Watch on the Rhine (Posleen War Series #7) | 
 enlarge | Authors: John Ringo, Tom Kratman
Publisher: Baen
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $3.92
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Avg. Customer Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 47017
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 1416521208
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781416521204
ASIN: 1416521208
Publication Date: February 27, 2007
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Product Description
The invaders are comingthe Posleen, a seemingly unstoppable horde who have conquered one star system after another, literally feeding on their conquests. Earthlies, the Darhel, have given the humans a number of highly-advanced technological devices, including a process for rejuvenating the aged, including trained and proven soldiers who otherwise would be too old to fight. Rejuvenation may give a critical edge, since to survive, the Earth must use every resource at hand. Every resource . . . In the dark days after the initial Posleen attack, but before the primary invasion, the Chancellor of Germany faces a critical decision. Over the years, with military cutbacks, the store of experienced German military personnel had simply dwindled. After the destruction of Northern Virginia, he realized that it was necessary to tap the one group he had sworn never, ever, to recall: the few remaining survivors of the Waffen SS. Has he made a devilr is this a chance for the reviled SS at last to fight the good fight? And, perhaps, gain redemption. . . ? Watch On the Rhine, a new chapter in the New York Times best-selling Posleen War saga, is perhaps the most unbiased, and brutal, look at the inner workings of the Waffen SS in history. Meticulously researched, it explores all that was good, and evil, about the most infamous military force in history using the backdrop of the Posleen invasion as a canvas.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 The best of the Posleen War Series March 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not great literature but at times it can certainly be fun.
I have done a complete 180 on John Ringo whatever problem I am have with his other books this book is gold. Yes the characters are never complicated but there are times when I prefer a simplistic story to all of this "conflicted villain" nonsense that has become vogue in Scifi in recent years.
At least with Ringo you always know what you are going to get Humans are good and Posleen are bad, humans do whatever it takes to survive even rejuvenated Nazis and Posleen ignore common sense. You also need to remember that any human who talks about retreat or negotiation isn't going to last very long.
 This book is absolutely unreadable February 27, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
Do yourself a favor, don't read this trash. And I do NOT refer to the book's subject matter. It's simply that this is one of the worst-written books I ever came across. The plot and subject matter could have been made interesting. Other sister-books in the series (Hero, Cally's War) are well written and enjoyable to read. This literary abortion is absolutely awful, could have been the literary creation of an IQ-challenged ten-year old.
Not Worth Your Time February 8, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a book with a promising premise that's ruined by the author's agenda.
I came to the book, and John Ringo, cold. I hadn't read anything else by him, thought the cover was interesting, and needed something to read on the plane. The quality of the prose is workmanlike--it didn't impress me, but it didn't get in my way either. That's sufficient if the story itself is good.
The problem is that the book was written to convey a lesson about our current circumstances in the War on Terror that Ringo and Kratman felt they had to communicate. The agenda itself is made explicit in an afterward--you can flip right to it before you read, and if you agree with it, maybe you'll enjoy a nice tale.
The premise is that the Posleen, who are literally flesh-eating aliens, are coming to Earth to extinguish humanity, and humanity has to reach for its darkest extremes to find the will and the tools to survive; enter the SS, resurrected by a rejuvenation therapy and equipped with the best technology that can be developed by crash programs.
Up to this point, it's an interesting idea. How far must and will we go to survive? How do we tolerate the evil we must do, so we can live and try to be good? Is it possible to unleash something like the SS for a limited purpose and then get rid of them when the threat is past?
Unfortunately, it's all downhill from that starting point. Anyone of a less than enthusiastic sentiment towards the SS is lumped into the category of weak-willed betrayers of humanity (again, literally). There are no moral qualms or questions about the necessity or wisdom of resurrecting the SS, just a "with us or agin us" depiction of various fates. The apologetics for the SS are cloying as well--revisionist history about certain divisions, and a desperate attempt to separate the fighting spirit of the SS from the uses to which it was put and the circumstances under which it flourished. Basically, a "they weren't all bad" defense that's a further textual repudiation to those in the novel who might have thought that resurrecting the SS might not be the best idea in the world.
That's the problem with an agenda book. It's a meaty premise that could have explored a lot of interesting angles of the situation. Instead, you get a pedantic lesson where the authors try to equate Islamic terrorists with flesh eating, baby flaying (again, literally) aliens. That they had to go that far to draw the comparison is a subtle reproof to the agenda itself, though I don't think they caught that.
The contempt the authors feel for anyone who disagrees with them is made plain in the afterward, and that includes you if you think that the comparison is maybe a bit hyperbolic. It's also a bit nonsensical--they say that "it is a world war that is putting to the test every notion of individual liberty, freedom of conscience, and the rule of law that the West prizes", then in the next paragraph decry "a narrow, legalistic mindset", as if the rule of law were somehow at odds with the demands of the legal mechanisms that are its body. Also, the bit about freedom of conscience is nice, since everyone in the book who's less than an ardent supporter of the SS is... well, let's let Tom Kratman say what should be done to them: "Can we hang 'em? No drop?" ("Oh, alright" replies Ringo).
A desperate battle in this fast-paced adventure. August 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
John Ringo and Tom Kratman's WATCH ON THE RHINE tells of evil invaders - the Posleen, a space-conquering horde with an insatiable appetite for aliens - and allies of Earth who give earthlings the rejuvenation key to limitless warriors to battle them. Whether this technology is friend or foe will be told in a desperate battle in this fast-paced adventure.
Military Philosophy in Action June 25, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Watch on the Rhine (2005) is a standalone novel in the Legacy of the Aldenata universe, following Hell's Faire in the Posleen War subseries. Unlike the prior volumes, this novel takes place in France, Germany and Poland, with most of the action occurring along the Rhine River.
When the Posleen started landing on Earth, the German Chancellor considered the state of the Federal Republic's military forces and foresaw disaster. Germany had not fought in any war since World War II and all the veterans of that conflict were very old. Of course, the Galactic rejuvenation technology could restore anyone living or recently dead to perfect health, but who had the requisite experience?
In this novel, the Germans rejuvenated every man they had, including the men of the Waffen SS, despite great objections from every political spectrum except the Neo-Nazis. In most cases, these men -- and they were ALL males -- were not the deathcamp guards of many horror stories, but the grunts who had served at Stalingrad and other battlefields throughout Europe. Some were heroes by any standard, but most were just soldiers who had served the Fatherland faithfully for over a decade.
Lieutenant General Muhlenkampf was a battle machine. He had lived for war. The Waffen SS had given him an opportunity to use his talents to the fullest extent. Now he has been rejuvenated, placed in command of the new German SS Korps, and charged with resisting the expected Posleen invasion. His Korps is not alone in this mission, but they have the most experience and the best trained recruits.
Colonel Hans Brasche had been a junior officer during World War II. Although he had been Waffen SS, he had avoided the deathcamps. Now he is charged with training the new soldiers. General Muhlenkampf has trusted Hans with this great responsibility and he will do his duty to his last breath.
Sergeant Major Helmut Krueger had also been Waffen SS during the Second World War, but he had spent considerable time as a deathcamp guard. He had fond memories of gypsy, Jew and other girls in the women's camps where the guards spent their spare time. The girls would do anything a man wanted for a few trinkets.
Gunter-- the chancellor's aide -- is a Green. The very thought of SS men in uniform is abhorrent to him. Even the threat of alien Posleen grazing on the German people doesn't deter him from spreading the word to his fellow Greens of this great atrocity. The Darhel Tir provides as much support as he can.
Dieter Schultz is an eighteen year old volunteer in the newly formed SS Korps training center. He hates the training and his trainers -- particularly Sergeant Krueger -- but he is determined to do his best. Then the Greens have a nonviolent demonstration that clubs down the camp commandant. Schultz and his fellow trainees get a chance to apply their training in a very realistic exercise.
In this story, the invasion is every bit as bad as expected. The Posleen overwhelm most of France and Poland and converge on Germany. Many civilians are overrun and eaten. Many soldiers flee from the enemy and are eaten. Some hold their positions as long as possible and fall back to previously prepared fortifications. Still, the Posleens are winning and eating every body available.
The German engineers develop new weapons and rush them into production. Then they go back and develop better weapons and hope to have them ready for use before being overrun. One Tiger IIIB prototype is produced and the plans are transmitted back to the Scandinavian Sub-Urbs, but no more will be available for at least another year. Its builders decide to field test it, potting Posleen aerial vehicles and troops as they appear.
This story is more about the mystique of soldiering than about the war itself. The Waffen SS has gotten a bad name due to a few of its troops and officers. Yet most of the Waffen SS were among the best soldiers in the world. The French government -- who had nothing good to say about them publicly -- still preferentially recruited them for the Foreign Legion over even former French soldiers. The war against the Viet Minh was often fought by German speaking troops.
This work reflects the conservative slant of the authors, but I doubt that many military men/women are liberals. The US military is still composed primarily of conservatives, especially since the draft was abolished. Unfortunately, the effects of that decision have reduced the moderate elements in the US military. Now more of the command elements of all armed forces come from the service academies than in the past.
This scenario is probably more pessimistic than reasonable. Technical objections about nuclear weapons, air superiority and other subjects are relevant, but problematical. Moreover, the machinations of the Darhels are not the only aspects of the psywar in Europe.
Certain elements of the European populace are incapable of facing the realities of an alien invasion. Unlike the Americans in the War of the Worlds broadcast incident, the Europeans seem to deny the possibility of any such threat. OTOH, a similar denial process occurred in the American populace prior to World War II over the German threat. FDR is hated by some people even today because he happened to be right about Hitler.
BTW, many liberals in the US seem to be denying the possibility of any threat from Islamic terrorists. Plug in "alien Posleens" for "Islamic terrorists" and you have the basic premise of this story. Even official word of millions of aliens would be ignored by some people as "just another government scare tactic". Of course, the government DOES use scare tactics, but so do other groups. Sometimes they are true!
Highly recommended for Ringo & Kratman fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien invasions, military tactics and light romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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