This was a great way to start the beginning of this new trilogy. It ties in nicely with the heritage trilogy, but by no means do u need to read the first three books to appreciate this one. Great start!

I loved Ian Douglas's Heritage trilogy and Star Corps, the sequel set 71 years after the events in Europa Strike is every bit as good.

Featuring strong, well-developed characters, an intriguing story line, well-written fights and realistic military hardware, Star Corps was difficult to put down from start to finish.

Highly recommend for fans of 'realistic' hard military science fiction, a genre in which Ian Douglas is fast becoming king in my opinion.

While not strictly necessary, I do recommend reading the Heritage trilogy before starting on Star Corps.

Graham

I was somewhat worried that the Legacy trilogy was starting off in the 2130's since the reason I liked Douglas' (Keith's) Heritage Trilogy because it was near term military sci-fi (i.e. there was a chance I'd be alive in that time period). Fortunately, the add century really hasn't impacted the story by making the rich background of the first three books still relevant in this series. The Marines are still Marines and the real life nation-states are still represented (with a few modifications for flavor.)
In fact, the Legacy Trilogy reads and feels just like the Heritage books. If you liked those (Semper Mars, Luna Marine, and Europa Strike) then Star Corps will be another great chapter. However, since this is actually a fourth book in a series, please read the first ones before this.

These sixty portraits of American strangers are rich with an intelligent, questioning beauty. I was dazzled by the exhibit in San Francisco, but now I'm especially glad to have the accompanying book. I rarely find it worthwhile to purchase museum exhibit catalogues, but what I love about "Stranger Passing" is that I can ponder a given image as long as I like, "reading and re-reading" it as I would a really good short story. Indeed, many of these portraits seem as laden with interpretive possibilities as a story by Chekhov or Alice Munro or T. C. Boyle. From a grizzled woman selling papers in the middle of a Colorado boulevard, to a solitary New York banker having dinner, his aloneness matched by a single tulip in front of his little bistro table: I found myself deeply moved by the lavish yet subtle artistry Sternfeld has bestowed on these people and places--each one unique yet somehow familiar--that he encountered in this strange and wonderful country of ours.

This is the best photographic testament to the USA since Robert Frank came to shore and showed us how strange and beautiful our country was nearly fifty years ago. The subject of these photographs are both ordinary and extraordinary people, who we may cross paths with during any given day. The brilliance of Sternfeld's art is the way these images draw you into the world of each subject. Even the most superficially mundane subject such as two suburban kids standing in a cul-de-sac is cause for reflection. Most of these portraits economically use the scenery to define the world of each individual. In the end, the images are a celebration of anonymous Americans (one can't say "typical" because this collection shows you that there is no such thing as a typical American) in common settings. In my mind, the best images here evoke the mystery and power of a Vermeer painting. The way they heighten our experience of everyday images is what I think they call art.
A side note: If you have the chance, you must see the exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The hyperreal poster-size prints are a wonder to behold. And the cumulative effect of these images leaves one exaltant. (Oh yeah, there's also a pretty good Ansel Adams exhibit curated by John Szarkowski on the floor above.)

Joel Sternfeld travels the roads of America, and takes pictures with his large-format camera. Although all his pictures include people in various situations (attending a party, selling coffee, hanging out in their own homes, vacationing, promenading, relaxing, observing, working), what he is really interested in, is the depiction of landscapes and soft outplay of the mid-afternoon light. There is an overwhelming sense of loneliness. His composition style is superb; his depiction of quality of light reflections of the industrial surfaces is without precedence. In my opinion, Sternfeld really stands on its own. Not since Robert Frank's "The Americans" have I seen such a collection. His compositions are best reminiscent of Philip-Lorca diCorcia's; but somehow people are not the center of attention (and sometimes not even of focus), what is important is the quality of landscapes and how they shape human lives.

