Rating: 
Summary: A great viewpoint
Review: It seems Jeff Grubb did a lot of research to get this book set up. Surprisingly to me, he knew how to describe everything from ships to weapons in the way that you could visualize the actual item. If you never played Starcraft itself, this book was a wake-up call-a book that would tell people: "Gee, this is a game? I can't believe I haven't played this". Since the entire book focused mainly on the Terran Campaign of the original game, and the use of descriptions was required to avoid it from becomming too textbook and boring, I was impressed by the way Grubb expanded on the missions; a sort of view of what you didn't play. Then there were the passages before the chapter,all comming from "the Liberty Manifesto", which made me wonder; did Grubb get this great description from imagination or did he piece together the ideas of other works? It is just that good! Describing the characters and their actions was also very much impressive. Kerrigan and Raynor's description immediatly rang a bell in my head and for those who never was introduced to these people in the game it gave them a good idea of what they may look like. General Duke immediatly came in as the villian while in this series' second installment it took a while to guess if he was good or bad. As the main idea of the book is the journey of a reporter from a Confederate loyalist to a rebel, the transition came well. I was surprised at how Grubb pieced together ideas that made you say to yourself: "oh, now I understand why this mission led to this one", or "yea, this all makes sense now, I remmeber that. Wow, this quote brings back memories". The scenes of battle were written really well too, as Grubb described all the vehicles and creatures-Zerg, Terran, and Protoss-as if he was actually looking at them. Detail apparently was important to him. Battle was created to the point that you could hear the creak of the Arclite Siege Tank moving its shock cannon, or hear the Zerg hydralisks moving about. Mainly though, this book-other than its sequel-led to the events of the expansion game: Brood War. The conclusion was very nicely created, as well as added a bit of thought to the very end. Altogether though, I would deffinetly give this book to anyone that is into sci-fi games or is a Starcraft fan-since this book alone is a must have to any fan interested in what really happened before the fall of the Terran Confederacy in the Koprulu Sector.
Rating:
Summary: Sucessful Game to Book Transition
Review: History has taught us that games don't translate well to movies, television, or books. Thankfully, Jeff Grubb's first crack at converting the award winning Blizzard Entertainment, Starcraft, into a major novel was very successful, and very enjoyable.Those who are familiar with the game and the story line between the characters throughout Starcraft and Brood War will feel right at home. Events that you played out in the game will either be mentioned, or gone into great detail, and give you a better understanding as to why things happen as they did. The real threat is watching Arctus Mengsk turn from dignitary to ruthless killer in a matter of chapters. You know it is going to happen, and you know he will betray certain characters (I won't spoil who for those who haven't played that game). The style of the writing is excellent, and Grubb wasn't pressure to, or choose not to, fold under scrutiny of the government tearing away at the entertainment business because of some incidents in schools where the perpetrators played "Doom." Grubb creates, and fleshes, out new and existing characters with grace that makes this book an easy and fun read, that you will be coming back to every now and again. Pocket Books is doing well with the established Resident Evil series, the new Starcraft series, and the fledgling Alpha Centuri and Diablo series. I can only hope Gabriel Mesta is able to continue the excellent series alive with the second Starcraft book. --Erich Becker signing out...
Rating: 
Summary: Starcraft: "Liberty's Crusade" #1
Review: This book is a great interpretation of the video game. It takes place in a galaxy not far from our own. It's what I would like to think takes place in the not-too-distant future of our world. Most of the story takes place in space on huge spaceships. The enemy is the Confederacy of Man, a corrupt government organization that wants galactic domination. The narrator and main character is Danny Liberty, also called Mike. He's a reporter on the planet Tarsonis. If anyone has played the game before, you'll notice that most of the missions that you participate in intertwine with the events that reside in this book. This book introduces the Zerg and Protoss race, and describes them in full detail. What I like about this book is that it takes you a lot deeper into the Starcraft world than the game does. You get to find out what happened behind the scenes and why things happened the way they did. I recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of Starcraft, or anyone who likes galactic conflict novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Good in some areas, but sorely lacking in others
Review: Being a fan of the Starcraft games and an avid reader of junk sci-fi (when I have time to kill) I thought I'd love this book. Unfortunately, I feel that the book really does not live up to the game. I will give the author credit for doing a great job of bringing the characters to life. He does an especially good job of developing Kerrigan. Telling the story through the eyes of Liberty was a great idea. But that's where the good stuff ends. Although he does well with the narrative style and the characters, he fails miserably in fleshing out the conflict and writing an exciting war story. He more or less completely ignores the strategic element of the battles and he doesn't bother writing ANY colorful descriptions of the full scale combat that makes Starcraft exciting. He seems much more interested in writing background info and character interaction than in describing the war. In my opinion, that is unforgivable in a novel based on Starcraft. Although he describes the fact that there are massive Zerg attacks going on in the sector as well as Protoss extermination missions, he does nothing to put us in the midst of this chaos. Plus, even with all the effort he put into writing the background info surrounding the story, he still didn't fix certain important plot holes found in the story. But oh well, the next book in the series is written by a different author so hopefully it will be better.
