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pjonsson's review
4.0
In my opinion this book is not really an all out space marine story but rather a cross between a space marine and a criminal investigation story with some planetary politics mixed into it. It manages to balance the two quite well though and, as you see from my rating, I quite liked it.
I never really found the book dull even though it alternates between training the rather useless excuse for planetary forces, detective work and some real marine action. In general it’s a well written book.
Having said that, some of the German names used in the book are indeed a bit silly. I do not know if it’s intentional or not but Arschmann and Arschland wouldn’t have been the first names that came into my mind. Sounds a bit like Mr. Asshole living in Buttland or something.
However, this minor complaint is certainly not enough to detract from the enjoyment of reading this book.
I never really found the book dull even though it alternates between training the rather useless excuse for planetary forces, detective work and some real marine action. In general it’s a well written book.
Having said that, some of the German names used in the book are indeed a bit silly. I do not know if it’s intentional or not but Arschmann and Arschland wouldn’t have been the first names that came into my mind. Sounds a bit like Mr. Asshole living in Buttland or something.
However, this minor complaint is certainly not enough to detract from the enjoyment of reading this book.
mayoroffailure's review
3.0
It has been a while since I read the first book in the Starfist series but from what I remember both of these novels are pretty consistent in what they do well and what they can’t quite get right. Military Sci Fi typically hangs around one of two places in the spectrum of genre, either the author was a veteran and is trying to write their experiences in a semi fictional way or it’s a pulp fiction style paperback that was written for fun. Starfist hangs somewhat in the middle of these two things because both authors are veterans but it tries to reach a higher ground by talking about some serious ideals so it isn't quite the novel of the pulpy variety.
The second novel in the Starfist series takes place on a heavily Germanic planet that is currently in turmoil because of a militant citizens uprising that is attempting to remove the current leaders from power. Those same leaders call for assistance from the Marines to come down to the planet and assist in the training of its native police and military forces to try and oust the rebel military. Once the Marines arrive they quickly realize that not only do they have a large undertaking but they are also in a hotbed of hostilities that creates only questions and no answers.
The strength of this book is also the strength of its predecessor, it’s the writing, especially the writing when battle scenes eventually do happen. Both Mr. Sherman and Mr. Cragg have done an incredible job showing the reader just what a battle is like, its confusion, the noise, and the desperate attempt to obtain the upper hand. This novel, however, takes a different approach because the battle sequences are much more low key and are more akin to skirmishes than massive company sized wars. That change didn't take away from the enjoyment though because rather than focusing on the scene itself Mr. Sherman and Mr. Cragg focused on the tactics employed by both sides that lead up to the firefight, its tense and its gripping and its absolutely fascinating to see both sides of the conflict react to each other’s movements and attempt to adjust before the shooting starts to ensure their own victory.
The writing style outside of the battles is just as good, it’s an extremely quick paced and very readable style. It’s a book that you could breeze through in a couple of afternoons but it doesn't cut out on substance, the authors take the time to flesh out ideals, characters, motivations, and really do their best to make the entire thing feasible. Of course the writing may be good but that doesn't mean the content is, and it’s the content of this book that can be hard to get through and understand at some moments.
The largest problem by far with the book is the sheer number of characters that are in the story, there are so many people to keep track of that sometimes I felt the need to have some kind of flow chart just to follow the individual stories of each. There are a couple of them that are more important and take up more time in the story so they're really easy to keep track of but the sheer number of secondary and tertiary characters makes it difficult to remember who they are and what they were doing, and furthermore, takes the emotion out of the bad things that may happen to them.
The second issue with the story is the fact that the authors attempted to tell this crazy story of intrigue and political maneuvering, and for the most part it works, but there are some events that are never properly explained. There's a lot of events that happen in the book and while they're all individually interesting a lot of them go unexplained for the majority of the novel. At the end of the book I feel like the authors realized that because there are a series of scenes that are essentially just exposition, exposition to explain everything that wasn't explained earlier.
