Overall I thought this was a great book. It went into great detail concerning even the most mundane details of VC/NVA life (I consider this an asset, not a liability). I enjoyed reading about how they fought, what kind of weapons they used, and the tactical and logistical details of the various VC/NVA units discussed. This book is limited in scope, after all it is called "Inside the VC and the NVA", so of course it's not going to go into detail about the ARVN fighting ability and THEIR details, nor does it address allied "atrocities". There were some drawbacks however. The VC and NVA interviews were interesting, but I think the information contained in them needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Although the authors address and dismiss the possibility of coercion, I think that's a very real possibility. Secondly, the book could have done without the input of the generals. For the most part, I thought the comments of the generals were suspect. After all, they had the kill ratio/body count agenda. All in all, a great book.

This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Vietnam war. The first review complains that this "reads like a school book. Ideal for the scholar, maybe less than ideal for the casual reader." Well, what did that "casual" reader expect from a book whose cover proclaims that it "fills a huge gap in the historiography of the Vietnam War" ??

This is NOT a dull or difficult book for anyone interested in the subject. The facts, figures, and background the authors include are very helpful in understanding what led the several armed forces to come into battlefield contact, and why they acted as they did. Particularly helpful is the authors' technique of letting participants tell their own stories -- even stories that contradict each other. The book has a helpful index, and extensive source notes and bibliography for those who wish to read further.

Perhaps the major fault of the book is that the authors detail the terror and coercive tactics of North Vietnamese forces, and the failings of North Vietnamese leadership, while omitting any mention of similar tactics and the failings of the US/South Vietnamese forces (except the inescapable acknowledgment of My Lai). By this omission, the authors leave the mistaken impression that South Vietnam had a legitimate and widely-supported democratic government with civil rights, whose secret police, ARVN, and US troops never engaged in abuse of the population and enemy prisoners. The VC/NVA actions should at least have been put in context by mention of the South Vietnamese/USA Phoenix program, corruption, tiger cages, etc. The reader may wish to also read _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth to get additional perspective on the failings of the South Vietnamese government.

The authors' limited use of their own feelings about the war, combined with a skillful combination of others' personal narratives and official reports and information, results in a very readable, informative and valuable book. Particularly moving is the Afterword, which reads in part, "We questioned each other and ourselves about whether we were 'going soft' on the VC/NVA who were dedicated to the deaths of our friends.... Yet, the more we researched and wrote, the more we learned that the majority of the VC/NVA did their duty as they saw it -- not unlike ourselves and our fellow soldiers....
"Slowly, and despite our efforts to do otherwise, we began to feel more kinship with the VC/NVA than we did with many of our fellow [civilian] Americans.... Even more sobering to us was the moment when we finally realized that we had more in common with our former enemies than with the politicians who had sent us to war."

Having studied political, religious, and social extremist groups for over 15 yrs, I found this book to be a good primer for not just information on the VC and the NVA, but I saw parallels between the methods used by the VC/NVA and other extremist groups. Be they religious extremist groups or right wing militia type groups. Obviously the parallel breaks down if you take it too far, but it was very interesting and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in extremist groups - especially with the asymmetrical threat environment nowadays.

More of a 2 1/2

I enjoyed this book, but did not think it was up to the previous in the series. The main problem was that it was disjointed in its plotting and pace. It felt like they had the basic book together and then created a separate plot line (or two) and wedged it in there. It broke up the main story and created a lack of cohesion that was bothersome. Sherman and Cragg have pulled off parallel plots before with great success, so I know they can do it. They just seemed all over the place in this one.

(Minor spoiler alert)This is also the first book where the major campaign was not completed. I'm not adverse to cliffhangers per se, but there wasn't really any true build up and the termination seemed arbitrary.

I still loved the characters and the writing itself is as exciting as usual. I hope these fine authors can get back on a more cohesive track with the next volume.

I really enjoyed the book. Although, I will have to wait for the next book to conclude my opinion on this book. The cliffhanger is kind of weird since the whole story of the book doesn't seem to end.

