Search - First to Fight (Starfist, Bk 1)

"Marines, we have just become a low-tech deep recon patrol . . ."Stranded in a hellish alien desert, stripped of their strategic systems, quick reaction force, and supporting arms, and carrying only a days water ration, Marine Staff Sergeant Charlie Bass and his seven-man team faced a grim future seventy-five light-years from home. The only thing between his Marines and safety was eighty-five miles of uncharted, waterless terrain and two thousand bloodthirsty savages with state-of-the-art weapons in their hands and murder on their minds. But the enemy didnt reckon on the warrior cunning of Marines' Marine Charlie Bass and the courage of the few good men who would follow him anywhere--even to death. . . "HARD TO PUT DOWN . . . Any book written by Cragg and Sherman is bound to be addictive, and this is the first in what promises to be a great adventure series. FIRST TO FIGHT is rousing, rugged, and just plain fun."

Space Marine adventure. Great futuristic battle and tactics descriptions.

I've met both authors in person at conventions, and attended some small conferences with them, both are military vets who not only "talk the talk" but they've "walked the walk" and it comes across in their writing.

This, the first book in their popular Starfist series, is a prime example of the old writer's creed of, "write what you know". Being a vet myself, I found I could not only relate well to the characters, but nothing in any of the books in the series ever rang "false" to me. In each case the characters react and interact they way an actual unit does, but during combat and during "down time".

I highly praise both authors for bringing to the page the full sense of what it's like to be part of a small unit in a much larger organization and then combining that with a science fiction storyline that is both believable and entertaining.

I really enjoyed this book. It was, by virtue of its genre as a military action book, fairly predictable, but that is why I love these. Good creative writing with a few unusual surprises.