Additionally, most of the novel is spent, not in the field, but rather in the political maneuvering. We consistently hear more about the training, spend more time in the police stations, and in meeting rooms. Continually things only progress through less than interesting events, but if Mr. Sherman and Mr. Cragg had been placing context clues and sowing the seeds of truth over what was really going on the book would have been so much better. Finally, the book also has a terrible romance, one that's supposed to have so much weight it takes up the last page, but it makes no sense, feels undeserved, and carried no weight with it.
School of Fire is a competent war novel, one that deals with a lot of the confusion and shadows of trying to find the cause of a home grown military force that knows the territory. It has some amazingly tense sequences that lead to wonderfully described battles but ultimately the novel falls short with an unrealistic romance, and a poorly thought out story.
The second novel in the Starfist series takes place on a heavily Germanic planet that is currently in turmoil because of a militant citizens uprising that is attempting to remove the current leaders from power. Those same leaders call for assistance from the Marines to come down to the planet and assist in the training of its native police and military forces to try and oust the rebel military. Once the Marines arrive they quickly realize that not only do they have a large undertaking but they are also in a hotbed of hostilities that creates only questions and no answers.
The strength of this book is also the strength of its predecessor, it’s the writing, especially the writing when battle scenes eventually do happen. Both Mr. Sherman and Mr. Cragg have done an incredible job showing the reader just what a battle is like, its confusion, the noise, and the desperate attempt to obtain the upper hand. This novel, however, takes a different approach because the battle sequences are much more low key and are more akin to skirmishes than massive company sized wars. That change didn't take away from the enjoyment though because rather than focusing on the scene itself Mr. Sherman and Mr. Cragg focused on the tactics employed by both sides that lead up to the firefight, its tense and its gripping and its absolutely fascinating to see both sides of the conflict react to each other’s movements and attempt to adjust before the shooting starts to ensure their own victory.
The writing style outside of the battles is just as good, it’s an extremely quick paced and very readable style. It’s a book that you could breeze through in a couple of afternoons but it doesn't cut out on substance, the authors take the time to flesh out ideals, characters, motivations, and really do their best to make the entire thing feasible. Of course the writing may be good but that doesn't mean the content is, and it’s the content of this book that can be hard to get through and understand at some moments.
The largest problem by far with the book is the sheer number of characters that are in the story, there are so many people to keep track of that sometimes I felt the need to have some kind of flow chart just to follow the individual stories of each. There are a couple of them that are more important and take up more time in the story so they're really easy to keep track of but the sheer number of secondary and tertiary characters makes it difficult to remember who they are and what they were doing, and furthermore, takes the emotion out of the bad things that may happen to them.
The second issue with the story is the fact that the authors attempted to tell this crazy story of intrigue and political maneuvering, and for the most part it works, but there are some events that are never properly explained. There's a lot of events that happen in the book and while they're all individually interesting a lot of them go unexplained for the majority of the novel. At the end of the book I feel like the authors realized that because there are a series of scenes that are essentially just exposition, exposition to explain everything that wasn't explained earlier.
Additionally, most of the novel is spent, not in the field, but rather in the political maneuvering. We consistently hear more about the training, spend more time in the police stations, and in meeting rooms. Continually things only progress through less than interesting events, but if Mr. Sherman and Mr. Cragg had been placing context clues and sowing the seeds of truth over what was really going on the book would have been so much better. Finally, the book also has a terrible romance, one that's supposed to have so much weight it takes up the last page, but it makes no sense, feels undeserved, and carried no weight with it.
School of Fire is a competent war novel, one that deals with a lot of the confusion and shadows of trying to find the cause of a home grown military force that knows the territory. It has some amazingly tense sequences that lead to wonderfully described battles but ultimately the novel falls short with an unrealistic romance, and a poorly thought out story.
tomwklose's review
3.0
This is my second book in this series and it seemed to be somewhat disjointed.
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