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Title: Starfist: Technokill : Book V by Dan Cragg, David Sherman ISBN: 0-345-43591-5 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.12 (8 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Not effective adventure
Comment: I love good military sci-fi as much as the next starship trooper, but this isn't it. Part of my problem may stem from the fact that I started with this book in the series and there are many parts that I found difficult since I had no prior knowledge of what had happened in the first 4 books. But my real problem came from the style of the writing and characterizations. I thought that the people were more like cut-outs borrowed from "Tour of Duty" than real characters. None of them really resonated. The alien species were particularly humerous in how far I had to suspend my disbelief to accept them. The constant changes in the time-frame of the narration made it very hard to know what was supposed to be happening before what. Add to that the constant political lectures and the book quickly lost my attention. I found the diatribe about the evils of the Japanese and their empires particulrly disturbing in a book written after the 1950's. While the marines were interesting in potential, and the story about the evils of interfereing with indiginous cultures well taken, I fear that I will not be reading another book in this series.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great adventure, daring effort!
Comment: My hat's off to co-authors Dan Cragg and David Sherman for not taking the easy path. This series has been building an ever-greater following, and the thing most authors would have done would have been to stay in the groove and keep re-writing the same book over and over again. With volume V, Cragg and Sherman have certainly kept the basic themes and characters, but they've also taken chances by pushing the envelope and reaching (successfully, in my book) for ever-greater creativity. I found the picture of the alien world the most intriguing I've read in many years--it took me back to my youth and the great age of sci-fi, with writers like Heinlein, Asimov and Company. Other reviewers have gone over the basics of the plot, so I'll keep this short and not re-hash it. But this book revitalized my interest in the series--because there's more to life and conflict than just raw combat, even in a troubled, war-torn future--and because it is, in this reader's view, a marvelous work of the imagination. I hope the series continues for many more volumes, and I suspect the audience will continue to grow. In the meantime, I just passed this volume to my brother, who also remembers the golden age of fictional speculation. Very well done!
Rating: 3
Summary: Good - but not much action
Comment: Fans of rough and tumble action should look elsewhere. The back of the book says "the toughest fighters in Human Space confront their fiercest battle." which is stretching things quite a bit. Basically out of 346 pages there is a 6 page fight with the aliens (who use clubs and 22-caliber rifles!) and a 13 page assault on a spaceship. The whole spaceship sequence was really a dissapointment as the setup was great: a desperate band of pirates, a heavily modified ship with unknown defenses, but with the exception of the bridge the whole ship was taken in 4 pages - and this is most of the big climax to the book!
Obviously the focus of this book in the series is not on combat. It is much more about the characters and the aliens, who are well fleshed out and believable. I tend to prefer action stories which may be why I am harsh on this one, but I also like happy endings with the good guys winning..which makes this one tough for me...I'm trying not to give away too much here, and although it may be more realistic, the whole ending wasn't satisfying to me. The issue with the scientists never was resolved, the issue with Captain Coronado wasn't resolved to my satisfaction and the issue with Corporal Doyle - a very interesting character sure didn't sit well with me...but then I prefer Disney'ish happy endings..so take what I say with a grain of salt.
With all that you may think I didn't like it at all.. not the case, it was a good read, just slower than others, and a lot more info about the universe around the marines, the government, the lives of the pirates and especially the aliens. It wasalso cool that it was specifically a believable sequel to Book 4, with everyone still wandering around wondering about the aliens in that book.
But my interest is primarily action and fighting with cool futuristic weapons. I want my heroes down on the ground slugging it out with the bad guys. Here the Marines don't arrive at the planet until page 148 and really, the whole problem could have been resolved with a couple of knock-out gas bombs - which I would imagine the 25th century Marines have. I'm hoping the next book in the series will have more action....
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Title: Starfist: Steel Gauntlet by Dan Cragg, David Sherman ISBN: 034542526X Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 26 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Starfist: Kingdom's Fury by David Sherman, Dan Cragg ISBN: 0345443721 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 01 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Starfist: School of Fire by Dan Cragg, David Sherman ISBN: 0345406230 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 28 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: First to Fight: Book One of Starfist by Dan Cragg, David Sherman ISBN: 0345406222 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 30 August, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Starfist: Lazarus Rising by David Sherman, Dan Cragg ISBN: 0345460006 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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