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Rating: 
Summary: Good - but not much action
Review: Fans of rough and tumble action should look elsewhere. The back of the book says "the toughest fighters in Human Space confront their fiercest battle." which is stretching things quite a bit. Basically out of 346 pages there is a 6 page fight with the aliens (who use clubs and 22-caliber rifles!) and a 13 page assault on a spaceship. The whole spaceship sequence was really a dissapointment as the setup was great: a desperate band of pirates, a heavily modified ship with unknown defenses, but with the exception of the bridge the whole ship was taken in 4 pages - and this is most of the big climax to the book! Obviously the focus of this book in the series is not on combat. It is much more about the characters and the aliens, who are well fleshed out and believable. I tend to prefer action stories which may be why I am harsh on this one, but I also like happy endings with the good guys winning..which makes this one tough for me...I'm trying not to give away too much here, and although it may be more realistic, the whole ending wasn't satisfying to me. The issue with the scientists never was resolved, the issue with Captain Coronado wasn't resolved to my satisfaction and the issue with Corporal Doyle - a very interesting character sure didn't sit well with me...but then I prefer Disney'ish happy endings..so take what I say with a grain of salt. With all that you may think I didn't like it at all.. not the case, it was a good read, just slower than others, and a lot more info about the universe around the marines, the government, the lives of the pirates and especially the aliens. It wasalso cool that it was specifically a believable sequel to Book 4, with everyone still wandering around wondering about the aliens in that book. But my interest is primarily action and fighting with cool futuristic weapons. I want my heroes down on the ground slugging it out with the bad guys. Here the Marines don't arrive at the planet until page 148 and really, the whole problem could have been resolved with a couple of knock-out gas bombs - which I would imagine the 25th century Marines have. I'm hoping the next book in the series will have more action....
Rating: 
Summary: Great adventure, daring effort!
Review: Fans of rough and tumble action should look elsewhere. The back of the book says "the toughest fighters in Human Space confront their fiercest battle." which is stretching things quite a bit. Basically out of 346 pages there is a 6 page fight with the aliens (who use clubs and 22-caliber rifles!) and a 13 page assault on a spaceship. The whole spaceship sequence was really a dissapointment as the setup was great: a desperate band of pirates, a heavily modified ship with unknown defenses, but with the exception of the bridge the whole ship was taken in 4 pages - and this is most of the big climax to the book! Obviously the focus of this book in the series is not on combat. It is much more about the characters and the aliens, who are well fleshed out and believable. I tend to prefer action stories which may be why I am harsh on this one, but I also like happy endings with the good guys winning..which makes this one tough for me...I'm trying not to give away too much here, and although it may be more realistic, the whole ending wasn't satisfying to me. The issue with the scientists never was resolved, the issue with Captain Coronado wasn't resolved to my satisfaction and the issue with Corporal Doyle - a very interesting character sure didn't sit well with me...but then I prefer Disney'ish happy endings..so take what I say with a grain of salt. With all that you may think I didn't like it at all.. not the case, it was a good read, just slower than others, and a lot more info about the universe around the marines, the government, the lives of the pirates and especially the aliens. It wasalso cool that it was specifically a believable sequel to Book 4, with everyone still wandering around wondering about the aliens in that book. But my interest is primarily action and fighting with cool futuristic weapons. I want my heroes down on the ground slugging it out with the bad guys. Here the Marines don't arrive at the planet until page 148 and really, the whole problem could have been resolved with a couple of knock-out gas bombs - which I would imagine the 25th century Marines have. I'm hoping the next book in the series will have more action....
Rating: 
Summary: Not effective adventure
Review: I love good military sci-fi as much as the next starship trooper, but this isn't it. Part of my problem may stem from the fact that I started with this book in the series and there are many parts that I found difficult since I had no prior knowledge of what had happened in the first 4 books. But my real problem came from the style of the writing and characterizations. I thought that the people were more like cut-outs borrowed from "Tour of Duty" than real characters. None of them really resonated. The alien species were particularly humerous in how far I had to suspend my disbelief to accept them. The constant changes in the time-frame of the narration made it very hard to know what was supposed to be happening before what. Add to that the constant political lectures and the book quickly lost my attention. I found the diatribe about the evils of the Japanese and their empires particulrly disturbing in a book written after the 1950's. While the marines were interesting in potential, and the story about the evils of interfereing with indiginous cultures well taken, I fear that I will not be reading another book in this series.
Rating:
Summary: Not effective adventure
Review: I love good military sci-fi as much as the next starship trooper, but this isn't it. Part of my problem may stem from the fact that I started with this book in the series and there are many parts that I found difficult since I had no prior knowledge of what had happened in the first 4 books. But my real problem came from the style of the writing and characterizations. I thought that the people were more like cut-outs borrowed from "Tour of Duty" than real characters. None of them really resonated. The alien species were particularly humerous in how far I had to suspend my disbelief to accept them. The constant changes in the time-frame of the narration made it very hard to know what was supposed to be happening before what. Add to that the constant political lectures and the book quickly lost my attention. I found the diatribe about the evils of the Japanese and their empires particulrly disturbing in a book written after the 1950's. While the marines were interesting in potential, and the story about the evils of interfereing with indiginous cultures well taken, I fear that I will not be reading another book in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not the best.
Review: I thought it was a great addition to the Starfist Saga. There was a little issue following the story in the beginning, but it leveled out afterwords. I like the aliens the authors use, both in this one and the last book. They are not the conventional alien, hard to describe, but you will understand when you read the book. All and all, a good book. I look forward to the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not the Best in the series
Review: Just a few notes on what I thought about Technokill: Talk about hurry up and publish! These guys must have hurried to write this one, because it stinks! Also, please don't read this if you're a Native American, these guys actually say for you to "get over it." The writing is poor at best, the names they come up with for the aliens are pitiful, the story line is slipshod... There are many inconsistencies within the plot, the conclusion is horrible, these guys hurry to tie up all the loose ends in the last two chapters, and by the way, the title of the book is Technokill, does that type of thing ever really come into play? No! It's time to forget the Starfist series dear readers, if you must find out what happens to the platoon, check it out from your local library, don't waste your money on this.
Rating:
Summary: Great adventure, daring effort!
Review: My hat's off to co-authors Dan Cragg and David Sherman for not taking the easy path. This series has been building an ever-greater following, and the thing most authors would have done would have been to stay in the groove and keep re-writing the same book over and over again. With volume V, Cragg and Sherman have certainly kept the basic themes and characters, but they've also taken chances by pushing the envelope and reaching (successfully, in my book) for ever-greater creativity. I found the picture of the alien world the most intriguing I've read in many years--it took me back to my youth and the great age of sci-fi, with writers like Heinlein, Asimov and Company. Other reviewers have gone over the basics of the plot, so I'll keep this short and not re-hash it. But this book revitalized my interest in the series--because there's more to life and conflict than just raw combat, even in a troubled, war-torn future--and because it is, in this reader's view, a marvelous work of the imagination. I hope the series continues for many more volumes, and I suspect the audience will continue to grow. In the meantime, I just passed this volume to my brother, who also remembers the golden age of fictional speculation. Very well done!
