First to Fight (Starfist Series #1)

Doglips · 09-05-2004, 06:46 AM

Product Details:

ISBN: 0345406222
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 384pp
Pub. Date: August 1997 Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc.

From the Publisher
"Marines, we have just become a low-tech deep recon patrol . . ."

Stranded in a hellish alien desert, stripped of their strategic systems, quick reaction force, and supporting arms, and carrying only a day's water ration, Marine Staff Sergeant Charlie Bass and his seven-man team faced a grim future seventy-five light-years from home. The only thing between his Marines and safety was eighty-five miles of uncharted, waterless terrain and two thousand bloodthirsty savages with state-of-the-art weapons in their hands and murder on their minds.

But the enemy didn't reckon on the warrior cunning of Marines' Marine Charlie Bass and the courage of the few good men who would follow him anywhere—even to death. . .

From Doglips:
I enjoyed this book and it sets the stage for the other books. I think the authors were a little to proud of their Marine heratige and spend a lot of time let everyoen know the space marines are super duper. Additionaly 1/2 this book is about Dean and McNeal going though boot camp....kind drags on. After the action starts it gets good. I recomend this book

Ok...the short overview of this book: Joseph F. Dean and Frederick Douglass McNeal are recruits in the twenty-fifth century Confederation Marine Corps. These men and their platoon mates are ordered to a barren, windswept rock of a world on a seemingly routine peacekeeping mission. A routine patrol, however, suddenly becomes a grueling eighty-five mile death march as the platoon tries to make it back to safety before the alien world or its inhabitants can kill them. The authors of this particular rite of passage book do a fairly good job of keeping the action going, and they are not afraid to wound or even kill their protagonists (one of the two recruits mentioned above suffers a particularly unenviable demise). The book does suffer from a few flaws that could have been easily corrected. First, it does not read as if it really needs to be set in the future: merely substitute "rifle" for "blaster" and "Jeep" for "Dragon," and this book could easily be about Marines in Iraq, the authors cannot decide who their hero is. We start with recruits Joe Dean and Fred McNeal, then sift our focus to their iron sergeant, Charlie Bass. After that, Dean and McNeal are barely mentioned until one of them suffers an unspeakable fate.

09-05-2004, 06:46 AM	#1
Doglips Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Cocoa Florida Posts: 9,088	First to Fight (Starfist Series #1) Product Details: ISBN: 0345406222 Format: Mass Market Paperback, 384pp Pub. Date: August 1997 Publisher: Ballantine Books, Inc. From the Publisher "Marines, we have just become a low-tech deep recon patrol . . ." Stranded in a hellish alien desert, stripped of their strategic systems, quick reaction force, and supporting arms, and carrying only a day's water ration, Marine Staff Sergeant Charlie Bass and his seven-man team faced a grim future seventy-five light-years from home. The only thing between his Marines and safety was eighty-five miles of uncharted, waterless terrain and two thousand bloodthirsty savages with state-of-the-art weapons in their hands and murder on their minds. But the enemy didn't reckon on the warrior cunning of Marines' Marine Charlie Bass and the courage of the few good men who would follow him anywhere—even to death. . . From Doglips: I enjoyed this book and it sets the stage for the other books. I think the authors were a little to proud of their Marine heratige and spend a lot of time let everyoen know the space marines are super duper. Additionaly 1/2 this book is about Dean and McNeal going though boot camp....kind drags on. After the action starts it gets good. I recomend this book Ok...the short overview of this book: Joseph F. Dean and Frederick Douglass McNeal are recruits in the twenty-fifth century Confederation Marine Corps. These men and their platoon mates are ordered to a barren, windswept rock of a world on a seemingly routine peacekeeping mission. A routine patrol, however, suddenly becomes a grueling eighty-five mile death march as the platoon tries to make it back to safety before the alien world or its inhabitants can kill them. The authors of this particular rite of passage book do a fairly good job of keeping the action going, and they are not afraid to wound or even kill their protagonists (one of the two recruits mentioned above suffers a particularly unenviable demise). The book does suffer from a few flaws that could have been easily corrected. First, it does not read as if it really needs to be set in the future: merely substitute "rifle" for "blaster" and "Jeep" for "Dragon," and this book could easily be about Marines in Iraq, the authors cannot decide who their hero is. We start with recruits Joe Dean and Fred McNeal, then sift our focus to their iron sergeant, Charlie Bass. After that, Dean and McNeal are barely mentioned until one of them suffers an unspeakable fate.