Customer Reviews

Backshot: Starfist: Force Recon Book 1

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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

This is the first spinoff of the StarFIST series. Instead of involving FIST marines, it involves Recon marines. They are called into to investigate reports that an independent planet is developing a super weapon. If the claims are true, they are to destroy the development program and assassinate the leader of the planet. The problem is that the reports have been submitted by political hacks pursuing their own agenda. They are not above fabricating evidence to achieve that agenda. The result is tragedy.

The story itself is well written and exciting. It deals with people who are good, people who are bad, people who are amoral, people who are idealists, people who are innocent and people who are guilty as sin. In short, take away the gee-whiz factor and background and it deals with people like we have in every day and age. That is always the best basis for a story.

While this one was a bit depressing, I still wait to see what happens in the next instalment.

The book is a good read, though it does seem to lack some of the quality of the main StarFist series.

I have enjoyed all the "Starfist" books to this point. I don't know what the authors were thinking when they put "Force Recon" together, but it was frankly a flop. Maybe someone needed a paycheck or the publisher was pushing for something new. Whichever, this was a poor example of what the authors are capable of. Coming from a family of Marines and with friends still in the Corps, some currently deployed with real Force Recon units, I found this book less than pleasing. Maybe the next installment will be better.

i really liked the starfist series when it first started. but in this new book the marines are used to kill the leader of a memeber world of the confederation based on flimsey intelligence. for a government that has a secret prison planet where people are held with out trial or recoure called darkside. where a marine kills a helpless conferderaton citizen because the little he saw may expose the confederation's secret op against one of its own memeber worlds. i like stories to be more white than black maybe that's my sense of whats right, i just found this to be to dark for my tastes.

I hate to right a review like this one. I think that the original StarFIST series is top-notch. Too bad that this spin-off ain't.

*sigh* Well, here goes:

This story provides a few glimpses of the 'ole StarFIST magic.....but only fading glimpses.

First off, I don't find the idea of a troop of Force Recon Marines all living in mortal fear of an "elfin-faced" woman to be believable. It's likely that some editor or other told the writers to include a 'strong woman' in their storyline. After all, the original StarFIST series is pretty much male-dominated. As is the combat military in the real world -- but hey: we've got a politically correct agenda to push here, don't 'cha know.........?

We are told over and over again about Bella Dawn's (what a name) deadly eyes -- and about how terrifying those eyes are to all of the men. Well, you know the old saying: "If looks could kill........."

The female Confederation President comes across as a true disciple of Machiavelli. She exercises nearly absolute power without heart. Not as someone to be admired on *any* level. If she's supposed to be another example of the 'strong woman' archetype of the future: then I for one would rather remain mired in the politically-incorrect past.

The third 'strong woman' that this novel holds up for our admiration is a professional cloak-and-dagger assassin. She gleefully cuts throats with razorblades for fun & thrills.

You know -- I suppose that we are all supposed to conclude that being a "strong woman" entails being a violent psychopath of one sort or another.

The only truly admirable character in this sad book is General Lavager. And he gets assassinated by Ms. Deadly Eyes. Just lovely.

In one scene, a Force Recon Marine first apologizes to an innocent civilian truck driver, and then brutally murders him in cold blood. The Marine walks off saying "I really hated to do that to him........." Later on, that same Marine is rewarded for his exemplary service to the Corps by being shipped off to officer training school.

Another thing: it seems that the characters in these stories are constantly being threatened by their government with exile to Darkside (wherever that is) if they don't behave themselves. Sort of reminiscent of threatening children with the bogey man if they don't shut up and stay quiet.

I dunno.....it sounds like the 'ol Confederation government is rotting from the head down like a fish does.

Guys -- a word of advice. Take it for what it's worth to you: <u>cater to your audience in these books</u>. Don't bow to the politically correct fads of this particular moment in history. The type of guys who are interested in reading books like the StarFIST series don't want to be force-fed with amoral post-modern meanderings. Let the politically correct anti-military crowd entertain their own kind. No matter what some snooty editor tells you that you ought to do.

This type of tripe simply serves to offend your fan base.

I've read and enjoyed all the StarFIST novels. This is one of them in name only. It starts like a typical Starfist novel and even ties in some references to Charlie Bass and high level politicians but there the similarity ends.

I never did figure out what the author's point was except perhaps to rake in some quick cash. The men of the FIST are hard working, hard fighting Marines who trace an honorable history back to the US Marines of the 19th & 20th century. These "Force Recon" marines are a ruthless bunch of screw-ups who could trace their ancestry back to the Waffen SS.

Rather than root for them I soon found myself rooting for the opposition. They invade a fellow member of the confederation, screw-up their primary assignment, fail to get the info they were sent for, kill allied soldiers and airmen, murder helpless civilian prisoners, and assinate the leader of a confederation allied state.

Someone should remind the authors that Recon is about getting accurate, timely, information. It's not about blowing things up.

I really wasted my money on this book, I definitely won't be the first lemming off the cliff the next time these authors have something to peddle.

Actually, the book ticked me off. It was probably TOO authentic, contrasting the professionalism of the specops group to the smallminded pettiness of the bureaucrats controlling their assignments. Some good action, and "magic" equipment was interesting. I still like to see the good guys win, not get used by the turkeys.