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Starfist #8
Kingdom's Fury
A few good Marines beat the fierce, fanatical aliens once before. But that was a skirmish–not a full-scale invasion.
The truth is out. No longer are the Skinks just a horrible secret haunting the Marines of Company L. Now the aliens are all-too-real invaders whose savage attacks have devastated planet Kingdom, a world of squabbling religions where the men of the 34th FIST confront a desperate situation. Cities that haven’t already been reduced to rubble are under siege, while starving refugees roam the land. And still the Skinks come, rising from stinking primordial swamps to slake their thirst for slaughter, armed with an uncanny ability to locate the enemy and with weapons so deadly that a single blast can drop a warplane or a decimate a squad.
It’s painfully evident that 34th FIST is no match for these near-invincible killers, which is why third platoon’s been ordered to whip the citizens of Kingdom into fighting shape. With their backs to the wall and time running out, there’s only one way the Marines can turn these timid, quarrelsome men into Take the battle to the enemy. It’s a brilliant strategy, sure to succeed–if it doesn’t get them killed first. . . .
The truth is out. No longer are the Skinks just a horrible secret haunting the Marines of Company L. Now the aliens are all-too-real invaders whose savage attacks have devastated planet Kingdom, a world of squabbling religions where the men of the 34th FIST confront a desperate situation. Cities that haven’t already been reduced to rubble are under siege, while starving refugees roam the land. And still the Skinks come, rising from stinking primordial swamps to slake their thirst for slaughter, armed with an uncanny ability to locate the enemy and with weapons so deadly that a single blast can drop a warplane or a decimate a squad.
It’s painfully evident that 34th FIST is no match for these near-invincible killers, which is why third platoon’s been ordered to whip the citizens of Kingdom into fighting shape. With their backs to the wall and time running out, there’s only one way the Marines can turn these timid, quarrelsome men into Take the battle to the enemy. It’s a brilliant strategy, sure to succeed–if it doesn’t get them killed first. . . .
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
14 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
David Sherman
67 books99 followersDavid Sherman was the author or co-author of some three dozen books, most of which are about Marines in combat.
He wrote about US Marines in Vietnam (the Night Fighters series and three other novels), and the DemonTech series about Marines in a fantasy world. The 18th Race trilogy is military science fiction.
Other than military, he wrote a non-conventional vampire novel, The Hunt, and a mystery, Dead Man's Chest. He also released a collection of short fiction and non-fiction from early in his writing career, Sherman's Shorts; the Beginnings.
With Dan Cragg he wrote the popular Starfist series and its spin off series, Starfist: Force Recon—all about Marines in the Twenty-fifth Century.; and a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial.
His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.
David passed away in November 2022.
He wrote about US Marines in Vietnam (the Night Fighters series and three other novels), and the DemonTech series about Marines in a fantasy world. The 18th Race trilogy is military science fiction.
Other than military, he wrote a non-conventional vampire novel, The Hunt, and a mystery, Dead Man's Chest. He also released a collection of short fiction and non-fiction from early in his writing career, Sherman's Shorts; the Beginnings.
With Dan Cragg he wrote the popular Starfist series and its spin off series, Starfist: Force Recon—all about Marines in the Twenty-fifth Century.; and a Star Wars novel, Jedi Trial.
His books have been translated into Czech, Polish, German, and Japanese.
David passed away in November 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 28, 2018
The Skinks are out of hiding, and taking over an entire planet. The Marines have to whip the planet into fighting shape before it's too late.
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July 19, 2020elibrary
November 22, 2020
This is a good solid read in the Starfist series. This book is pretty much what you would expect from the authors and this series without any major surprises.
The book takes of seamlessly from the last book, Kingdom’s Swords, in the series. The book blurb states that “the truth is out” which is somewhat true at the end of the book but this doesn’t happen until General Aguinaldo, one of the more likable characters in the book, have bypassed a bunch of useless desk generals, and gone straight for the president about half way through. Near the end of the book Ambassador Spears does the same thing with a equally useless diplomat and bureaucrat. I quite liked these parts of the book where the pencil pushers, caring more about promoting each other’s careers than doing a real job, got their behinds whooped. This, we must keep the aliens a secret (even from those who really needed to know) attitude bugged me quite a lot in the previous book.
