Title: Starfist: Flashfire Purchase Item Manufacturer: Del Rey List Price: $19.95 Our Price: $5.73
Customer Reviews:
Starfist: Flashfire by Del Rey Another great book
This is another great book in the STARFIST series. You dont have to start with the first book but I would recomend you do. Well worth your money.
Starfist: Flashfire by Del Rey HoHum
First of all I am a fan of this series. This entry is the weakest submission. I realize that in writing a multi book series there are going to be the odd stinker. It is difficult to always be at the same creative level. Who know this may have been a rush book because of pressure from an editor/publisher. I am sure that David Sherman and Dan Cragg will be back in fine form in the next book which I am looking forward to.
Starfist: Flashfire by Del Rey General Fancypants in Command
Flashfire (2006) is the eleventh Combat SF novel in the StarFIST series. The Coalition of Worlds consists of a dozen frontier planets that have accumulated a huge trade deficit with other planets of the Confederacy. Under the leadership of Ravenette -- the most wealthy member -- the Coalition worlds have decided that the solution to their problems is secession from the Confederacy. The Confederacy would have let the Coalition go to perdition in their own way, but there is always the problem of the alien Skinks. With the Skinks probing the frontier, the Confederacy has beefed up its forces on the Coalition worlds and others in the vicinity. This additional military presence hasn't improved public relations on those planets, but everything about the Skinks is classified at the highest level. Various critics have pointed out the problems with withholding such information from the affected worlds. In this novel, a mob of 300 Ravenette men, women and children forms in front of the main gates of Fort Seymour, a recently reinforced supply deport. The mob throws firebombs and other objects at the 30 soldiers facing them, although most are falling short. Suddenly a brick takes out the officer of the guard and a shot is fired at the soldiers. After the shooting dies down, the vid cameras record the carnage from this incident and the Ravenette government distributes copies of the vids to news agencies throughout the Confederacy. The official reports reach the Confederation government central offices well after the vids appear on local networks. The President of the Confederacy -- Madam Chang-Sturdevant -- is quite irritated at the delays in the official reports, but has to face a full session of Congress with little more than the information in the vids. The Representative of Ravenette -- Preston Summers -- makes a stirring speech and then presents the Coalition demands. An argument ensues and Summers assaults another representative with his cane. The Coalition representatives walk out of the Congress and then the Coalition presents an Ordinance of Secession to the Confederacy. In this story, General Davis Lyons is commander of the military forces of Ravenette. He has served with the Confederation forces and is well aware of their numbers and abilities. He sees no way for the Coalition to win any war with the Confederacy and he informs the convention of delegates from the Coalition worlds that they are going to lose. Yet he has personal reasons for trying to attack the Confederacy and is appointed commanding general of all Coalition forces. Major General Alistair Cazombi is commander of Fort Seymour. He was a fighting general and one of the critics of the high level policy on the Skinks. After serving on Avionia, Cazombi was assigned as C1 for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He had a semi-public confrontation with the Chairman about Confederation policy of sequestering troops who have fought against the Skinks and the Chairman had him transferred as far from Fargo as possible. Brigadier General Balca Sorca is commander of the 3rd Provisional Infantry Division, which has been transferred to Ravenette to provide additional security to Fort Seymour. Although General Cazombi is senior to General Sorca, the 3rd Provisional Infantry is an independent command and is not subject to orders from the base commander. Despite advice from Cazombi, General Sorca uses a defensive line rather than a defense in depth. When the initial offensive by Coalition troops quickly penetrates the line of Confederation forces, the surviving troops have to fall back to positions previously prepared by Cazombi on the Bataan peninsula. This location has been nicknamed "Bataan" from its obvious resemblance to the peninsula in Manila Bay on Earth. Originally used to store supplies, equipment and ordinance, the tunnels have been extensively fortified by Cazombi's troops and engineers borrowed from Sorca. Once the retreating troops are settled into these defensive positions, Sorca relinquishes command to General Cazombi. This story tells of the Confederation response to this attack on Fort Seymour. Until a properly equipped and trained task force can be assembled, nearby Confederation forces are inserted piecemeal onto Ravenette. These reinforcements suffer heavy casualties while landing on the planet. With adroit political