But what other book starts out with a disclaimer stating that the original authors disappeared with archives and source material? Read about THE intelligence organization that has origins in WWII, was staffed with brilliant minds like J.D. Salinger and Julia Childs and hints at the existence of night vision technology before 1945 (by the Nazis). It's not a conspiracy theory compendium. This is the real deal. Read of Hitler's right-hand man and the hilarious story behind his capture. Realize that some of the most intelligent men and women that fought for our country in WWII were also among the bravest. J.D. Salinger hints at his real life Counter-Intel experience in his short story 'To Esme with Love'. Joseph Heller makes references to men in uniforms without name tags in 'Catch-22'. These people predated 'Men in Black'. They were the originals. They were the Men in Tan. What we don't know about the measures taken for our safety could fill a library and this would be among the top ten books. Buy it...if you can find it.

The authors demonstrate how the Nazi gold seized by the US after the war disappeared without a trace. Quite unexpected. The Authors are historians.

This documentation was one of great wisdom and discovery. Captain Ian Tew pulls the reader into both he and his grandfather's sea journey. I was captivated by the depth of detail Captain Tew used to express such heroic exibitions. I highly recommend this documentation to anyone who truly appreciates the sea and the many discoveries that unfold on a sailor's journey.

This is a wonderful collection of poetry readings by some of the best actors in the world. If you allow yourself only one tape of poetry, I would recommend this one. The rendition of Lawrence's "The Snake" is spellbining, and the reading of Macneil's "A Death in the Family" is quietlly gut-wrenching. And you will be surprised how well Bill Shatner recites about whales. Buy this tape, and you will listen to it again and again.

I have both the big version and this version. Without doubt you need both. One for back at camp reading and the Field Version for, well, the Field. This is quite packable and the layout makes field Identification pretty easy.

A sign of environmental health and richness of biodiversity is the number of birds that a given area supports. Kenya then qualifies as a rich ecosystem with over 1,000 different species of birds.

This book was not around when I was a youngster living in Kenya but thumbing through it as an adult has brought back some fond memories of days out in the bush in Amboseli and Masai Mara or at lakes Nakura, Naivasha, and Victoria. Kenya is a birders paradise whatever your interest. There are fairly familiar Eurasian visiting seabirds and shorebirds and unique and beautiful East African sunbirds, weavers, rollers and bee-eaters. There are multitude birds of prey including the unmistakable tiny-tailed Bateleur Eagle and the most impressive hunting bird i've ever seen - the African Crowned Eagle. I can recall like it was yesterday watching one pluck a male colobus monkey right out of the tree tops. All of the birds are here in splendid color with the most appropriate profile presented to assist in making identification easy. You'll find the underside views of the birds of prey very useful.

While you probably won't see a Crowned Eagle on a casual birding visit to Kenya, any guided trip into the game parks will guarantee you at least 100 different species - probably in a single day! In the right locations, prepare to have your head on a swivel as the variety of birdlife you will behold has to be seen to be believed. You will find yourself regularly flipping through the pages of this book. This book is absolutely essential for your Kenyan trip.

I live and work in East Africa, and this is the book the park rangers all carry in their open Land Rovers. They cover it with canvas so it won't get beat up too fast, and it gets marked with brown circles from the thermos of coffee on the 06:30 game drive. Go to Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya for a long weekend with this book, and you'll come home with 150 species. Don't worry about the weight of the book, I started with the Collins field guide and had to buy my copy of Zimmerman in the middle of my first stay because I outgrew it. Buy Zimmerman to start with, you won't regret it.

This was one of my favorite books when I was a kid just starting out to read Science Fiction. It's sort of like one of those "real" nature books with drawings, habitats, and biological information, but it's all about aliens from major Science Fiction authors. You figure the authors of this book have got to have a lot of information to put something like this together. For those of a puerile nature (or those who read a lot of Niven's rishartha), they even have some alien species' mating habits. In the middle there is a scale diagram of all of the aliens' sizes which was my first exposure to the wonderful world of the metric system. Buy it, read it, in will enrich your Science Fiction library

What a great book! Barlowe is a wonderful painter of aliens. I have been looking for this book for years, ever since I saw it in a science magazine. Some of the best illustrations in the book are those of the "Cryer", the "Old One", the "Pnume", the "Medusan", the "Sirian", and the "Overlords". The only problem with this book is that the pictures make you want to read the books they are from, and 99% of these books are out-of-print! Urghhhhhh!!!!