Also, for the first time, the authors tried to do more than one storyline and it feels kind of weird. One of the storyline brings nothing to the actual story or the 34th FIST Marine. This could explain on why they did not conclude the story since they had already too much.

Overall, it is still a good StarFist book. Different from the previous one but this is what bring the joy in reading :o)

In this book the 34th is up agienst their old foes from Society 437. They take casualties but then their problems are just begining. A band of terrorists(Have I read this somewhere before) go to earth on a mission and it is up to the marines to stop them. In this case I think the authors draw an interesting parelle. Christian fanatisim can be just as deadly as the islamic kind(Read the book to see what I mean)

I love good military sci-fi as much as the next starship trooper, but this isn't it. Part of my problem may stem from the fact that I started with this book in the series and there are many parts that I found difficult since I had no prior knowledge of what had happened in the first 4 books. But my real problem came from the style of the writing and characterizations. I thought that the people were more like cut-outs borrowed from "Tour of Duty" than real characters. None of them really resonated. The alien species were particularly humerous in how far I had to suspend my disbelief to accept them. The constant changes in the time-frame of the narration made it very hard to know what was supposed to be happening before what. Add to that the constant political lectures and the book quickly lost my attention. I found the diatribe about the evils of the Japanese and their empires particulrly disturbing in a book written after the 1950's. While the marines were interesting in potential, and the story about the evils of interfereing with indiginous cultures well taken, I fear that I will not be reading another book in this series.

Fans of rough and tumble action should look elsewhere. The back of the book says "the toughest fighters in Human Space confront their fiercest battle." which is stretching things quite a bit. Basically out of 346 pages there is a 6 page fight with the aliens (who use clubs and 22-caliber rifles!) and a 13 page assault on a spaceship. The whole spaceship sequence was really a dissapointment as the setup was great: a desperate band of pirates, a heavily modified ship with unknown defenses, but with the exception of the bridge the whole ship was taken in 4 pages - and this is most of the big climax to the book!

Obviously the focus of this book in the series is not on combat. It is much more about the characters and the aliens, who are well fleshed out and believable. I tend to prefer action stories which may be why I am harsh on this one, but I also like happy endings with the good guys winning..which makes this one tough for me...I'm trying not to give away too much here, and although it may be more realistic, the whole ending wasn't satisfying to me. The issue with the scientists never was resolved, the issue with Captain Coronado wasn't resolved to my satisfaction and the issue with Corporal Doyle - a very interesting character sure didn't sit well with me...but then I prefer Disney'ish happy endings..so take what I say with a grain of salt.

With all that you may think I didn't like it at all.. not the case, it was a good read, just slower than others, and a lot more info about the universe around the marines, the government, the lives of the pirates and especially the aliens. It wasalso cool that it was specifically a believable sequel to Book 4, with everyone still wandering around wondering about the aliens in that book.

But my interest is primarily action and fighting with cool futuristic weapons. I want my heroes down on the ground slugging it out with the bad guys. Here the Marines don't arrive at the planet until page 148 and really, the whole problem could have been resolved with a couple of knock-out gas bombs - which I would imagine the 25th century Marines have. I'm hoping the next book in the series will have more action....

My hat's off to co-authors Dan Cragg and David Sherman for not taking the easy path. This series has been building an ever-greater following, and the thing most authors would have done would have been to stay in the groove and keep re-writing the same book over and over again. With volume V, Cragg and Sherman have certainly kept the basic themes and characters, but they've also taken chances by pushing the envelope and reaching (successfully, in my book) for ever-greater creativity. I found the picture of the alien world the most intriguing I've read in many years--it took me back to my youth and the great age of sci-fi, with writers like Heinlein, Asimov and Company. Other reviewers have gone over the basics of the plot, so I'll keep this short and not re-hash it. But this book revitalized my interest in the series--because there's more to life and conflict than just raw combat, even in a troubled, war-torn future--and because it is, in this reader's view, a marvelous work of the imagination. I hope the series continues for many more volumes, and I suspect the audience will continue to grow. In the meantime, I just passed this volume to my brother, who also remembers the golden age of fictional speculation. Very well done!