Rating: 
Summary: Best in the Starfist series
Review: "Blood Contact" (ISBN 0-345-42527-8) by David Sherman and Dan Cragg is the fourth book chronicling the Confederation Marine Corps 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) L Company Third Platoon. Diamunde's fourth war proved to be the worst in the planet's and Confederation history. L Company Third Platoon suffered the heaviest losses of the 34th FIST. Ensign Vanden Hoyt and almost two squads were killed during the conflict. L Company's Commanding Officer has officially placed Gunnery Sergeant Charlie Bass as the permanent Platoon Leader of the Third Platoon. The Confederation sends out scientific teams that are tasked with exploring and studying newly discovered worlds to determine what resources are available for exploitation and settlement requirements. When communications with one of these far-flung teams is lost the Confederation responds by sending out a rescue mission consisting of the Navy and the Marines. Communications with the scientific team studying a tropical planet, nick named Waygone, is lost and the 34th FIST L Company Third Platoon is sent to investigate. Gunnery Sergeant Charlie Bass, the men of the Third Platoon, and Naval personnel are faced with the unexpected, beginning with the missing scientists, rescuing pirates, a ghost from the platoons past, and first an alien race. David Sherman and Dan Cragg have once again done a great job in describing the role of the Marine infantry in the modern world. Further, the authors are able to bring the human side of people caught in circumstances beyond their control.
Rating:
Summary: Marines score 1, Hostile Aliens 0
Review: "Blood Contact" (ISBN 0-345-42527-8) by David Sherman and Dan Cragg is the fourth book chronicling the Confederation Marine Corps 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) L Company Third Platoon. Diamunde's fourth war proved to be the worst in the planet's and Confederation history. L Company Third Platoon suffered the heaviest losses of the 34th FIST. Ensign Vanden Hoyt and almost two squads were killed during the conflict. L Company's Commanding Officer has officially placed Gunnery Sergeant Charlie Bass as the permanent Platoon Leader of the Third Platoon. The Confederation sends out scientific teams that are tasked with exploring and studying newly discovered worlds to determine what resources are available for exploitation and settlement requirements. When communications with one of these far-flung teams is lost the Confederation responds by sending out a rescue mission consisting of the Navy and the Marines. Communications with the scientific team studying a tropical planet, nick named Waygone, is lost and the 34th FIST L Company Third Platoon is sent to investigate. Gunnery Sergeant Charlie Bass, the men of the Third Platoon, and Naval personnel are faced with the unexpected, beginning with the missing scientists, rescuing pirates, a ghost from the platoons past, and first an alien race. David Sherman and Dan Cragg have once again done a great job in describing the role of the Marine infantry in the modern world. Further, the authors are able to bring the human side of people caught in circumstances beyond their control.
Rating:
Summary: The fourth one leaves looking for number 5
Review: As previously, Sherman and Cragg, have produced another military sci-fi page turner. This book moves along at a good pace and keeps it going throughout the entire book. The introduction of aliens opens an entire new vista for the StarFist series. If you are familiar with military sci fi and don't know the Starfist series, get with it!
Rating:
Summary: The fourth one leaves looking for number 5
Review: As previously, Sherman and Cragg, have produced another military sci-fi page turner. This book moves along at a good pace and keeps it going throughout the entire book. The introduction of aliens opens an entire new vista for the StarFist series. If you are familiar with military sci fi and don't know the Starfist series, get with it!
Rating: 
Summary: Not Up To Standard
Review: I absolutely LOVED the first three books. So much so that I actually sent an e-mail to the authors thanking them for some very enjoyable reads. I awaited Sherman and Cragg's latest work with anticipation.In this case I was very disappointed. The book felt had a hasty, unfinished quality. As usual, the authors characterizations were superb. You can really believe in a Sherman and Cragg character. What was left out was plot. The story made very little sense and there was almost no plot development. Points were seemingly brought up at random and then dropped. I found it to be a very frustrating read. There were just too many points left unexplored. I can usually "suspend disbelief" and enjoy a sci-fi book for what it is....fiction. This book left me cold. Some authors go too far with background material, this book gives you none.
Rating:
Summary: Not Up To Standard
Review: I absolutely LOVED the first three books. So much so that I actually sent an e-mail to the authors thanking them for some very enjoyable reads. I awaited Sherman and Cragg's latest work with anticipation. In this case I was very disappointed. The book felt had a hasty, unfinished quality. As usual, the authors characterizations were superb. You can really believe in a Sherman and Cragg character. What was left out was plot. The story made very little sense and there was almost no plot development. Points were seemingly brought up at random and then dropped. I found it to be a very frustrating read. There were just too many points left unexplored. I can usually "suspend disbelief" and enjoy a sci-fi book for what it is....fiction. This book left me cold. Some authors go too far with background material, this book gives you none.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable but good
Review: I found the book to be a good story that doesn't bog down the reader with a bunch of psyhcological garbage that you usually find but instead provides nonstop action that makes for fun reading. It does tend to be a bit predictable but still good.
Rating:
Summary: Rip Roaring sci fi
Review: I have read the previous 3 books and was looking foward to the latest in the series.Brilliant couldn't put it down .Good storyline great plot story raced along ending not as expected bring on number five
Rating:
Summary: Rip Roaring sci fi
Review: I have read the previous 3 books and was looking foward to the latest in the series.Brilliant couldn't put it down .Good storyline great plot story raced along ending not as expected bring on number five
Rating:
Summary: Never a dull moment!
Review: In the first Starfist novel, the 34th FIST went up against a bunch of nomadic, "low-tech" tribes. Next, they trained a puppet-police force to stand against rebels. Then, they spearheaded an invasion against an entire mechanized army. What's left for the fourth book, you ask? Heck, ALIENS! A remote research outpost on a planet a bit too far gone to be accurately called "remote" suddenly disappears. True to form, the bureacracy (sp?) diddles around before deciding to send a single FIST platoon and the Navy's most embarrassing rejects to investigate. Of course, L platoon, 34th FIST, draws the short straw...probably the best thing the powers-that-be could've done. *g* So, how do you makes heads and tails of a planet covered by swamps and impassable mountains, littered with corpses, full of gigantic lizards (some of which want to melt you), and all the while encumbered with the only human survivors, a rag-tag band of pirates? Just put Charlie Bass in charge! This novel was non-stop from the beginning! Old comrades, new friends, mysterious pasts, enigmatic genocides, and a diabolically sentient race that's next to impossible to track, mindless in its persuit of the destruction of all things human, and simply ingenious in its tactics all add together to make a truely original read! Not your typical "slimey alien drooling on floor grunts a few gutteral noises then whips out a super-advanced weapon and blows the sun up" cookie-cutter beastie, these are coldly calculating commanders with hordes of mindless minions to do their bidding. This is a very highly recommended book! I couldn't find anything to tick on it for, except maybe Dan Cragg and David Sherman's continual downplay of the Navy forces...which, as an ex-Navy man myself, I can totally understand. All in all, I can't wait for book five and six to come out!
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