_Wayne Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials_ is my 12 year old son/fantasy/scfi fanatic's favorite book. It is dog-eared from so much love, reading, studying and attention. This is no kid's book, though--these are the wunderkind's Wayne Barlowe's illustrations that have appeared in many famous scfi books. Each alien has a full bio-ethnographic description, bring each to life.

This book gives the other side to the Rhodesia conflict namely that of former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith who is probably one of the most unfairly despised individuals in the world. Far from being an uncouth racist as much of the world's press would classify him as, Smith shows himself to have been a model statesmen and ardent patriot to his beloved Rhodesia. Clearly the book reads like a Greek tragedy in which tiny Rhodesia is betrayed by its mother country (Britain) and even its friends (South Africa) in its long struggle against terrorist organizations in which it racked up an impressive military record. For all interested in that little country that once was, this is a definate necessary read. After finishing the tome, one can see why Ian Smith so richly deserved the praise he received from his fellow Rhodesians and anti-communist well-wishers around the world. God bless you, Ian Smith, for your valiant fight.

Mr. Smith a hero of WWII goes into detail of how his successful country (one of the very few in Africa)was sacrificed due to the deceitful foreign policies of Britain, America and South Africa. Although he warned the world of rapidity in turning power over to the African majority in contrast to the common sense approach of gradualism he was strong armed by the so called "anti communist" powers. The result of rapidity is evident in the chaotic state that exists today in a country known as Zimbabwe. As an American I find it hard to stomach what my country's foreign policy helped to destroy (Rhodesia) and what it helped create (Zimbabwe). Men like Ian Smith, Winston Churchill, and Ronald Reagan are special but unfortunately most men do not measure up and it is the lesser men(Wilson, Vorster, and Carter) who seem to be in charge during the most crucial times in history.

I had purchased this book fully expecting to find it full of bigotry and smugness in view of Smith's success in running an economy crippled by sanctions, as opposed to Mugabe's failure to run an economy assisted by foreign cash. In fact Mr Smith was neither biggoted nor smug. His hurt is quite evident when he looks at Zimbabwe, a country which, whilst the name has changed, is still very much his home.

Clearly Mr Smith feels that Rhodesia was betrayed by many parties who put their own self interest before any sense of honour or fair play. This could be attributal to either naiivety or honour in Smith, depending on wether you support his position or condemn it. It clearly shows that there is no longer any honour in politics, and a man such as Smith who held such principles in high esteme is doomed in the world of real politik. A good book which leaves the reader enlightened, and wondering if the Zimbabwe we now see could not have been different if Smith had been listened to a bit more at the time

Ditto. This book, and the previous one (Semper Mars) both provide solid summer escape reading. Unlike Sherman & Cragg's "Starfist" or Diehl's "Legion of the Damned" series, Douglas's characters are actually believable.

For those of you who like Douglas's (ie. Bill Keith's) work, I also recommend his "Seals: The Warrior Breed" series, written under another pseudonym, H. Jay Riker. While not exactly sci-fi, this is a great series for techno-thriller buffs.

This second volume of the series is again a well written book that has everything a good science fiction novel, or a thriller, should have: fast action, a well knit plot and well constructed characters. Again, though, the national stereotypes are disturbing and the author's view of the world seems to be a little limited. The climax is the headline of chapter 14: Le Édifice de la Monde Uni, a hillbilly's version of French. No I know the true meaning of: Pardon my French!
But the novel is a good read. Again, reader, go ahead and read

Luna Marine is the second of three books in the Heritage Series, a well written trilogy that combines some excellent military fiction with an engrossing science fiction plot that borrows heavily from the speculative archeology in Graham Hancock's "Fingerprints of the Gods". The characters are interesting and multi dimension, the plot is imaginative and the dialog is gritty and realistic. Once you get started, these books are hard to put down.

The second book takes place in 2042, two years after the astonishing discovering on Mars described in "Semper Mars". Conflict rages on Earth between the US and the United Nations. When additional alien remains are discovered on the Moon, including a possible super weapon, the US Marine Corp is called upon to seize the technology before it can be exploited by scientists from the other side.