Semper Mars: Book One of the Heritage Trilogy
by Ian Douglas
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ian DouglasEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-05-01
ISBN: 0380788284
Number of pages: 384
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Book Reviews of Semper Mars: Book One of the Heritage Trilogy
Book Review: Marines on Mars
Summary: 4 Stars
Semper Mars (1998) is the first military SF novel in the Heritage trilogy. It is set in the near future when mankind has settled the inner planets. The United Nations is a strong force in human affairs.
A few nations are allied with the USA, but many are supporting the UN. Russia and America are the only remaining major powers that have not signed the UN Reorganization Treaty. Agitators are trying to carve out an Aztec nation from the American southwestern states.
American astronauts on Mars have determined that the Face is an alien artifact. Now American scientists are studying the construct. The UN has sent two platoons of French soldiers to Mars.
In this novel, Montgomery Warhurst is Commandant of the US Marine Corps. He is determined to keep the Corps in existence.
Mark Alan Garroway is a Major in the US Marine Corps. He had started as an enlisted avionics specialist, but the Corps had sent him back to college to learn more complex systems. Along the way, he received his commission and became a technical staff officer. Now he is bored with his military duties.
Kaitlin Garroway is Mark's daughter. She is a student at Carnegie Mellon University. She loves everything about Japan, especially Yukio.
Yukio Ishiwara is a fellow student at Carnegie Mellon. He had met Kaitlin at the Japanese Room of the International Center. He has invited her to meet his family.
David Alexander is an archaeologist. He is going to Mars to investigate the Cydonian Face.
Mireille Joubert is a French woman working for the United Nations. She is an observer in the UN xenoarchaeology expedition investigating the Cydonian Face.
In this story, Congress is again trying to eliminate the Marine Corps. Warhurst is looking for a way to prevent this. He sends a reinforced Marine platoon to Mars to generate public interest in the Corps.
Garroway has volunteered for the Marine Mars Expeditionary Force. He thinks it will be something new and exciting. After seven months aboard the Polyakov, he now knows that space travel in even more tedious than his normal routine.
Garroway is the communications electronics tech for the MMEF, but that doesn't occupy much of his time. He is also the executive officer and second-in-command to Colonel Lloyd. Without these extra duties, he would have gone mad from boredom.
Garroway is standing watch when another office notices a loss of signal from the storm cellar. Garroway suggests that the problem just be logged and then wait to see if it continues. Then the other officer mentions that Colonel Lloyd has scheduled a weapons assembly drill in the facility.
Alexander is enjoying free fall sex with Joubert in the storm cellar. When Garroway arrives and announces that company will be coming soon, the two dress rapidly. They are exiting the facility as the Colonel and his men arrive.
Later, Joubert confronts Garroway outside his quarters. He exchanges a few words with her, then excuses himself. He doesn't like her or the group to which she belongs.
Meanwhile, a mob attacks the US Embassy in Mexico City. A small group of Mexican soldiers in full battle gear gather in front of the Sheridan Hotel. The mob itself has too many angry young men and no women or children.
A transport will be there in a few minutes to evacuate the Ambassador and staff. The Marines are preparing for an assault on the building. The mob -- some with weapons -- comes over the embassy walls. Then heavy armor comes toward the embassy.
Kaitlin takes a hypersonic transport to Japan with Yukio. He had suggested taking a suborbital, but she says that they are too expensive for her budget. When they reach Kansai International Airport, they travel via Jet Foil, maglev and subway to youth hostel in Kyoto where Kaitlin is staying. Then Yukio calls home for a car to pick them up.
This tale brings major problems to the USA. They are now at war with Mexico. The MMEF is also attacked on Mars. Kaitlin finds herself in the middle of interplanetary conflict.
Japan responds to the attack on the USA and Yukio flies into space. The next installment in this series is Lunar Marine.
Ian Douglas is a pseudonym of William H. Keith, Jr., a wellknown author and editor of science fiction. Keith was a corpsman during the Vietnam War. He may be best known for his works in the Bolo universe.
Recommended for Douglas fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of interplanetary conflict, armed combat and savvy Marines. Read and enjoy!
-Arthur W. Jordin
Summary of Semper Mars: Book One of the Heritage Trilogy
The Year is 2040.
The Marines have landed on Mars to guard the unearthed secrets of an ancient and dangerous alien race: Ourselves.
Scientists have discovered something astonishing in the subterranean ruins of a sprawling Martian city: startling evidence of an alternative history that threatens to split humanity into opposing factions and plunge the Earth into chaos and war. The USMC -- a branch of a military considered, until just recently, to be obsolete -- has dispatched the Marine Mars Expeditionary Force, a thirty-man weapons platoon, to the Red Planet to protect American civilians and interest with lethal force if necessary.
Because great powers are willing to devastate a world in order to keep an ancient secret buried. Because something that was hidden in the Martian dust for half a million years has just been unearthed . . . something that calls into question every belief that forms the delicate foundation of civilization . . .
Something inexplicably human.
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