The preparations for the Posleen Invasion are incomplete, but that’s just too bad; the Posleen are here.

This, the second of John Ringo’s four primary Posleen War novels, details the initial waves of the invasion of Earth by the Posleen. It’s even grimmer than its predecessor–not hard, considering the ferocity (and fecundity) of the Posleen hordes and the inadequate time Earth had to prepare. The action focusses on the battle in the eastern United States, and the outcomes aren’t pretty. After the debacle in the first book, Mike O’Neal’s tactics for using the ACS powered armor troops are vindicated, and where the ACS can engage the Posleen the results are good. But there are only a few ACS troopers, and a vast number of Posleen; and this is the story of how Earth’s conventional forces learned to fight the Posleen, or, more likely, to die trying.

One lesson learned–when trying to stem a vast flood of epic proportions….call in the Corps of Engineers!

The third and fourth volumes of the set were originally conceived as a single book, so Gust Front is really the middle volume of a trilogy. Very little is resolved here; the book ends with a (very) minor victory, notable only because it is a victory of sorts. Along the way we learn more about the Posleen, and why they fight the way they do; and we begin to learn more about the Darhel as well, and why they might not actually be our friends. In addition, we meet a number of characters who’ll be key in the next books.

In short, read A Hymn Before Battle first. If you like that, you can go one to this one…but plan on having the rest of the series on hand if you do.