GALACTIC CORPS

EOS

Written by Ian Douglas

Copyright 2008 by William H. Keith, Jr.

Cover art by Fred Gambino

In Galactic Corps, Book Two of The Inheritance Trilogy, after searching for centuries, intelligence has found the home world of Earth's foe. The Xul, otherwise known as The Hunters of the Dawn, has been found deep in the Galactic Core. The 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Force is sent to strike at the Xul, but political forces on Earth do not support the Marines and their mission.

Because the people of Earth have forgotten that the human race was nearly destroyed centuries before by the Xul from an asteroid attack from space, political groups have a different approach and are more concerned with the various human space governments being at war with each other. The current administration is more intent on exploiting the Marines for their own military agenda. As a result, they want to stop the Marine strike force from engaging the Xul, and bringing them home to use on the other governments, by creating a compromise which ensues that the 1st Marine Interstellar Expeditionary Force become part of a Peace Mission with the Xul. It is fortunate that the Marines have a strong sense of Marine history, which includes various Marine offensives against the Xul - including a star ship full of Marines that was absorbed by the Xul.

It is amazing how the Internet and computer usage has changed over the centuries. When you consider how much you can do on your phone, having virtual reality conferences through Marine-issued artificial-intelligence implants is mind-boggling.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STAR FIST - STEEL GAUNTLET

A Del Rey Book

Written by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

Copyright 1999 by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

In Steel Gauntlet, Book III of the Starfist series, the planet Diamunde has been taken over from the corporations by industrialist Martin St. Cyr with an army of tanks in a form of civil war. The Confederation Marines must take back the planet with weapons 300 years out of date.

St. Cyr is a sadistic tyrant who graphically deals with the people in his way - even the alien Woos, which is almost like child abuse against the Woos. As tanks with their artillery have not been used in 300 years, the Confederate Marines must learn old/new tactics to defeat the tanks - along with learning how to use the 300 year old rocket weapons that made tanks obsolete in the first place. The lack of these shoulder-launched rockets puts a damper on the Marines ability to deal with a planet full of tanks.

With the Army waiting in space for the Marines to secure a planetary beachhead for the Army to land, the Marines are getting their butts kicked in what was supposed to be an easy beachhead, according to the military planners, for the Marines to take.

The ambassador sent to broker a peace treaty with St. Cyr has a disdain for Marines in general. Arrogant Ambassador Wellington-Humphreys was so sure of her being able to broker a peace treaty - until St. Cyr has her and her Marine guard kidnapped. The Marines desperately want to get the ambassador and the Marines back, and get St. Cyr - especially after the way he killed his Marine prisoners.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND - Demolition Winter

HarperPaperbacks

A novel by Peter Telep
based on the series created by
Glen Morgan & James Wong

Copyright 1997 by Twentieth Century Fox Corporation

In Demolition Winter, Space Marines of the 58th squadron "Wild Cards" are to be trained and inserted onto an alien Chig planet, far from Earth, using enemy Chig bombers to blow up a Chig supply line - but there is more to the mission than what they were told.

This novel of the TV series Space: Above and Beyond, has the 58th on an operation with a silicate, a not human, reprogrammed android, demolitions expert assigned to their squad. With Vanson's unfortunate history with silicates from home, she naturally does not trust the silicate, and his circuits and programming, as she leads the mission to search for the supply lines. They also encounter survivors of another squad who failed to accomplish the mission the 58th are now assigned to, and the reason the survivors failed the mission is shocking. It makes you wonder if you would continue the mission under similar conditions, just as members of the 58th ask the same questions when they find out the news of the mission as they extract the survivors of the mission for court-martial.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

Starfist: Force Recon - Pointblank

A Del Rey Mass Market Original

Written by David Sherman & Dan Cragg

Copyright 2006 by David Sherman and Dan Cragg
Excerpt from Flashfire copyright 2006 by David Sherman and Dan Cragg



In Pointblank - the second of the Force Recon books - a Confederation army is cut off on the planet Ravenette by a dozen aggressive Secessionist Coalition worlds. A detachment of resourceful Marines, Fourth Force Recon Company is sent to deal with it.

Since we are dealing with several different armies with lots of characters in the book, it is often hard to determine which side you are reading about when the book changes point of view. Sometimes you can only tell the point of view of which army you are reading about by the speech patterns of who is talking - with the locals having a less than literate style of talking. It was rather frustrating for me that the general in charge of the Confederation army does not like the Marines in general and was often not giving the Marines the respect, support, and leadership they needed to accomplish their mission. The ending is also a little unsatisfying to me in that there does not seem to be a definitive resolution to the conflict.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

STARFIST - SCHOOL OF FIRE

A Del Rey Book

Copyright 1998 by David Sherman and Dan Cragg

On the planet Wanderjahr, the Marines are deployed against the aggressive guerrillas. It turns out not all the acts of terrorism come from the determined guerrillas.

In School of Fire - written by David Sherman and Dan Cragg, the second book of the Starfist series - the terrorist tactics that are used to blame the guerrillas are rather graphic. Considering the graphic terrorist tactics, it is hard to believe who was really responsible for the terrorist acts. However, due to the ineffectiveness of the local military forces, the Marines become responsible for the training of the local military - while Corporals Dean and Claypoole get assigned to the local police. Dean and Claypoole soon get caught up in the middle of a terrorist action and must work together to get out of it. It was nice to see Corporal Dean falling in love with a local girl. I wish I could see more of their relationship in the Starfist series. However, due to the nature of Dean's relationship with the girl, this probably will not happen. 

Pancho

All people smile in the same language.

Star Marines

EOS An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers

Written by William H. Keith, Jr.

Copyright 2007

Star Marines, Book Three of The Legacy Trilogy is set at a time where Earth's leaders get ready to abandon the planet Earth - after Earth has been bombarded by asteroids from their ancient enemy alien race Xul. The Star Marines are sent across the galaxy to attack a Xul planet to prevent further attacks on their home.

In the second trilogy about the Space Marines, the stakes have grown in the Marines' battles. With the survival of Earth itself at stake - and various government leaders wanting to eliminate the military altogether to prevent the Xul from further destroying the planet - the Marines launch a desperate strike against a Xul controlled stargate to prevent the Xul from locating Earth again. The Expedition seems quite desperate as you realize how little resources the Earth can afford to send on this mission, but it is the dedication of the Marines that make you want to pull for the Marines. It is interesting to see how Marines from other worlds are being integrated into the Earth Marine traditions. I wanted to see more of that integration of Marines from other worlds, rather than the continuing adventures of the Garroway family. While the Garroway family had an important role in the first trilogy, and as much as I like the Garroways, there are other people in the Marines that could take on a leadership role in stories and I wanted to get more involved with the other Marines.

Pancho

All people smile in the same language.