Rating: 
Summary: No Substance
Review: I bought this book because I am a fan of Starcraft. If you are also a fan of Starcraft, chances are you will like this book. It brings you back into the wonderfully designed game with the ongoing war between Humans, the Protoss, and the Zerg. If you want to pick up this book solely for your love of SciFi or you are looking for a well-written novel, then I would definitely not recommend this title. The descriptions of the Zerg are almost non-existent, and unless you actually played the game, you will not get a full understanding of what the Zerg look like or how menacing they really are. The character depth is almost adequate, but I would have expected more from an author that actually creates these worlds in his imagination every day. Suspense is also at a minimum since some of the scenes in the novel are glossed over so quickly you don't even get a chance to feel any emotion at all. There are also some very serious grammatical errors in the book which, at times, confuse the reader. I agree with the guy above - I think the author just wanted to get paid for doing almost nothing. He should stick to creating games.
Rating:
Summary: Starcraft Liberty's Crusade (Starcraft, Book 1)
Review: Well, when I first saw this book, a friend of mine was reading it. I thought it seemed odd that someone made a Starcraft based book, but since I am a fan of Starcraft, I decided to read it. After I borrowed the book, I started reading it. It was about 8 P.M. at night. At 12 A.M., I finally went to bed. The book was so good, I dreamed about it. It was THAT good. Jeff Grub did an excellent job of introducing Michael Daniel Liberty, a UNN reporter. There is even some of the characters that are in the Starcraft game, General Duke, Arcturus Mengsk, Jim Raynor, and Sarah Kerrigan.This book is an awesome and spectactular novel, and I suggest it to any fans of the series and some of the younger people. Other than a little bit of minor errors, this book is one of the best books that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Infantile at best
Review: Only kids that love the game may like this book. This book is infantile and very little thought was put into writting it. Either Jeff Grubb is a really bad writer or he just got lazy and decided to get paid for doing nothing. This is worse than the stories in the Blizzard manual that come with the game. The first WarCraft book is actually faily good.
Rating:
Summary: What a Disappointment!
Review: This book is a real disappointment. To StarCraft fans and not. I happen to be a StarCraft fan and this book has no real dramatic point it, except near the end, but who couldn't see that! If you don't understand the game though. This is a great item to help whats happening in the game!
Rating:
Summary: Great Sci Fi Thriller!
Review: Liberty's Crusade is a great book filled with telepaths, and different alien races such as zerg and protoss. Being a fan of the game I was impressed with the storyline. The game never really covered it. Although there is a lot of talking you are rewarded soon after with plate of steamy violence. If you are looking for an action story this is it.
Rating:
Summary: sorely lacking
Review: The books storyline, the setting, all of this is well set and placed, however, this is where the greatness ends. This books covers a ton of material in which ample time should be taken to analyze such as Acturus' point of view in opposition of Micheals. While at times it seems as if the book is about to make a point, it then continues on to some other factor which is not required, or not yet required.The only thing, I feel, that the author is doing is ruining the chance for a more skilled writer to put together a well-written story and in-depth analyzing of characters. One other factor that helped it somewhat was the action and the references to Kerrigan's abilities. But once again, before it becomes a fairly good plot point, he moves to something else. Also, the action was not too exciting as it involved to much lame humor. I still read the book because of it's subject, but I feel that the story of Jim Raynor was too tied in with micheal. Jim deserves his own book and should not be subject to a half effort to introduce his character along with an already potentially complex character. This is a good superficial book if you are seeking quick action and story, as well as fast-paced. But do not expect to think after you read it.
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