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Rating: Summary: Technically fine, but not compelling Review: Douglas is a pretty good writer, but this book -- perhaps the series -- is lacking interesting characters and an overall sense of clarity.
Set about a hundred and thirty years in the future, the world is a different place. The United States Marine Corp., however, is much the same. Their motto: "Travel the universe. Meet exotic people. And kill them." It seems that the discovery of ancient alien artifacts on Mars, Earth,and Europa, have fundamentally changed the beliefs, religions, and geopolitical reality of earth.
My opinion of this book is likely affected by my unfamiliarity with the earlier "Heritage Trilogy." It apparently sets the stage for much of the background information. Still, a continuation of a series with a new trilogy should take into account those readers unfamiliar with the previous works. Instead of bringing the reader up to speed, Douglas dribbles out the facts of this brave new world throughout the first half of the book. It was not until that mark that I actually thought I knew which governments were which, who they were allied with, which alien races were which and when they existed, and that Wicca has become the predominate religion (in the Corps! no less).
Douglas does a good job of describing futuristic combat. Neural implants, robot drones, combat armor, and nanotechnology have revolutionized warfare, though the infantry have retained their central role. Even so, the action gets a little old and can best be summed up by: "Greatly outnumbered but high-tech marines defeat human/alien wave attacks by low-tech primitives."
Most of the characters were ho-hum, with the exception being a young Marine recruit who finds his baptism of fire a long way from home.
Rating: Summary: Semper Fi!, Do or Die Review: Great USMC bang, bang, shoot em' up. When Douglas was moving his plot and characters, the ride was great. However, as others have noted, Douglas will slam the breaks on the ride to provide swatches of historical background, references to his earlier books, reviews of his universe's sociology, religion, and economics -- with little regard to the main plot line. So the ride is jerky.
All in all, it's a good read. And we Marines just can't hear enough about ourselves -- fact or fiction.
Rating: Summary: Fantastic Sequel Review: I loved Ian Douglas's Heritage trilogy and Star Corps, the sequel set 71 years after the events in Europa Strike is every bit as good. Featuring strong, well-developed characters, an intriguing story line, well-written fights and realistic military hardware, Star Corps was difficult to put down from start to finish. Highly recommend for fans of 'realistic' hard military science fiction, a genre in which Ian Douglas is fast becoming king in my opinion. While not strictly necessary, I do recommend reading the Heritage trilogy before starting on Star Corps. Graham
Rating: Summary: Just a darn good sci-fi military read Review: I never finished Ian other trilogy, but you don't need to have read the first series to get into this one. This is a really good read.
Rating: Summary: good extension of the Heritage Trilogy Review: I was somewhat worried that the Legacy trilogy was starting off in the 2130's since the reason I liked Douglas' (Keith's) Heritage Trilogy because it was near term military sci-fi (i.e. there was a chance I'd be alive in that time period). Fortunately, the add century really hasn't impacted the story by making the rich background of the first three books still relevant in this series. The Marines are still Marines and the real life nation-states are still represented (with a few modifications for flavor.) In fact, the Legacy Trilogy reads and feels just like the Heritage books. If you liked those (Semper Mars, Luna Marine, and Europa Strike) then Star Corps will be another great chapter. However, since this is actually a fourth book in a series, please read the first ones before this.
Rating: Summary: One great space opera always leads to another... Review: This book truly is a great space opera and is a very far-reaching tale of human courage against a more powerful alien force, especially so when it is learned that thousands of humans are kept as slaves on their distant world. Another really good space opera is "Advent of the Corps".
Rating: Summary: Great Military Sci-fi book! Review: This is very good read. I recommend it to any fans of the genre.
Rating: Summary: Ian Douglas does it again Review: This was a great book- I'm definately looking forward to a continuation of the Legacy series. My only problem was, as always, Mr. Douglas likes to repeat long parts of US Marine Corps history in awkward ways. But, ignoring that (which isn't really that big of a deal), it was an awesome book, and I couldn't put it down until I was done reading it.
Rating: Summary: Just a darn good sci-fi military read Review: This was a great way to start the beginning of this new trilogy. It ties in nicely with the heritage trilogy, but by no means do u need to read the first three books to appreciate this one. Great start!
Rating: Summary: Join the marines Review: This was a great way to start the beginning of this new trilogy. It ties in nicely with the heritage trilogy, but by no means do u need to read the first three books to appreciate this one. Great start!
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