Starfist Books In Order

Publication Order of Starfist Books

StarFist (Series by David Sherman)
David Sherman and Dan Cragg wrote the “StarFist” series of military science fiction novels. The novels are set in the 25th century, and are written from the perspective of the guys of the Confederation of Human Worlds Marine Corps 34th FIST (Fleet Initial Strike Team).

There was an additional spin off series, called “StarFist: Force Recon”, that Sherman and Cragg wrote together, and it started with the publication of “Backshot” in 2005. This spinoff series describes the experiences of the women and men that carry out small unit raids and intelligence gathering behind enemy lines. The Confederation Marine Force Recon mission is pretty similar to that of United States Marine Corps Force Recon, with which David (an ex-US Marine) is familiar with. This new series didn’t sell nearly as well as the parent series, which is why it was ended by the publisher after just three novels.

The Confederation of Human Worlds back in the 21st century established its capital city at Fargo, North Dakota, which grew into a large metropolis with a multitude of government buildings and skyscrapers. The military headquarters of the Confederation in Fargo is called the Heptagon. A space navy and an army with air force capability transport space navy ships to whichever planet they get ordered to, and a Marine Corps make up the total force. Humans have colonized several worlds out several hundred light years and get faced with conflicts involving surrounding extraterrestrials.

Just a short time after the authors submitted the manuscript of “Double Jeopardy”, Del Rey, the publisher of the series, chose to cancel this series. It is the fourteenth and final book in the series.

“First to Fight” is the first novel in the “Starfist” series and was released in 1997. Marine Staff Sergeant Charlie Bass and his seven man team, who is stranded in a hellish alien desert, stripped of their quick reaction force, their strategic systems, and supporting arms, and with just a day’s water ration, faced quite the grim future some seventy-five light years from their home.

The one thing between safety and his Marines was eighty-five miles of waterless and uncharted terrain and two thousand bloodthirsty savages that had state-of-the-art weapons in their hands and murder on the brain.

However their enemy never counted on the warrior cunning of Marines’ Marine Charlie Bass as well as the bravery of the few good men that would follow him anywhere. Even to death itself.

“School of Fire” is the second novel in the “Starfist” series and was released in 1998. Betrayal, combat, and murder right at the edge of human space. The Marines, who have been deployed to assist the oligarchs of Wanderjahr in putting a rebellion down, one which threatens the planet’s political and economic stability, are forced to fight two wars at once. One against the entrenched police bureaucracy and the other against the well-led, resourceful guerrillas.

However who can be trusted and who is even their real enemy? On Wanderjahr, nothing is like it seems, not even the animal life, and everybody has an agenda of his own. Inexorably, the Marines from the 34th FIST get pulled deeper into the politics of this world where betrayal, murder, and terror are the accepted methods of government, and everybody’s ripe for an old fashioned butt whoopin’.

“Steel Gauntlet” is the third novel in the “Starfist” series and was released in 1998. After Diamunde, the resource rich planet, gets seized by the armed forces of Marston St. Cyr (an industrialist), the Confederation Marines confront their most desperate battles to date against the mechanized forces of this bloody usurper. Promised a walkover by the military planners, but instead these Marines have to run a gauntlet of steel, with only some weaponry that is three hundred years out of date.

For the Confederation’s invasion army to seize this planet, the Marine FISTs will have to first secure a planethead against St. Cyr’s much bigger forces which have been equipped with superior weapons. Together with their outgunned comrades, these Marines from the 34th FIST will have to do the impossible. Or die.

“Blood Contact” is the fourth novel in the “Starfist” series and was released in 1999. Through three centuries of interstellar travel and intelligent alien life-forms, had never been encountered, up until now that is.

When a scientific team that’s exploring this obscure planet fails to make its regular communications check in, the Marines of Third Platoon get sent in to investigate it. They prepare for just a routine rescue operation, however what they wind up finding on Society 437 is a horror beyond all description. Just a handful of ragtag pirates that were in the wrong place at the worst possible time have survived, and there’s little trace of the scientists.

Why have the pirates been spared? What happened to these scientists? Gunnery Sergeant Bass and the guys of third platoon will soon find out, and the answer carries with it a horrifying implication for these Marines, as well as the whole human race.

“Technokill” is the fifth novel in the “Starfist” series and was released in 2000. An evil coterie of ruthless masterminds, one horrifying secret, and a murderous battle of lethal skill and cunning, it is time to send the Marines in!

After the Confederation makes this stunning discovery on some alien world, this nefarious group of opportunists from the highest echelons of power plan on stealing the vast riches and keeping it all for themselves. These moguls, along with the ability to stomp out any resistance, possess unlimited resources, spacecraft, and a lethal arsenal of cutting-edge weapons.

The one without a price tag is the president of the Confederation. Now she’s sending in Gunnery Sergeant Bass, the men of Third Platoon, and one single special agent to expose these shadowy figures behind this corruption. And so, on this obscure planet, home to this unsettling species and unimaginable treasure, the toughest fighters in Human Space face their fiercest battle to date. For there won’t be any losers in this here war, just the triumphant, the vanished, and the dead.