text: I've read and enjoyed all the StarFIST novels. This is one of them in name only. It starts like a typical Starfist novel and even ties in some references to Charlie Bass and high level politicians but there the similarity ends.
  
  I never did figure out what the author's point was except perhaps to rake in some quick cash. The men of the FIST are hard working, hard fighting Marines who trace an honorable history back to the US Marines of the 19th & 20th century. These "Force Recon" marines are a ruthless bunch of screw-ups who could trace their ancestry back to the Waffen SS.
  
  Rather than root for them I soon found myself rooting for the opposition. They invade a fellow member of the confederation, screw-up their primary assignment, fail to get the info they were sent for, kill allied soldiers and airmen, murder helpless civilian prisoners, and assinate the leader of a confederation allied state.
  
  Someone should remind the authors that Recon is about getting accurate, timely, information. It's not about blowing things up.
  
  I really wasted my money on this book, I definitely won't be the first lemming off the cliff the next time these authors have something to peddle.
  