The useless desk generals and diplomats are not the only ones getting their behinds whooped. The FIST finally manages to kick some Skink behind as well although the religious fanatics on the planet are, of course, no real help. I’m not sure I really enjoy these bits of the book. Sure, it is fun when these complete morons are taken down like they deserve but it is clear that they are modeled after existing religious fanatics of our present day and their very existence today is depressing enough. Reading about them in the future is not something I really appreciate, at least not at any great length.
The humans also finally start to get some solid intelligence on the Skinks, including some understanding of their technology. Emphasize on “some” here. Their ability of travel at “beamspace”, the Starfist way of FTL, close to a gravity well is still not understood and in the final chapters they spring another technology related surprise on our dear friends.
A good chunk of the latter part of the book appears to be setting the stage for the next one so I assume that the next one will take off from where this one ended. It is not very clear which direction the next book will take though. It might be going after the Skinks again, which I would probably like, or it might only deal with certain humans that I will not reveal any details about to avoid spoilers. The latter I think I might not like so much though.
The famous “bottom line” is that this was a good solid read and an enjoyable book in the Starfist series.
The book takes of seamlessly from the last book, Kingdom’s Swords, in the series. The book blurb states that “the truth is out” which is somewhat true at the end of the book but this doesn’t happen until General Aguinaldo, one of the more likable characters in the book, have bypassed a bunch of useless desk generals, and gone straight for the president about half way through. Near the end of the book Ambassador Spears does the same thing with a equally useless diplomat and bureaucrat. I quite liked these parts of the book where the pencil pushers, caring more about promoting each other’s careers than doing a real job, got their behinds whooped. This, we must keep the aliens a secret (even from those who really needed to know) attitude bugged me quite a lot in the previous book.
The useless desk generals and diplomats are not the only ones getting their behinds whooped. The FIST finally manages to kick some Skink behind as well although the religious fanatics on the planet are, of course, no real help. I’m not sure I really enjoy these bits of the book. Sure, it is fun when these complete morons are taken down like they deserve but it is clear that they are modeled after existing religious fanatics of our present day and their very existence today is depressing enough. Reading about them in the future is not something I really appreciate, at least not at any great length.
The humans also finally start to get some solid intelligence on the Skinks, including some understanding of their technology. Emphasize on “some” here. Their ability of travel at “beamspace”, the Starfist way of FTL, close to a gravity well is still not understood and in the final chapters they spring another technology related surprise on our dear friends.
A good chunk of the latter part of the book appears to be setting the stage for the next one so I assume that the next one will take off from where this one ended. It is not very clear which direction the next book will take though. It might be going after the Skinks again, which I would probably like, or it might only deal with certain humans that I will not reveal any details about to avoid spoilers. The latter I think I might not like so much though.
The famous “bottom line” is that this was a good solid read and an enjoyable book in the Starfist series.
December 11, 2014
Lima Company of the 34th FIST has been battling hostile aliens known as the Shinks. Now the terrible secret is out. The Third Platoon is tasked with training the civilians of Kingdom to defend themselves. These Marines will take the battle to the enemy as their only means of survival. This is an excellent read. Note: The publisher cancelled the series.
March 25, 2016
Space marines fighting aliens while a schmuck works on making his very own Nazi party on a planet run by a theocracy.
Meh. Not bad. Not terribly memorable. Feel like the author backslid a bit after the prior book.
Meh. Not bad. Not terribly memorable. Feel like the author backslid a bit after the prior book.
May 3, 2016
Once again, I could've lived without the skink PoV chapters, didn't really add any value to me...
October 19, 2015
Very typical of the Starfist series. Well written with interesting sub-plots.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews