Customer Reviews

Star Strike (The Inheritance Trilogy, Book 1)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have read the previous two triologies, Heritage and Legacy. This is a great start to the new series. Mr. Douglas/Kieth has done it again.

Being a former Marine, I feel he captures the feel and attitude of the Marines he is writing about. He brings in the stress of combat and the aftermath into the forefront and does not make the characters supermen and women. He brings out the depth and emotion of what it feels like to be close to a small group of people. He also, for me at least, captures the antipathy and bigotry that Marines run into. He shows that the Marines are not killing machines but real people.

The universe he has created over the last six books is a very deep and rich one. It is not a perfect universe where everyone gets along and all push together. He brings out the competion that humans have and the conflicts that arise.

If you have not read the previous books, go back and read them. You will not be sorry. But you can pick this book up and will not be disappointed.

There is a lot of plot refreshing and background explaining in the first third part of this book, all things that are known to those who read the first 6 books. But it playing hundreds of years after book 6 justifies some explaining and also opens up for a new readership of course. It essentially gets started with this new trilogy on how (hopefully) humanity destroys the Xul. I must say they are off to a good start with the help of a new alien race ally. The end of this book leaves taste for more and I can not wait for book 2 of this trilogy where things should get really interesting. Overall I love it and would recommend a new reader to get started with the very first book though: Semper Mars.

The seventh Star Marine book by Ian Douglas benefits from many of the same strengths as the earlier books: well though-out future history; nice technological extrapolation; good action sequences. The plot seems a bit derivative of earlier books and the book could have used a good editor - there are continuity errors and it can be repetitive. That said, I really enjoyed it and will buy the rest of the trilogy. Douglas (William Keith) gets the military, writes in a gritty way and isn't afraid to tangle with one of the tougher issues of military sf: how advanced technology will effect the troops on the ground or how war is fought. The opening scene is a great riff on the first chapter of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, only grittier and brought up to date. Buy this, but read the ealier books in the series first.

Great continuation of the saga. But there were many repetitive paragraphs and the wrong name for a character was used a number of times at the end... You'll see what I mean when you read it.

This is the first volume in the "Inheritance Trilogy," his third trilogy in his future history of the Marines. It's about 500 years after the events of the "Legacy Trilogy," and humankind has spread over a considerable number of stars, as the Xul seem to have lost the location and even knowledge of the existence of Earth after the Marine raid destroying one of their bases at the end of the previous trilogy. But then a final message squirted from the AI running a ship bound for the Andromeda galaxy, carrying a lot of Important People (in cold sleep) who'd decided not to risk being around when the Xul attacked Earth, reveals that the Xul had found that ship and downloaded all the information from the AI's data banks before destroying it. So someone of the Xul knows of Earth again, and the question isn't if but when they'll strike again (and then search out other human-inhabited planets and annihilate them). So the Marines to the rescue again, with an expedition to take the war to the Xul. And they're also looking for help, and think they may have found it in the region of the Orion Nebula... This series isn't a patch on several others of similar nature that I've read, like Weber's Mutineers' Moon/Armageddon Inheritance/Heirs of Empire trilogy, or the first few of Ringo's Posleen War books (though that one has gotten tedious as Ringo has let his far-right politics dominate the stories, so I haven't read the last few), but it's readable enough and has fast action, so I keep buying and reading it even though the characters are generally pretty cardboard and it's not terribly imaginative.

Ian Douglas's "Star Strike" is a great addition to his past trilogies. All the action of the Marines in space. I consider him a top writer of the SF/Military genere and this book lives up to his talents. The Marines meet their biggest challenge against a foe that is far ahead of the human race in technology and intelligence. One of best things about Douglas' books is the way he weaves life as a Marine with the very plausible science of artificial intelligence and faster-than-light travel and communications.
I highly recommend this book and can't wait for the next installment.

I've been a fan of Ian Douglas for quite a while. Found his work at a local Borders and I bought his entire Legacy Trilogy. I loved it. Found it every intriguing, as a fan of sci fi that enjoys works that are more hardcore than StarWars.
I think it was the shock factor of actually "devastating" earth [go read it for the true details] that magnetized me to his previous work, and I was also drawn to the futuristic theme interwoven into the combat suits, small cylindrical Marine drop-pods, battle spacecrafts and the setup of modern grounded structures. Obviously a lot of thought went into that series by the author, and I give him his due credit.

But in this new series, perhaps the third Trilogy set written by the author, I was disappointed. Why? Because the work became very predictable, adamantly redundant and slightly stale, in my opinion. The main villains to humanity in the previous series, keep rising as a deadly ancient menace that is focused on eradicating all other sentient life in the galaxy. And the resilient humans keep rising over the years, becoming smarter over the centuries as they assimilate the eldritch technology stolen from the Xul [and given from other friendlier old aquatic races from foreign a distant world]. Trans-c technologies that help to provide super acceleration have been extensively studied and innovatively applied to earthly Marine cruisers/warships. There are several rings around the earth, which serve as communal housing depots and office establishments. The dispersal of Nano-D clouds is introduced, helping the Marines to devour their foes on harsh battlefields. But they good guys are still no match for the Hunters of the Dawn [the Xul villains], technology wise.

In this brand new series... the grand plot is Exactly the same. I did not see any new innovations that could clearly tag this as a completely New Trilogy. This book, Star Strike, would even be best called Part 4, from the previous Trilogy tale. Here in Star Strike, the humans keep looking for new distant star clusters that host the alien Xul, and they seem to employ slightly newer technologies in their spaceship warp-drives and their contained warheads.

The Space Marines are called on once again, alerted about a recently destroyed space transport piloted by an AI that was launched back in the other trilogy [transporting important rich humans in cryo-sleep to the Andromeda galaxy], after earth was ravaged by the Xul alien invaders. Now, the alien Xul are starting to hunt the earth again, but the earth's disparate government alliances are virtually at war with one another. Humans are fighting other rebel human forces. And no one wants to pay for an expensive war campaign against the Xul, and the Marines need sanctioning political and military support before they can be deployed into space.

Arguments arise again between the world powers. And we have the traditional bickering in grand assemblies [exactly formatted like the meetings in the previous Trilogy], as politicians and senators clash with veteran militant idealists who are advocates for the greater good.
Its almost like the humans are confronted with this cyclic dilemma: "Damn the Xul are back, and they're probably hunting earth again. They're bigger and stronger. And we'll be damned if we fight, and damned if we don't..."

Core storyline is basically the same as in the previous Trilogy: A sneak attack is obviously the solution, upon Starwall, the identified habitual nexus of the Xul. Giant tuned Star-gates in space will help the Marines virtually teleport to a distant star cluster, and there, you bomb the bad guys [after you "gain sanctioning clearance" to use that particular star-gate from the colonial masters that claim the right to it]. After blasting the bad guys, we may have to bomb the star-gate as well, so they can't chase us back to the galactic heart of Sol. You win, and Species-2824 survives... for now, till the next book.

The main protagonist is a blood relative of the original hero from the first Trilogy, since these books have like 100 to 500 years between each tale. And sometimes, traveling back and forth over light years across the stars is the main cause why the large time gaps exist between the books. In this book, Private Aiden Garroway is the rising hero. But there is little or no character development for this protagonist. I found myself not caring about battle build ups, because I couldn't relate to the hero; you don't really get to know what makes him tick. Therefore, you don't really care about what happens to him.

Halfway into the story, the Stars Of Aquilla are presented: a distant star cluster approximately 350 light-years away, where there may be more "friendly" sentient life... or maybe the lifeforms there are evil. But on the other hand, the Xul may have pounded the lifeforms at the Stars of Aquilla several centuries ago, causing several supernovae to be witnessed from that distant segment of space.
The Marines are now thinking of heading out to that star system, to glean any remnants of high-tech alien technology, to use against the Xul... but what awaits them there? And what about the pending invasion at Starwall? What will happen to earth??
Hell, I really don't care.

I couldn't bear to read this one to the very end. It's just too predictable. I love the author and I respect his style, but this new Trilogy already sounds like a story he's told before. Yes, there was action in deep-space... but I'd seen it all before, in the previous Trilogy--the good guys use new tools to do the same thing.
Everyone will have their own opinion. Just don't expect anything extremely new plot wise, in this Star Strike.

He spends a lot of time on Marine Corp history. I found the book tedious and wanted to speed read through parts to get to the next idea. I found his "faster than light" explanations taking fantacy to the extreem. He tries to base his assertions on science which turns into science double talk and streaches the imagination to the limits. Definately not a page turner for me. Weak plot, no surprises generally boring.

I enjoyed this book so much I purchased the six previous books in the series. I have now read the first three and my opinion is still the same - I highly recommend them all.

I picked up and read Star Strike the moment I saw it on the bookshelf. I have been waiting none to patiently for it. It is set in a universe where the Fermi paradox has been answered in a way that humanity was not prepared for and rather than humans being the lords of creations striding among the stars, we are more like foxes and rats, trying to hide and not get noticed. There is a distinct colonization going on from the solar system, and has been for a long time, there are distinct political entities all with the "sure" answer to avoiding extermination (while of course fighting with all the other humans to bring their way of life to the uncultured). Unfortunately an incident brings our existence back up to the forefront of the xenophobic and incredibly powerful race and makes some decisions inevitable. Not surprisingly, the political infighting at home isn't much affected by the truth, but more on who gets what out of the deal. Rather like politics today. All in all a very enjoyable read, showing soldiers willing to put their lives on the line for a system that doesn't think much of them. I am eagerly awaiting the next book in the set.