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Blood Contact | Rating | |
| C | |||
| David Sherman and Dan Cragg | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Starfist | First to Fight, School of Fire, Steel Gauntlet, Blood Contact, Technokill, Hangfire, Kingdom's Swords, Kingdom's Fury | ||
Society 437 is a nothing little planet on the far edge of explored space. It hsa no colony, just three scientific stations and lots of swampland. When the scientists fail to send their regular data buoy, the wheels start turning to send a force there to find out just what went wrong. The brass' choice: 34th FIST, of course - or one platoon of it. And that just might not be enough to handle what they find there.
I love military science fiction. And perhaps that has helped keep me from realizing just what is wrong with this series, at least so far. While all the combat is done well, and in fact anything having at all to do with the military feels right and accurate, there is almost nothing to the series except those military matters. We see a little, a very little, of the civilian government, but it is hardly enough to qualify as a seperate facet of the books. Other than that, the only nonmilitary scenes are of troops on liberty, where readers are occasionally led to believe one of the Marines might settle down with a particular wench. And yes, I used that term deliberately.
This, in turn, provides some problems regarding character growth and evolution. Characters can change, yes, but so far I've seen it only in one manner: bad officers sometimes find what it takes to become good officers. At the end of this novel, though, Dean - who was neither bad nor an officer - is not fundementally any different than he was halfway through the first book.
The novel has two other problems, as well. First, there are a lot of asides as the narration veers away from the plot to inform readers of, say, a new character's history. I couldn't help but think it could have been done more gracefully with dialogue; just have one of the Marines ask what brought the new person into the military. A worse aside is the entire chapter devoted to a major infodum regarding Thorsfinni's World, the 34th's home planet, and its settlement history. This should have been done in the first book, if at all. By now, it's a totally irrelevant distraction.
The other flaw is that the authors go to significant lengths to avoid telling readers just what the problem actually is on Society 437. It was clumsy - words are often chosen with artifical care in order not to spill the beans early - but it would still have been successful were it not for a cover illustration that portrays exactly what is going on, clear for all to see. The back cover blurb even confirms it. It's not the authors' faults, not really, but it is a definite problem.
The story is competently done, as always. Especially in matters military, of course. But I'm beginning to want more out of the series, though, and this just doesn't deliver.
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