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Title: Star Corps (The Legacy Trilogy | Book 1) |
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Review of Star Corps (The Legacy Trilogy, Book 1)
In the future,
earth's warriors have
conquered the heavens.But on a distant world,
Humanity is in chains ...Many millennia ago, the human race was enslaved by the An -- a fearsome alien people whose cruel empire once spanned the galaxies, until they were defeated and consigned to oblivion. But a research mission to the planet Ishtar has made a terrifying -- and fatal -- discovery: the Ahanu, ancestors of the former masters, live on, far from the reach of Earth -- born weapons and technology ... and tens of thousands of captive human souls still bow to their iron will. Now Earth's Interstellar Marine Expeditionary Unit must undertake a rescue operation as improbable as it is essential to humankind's future, embarking on a ten-year voyage to a hostile world to face an entrenched enemy driven by dreams of past glory and intent once more on domination. For those who, for countless generations, have known nothing but toil and subjugation must be granted, at all costs, the precious gift entitled to all of their star-traveling kind: freedom!
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Comments for Star Corps (The Legacy Trilogy | Book 1)
- Posted on 2007-06-01
Excellent follow up on the Heritage Trilogy
If you liked the Heritage Trilogy, well.... then you simply must read the Legacy Trilogy
Book one plunges you right into the story. Humankind is visiting the worlds seen through the ancient communication device on Mars and has made contact with the decendants of the AN. And things are not going as planned, and Earth is sending in the Marines.
Well.... I'm not going to tell more but I promise an excellent story by Ian Douglas, for all people who love Mil-Sci-Fi simply an excellent read.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-05-25
Good, but if you are detail-oriented, the author's "little" slips will bug you.
I made the mistake of reading this book before even knowing about the Heritage Trilogy... OK. So, I go back and read the original three books and they are (and this book is)... good. I don't know about you, but "good" is not what I really look for in a book (or, even worse, a SERIES of books) that are going to take up a few hours or more of my time. I like to think - accurately or not - that my time is more valuable than to spend it on the merely "good."
Understand that a big part of my "good" rating stems from the author's many little errors/inconsistencies. Don't make me look up page numbers (I won't anyway) but off the top of my head, I remember a few times where he gets ranks mixed up (once in a scene where Fuentes is remembering her role on the Moon and the author writes that she was a Colonel in that action and CO of the op. Not true - on either count... She was a Captain. A Colonel Avery - I think that was his name - was CO. This was, in fact, a big thing as Capt. Lee (and Dr. Alexander and the Navy flight crew) on board the Anti-Matter command ship for that op, USS Ranger w/ Col Avery had to convince him to slow the craft in order to provide air-support and to land to pick up/care for the wounded ( ONE OF WHICH was a CAPT FUENTES!!) until the relief vessels could arrive. He also, at one point, switches Lt. K. Garroway's unit designation from 2nd Squad, Bravo Company to 1st Squad, Bravo Company (or something similar - I might have the exact designations mixed up or reversed, but you get the idea) within just a few pages. Lastly (on my list here, not "lastly" in terms of his annoying errors... by far), At one point (in Luna Marine, I think) Mr. Douglas makes a big point out of Dr. David Alexander being the ONLY civilian on Garroway's March and an "honorary" Marine (whatever that is...but that's another, totally unrelated gripe). Later in two places, I think - but the one I can specifically remember is in Europa Strike - he comments that Dr. Alexander was one of only a FEW civilians to have made that trek.
Granted, these are minor things to some (even to me) but:
1) This list is BY NO MEANS complete... there are many more examples;
2) Although these things might be minor inconsistencies/errors, they really negatively affected my enjoyment of the book(s). At times - TOO MANY times, I found myself more concerned about reconciling a sentence I just read that didn't seem to fit with what came before with what I thought I'd read in the previous pages, chapters or books than with the STORY. Now maybe that's a problem I need to discuss with a therapist or priest, but I still think that great books/series (or maybe just great EDITORS) wouldn't even make this an issue... hence the "good" assessment stated earlier.
3) To me, and especially in Sci-Fi - a genre of writing wherein the reader is expected to suspend disbelief, stretch their imagination, be open-minded and accepting of what the author is describing and the story he's telling - these types of inconsistencies/errors directly and negatively affect my ability to do just those things listed above. When I am supposed to accept that we're talking about permutations of the Fermi Paradox wherein we don't see any advanced civilizations in space not because they've offed themselves - as often assumed in discussions of Dr. Fermi's paradox - but because the Hunters of the Dawn are all about smashing fledgling civilizations before they can advance beyond a certain point; telling me Kaitlin Garrroway is CO of 1st Sq, Bravo Co when you just said she was CO of 2nd Sq a few pages prior, or telling me a Col. Fuentes commanded the strike on the UNdie Base at Tsiolkovsky Crater as a mere Capt. and not Col. Avery aboard the (very important plot point) A-M powered USS Ranger doesn't really add to the reader's ability to accept ANYTHING the author says after that point. When I, as the reader, am forced to either just ignore these same inconsistencies ( and thereby "accept" that the work is not very good at all) or to go back to previous pages, chapters or even books in the series to double-check some fact that the team of a "great" author (by his inherent ability as a storyteller) and an editor (if they're doing the job they are paid for competently) should have made unneccessary; that makes the story(s) not worth the effort and the author lose stature in my valuation of him from great (which these stories - and, even moreso, the series as a whole - had the potential to truly be!) to something less; and "good" is pushing it a bit...
Maybe the fact that these stories and the series had such potential in my eyes to be so very great and my disappointment that the aforementioned problems hampered my enjoyment and the series' quality have made me overly critical of what is basically a decent set of stories. Maybe not.
If Mr. Douglas is reading this ( if he is, I hope I've not made the same errors of which I accuse him in writing this review and as a result lessening his enjoyment of same... :-) ) and would like a second set of editorial eyes to check his next potentially great work, I'd be happy to help...
Score: 3
- Posted on 2007-01-10
Better than the first 3
this one is better than anyone of the first trilogy
Score: 4
- Posted on 2005-08-24
OK but no Hertiage
The Heritage Legacy books were definitely better. This was ok for a plane ride but no "can't put it down" book
Score: 3 - Posted on 2005-08-16
Join the Corps, travel to distant worlds, meet exotic life forms, and kill them.
If there's one thing I must say about this book, it's that you should definitely read the Heritage Trilogy before opening this one. Otherwise, you'll likely find yourself quite lost in the alien mythos and sociopolitical ideas brought up in the book. They're not terribly complex, but it's important enough to the story that you'll make it easier on yourself. Besides, the previous books are damn good, so why not read them?
As for the book itself, it lives up to the previous three in every way. The action is once again excellent (if somewhat repetitive in many areas). The book's historical parallels are much less pronounced and important than in previous ones. Like earlier books, Douglas makes alot of connections to earlier characters. While all the characters from the previous books should be dead by the time this one takes place, he uses the descendants of many of them. It serves as a nice tie-in to the previous books, even if it's not terribly realistic.
Technologically, there is some crazy stuff inside. Think of having instant access to a computer and the internet, as well as AI assistants, all with a thought. Everything is advanced almost beyond comprehension, but with the rate that things advance today, this is not too far-fetched.
Definitely check this book out if you're into military sci-fi, but read the Heritage Trilogy first.
Score: 5