In All Directions

The 18th Race #2

by David Sherman

Semi-Autonomous World Troy

The men of 1st Marine Combat Force are in a life-and-death struggle with the Dusters, bird-like aliens who launched a surprise attack on Troy, and vanished the entire Human population. When Corporal John Mackie and his squad from India Company aren't fighting off "human wave" attack after "human wave" attack, they are aggressively patrolling in search of the Dusters, intending to meet and destroy them in their own bases.

In space, the remnants of Amphibious Group 17 rescue soldiers and sailors from wounded Navy starships. They begin feeding small, reassembled units to the surface of Troy. As they make planetfall, the soldiers have their first contact with the Dusters even before they reach their target firebase. Soon after, they are engaged in the same kinds of defensive and offensive operations as the Marines.

On Earth, the president of the North American Union orders the formation of a field army to be dispatched to Troy to aid the badly outnumbered Marines and soldiers, but have they any hope of arriving in time?

Things seem grim for Troy and its defenders as a new Duster fleet arrives and attacks the remaining warships of Task Force 8, in orbit before landing a huge invasion army meant to defeat the Human forces.

292 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 30, 2014

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

[Papal Bull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent as always.

[M Hamed · Rating 3 out of 5]

poor world building