Rating:
Summary: Protecting the Natives
Review: Technokill Review I've said it before, I'll say it again - if Tom Clancy wrote far-future SF, it would look like this. Some SF tales are "Gadget" stories - the main character is a computer, a time machine, or a space ship - the humans (or other sentient creatures) are mere window dressing. This is where a lot of SF writers start out, and these stories are sometimes, but not always, bad. At the other end are "people" stories - the story is about people and situations, and the SF elements are thrown in as a seeming afterthought. These can often be good - Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles are "not really SF", but they're good stories. The same can be said for Spider Robinson's "Callahan's Bar" series. I'll add another distinction - I consider the culture a form of technology, something a lot of writers don't consider. For example, James Blush's "Cities in Flight" follows the people of New York City a thousand years in the future. It's a good story, but I have trouble believing that a thousand years from now, after 800 years of Soviet Occupation, New York City would look and sound so much like the NYC of 1960 - especially since NYC has changed so much in my lifetime... The FIST series falls just a little right of center on this spectrum - there's a bit of science here, and neat, well thought out gadgets, but the real story is in the characters. I can believe in the Confederation culture - given the authors' assumption about the developments of the next few centuries, it makes sense. The main characters are much like the military folks I know - I can tie most of the characters to a real-life person. Mssrs Cragg and Sherman concentrate on the Marines, but they also follow the grand sweep of the action- from the highest level of the Confederation government, the smoky back rooms of power politics, the Conference rooms of the military leaders, right down to the conversations in the berthing spaces of the transport ships. That's not unusual - what's remarkable, is that they do it so well. For example, if you watch Star Trek (tm), you'd think that Starfleet (tm) lobotomizes all Admirals - I can't think of a single intelligent Flag officer in that universe, Kirk included, in many years. Back when I was an enlisted troop, I might have agreed with that, but over the last few years, I've personally met many Generals, Admirals, etc. I've concluded that, when you can see the big picture, things that looks stupid to the Line Animal and his micro view, make sense to the General and his/her macro view. This story pits the Marines against a bunch of smugglers trying to take unfair advantage of a group of intelligent avian creatures. The Confederation leadership wants the avians to develop technology on their own, without outside interference. The smugglers want to obtain some high-value gemstones that are only found on this world, and who cares what happens to the natives and their culture? Further, the Marines must stop the smugglers - but they must keep the existence of these creatures secret from the rest of the Confederation, lest well-meaning meddlers attempt to "enlighten" the natives...There is a final subplot as the Marines find they even need to protect the avians from the research scientists. The Marine Commander risks his career to end a research project reminiscent of Dr Mengele at his worst. If you are any kind of a student of sociology or history, there is a very fine, practical review of what happens when a technologically superior culture hits a low-tech culture. I took a personal interest in this, as my paternal ancestors got chased out of Scotland, came to America, walked the Northeast Trails with Thayendega (The white men called him Joseph Brant). My maternal ancestors were Samurai. My ancestors knew about lost causes and surviving the onslaught of the white man and his culture. Gunny Thatcher's historical briefing is somewhat abbreviated, but, in my opinion, is dead on. It's not Politically Correct, but it pulls no punches, and calls it straight on. That particular essay is darn near worth the price of the book right there. I wouldn't want you to get the feeling that this is an intellectuals-only book. There's plenty of blood and thunder here, and a really neat couple of light-cavalry battles. There's some of their trademark low humor here, too. My personal favorite was a take on the US military expression "I will be dipped in (fecal material)". (snicker) I'd hate to be a villain in this series - they all seem to meet particularly gruesome fates. There's rough mercy here, also. Once, I made a disparaging comment about a person, and my Gunny brought me up short with the reply, "He's not evil - he's just a messed-up guy trying to make the best of a messed-up situation. That doesn't stop me from killing him if I need to - but if I get away without killing him, that's fine, too. I can't hate him, that's for sure." I get the feeling that the authors have noticed that too, and one of the subplots address this. But this story has something for everybody - blood and thunder, intelligent cultural design, well-thought out characters and situations - it definitely falls in the top 10% of the SF on the book rack today.
Rating:
Summary: Missed the Target
Review: This volume of the Starfist series appears to be an ambitious attempt by the authors to be more sci/fi-ish. While this was somewhat achieved the books focus was terrible. The first few chapters seemed out of sequence as if a manuscript fell on the floor and the chapters were hastily reassembled out of order. Also several chapters about an alien Galilleo were accidently placed in this book instead of the book they belonged to, for these chapters had nothing in common with the rest of the book except being on the same planet. LC Dean was virtually missing from the book until he and Owen made a brief cameo appearance in the last chapter. Note to authors: MORE OWEN!!! in future. Also we learn trials for criminals are optional and alien vivisection is just peachy keen, no repercussions need be faced. This is set in the 25th century but little sign of the incredible scientific capabilities are present in any book in the series. A full molecular scan of that time could probably tell what the alien had for breakfast last week, intrusive medical dissections are 19th century stuff. Even the god awful ST: Voyager gives a good idea of how future science technology can advance. Conclusion: Books I,II,IV well done, Book III poorly thought out, Book V: ambition good; poor organization, shaggy dog characters ie. Nast, Tweed, etc. bad. Take your time with the next one and win your fans back.
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