Rating: 
Summary: Wait for the 2nd book
Review: A good page turning military sci-fi book set in the STARFIRE universe. Not real deep on character development, but a lot of action and carnage. This book ends with a To Be Continued....., so wait for the second installment because this one leaves you hanging.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the ten worst sci-fi books ever written
Review: I think this is the first time i've actually been so disgusted with a book that I've read that I threw it across the room. The book is a pastiche of regurgitated generic aliens, a feline race ala Niven, the generice Bug race ala Aliens and Heinlein. It tries to pass itself off as a hard sci-fi book but comes across as a novel written purely to satisfy an Editorial obgligation. I understand that there is a large market for trashy underwritten operatic sci-fi. That's why Star Trek and Star Wars novels sell so well. I coulld in good conscience refer this generic sci-fi to my worst enemy. It's the Crown of Swords ( Robert Jordan ) of Sci-Fi.
Rating: 
Summary: thoroughly engrossing
Review: David Weber has got a winner on his hands. The story grabs you from the start and will not let you go. Weber's discription of space combat is very compelling, at many points the reader feels as if they are in the mists the conflageration. The battles take place at "warp points" (basicly wormhole exits) so the battles are set place but very furious. The characters are well rounded, and several of them seem close friends by the end of the book. The story is obiously a first in a series, the battle between man and enemy is left hanging, both sides returning home to lick their wounds. This is not a fly-by-night human vs. space bug story. It is a wild ride of good and bad fortune for each side and will leave you reeling when you've finished (at least it did me). Well worth you money and time. You will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Action packed military SF
Review: This is the third book set in the STARFIRE universe, pitting humans and their allies against the Bug juggernaut. This one I recommend to enthusiants of military SF. The strategy and tactics used fits with the available technology and helps create a believable universe. The reader feels the desperation of the Federation's "fight for survival" against a foe that they can not understand. Although I was surprised when the story didn't resolve itself at the end, I'm glad it wasn't cheapened by having the humans win the war at one masterstroke. I'm looking forward to see what other surprises are being hatched by the Bugs in the next book.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent technical space warfare. best I have read
Review: This was a suberb book if you like space war. There is constant battle,tactics aned results for the entire 628 pages. I look forward to the next one because this one does not complete the story. You will not be able to put this one down so start reading on Friday evening.
Jim Holden
Rating:
Summary: good read, but out of order
Review: In Death Ground is a good read, and if you have enjoyed the previous books by Weber and White, you will like this one as well. It would have been nice if this series had been written in order, though. In Death Ground fits between Crusade and Insurrection in the overall Terran/Orion series. It is also disappointing that the story doesn't end in this book, and that the readers will have to wait for the next installment to find how the war is won
Rating:
Summary: Heavy military action, middling characterization
Review: I didn't like this one a lot at first, but it seems to have grown on me, like an itch I can't scratch. Weber/White don't create the deepest characters, but the book reads like a futuristic version of "Victory At Sea." The technology race is fascinating, and I found myself wondering howintheheck the Human/Orion/Gorm/etc. alliance can beat these things? I spoke with the author, and he told me this is book one of three, so I'm just going to have to wait, darn it! It's still an excellent read, particularly if you like techno-military science fiction
Rating: 
Summary: Copy of Heinlein
Review: A good space opera IF you are familiar with the Starfire game series, which has great appeal if you are an accountant. At times gripping, the characters are often shallow and the rip-offs from Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" (soon to be released as a motion picture, what timing!) are nearly word for word. Excellent if you like varied descriptions of nuclear detonations
Rating:
Summary: Over-long tale of space dreadnought hardware-envy
Review: "In Death Ground" is space opera - pure and simple. Powerful xenophobic, Bug Eyed Monsters (BEMs), challenge the Terran Federation Navy for the warp points to the heart of each other's territory. The story is one over-long, tale of space dreadnought hardware-envy. Interchangeable male and female space navy "officers and gentleman" allied with bird, cat, and lizard-like over-anthropomorphized allied aliens fight baby eating BEMs.
I started "In Death Ground" on the basis of Weber and White's "Insurrection". "Insurrection" is good space opera. "In Death Ground" is junk. There is no story in the 630-odd pages of the book. It is paper-thin characters, and innumerable WWII-inspired, space battles and marine landing actions. The authors re-wrote Samuel Eliot Morison's "The Two-Ocean War" as a space-opera. The result is a perfect example of when author's become more enamored with their background technology and loose sight writing a novel.
Another annoying aspect of this book is it does not end. There is no warning in the cover blurbs that after 630 pages the war is not won, and the aliens vanquished. After all those "missile duels in the interstellar void" you still need to plonk down another $7 to find out who wins.
The genre of space opera is a cliché, and it can be entertaining in the hands of creative authors. However, it should never be as boring as this.
Rating:
Summary: Longish, but typical Weber
Review: This reminded me a lot of the "Mutineers Moon" series. I like the story, but there are some weaknesses to the book as a whole. While the story is engaging, the book is so long, you begin to yearn for the end (and when you don't get one, it's rather irksome!). The greatest thing I don't like about Weber books, is he will start a good series (Honor, Mutineers, etc) but starts other series before cleaning up/finishing the current series. I would like to read the "next" book in this series, but I truly hope I don't have to wait through several other Weber books first. Weber is by far, one of the best "military/science" writers around. I always look for his books
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