Scan barcode
pjonsson's review
4.0
This is another good book in the Starfist series. It continues to follow the men in the 34th FIST marine unit and, as before, does a wonderful job of doing so. The characters are interesting and the battles are well written.
The book blurb is a wee bit misleading though in stating that the marines must use “weaponry three hundred years out of date”. You might get the impression that the marines, for some bizarre reason, didn’t get the modern weapons they should have had. This is not the case. They’re using “out of date” weaponry because the enemy is using “out of date” weaponry for which modern weaponry is, ineffective. The latter, I found somewhat surprising.
This brings me to the one gripe I have about the book. It’s depiction of the history of armor (tanks) in the future is not really believable for me personally. It talks about the “last” battle tank being huge and only being able to drive on 20% of the surface of the earth (pretty much only on paved roads). I do not think anyone would actually build such a silly thing.
In the book armored vehicles became obsolete 300 years ago. I do not find that very believable either. From several of the passages and descriptions in this book I get the feeling that David Sherman’s marine background shows through with a, not so slight, negative attitude against other military branches. In this case the armored combat units.
But then, maybe I’m a wee bit biased as well since I spent quite some time driving around in those tin cans in the Swedish military (and loved every minute of it).
In any case, the book is very good and the issue with tanks is only a minor one.
The book blurb is a wee bit misleading though in stating that the marines must use “weaponry three hundred years out of date”. You might get the impression that the marines, for some bizarre reason, didn’t get the modern weapons they should have had. This is not the case. They’re using “out of date” weaponry because the enemy is using “out of date” weaponry for which modern weaponry is, ineffective. The latter, I found somewhat surprising.
This brings me to the one gripe I have about the book. It’s depiction of the history of armor (tanks) in the future is not really believable for me personally. It talks about the “last” battle tank being huge and only being able to drive on 20% of the surface of the earth (pretty much only on paved roads). I do not think anyone would actually build such a silly thing.
In the book armored vehicles became obsolete 300 years ago. I do not find that very believable either. From several of the passages and descriptions in this book I get the feeling that David Sherman’s marine background shows through with a, not so slight, negative attitude against other military branches. In this case the armored combat units.
But then, maybe I’m a wee bit biased as well since I spent quite some time driving around in those tin cans in the Swedish military (and loved every minute of it).
In any case, the book is very good and the issue with tanks is only a minor one.
brian's review
3.0
A diamond mining planet, run by a cartel of groups finds itself the victim of a hostile takeover by a self-styled Guderian/Napoleon from one of the other groups.
In a combined Marines/Army/Navy task force, the 34th FIST (Fleet Initial Strike Team) find themselves leading the charge.
When the action gets going, this is a really engaging read ... BUT it suffers from the same problems as other books in the series.
All of the other forces hate the Marines. Politicians hate the Marines. The Diplomatic Corps hate the Marines. Every other armed service is completely incompetent, while the 34th get in and get the job done (invariably showing up the aforementioned services/politicians etc).
Those parts of the story get stale pretty quick, and the characters are fairly two dimensional.
It's OK for a bit of an escapist read on a commute, but I find it best to leave a large gap before picking up another one and reading more of the same.
In a combined Marines/Army/Navy task force, the 34th FIST (Fleet Initial Strike Team) find themselves leading the charge.
When the action gets going, this is a really engaging read ... BUT it suffers from the same problems as other books in the series.
All of the other forces hate the Marines. Politicians hate the Marines. The Diplomatic Corps hate the Marines. Every other armed service is completely incompetent, while the 34th get in and get the job done (invariably showing up the aforementioned services/politicians etc).
Those parts of the story get stale pretty quick, and the characters are fairly two dimensional.
It's OK for a bit of an escapist read on a commute, but I find it best to leave a large gap before picking up another one and reading more of the same.
More...