Rating: 
Summary: Shoot 'em Up
Review: After reading Insurrection and Crusade...I expected a tightly written space opera saga...I got a "To be Continued" without the "warning"....now I must wait at least another year for the Conclusion....I felt ripped off...I would wait for the second novel to appear and then buy both...at once.
The aliens and most of the characters are one dimensional...alien allies do what they are told...no motivations of why they fight except the Orions (honor and then vengeance). This war happened after the Theban War...if the Thebans are so set on "Mother Terra" how come they don't declare jihid on the Bugs and volunteer for infantry duty en mass at least...someone should have mentioned "too bad the Rigelians didn't meet the Bugs". Little things like that make a story background and characters.
Most of the top command characters seemed "replaceable"...they just appear give the right orders and blow away Bugs...The italicized Bug thoughts are nice but I don't see their motivations...food and slaves...until near the end...
If you like things going boom and death and more death..or are a hard core StarFire gamer, then this is for you...I just want the conclusion novel...as a gamer and from Insurrection I know the Bugs get a dose of Raid but waiting for the conclusion? I would have paid extra for the whole story. Food for Bugs...that is B rated Sci Fi...give me a break..
Rating: 
Summary: Synopsis
Review: The Bugs are coming, and although they are technically lagging behind the clever humans, they have more than enough numbers to make up for it. And not technological advantage lasts forever. This is quite an interesting book, especially if you have already read "Insurrection" by David Weber. It fills in some up the historical blind spots between the Theban War and the Civil War. Especially interesting is the story of Zephrain and the development of the Monitor class starship. What is the most unusual is that this book seems to be intended as only part of a multi-book series, which is somewhat unusual for Weber. Good book to get if you like relentless action, because that is what the Arachnids will give the Federation
Rating: 
Summary: For fans of Weber only...
Review: I wish the authors had studied the psychology of military leaders as assiduously as they studied their tactics. Here we have captivating naval battle sequences surrounded by hawkish didacticism. As cliched as the evil bugs are (how nice to have aliens devoid of anything redeemable so there is no moral ambiguity in this straw-man war) the military geniuses populating this book are even more so. Each one is a bland hero, universally competent, suitably burdened by command and tediously self-sacrificing. Really? Doesn?t sound like any general I know. And where are the grunts, wondering about their fates? Where are the incompetents, the vainglorious generals who have directed the flow of history? The authors have a very dull ax to grind: warriors good, politicians bad. Yet, I enjoyed the battles enough to recommend this book. Just read the Forever War or even Ender?s Game afterwards as a tonic.
Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, repetitive, and with terrible book binding
Review: In Death Ground is the third novel by Weber & White in the Starfire series. However, it is the second in internal chronological sequence following Crusade and is the first in a duology with The Shiva Option. Insurrection is actually last in the series by internal chronology.This story takes place 60-odd years after the Theban War. The enemy ambushes Survey Flotilla 27, destroying or severely damaging the survey cruisers and their escorts. The enemy then pursues the survivors through warp point after warp point. The Terran Federation Navy diverts two nearby task forces to reinforce the survivors of SF27 and sends all available freighters and transports to evacuate the colony planets. TF58, under Admiral Anthony Villiers, is the first task force to reach the SF27 survivors in the Golan system. He holds the warp point for a while, bleeding the enemy and evacuating part of the population, until forced to withdraw to Erebor. TF58 has a month to prepare, receive reinforcements, and to start evacuations, but the enemy then attacks through the warp point with devastating tactics, mass, and a new weapon. Villiers is forced to commit his battleline to slow the advance, losing his battleships, and leaving Admiral Jackson Teller in command of the withdrawal into the K-45 system. This novel describes the desperate battles to stop the enemy advance. Since the warp points are bottle necks, the fighting is more separated than surface naval combat. Each warp point is defended and the TFN makes the Bugs pay dearly despite overwhelming odds against them, but more Bugs ships keep coming through. TFN reinforcements are still arriving, but will they be enough to stop the Bugs? This novel describes a campaign similar in many ways to the Pacific theater of World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed or severely damaged every US battleship in the Pacific, forcing the US navy to rely on aircraft carriers and escort ships. Therefore, the strategy was to harass the enemy with destroyers, PT boats, and submarines, while the carrier task forces struck at enemy concentrations and tried to destroy the Japanese carriers. At the Coral Sea, aerial attacks by US carrier planes severely damaged three Japanese carriers and destroyed several escorts. Then, at Midway, the US carriers destroyed four of the remaining Japanese carriers. These two battles effectively stopped the Japanese advance. This novel is recommended to all Weber & White fans and anyone who enjoys stories of spatial battles with a touch of political intrigue.
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