Del Rey, 1999, ISBN 0-345-42526-X, $5.99, 399 pages

The third in the First to Fight series picks up the action for the 34th F.I.S.T. Marine Battalion on Diamunde, where ruthless industrialist Marston St. Cyr just grabbed control of the mineral-rich planet. Well, with all the shooting and threatening, the marines are called in to remove the little corporate dictator--except he has an ace up his sleeve: tanks.

Yes, the future is all infantry because an infantryman with a cheap 25th Century bazooka can take out a very expensive and high maintenance tank. But if there are no bazookas in inventory, that's another story. But adaptation is what it means to be a Marine.

Sherman's and Cragg's prose measure up to their first two novels, and you quickly warm to the cast of hard-core characters. Of course, there's not a screw-up among the heroes, and sure enough, the screw-ups die faster than a red-shirted Star Trek security crewman! Hey! That's what readers like to read and writers like to write.

If it's all a bit too chummy, and the action leaps off the page just a bit too quickly and amazingly, well, so be it. If it gets a bit crude in parts and turns into something out of James Bond and Indiana Jones, well, so be it. And if the new mascot--a "woo"--acts like a Tribble and you just know the thing's going to be involved throughout the book, well, so be that too. The fact is, you must roll with the punches and hang on for a wild ride into combat and derring-do. Don't read too much into the plot, or wonder why a genius like St. Cyr becomes increasingly inept. Instead, just read. You'll be glad you did.

More in the First to Fight series

StarFist Book I: First to Fight
StarFist Book II: School of Fire
StarFist Book III: Steel Gauntlet
StarFist Book IV: Blood Contact