This book contains valuable "hows" and "whys" for conducting today's funerals. It gives the philosophical framework and the practical "how-to's" that Pastors need to conduct a funeral that is honoring to the deceased and helpful to family and friends. Dan Lloyd has a tremendous amount of experience, which is evident in this book. You will find the basics you need to effectively minister in times of crisis and death. I heartily recommend this book!

Hangfire can be said to be the best in the series after Blood Contact, might even consider it to rank equal to it. Even though both Sherman and Cragg are still inconsistent with the platoon makeup, the plot and story still flows very well. I also like the lead-in, and preparation they have done on several chapters for the major intergalactic war that they had hinted at in Blood Contact. Fact is, I'm kind of upset that I have to wait that long for the the war that I hope will take more than one book to finish. Then again, if I have to wait too long between books, I might have to bite someone to calm myself... heheh 8) I will highly recommend anyone who even has the slightest interest in Sci-Fi Military books to read this excellent book, but who isn't a nitpicker with minor inconsistencies.

Wow! Most series frankly begin to play out after several books, but authors Cragg and Sherman seem to not only keep each other fresh, but to prod each other on to ever greater accomplishments. This novel can be read simply as an engaging, what-comes-next, wonderfully-thrilling sci-fi adventure--but it also offers a great deal of depth and demonstrates a wide range of knowledge about mankind's foibles and human possibilities. Likely, their status as military veterans has given Cragg and Sherman insights denied to those writers who never served, but, whatever the reason, I'm just knocked out by the freshness and quality of this novel--well into a series I hope will long endure. Great to see familiar characters continue to develop, and to meet new ones. Horrific, convincing fighting, with some timely moral warnings stirred in. And any book that manages to combine gladiatorial combat in the distance future and a mention of John Singleton Mosby, the "Gray Ghost" of the American Civil War can't help but intrigue. Not only worth reading, but worth keeping on the bookshelf to read again in the future!!!

Hangfire is the best so far in the series. Good action, good story, and it has a good lead in for the next book. Gives a lot more development on characters who weren't mentioned much or haven't been used much in the last few books. A very good read

The fourth installment exceedes the first three in gripping action and adventure. This is by far the best book in the series. Though the authors do leave some questions unresolved, they create great anticipation for the next book in the line, and in no way do the authors leave us with the artificial "forced & cheesey" plot resoloution.

When the book opens the Confederation is facing a new military invasion, only this time it is aliens. What will happen? Who will win? Dean and the 34st FIST or the bad guys. I could tell you but Amazon wouldn't let me, you have to read it to find out.

What can I say? These guys have been there, done that, wore out the T shirt long time ago...it shows in their writing. My pet peeve with Mil-SF, or anything in military fiction, is characters that just don't make sense. That isn't a problem here - The characters in this book - well, if anybody thinks Dr Lydia Bynum is a *completely* fictional character, well, I know a real-life counterpart - "Dragon Lady" - who made O-6 on the last promotion list. Her ethnic mix isn't Greek-Liberian, but otherwise, her physical description and mannerisms are very similar...right down to the fact that she's as good with a 9mm as Dr Bynum is with a blaster. Bottom Line - There are no "Buck Rogers" heros in this story - that's why I like it. No unbelievable handsome or beautiful people that make great decisions and get all the lucky breaks. If that's what you like, go somewhere else. Change the technology gimmicks, make the aliens human, and this story could be a US or Royal Marine landing party going ashore to rescue scientists trapped in some Third World hotspot...My guess is, there's no legal reprecussions if you set the story centuries in the future, on some other planet, with aliens standing in for some economically disadvantaged ethnic group. This is no bright and shining future vision - think of the difference between, say the "STAR TREK"(tm) universe and the future presented in, say, the "Aliens" universe, "Babylon 5" or "Enemy Mine". I've got 24 years in the military, and my experience ranges from wading the surf in a Marine Rifle platoon, to being a "staff puke" on several expeditionary operations. This stuff rings true...and if you do have some familiarity with recent US operations, the "in-jokes" in this book are hilarious! If you need to unwind from the Holiday and end-of year rush, settle back with this book, light up a "Clinton", pop open a "Reindeer" Ale and enjoy.

pretty helpful book, as a basic study aid, worth the price. i liked it.

I used P&K to supplement my casebook and class notes, and it guided me to an A- in torts. It's a great tool and a great read. However, it does have certain limitations: the final edition was published in the late 80s, so it does not provide much guidance on product liability, infliction of emotional distress and other emerging areas of tort law.

P&K gives you something that year 1 of law school sorely lacks: a context for the fragments in your case book. Its treatment of Palsgraf is particularly beautiful.

