Eos, 2003, $7.50, ISBN: 0-380-81824-8, paperback, 453 pages

Ian Douglas, author of the terrific Heritage Star Marines trilogy and I believe the nom de plume of William Keith (he of BattleTech fiction, too, I also believe), comes back with book 1 of the Legacy series. This also might be called Star Marines: The Next Generation as the timeline is ahead a couple of generations from the previous books. The main character, John Garroway, is the great gandson of one of the main characters in the Heritage trilogy.

In any case, we follow a number of recruits who become Marines and get sent to another world to kill a lot of most unreasonable aliens. Along the way is an evil corporate presence, ala the movie Alien, which complicate the Marines' mission as well as some other twists and turns.

All in all, the prose moves the action, the action moves the plot, and the plot moves the book. You don't have to worry about a lot of subtlety here. If you can't shoot it, laser it, or frag it, it's just window dressing. That's just the kind of book I like and I like Star Corps.

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