maneuvering, Lieutenant General Jason Billie gains command of the relieving forces. The 34th FIST is assigned to his command. The men don't mind, since they have avoided an IG review of their unit, but Brigadier Sturgeon soon discovers that General Billie is a self-important incompetent. Brigadier Sturgeon soon develops his own ways of obtaining intelligence and establishes cooperative arrangements with other commanders. He informs General Billie of enemy maneuvers and finds means of delaying execution of inept orders until the misperceptions are very apparent. In effect, the 34th is operating as an independent unit, but they can't really reach their full effectiveness with General Billie hanging around their neck. Obviously, this story has many similarities to the start of the United States Civil War. The generals on both sides, and many of the troops, learned their trades in the same Confederation units. These generals are often personally acquainted with their opponents. Ironic, isn't it, that the established government in this series is the Confederacy? In fact, this story is, in several ways, a caricature on the secession of the southern states. Nonetheless, the Confederation forces are far larger than the Coalition forces, much more than the Union forces outnumbered the Rebels. As General Lyons points out in this story, the Confederacy can surely overwhelm the Coalition given sufficient time. This tale cuts off at the height of General Billie's foolishness. The story continues into the next volume: Firestorm. Read the two together if you can. Highly recommended for Sherman & Cragg fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of large battles, military politics, and strange romantic affairs. -Arthur W. Jordin
Starfist: Flashfire by Del Rey Flashfire
It's an extremely well written book. I love the storyline it fits perfectly into the way the modern day military is controlled by political robots who know nothing about fighting a war. I look forward to the next book and hope to enjoy the adventures of the 34th fist last a long time.
Starfist: Flashfire by Del Rey Didn't make it past page 130
I felt nothing from this book, I didn't even hate it enough to give one star. This story is mediocre. As far a military science fiction goes, Starfist: Flashfire had the worst plot shortcuts jammed together in one volume. It's the future, say at least one thousand years, mankind is all over our galaxy. The all male (both sides, apparently) military still frequents whorehouses named 'Big Barb's', doesn't have anything like a force screen to stop flying debris that incite a lethal riot, and still uses weapons from the 1980's. Nothing like a knock-out field, but lots of planes, tanks, guns, and sidearms. I expected science fiction. I didn't get it. This is military fiction as it's most indifferent, as the 'leaders' on both sides lament how they knew disaster inevitable, but they were powerless to stop the consensus bureaucracy. I like to think in the far future humanity might stop making the same stupid mistakes. I didn't care about the characters -- typical politicians re-enacting incidents ripped off from American history (example: galactic congressman with a Southern accent who re-enacts the historical metal tipped cane beating of the 1800's by Senator Brooks of Senator Sumner) and standard enlisted men. Don't buy or read this book. If you want military fiction read Bujold's ten volumes of Miles Vorkosigan, Scalzi's "Old Man's War," S.M. Stirling, Heinlein, David Weber, or John Ringo.
Starfist: Flashfire by Del Rey Product Description
Packed with hard-core action written by battle-savvy combat veterans, the explosive Starfist series has become hugely popular across America. Now the saga of the courageous Marines continues in Flashfire, as the 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) ventures to the edge of Human Space to fight a number of enemies . . . some on their own side. Tensions erupt between the Confederation and several frontier worlds when civilians are shot dead at an army base on the planet Ravenette. Enraged, the Ravenette government and nine neighboring planets form a coalition, and their first act of secession is to overrun Ravenette’s Confederation garrison. With the armed forces of ten worlds seizing the brutal upper hand, the embattled troops need help–now–and they need it bad. Enter the Marines of the 34th FIST. As the nearest ready-to-deploy unit, the team is sent to Ravenette with orders to hold the line until reinforcements arrive. The upcoming operation promises to be no picnic, for while sophisticates may ridicule the backward ways of the uncouth frontier folk, no one scoffs at their fighting ability. Charlie Bass doesn’t mince words for his men in Company L’s third platoon. Two army divisions–perhaps thirty thousand soldiers–are being overwhelmed, and somebody expects a thousand Marines to save the day. As pompous Confederation generals wreak even more havoc than the enemy, there are those who call the mission suicide . . . but not the Marines. Of course it sounds hopeless, but for Marines like Charlie Bass and the rest of the 34th FIST, accomplishing the impossible comes with the territory.