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Starfist #11
Flashfire
Packed with hard-core action written by battle-savvy combat veterans, the explosive Starfist series has become hugely popular across America. Now the saga of the courageous Marines continues in Flashfire , as the 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) ventures to the edge of Human Space to fight a number of enemies . . . some on their own side.
Tensions erupt between the Confederation and several frontier worlds when civilians are shot dead at an army base on the planet Ravenette. Enraged, the Ravenette government and nine neighboring planets form a coalition, and their first act of secession is to overrun Ravenette’s Confederation garrison. With the armed forces of ten worlds seizing the brutal upper hand, the embattled troops need help—now—and they need it bad.
Enter the Marines of the 34th FIST. As the nearest ready-to-deploy unit, the team is sent to Ravenette with orders to hold the line until reinforcements arrive. The upcoming operation promises to be no picnic, for while sophisticates may ridicule the backward ways of the uncouth frontier folk, no one scoffs at their fighting ability.
Charlie Bass doesn’t mince words for his men in Company L’s third platoon. Two army divisions—perhaps thirty thousand soldiers—are being overwhelmed, and somebody expects a thousand Marines to save the day. As pompous Confederation generals wreak even more havoc than the enemy, there are those who call the mission suicide . . . but not the Marines.
Of course it sounds hopeless, but for Marines like Charlie Bass and the rest of the 34th FIST, accomplishing the impossible comes with the territory.
Tensions erupt between the Confederation and several frontier worlds when civilians are shot dead at an army base on the planet Ravenette. Enraged, the Ravenette government and nine neighboring planets form a coalition, and their first act of secession is to overrun Ravenette’s Confederation garrison. With the armed forces of ten worlds seizing the brutal upper hand, the embattled troops need help—now—and they need it bad.
Enter the Marines of the 34th FIST. As the nearest ready-to-deploy unit, the team is sent to Ravenette with orders to hold the line until reinforcements arrive. The upcoming operation promises to be no picnic, for while sophisticates may ridicule the backward ways of the uncouth frontier folk, no one scoffs at their fighting ability.
Charlie Bass doesn’t mince words for his men in Company L’s third platoon. Two army divisions—perhaps thirty thousand soldiers—are being overwhelmed, and somebody expects a thousand Marines to save the day. As pompous Confederation generals wreak even more havoc than the enemy, there are those who call the mission suicide . . . but not the Marines.
Of course it sounds hopeless, but for Marines like Charlie Bass and the rest of the 34th FIST, accomplishing the impossible comes with the territory.
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published March 27, 2007
16 people are currently reading
176 people want to read
About the author
David Sherman
67 books98 followersDavid Sherman was the author or co-author of some three dozen books, most of which are about Marines in combat.
He wrote about US Marines in Vietnam (the Night Fighters series and three other novels), and the DemonTech series about Marines in a fantasy world. The 18th Race trilogy is military science fiction.
Other than military, he wrote a non-conventional vampire novel, The Hunt, and a mystery, Dead Man's Chest. He also released a collection of short fiction and non-fiction from early in his writing career, Sherman's Shorts; the Beginnings.
With Dan Cragg he wrote the popular Starfist series and its spin off series, Starfist: Force Recon—all about Marines in the Twenty-fifth Century.; and a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial.
His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.
David passed away in November 2022.
He wrote about US Marines in Vietnam (the Night Fighters series and three other novels), and the DemonTech series about Marines in a fantasy world. The 18th Race trilogy is military science fiction.
Other than military, he wrote a non-conventional vampire novel, The Hunt, and a mystery, Dead Man's Chest. He also released a collection of short fiction and non-fiction from early in his writing career, Sherman's Shorts; the Beginnings.
With Dan Cragg he wrote the popular Starfist series and its spin off series, Starfist: Force Recon—all about Marines in the Twenty-fifth Century.; and a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial.
His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.
David passed away in November 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Want to read
July 19, 2020elibrary
January 9, 2022
Great continuation of a really good story. Characters are believable and you can recognise and sympathise. A good read but it is a continuation.
May 3, 2013
This book was definitely the weakest in the Starfist series so far. Actually it was quite a disappointment as far as I am concerned. My main complaint is that there is really not enough of 34th FIST and a whole lot of political bullshitting instead. A god chunk of the book, especially the first half, is dedicated to talking, political maneuvering and manipulation and such like nonsense and, as a result, it is really boring as far as I am concerned. Even when the 34th FIST gets involved the reading is tainted by the fact that an unbelievable incompetent and stupid general, who has become general by means of political manipulation and not on merit, comes barging in and screws everyone, naturally at the cost of peoples’ lives.
The action on those pages that actually involves the well-known characters from the 34th FIST are written to the same high standards as we are used to from David Sherman & Co but there are just too few of those pages for the book to be enjoyable.
I’m going to keep this a short review and not drone on about it because I really did not appreciate this book in the Starfist series.
The action on those pages that actually involves the well-known characters from the 34th FIST are written to the same high standards as we are used to from David Sherman & Co but there are just too few of those pages for the book to be enjoyable.
I’m going to keep this a short review and not drone on about it because I really did not appreciate this book in the Starfist series.
July 11, 2014
Good military formula writing, does not matter if it is in the future or past. Bored with it before the end. Wanting to know more about the characters. Possible problems with technology of the time. Kind of nice being in most cases, (if you are a Marine) to be able to be patched up and go back to battle with little chance of dying. Not so with the opposition, maybe.
October 20, 2012
It is what it is an action packed book in the middle of a series.
March 25, 2016
Space rednecks fight space marines in space civil war. Kind of a neat premise, weird sideplots that don't really work thrown in though.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews