4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Realistic, includes the good, the bad, and the ugly, February 4, 2006
This book is well written and well thought out. While it doesn't immediately grab hold of the reader, the plot and characters are so well depicted that readers will find it hard to put down. This book shows that sometimes bad people have influence over good people and immoral events are the result of that. The plot brings to light that while it would be nice to live in an idealistic world, reality and human nature just won't allow for the existance of that world.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Rocky Start, but..., January 14, 2006
Some of the previous reviewers really got their knickers into a twist over this book. It's not the best Sherman & Cragg have put out, but it is a decent start for a new spinoff.
I was not pleased to see good troops used for bad purposes, either, but it happens in the real world, too. It's most especially possible to use good troops for bad purposes if the troops and the missions are clandestine. That's why political oversight is such a good idea, in the real world.
In this book the Force Recon unit is actually believable, if you are aware of the training and the capabilities of such units in real history. Although I would tend to think that Starfist Force Recon seems closer to SEAL or Delta Force in how it's being used, and how it seems to be trained. It also, unfortunately, seems to be well-versed in Spetsnaz tactics and techniques. Soviet Spetsnaz were trained to take lives and torture if necessary in order to fulfil their mission -- although borderline psychopaths, such as Bella Dawn, were weeded out of even Spetsnaz units.
In a later book, it would be nice to see Force Recon find out how they had been misused in the case in the book, and then deal effectively and secretly with the jerks in the government who pulled the dirty stunts.
I enjoyed this book, although I would have preferred it if the assassins had not succeeded.
A couple of the previous reviewers had real problems with the strong woman types portrayed in the book. Mostly negatively. I have a book called "The Most Evil Women in History" and it is a hard read due to the horrible things some of these women did (ancient and modern) --- but Bella Dawn would not be the first woman to scare a grown man cold.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Assassination and Politics, May 8, 2007
Backshot (2005) is the first military SF novel in the StarFIST: Force Recon series. Second Platoon, Fourth Force Recon Company, Fourth Fleet Marines, is tasked with the penetration of enemy positions to perform special missions. Recon platoons are smaller than initial strike force platoons, consisting of two sections, each with four squads with four men each. The Force Recon units are also equipped differently, having chameleon suits that provide virtual invisibility.
In this novel, Sergeant Jak Daly and his squad are sent to the 104th Mobile Infantry Division, Confederation Army, on Silvasia to find and fix the headquarters of the Silvasian Liberation Army. The 104th had been seeking this headquarters for seven months, without success.
The SLA is maneuvering within deep forest, but the Navy does not have any warships or sensors overhead to locate the enemy. Army recon units can locate the enemy, but always have to break contact or be defeated in place while the rest of the 104th is deploying to their position. By the time the main force arrives, the SLA headquarters has moved elsewhere.
The commanding general calls for help from the marines. Although he doesn't expect the marines to be any more successful than his own troops, their failure will take some heat off his shoulders. He is totally surprised when the marine recon squad successfully completes its mission.
In this story, after the return of Sergeant Daly and his troopers, the Second Platoon is tasked with an Ultra Secret Eyes Only operation by presidential special order. Something unusual is happening in the Union of Margelan on Atlas. The Central Intelligence Organization has reported signs of a secret weapons project being conducted at the "Cabbage Patch" facility and suggests an assassination of the President of the Union of Margelan.
Later, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommends the drop of a full corps on the site. President Cynthia Chang-Sturdevant soon discards that suggestion with a little assistance from General Anders Aguinaldo, Chief of Staff of the Marine Corps, who had been involved in the disastrous Diamunde operation. The President decides to send in the marines-- i.e., the Second Platoon -- in a covert sneak and peek with a sniper backup plan.
This story depicts J. Murchison Adams, CIO Director, as an aristocratic buffoon with a patrician attitude and a self-serving agenda. He promotes sycophants into the higher CIO ranks and demotes or retires dedicated professionals -- such as Anya Smiler -- from critical positions. He isn't interested in the truth, but in the power that well manipulated information can bring him.
In contrast, President Jorge Liberec Lavager -- target in this assassination plan -- comes across as an honorable man. A former general who has raised the Union of Margelan to political prominence on Atlas, Lavager is concerned with the well being of the citizens of his nation as well as the future of his daughter. He has enemies, both within his own nation and among the other countries on the planet, especially South Solanum, but he is fairly patient until his troops and citizens begin dying.
Like the original StarFIST series, this novel conveys some sense of the political processes that generate the orders for these troops. It tells of maneuvering among higher levels of the Confederation and particularly examines the degeneration of the Confederation CIO under a series of selfish and maladroit directors. It emphasizes the adverse effects of this incompetency upon the armed forces.
Recommended for Sherman & Cragg fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of corrupt officials, political maneuvering and special operations.
-Arthur W. Jordin
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