Reddit mentions of A Hymn Before Battle (Legacy of the Aldenata Book 1)

I'm currently reading a series where a galactic federation of pacifist herbivores gets attacked by a massive army and just has no fucking idea what to do so they make first contact with earth (something they'd been pointedly avoiding, because we're terrifying) in hopes of arming us up with scifi tech and sending us to war against them.

EDIT: Legacy of the Aldenata by John Ringo (freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

MHI is part of Baen's free library. There's a large number of book 1's for various Baen series that remain free permanently on Amazon and other places.

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The last time this was brought up here's what I said:

So Baen is heavier on SciFi than Fantasy/Urban Fantasy...and their authors tend to display their Conservative/Libertarian philosophies a bit more. But they do tell some fun stories if you lean towards their politics or can roll your eyes at that.

There's some others out there that I can't think of, but these are favorites of mine other than MHI...

John Ringo has a fantasy series I haven't gotten to yet and the weakest of his SciFi series up for free. I wish they had Live Free or Die or Through the Looking Glass, which are much much better series, but alas:

http://www.amazon.com/Hymn-Before-Battle-Legacy-Aldenata-ebook/dp/B00BEQP50Y/ref=la_B000APPSXE_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456879886&sr=1-1&refinements=p_82%3AB000APPSXE

http://www.amazon.com/There-Will-Dragons-Council-Wars-ebook/dp/B00BER04VI/ref=la_B000APPSXE_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456879886&sr=1-2&refinements=p_82%3AB000APPSXE

David Weber does great space navy battles in his Honor Harrington series.

http://www.amazon.com/Basilisk-Station-Honor-Harrington-Book-ebook/dp/B00ARPJBS0/ref=la_B000APBAFE_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456879923&sr=1-1&refinements=p_82%3AB000APBAFE

Williamsons Freehold is a Libertarian's utopian heaven, but it's a favorite popcorn read of mine - the latter half is heavy military SF.

http://www.amazon.com/Freehold-Book-Michael-Z-Williamson-ebook/dp/B00BEQLTZY/ref=sr_1_1_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456879862&sr=8-1&keywords=freehold

The Ring of Fire series is about a 1990's era West Virginia coal mining town that gets thrown back into the year 1632 in Europe.

http://www.amazon.com/1632-Ring-Fire-Eric-Flint-ebook/dp/B00BEQLQNE/ref=sr_1_4_twi_kin_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1456882709&sr=8-4&keywords=1632

Here are the links:

A Hymn Before Battle (Book 1 of the Legacy of the Aldenata)

Gust Front (Book 2 of the Legacy of the Aldenata

Readable on Kindles and any device with the Kindle app

Maybe it's John Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle?

I rather like David Weber's Honor Harrington series, but they get VERY VERY talky at times. Weber is good in the deep court intrigue, background plotting and scheming, but he's not that good when it comes to hard combat.

Start from the very beginning would probably be best: ["On Basilisk Station"](http://amzn.to/22sovVx
), which is a FREE download. Cmdr Honor Harrington was exiled with her light cruiser to the backwaters for embarrassing the fleet commander in an exercise maneuver (by "killing" the flagship in a surprise move). There, she was under the command of the upperclassman who tried to rape her back in the academy, and who forever held a grudge. The crew hates her, the system is corrupt and shipping companies hated her for enforcing the law. Then they found a wormhole...

David Weber has a lot of different series, one written with Johnny Ringo, the Empire of Man series, is pretty cool. Now available in combo books, this is Volume 1 and 2 in a single package. Prince of the Empire was sabotaged and his ship and his marine escorts are stranded on a planet held by the Empire's enemy. Can they fight their way to the space port and a way home? Will the prince stay a spoiled brat or will he grow up... or die trying?

Johnny Ringo is good at the hard combat, on the scale of David "Hammer's Slammers" Drake. What put Ringo on the map was his first book A Hymn Before Battle Posleen is coming to Earth, and their numbers are so overwhelming Earth is doomed... but the Galactic Federation has sent help in forms of advanced technology... but basically they need humans to be the grunts. As humans adapt to the new technology, and frantically construct defenses around the world, from shelter cities and redoubts to ground-based orbital defense and space ships, long range scouts attempt to gather intel on alien worlds. But are the friendlies really telling us everything?

Here are two great zero cost books:
A Hymn Before Battle: http://www.amazon.com/Hymn-Before-Battle-Legacy-Aldenata-ebook/dp/B00BEQP50Y/
Gust Front: http://www.amazon.com/Gust-Front-Legacy-Aldenata-Book-ebook/dp/B00BEQP2R0/

Then get the audiobooks for only $1.99 each with Matchmaker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/audible/matchmaker

John Ringo goes over some of the reasons in his first Legacy of the Aldenata book: A Hymn Before Battle

Free kindle e-book version: Amazon Link

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00BEQP50Y/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504727541&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=john+ringo&dpPl=1&dpID=61erO6oqYBL&ref=plSrch

Free on kindle for us Englanders.

More free kindle books by John Ringo.
A Hymn Before Battle (Legacy of the Aldenata Book 1)
Gust Front (Legacy of the Aldenata Book 2)
Emerald Sea (Council Wars Book 2)

This is also free. The first one in the series.

John Ringo does several good series:

http://www.amazon.com/Live-Free-Die-Troy-Rising/dp/1439133972
http://www.amazon.com/Hymn-Before-Battle-Legacy-Aldenata-ebook/dp/B00BEQP50Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413865048&sr=1-1&keywords=posleen+war

Also, I'd recomend the Lost Fleet series:
http://www.amazon.com/Dauntless-Lost-Fleet-Jack-Campbell-ebook/dp/B000OZ0NXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413865075&sr=1-1&keywords=lost+fleet

OP and others might be interested in John Ringo's series on this very topic. The series is referred to as the "Legacy of the Aldenata" or the "Human Posleen War Series". Whichever you choose to say, it begins with A Hymn Before Battle.

tldr: There is an alien federation with loads more tech than we have. Unfortunately for a lot of assorted reasons (ranging from ultra-pacifism to a brain alteration that kills the person engaging in violence) every single member of the federation is completely incapable of engaging in violent acts. So they come to us for help.