central premise is that in 2001, humanity receives greetings from a highly advanced, peaceable Galactic Federation. However, all is not well, for a species of aggressive aliens known as the Posleen are attacking the Galactics. Since the Galactics are almost entirely unable to fight, they are appealing to the proven military abilities of humanity for aid. However, things are rarely as simple as they seem, and humanity soon discovers that the Galactics are no friends at all. There are plots within plots, some going back to the dawn of humanity and beyond: plots that endanger the very survival of humanity. The first four novels cover the Posleen War in which the Posleen invade Earth. Another novel, ''Cally's War'' (and its two sequels), takes up the story a few decades later; ''The Hero'' is set nearly a thousand years l ...
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Military Science Fiction
Military science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction that features the use of science fiction technology, mainly weapons, for military purposes and usually principal characters who are members of a military organization involved in military activity, usually during a war; occurring sometimes on Earth in the future, or in outer space or on a different planet or planets. It exists in literature, comics, film, and video games. A detailed description of the conflict, the tactics and weapons used for it, and the role of a military service and the individual members of that military organization form the basis for a typical work of military science fiction. The stories often use features of actual past or current Earth conflicts, with countries being replaced by planets or galaxies of similar characteristics, battleships replaced by space battleships, and certain events changed so the author can extrapolate what might have occurred. Characteristics Traditional military values of ...
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Baen Books
Baen Books () is an American publishing house for science fiction and fantasy. In science fiction, it emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, and military science fiction. The company was established in 1983 by science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. After his death in 2006, he was succeeded as publisher by long-time executive editor Toni Weisskopf. History Baen Books was founded in 1983 out of a negotiated agreement between Jim Baen and Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster was undergoing massive reorganization and wanted to hire Baen to head and revitalize the science fiction line of its Pocket Books division. Baen, with financial backing from some friends, counteroffered with a proposal to start up a new company named Baen Books and provide Simon & Schuster with a science fiction line to distribute instead. According to ''Locus''s 2004 Book Summary, Baen Books was the ninth most active publisher in the U.S. in terms of most books published in the genres indicated, a ...
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Gust Front (novel)
''Gust Front'' is the second book in John Ringo's ''Legacy of the Aldenata#Books, Legacy of the Aldenata'' series. Earth has had some time to prepare for the Posleen invasion, but it may not be enough to stop the onslaught. Synopsis ''Gust Front'' follows a series of characters as they prepare for the looming Posleen invasion of Earth. The main protagonist is Captain Michael O'Neal, Medal of Honor recipient and hero of the battle against the Posleen on Diess. Other major characters include O'Neal's father, "Papa" O'Neal, and his daughter, Cally O'Neal, as well as various military personnel and civilians who are affected by the invasion. The Galactic Federation, an alliance of alien races including the Darhel, Indowy, Himmit, and others, has enlisted the aid of the warlike but technologically backward humans to halt the galactic advance of the Posleen, a race of centaur-like aliens who live only for battle, consuming their own and their enemies' dead and stripping conquered plane ...
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Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the ''Jungle Book'' duology ('' The Jungle Book'', 1894; '' The Second Jungle Book'', 1895), ''Kim'' (1901), the '' Just So Stories'' (1902) and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include " Mandalay" (1890), " Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), " The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story.Rutherford, Andrew (1987). General Preface to the Editions of Rudyard Kipling, in "Puck of Pook's Hill and Rewards and Fairies", by Rudyard Kipling. Oxford University Press. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".Rutherford, Andrew ( ...
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Hymn Before Action
"Hymn Before Action" is a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1896. It takes the form of a prayer by troops to God and to Mary on the eve of battle. Publication history and reception The poem was inspired by the 1860 hymn ''The Church's One Foundation'' by Samuel John Stone. It was written and published in ''The Times'' at a time when news of the botched Jameson Raid of January 1896 reached Britain. Accordingly, it has been read as an expression of foreboding about increasing Great Power hostility to Britain – "The Nations in their harness / Go up against our path" – as a comment on filibustering and as an argument for responsible imperialism under God and the Law: From panic, pride, and terror, Revenge that knows no rein, Light haste and lawless error, Protect us yet again. Published in Kipling's 1896 collection of poetry, '' The Seven Seas'', the patriotic hymn was among the works that consolidated Kipling's reputation as "The Laureate of Empire". Roger Pocock, the ...
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Novels By John Ringo
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historic ...
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