And since Prosser so strongly influenced tort law, you can be confident that you are getting good information. Some of my classmates used commercial outlines and they often worried about whether they could trust the material. No such problems with P&K; it was on the money all the time. And when there was a contradiction between P&K and my textbook, I was able to go to my professor and ask her about it. Try doing that with a commercial outline.

P&K is not merely fine reference tool; it is a genuine work of literature. I love it, and I highly recommend it.

. . . and one you should probably acquire for your law library at some point; its explanations are clear and lucid, and it's probably the single most-cited work on torts apart from the Restatement (Second). However, if you're a One-L looking for a study aid, there are a couple of things you should be aware of.

First of all, the most recent edition of this text dates from 1984. That means quite a bit of it is at least slightly out of date, and some of it is massively so (particularly in the field of products liability). For a more up-to-date hornbook, consider Dobbs. (I bought and used both.)

Second, when your torts professor talks about "black-letter law," s/he's not talking about this hornbook or any other; s/he's usually talking about the Restatement (Second) of Torts (or, in products liability, the Restatement (Third)). As much as I like hornbooks (and I am emphatically not a fan of the "casebook" approach), I have to say that if you want to get _one_ text to supplement your casebook, you should pick up _A Concise Restatement of Torts_ from the American Law Institute. And, ideally, you should memorize large portions of it.

Of course, you can do what I did: buy all three. It's a great investment, and it will pay off in your studies; Prosser and Keeton provide much helpful discussion of points that Dobbs treats more briefly, and the Concise Restatement is much easier to understand once you've digested the hornbook(s).

At any rate, this _is_ a classic text and you shouldn't go without it for any longer than necessary. Just be aware of what you're buying and set your priorities accordingly.

The 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team, Confederation Marine Corps, have been deployed again. This isn't a small unit assignment though, unfortunately things have gone wrong enough on Diamunde that the CMC is going to War. To provide the opening beachhead for the follow-up Army troops, against several armored battalions (read 'Tanks') that intel says aren't in the landing area. If you like the genre, this series is continuing excellently. If you're looking for the "Mobile Infantry" of Starship Troopers, don't look here. These Marines are... Marines with Blasters and better camouflage uniforms. They're still on foot, and still an elite force. If you can still find Book 1 and Book 2, they're worth reading too.

Semper Fi! Who else could have written such a compelling book except an ex-marine? The men of 3rd plantoon, Company L, 34th Fist are back and this time there fighting Tanks! Ya gotta love it. This book is filled with so much testosterone that you'll swagger when you walk. If you haven't read the previous two books you'll be able to feel your way through the book, but it's better if you read them in sequence. Nice tech in the book too, although some of it reminds me of tech from a few other books (ie. Rick Shelley's DMC series) But what are you going to do? An infantryman's wish list is probably pretty easy to guess. Buy it Now!

"Steel Gauntlet" (ISBN 0-345-42526-X) is David Sherman and Dan Cragg's third book chronicling the history of the Confederation Marine Corps' 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) L Company Third Platoon, among the most deployed units in the Corps. The 34th FIST's mission to Wanderjahr was a success and for thwarting an attempt on the lives of one of Wanderjahr's leaders and the 34th FIST's General, Joe Dean and Rackman Claypoole were promoted to Lance Corporal. Diamunde, a resource-rich planet, has for the fourth time in Confederation history become a trouble spot requiring the use of military force to restore order. This time the Confederation gathers together a force consisting of six of the thirty-six Marine FISTs, the 34th is one the first units to land, two Army Corps, and a large Fleet to end the ambitions of the man who has taken control of Diamunde by force. The major problem that face the Marines, Army, and Navy units is having to relearn how to deal with Main Battle Tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, which have not been seen on the battlefield for 300 years. Before leaving Thorsfinni World to Diamunde, the 34th FIST's commanding officer makes sure that all his troops have been promoted and received all awards due them, including Charlie Bass who is once again promoted to Gunnery Sergeant. This mission will test the skills and bravery of not just the men of L Company Third Platoon, but to all the troops involved on both sides of the conflict. David Sherman and Dan Cragg do a great job in describing the fears and bravery of the infantry having to go against tanks on the battlefield. Further, this book does a good job in blending fact and the probable future of the infantry and of tanks in modern warfare.

I have been reading about this book for sometime now. I never got around to picking it up. I would read the reviews and decide against it.Well I should have picked this up a long time ago. I finished this book very quickly.The story is great the characters are great it's a very enjoyable story that moves quickly. It is obvious that the authors draw on their military experience. I think it lends the book an additonal layer of authenticity. I found myself concerned with the plight of Srg.Bass and his unit. My only gripe is that the real action was a bit later in the book and it was too quick for me. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed the portion of the book about their training as well. I'm glad to also report that their are serval more books in the series. If they are as good as this one I will be a happy reader.Don't even think just buy this book!

