Flashfire

Starfist #11

by David Sherman

David Sherman is a former U.S. Marine and the author of eight novels about Marines in Vietnam, where he served as an infantryman and as a member of a Combined Action Platoon. He is also the author of the military fantasy series Demontech. Visit the author's website at www.novelier.com.
Dan Cragg enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1958 and retired with the rank of sergeant major twenty-two years later. He is the author of Inside the VC and the NVA (with Michael Lee Lanning), Top Sergeant (with William G. Bainbridge), and a Vietnam War novel, The Soldier's Prize. He has recently retired as an analyst for the Department of Defense. "From the Hardcover edition."

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Fiction, Fiction, Space, War, Military Science Fiction, Adventure

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published March 27, 2007

About the author

David Sherman was the author or co-author of some three dozen books, most of which are about Marines in combat.
He wrote about US Marines in Vietnam (the Night Fighters series and three other novels), and the DemonTech series about Marines in a fantasy world. The 18th Race trilogy is military science fiction.
Other than military, he wrote a non-conventional vampire novel, The Hunt, and a mystery, Dead Man's Chest. He also released a collection of short fiction and non-fiction from early in his writing career, Sherman's Shorts; the Beginnings.
With Dan Cragg he wrote the popular Starfist series and its spin off series, Starfist: Force Recon—all about Marines in the Twenty-fifth Century.; and a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial.
His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.
David passed away in November 2022.

Reviews

[Paschalis]

elibrary

[Mike Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great continuation of a really good story. Characters are believable and you can recognise and sympathise. A good read but it is a continuation.

[Per Gunnar · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was definitely the weakest in the Starfist series so far. Actually it was quite a disappointment as far as I am concerned. My main complaint is that there is really not enough of 34th FIST and a whole lot of political bullshitting instead. A god chunk of the book, especially the first half, is dedicated to talking, political maneuvering and manipulation and such like nonsense and, as a result, it is really boring as far as I am concerned. Even when the 34th FIST gets involved the reading is tainted by the fact that an unbelievable incompetent and stupid general, who has become general by means of political manipulation and not on merit, comes barging in and screws everyone, naturally at the cost of peoples’ lives.

The action on those pages that actually involves the well-known characters from the 34th FIST are written to the same high standards as we are used to from David Sherman & Co but there are just too few of those pages for the book to be enjoyable.

I’m going to keep this a short review and not drone on about it because I really did not appreciate this book in the Starfist series.

[Lance · Rating 1 out of 5]

Good military formula writing, does not matter if it is in the future or past. Bored with it before the end. Wanting to know more about the characters. Possible problems with technology of the time. Kind of nice being in most cases, (if you are a Marine) to be able to be patched up and go back to battle with little chance of dying. Not so with the opposition, maybe.

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is what it is an action packed book in the middle of a series.

[Keira F. Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Space rednecks fight space marines in space civil war. Kind of a neat premise, weird sideplots that don't really work thrown in though.