Search - Semper Mars (Heritage, Bk 1)

There are 3 books in the series. They are all well worth reading if you like realistic stories and science.

A bit dry at first, but by the middle of the book it became pretty interesting. It reminded me of other military sci-fi i've read in that the action is not extremely detailed and has a decent amount of reality to it. My only gripes are it's sometimes too obvious gung ho attitude about the marines (forgivable as they are the centerpiece of the book) and the ineptitude and obvious 'bad guy' image of the UN.

Very clever tale of the U.S. Marines as they take to space for battle on Mars over ancient artifacts. Great military space opera.

This book begins a trilogy of top-notch, imaginative space opera. A good read.

From back cover: The Year is 2040.
The Marines have landed on Mars to guard the unearthed secrets
of an ancient and dangerous alien race:
Ourselves.
Scientists have discovered something astonishing in the subterranean ruins of a sprawling Martian city: startling evidence of an alternative history that threatens to split humanity into opposing factions and plunge the Earth into chaos and war. The USMC -- a branch of a military considered, until just recently, to be obsolete -- has dispatched the Marine Mars Expeditionary Force, a thirty-man weapons platoon, to the Red Planet to protect American civilians and interest with lethal force if necessary.
Because great powers are willing to devastate a world in order to keep an ancient secret buried. Because something that was hidden in the Martian dust for half a million years has just been unearthed . . . something that calls into question every belief that forms the delicate foundation of civilization . . .
Something inexplicably human.