A die hard Star Wars fan, for years I've been hard pressed to find anything not related to the series I truly enjoyed. When I ran out of Star Wars books to read, I was distraught. They just stopped coming out fast enough for me to always have something to read. In the book store one day, looking for something that would catch my eye, I spotted in the "staff recommendations" section a book that looked to match everything I was looking for in a good read. That book was First to Fight, and boy was I right. The book is extremely well written, and the character development is top notch. The action is of a caliber only people with true military experience could achieve, and Sherman and Cragg possess that. Now on book IV of the series, I find it safe to say that the series just gets better from here. Don't hesitate, buy yourself a copy of this great novel today. You won't be disappointed.

First off, I'd just like to say that, as a former military manmyself (Navy, not Marines), this book sticks pretty durn close to whatactually goes on (with the exception of the plasma weapons and chamelion suits, that is....) in the military. The comraderie, which the reader is immediately drawn into, the joking and prank-pulling, the immediate shift to serious professionalism when the situation calls for it, yup, Dave Sherman and Dan Cragg have definitely "been there, done that!"

The storyline itself is amazingly addicting. I admit I was a bit leery when buying the first book, but was hooked after the prologue. The characters are complex, but not too much so, and you really begin to find yourself sympathyzing with them as the plot unfolds. You get this intense hatred for "military intelligence" from the start, and that doesn't let up through the three books I've read so far! The authors do a superb job of explaining the relevant parts of history and technological breakthrus leading up to the present situations, cleverly disguised as mission briefs instead of a few paragraphs taken out of the general flow of the tale in order for the author to explain. I liked that. Maintains continuity.

On a down-note, there are a few places where the action seems to jump, such as a patrol heading into a combat situation, then the scene changes, and when we get back to the patrol, they're cleaning their guns and checking for survivors. In most cases, this felt like a cheezy crop-job by the editors in an effort to cut out "needless and redundant violence"...which is one of the better parts of the story! This doesn't happen often, though, so I decided not to lop off the fifth star in the rating.

Overall, an excellent series, well-worth the money and shipping time! The universe in this series is huge and complex, so I can't forsee an end to the series....thankfully! I eagerly await the next installment. END

Why did I buy this book? Again the same arguements. I don't really care for Marines, the cover was stupid, too much hoo-haa. I think these books lace their pages with some kind of narcotic. They're really not that good but I keep going down the series. Who knows, maybe sometimes I just want a cheap stupid read?

I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. Same problems as the first.

The first book of the series (Starfist: First to Fight) was great. This one is, in my opinion, even better. It will keep you guessing all the way to the end. It is a must read for warfare and science fiction lovers. The writers' style is great for keeping you hooked. All in all, it is one of the best books I have ever read.

"School of Fire" (ISBN 0-345-40623-0) by David Sherman and Dan Cragg is the second book in the series chronicling the history of the 34th Fleet Initial Strike Team (FIST) L Company Third Platoon of the Confederation Marine Corps. The authors, in my view, have again brought the reader into the realm of the infantryman. Returning to Thorsfinni World the 34th FIST has begun replacing the men and equipment lost on Elneal. Staff Sergeant Charlie Bass' exploits during the mission has added to his legendary status in the Marine Corps, Ensign Vanden Hoyt, Third Platoon's new officer, Private First Classes Joe Dean and Rackman Claypoole have proven themselves in combat and learned how to overcome the fears of the battlefield. A new mission deploys the 34th FIST, before the unit has replaced all the Marines lost on Elneal, to the Confederation world of Wanderjahr. Wanderjahr's nine-member government has attempted to stop a rebellion that threatens the political and economic stability of the world by forming a paramilitary police force, called the Feldpolizei, to deal with the rebels. The Feldpolizei fail to stop the rebels because the force is not properly trained in modern military tactics. The 34th FIST's assignment is to train the Feldpolizei to counter the rebel threat. Private First Classes Joe Dean and Rackman Claypoole of L Company Third platoon are assigned to Headquarters' F-2 Intelligence section as analysts, while Staff Sergeant Bass and the rest of platoon train the Field Police of Wanderjahr. However the Marines soon find that there is hidden power struggle going on behind the scenes that makes their job harder. Another good story by the team of David Sherman and Dan Cragg.

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)

While this book does give you ideas of things to do in Chicago, they are not the most original.

I have been to Chicago a few times (to date, anyway) & I think it is the most amazing city. That is why I have quite a collection of Chicago books. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it approaches the city of Chicago from a very unique perspective. Sharon Lloyd Spencer lists 101 different things to do whilst in Chicago, & describes them in a very personal way. I loved it because there were still many things that I've yet to see even though I thought I knew Chicago. I had to deduct 2 points from my rating though because she left out (IMHO) 2 important choices: The Drake (hotel), & The Green Mill (Blues Bar) - places I would NEVER miss!!!