Rating: 
Summary: Infantry against Heavy Armor
Review: "Steel Gauntlet" (ISBN 0-345-42526-X) is David Sherman and Dan Cragg's third book chronicling the history of the Confederation Marine Corps' 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) L Company Third Platoon, among the most deployed units in the Corps. The 34th FIST's mission to Wanderjahr was a success and for thwarting an attempt on the lives of one of Wanderjahr's leaders and the 34th FIST's General, Joe Dean and Rackman Claypoole were promoted to Lance Corporal. Diamunde, a resource-rich planet, has for the fourth time in Confederation history become a trouble spot requiring the use of military force to restore order. This time the Confederation gathers together a force consisting of six of the thirty-six Marine FISTs, the 34th is one the first units to land, two Army Corps, and a large Fleet to end the ambitions of the man who has taken control of Diamunde by force. The major problem that face the Marines, Army, and Navy units is having to relearn how to deal with Main Battle Tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, which have not been seen on the battlefield for 300 years. Before leaving Thorsfinni World to Diamunde, the 34th FIST's commanding officer makes sure that all his troops have been promoted and received all awards due them, including Charlie Bass who is once again promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. This mission will test the skills and bravery of not just the men of L Company Third Platoon, but to all the troops involved on both sides of the conflict. David Sherman and Dan Cragg do a great job in describing the fears and bravery of the infantry having to go against tanks on the battlefield. Further, this book does a good job in blending fact and the probable future of the infantry and of tanks in modern warfare.
Rating: 
Summary: 34th FIST Marine, always an entertainment
Review: 34th FIST Marine have a real challenge with the armor division from Diamunde. They are in competition against a force that is superior to them and are going in a the tip of the sword with old weapon. Amazing and riveting as the storyline goes. It might be a bit slow to start but once started, it gets hot.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Series, Mediocre Entry.
Review: As much as I like the Starfist Series, Steel Gauntlet is probably the worse book in the series, for the reason mentioned by nzjohn in his review. After Sherman and Cragg go to great lengths to prove that MBTs are obsolete, their villain has to make an elementary mistake (one that the very research into military history that led him to build tanks in the first place would almost certainly have prevented) to keep the "useless" panzers from wiping out our heroes. Feels like the authors got two-thirds of the way through the story and then realized that they'd screwed up. Read through this one quickly.
Rating:
Summary: Great Series, Mediocre Entry.
Review: As much as I like the Starfist Series, Steel Gauntlet is probably the worse book in the series, for the reason mentioned by nzjohn in his review. After Sherman and Cragg go to great lengths to prove that MBTs are obsolete, their villain has to make an elementary mistake (one that the very research into military history that led him to build tanks in the first place would almost certainly have prevented) to keep the "useless" panzers from wiping out our heroes. Feels like the authors got two-thirds of the way through the story and then realized that they'd screwed up. Read through this one quickly.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't believe the rave reviews.
Review: I love the series up to this point. This book made me hesitate buying the fourth of the series. It just wasn't a good story line and the only saving grace was the continuing character development from past books.
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Summary: 3rd platoon, Company L, 34th Fist is back in action
Review: Semper Fi! Who else could have written such a compelling book except an ex-marine? The men of 3rd plantoon, Company L, 34th Fist are back and this time there fighting Tanks! Ya gotta love it. This book is filled with so much testosterone that you'll swagger when you walk. If you haven't read the previous two books you'll be able to feel your way through the book, but it's better if you read them in sequence. Nice tech in the book too, although some of it reminds me of tech from a few other books (ie. Rick Shelley's DMC series) But what are you going to do? An infantryman's wish list is probably pretty easy to guess. Buy it Now!
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Summary: Military Sci Fi for the Ground Pounder in You.
Review: SYNOPSIS: A world has been taken in a coup and the flow of critical resources must be restored. To do this a Marine expeditionary unit is sent with follow on troops provided by the Army to take one of the planets cities as a beach head.The story mainly contends with the Marine action in taking the city and how the various components of an intergrated campaign is fought. The action is with the units and how the individuals in that unit accomplish their mission. It almost seems like Hue in space, with restrictive rules of engagement on the ground and political manueverings at home. The book almost reads like a historical account of a past battle, with units taking center stage and the individuals the highlights. Overall I enjoyed this book but some people may be put off by the lack of personal interaction or the inability to see who the hero/heroine is. For hardcore Military Sci Fi readers and Military History readers this is definitely a good read.
Rating:
Summary: great atmosphere, lousy story
Review: The 2 reviews below are a good start, Thomas M Rux describes the good points well, and Derek Beasley descibes the bad points. I fall in with Derek Beasley here, so I'll elaborate: The writer spends some one quarter of the book setting the scene, the Marine training sessions, the characters etc. He also goes on at some length about how the bad guy has studied military history and has led a corporate army for years on a corporate world with no central government. So we are expecting a great battle to come right? Wrong. This great experienced bad guy general makes such an elementary mistake in leading his tanks against the Marines, that I wanted to throw the book down in disgust, especially after reading the author's explanation of why the general makes that decision. I'm sorry but this explanation didn't say the general is stupid, it said to me this a stupid plot device to enable the author to repeatedly make his point that, quote 'mano o mano' unquote a single marine can destroy a tank. Yippee, for this the author wastes trees? I certainly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who wants a story along with some atmosphere. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: great atmosphere, lousy story
Review: The 2 reviews below are a good start, Thomas M Rux describes the good points well, and Derek Beasley descibes the bad points. I fall in with Derek Beasley here, so I'll elaborate: The writer spends some one quarter of the book setting the scene, the Marine training sessions, the characters etc. He also goes on at some length about how the bad guy has studied military history and has led a corporate army for years on a corporate world with no central government. So we are expecting a great battle to come right? Wrong. This great experienced bad guy general makes such an elementary mistake in leading his tanks against the Marines, that I wanted to throw the book down in disgust, especially after reading the author's explanation of why the general makes that decision. I'm sorry but this explanation didn't say the general is stupid, it said to me this a stupid plot device to enable the author to repeatedly make his point that, quote 'mano o mano' unquote a single marine can destroy a tank. Yippee, for this the author wastes trees? I certainly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who wants a story along with some atmosphere. Very disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Confed Marines are going to a real war.. Against Tanks.
Review: The 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team, Confederation Marine Corps, have been deployed again. This isn't a small unit assignment though, unfortunately things have gone wrong enough on Diamunde that the CMC is going to War. To provide the opening beachhead for the follow-up Army troops, against several armored battalions (read 'Tanks') that intel says aren't in the landing area. If you like the genre, this series is continuing excellently. If you're looking for the "Mobile Infantry" of Starship Troopers, don't look here. These Marines are... Marines with Blasters and better camouflage uniforms. They're still on foot, and still an elite force. If you can still find Book 1 and Book 2, they're worth reading too.
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