Semper Mars

Book One of the Heritage Trilogy

By: Ian Douglas

Narrated by: Ray Chase

Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©1998 William H. Keith, Jr. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

I enjoyed this book...

What did you love best about Semper Mars?

Always in the first book of the series it takes time to get all the players down... About midway through the book I was into the story... Thanks for the adventure and I will be downloading book 2 and 3

It could have been a lot better

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The publisher probably should have had a real Marine ghost write it for William Keith (aka Ian Douglas)

Would you be willing to try another book from Ian Douglas? Why or why not?

Maybe, but I will not listen to anymore in this series.

SPOILED EXPERINCE BECAUSE OF AUDIBLE

Because of audible's strange politics I already listened to "Star Carrier" Series and "Inheritance" trilogy.

Inheritance Trilogy events occur in the same universe as this series but years later, and all of the main events of this series are listed as historical facts in the first book "Star Strike".

I hoped I would have a bit better quality than Inheritance Trilogy, but it was on the same level maybe even worse.
I dropped the book after 1/4, Ian Douglas kept the style of writing and the same formulas all over "Star Carrier" Series, "Inheritance" trilogy and heritage trilogy, It gave the feeling like he cloned all this books and just changed some of their names.

PS
Maybe I will finish it on some rainy day but I doubt it !!!!

Listened for the second time. Glad I did!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, this was a great listen. I just finished listening to Star Marines from the ???third??? series in this storyline and wanted to listen from the beginning as it had been so long. I'm glad I did. It is an excellent story and the narrator is very easy to listen to.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Major Garroway was the primary character and well done. His character was interesting and not so narrow in nature as some book characters are. A bit irreverent, a caring father, a dedicated marine, has his failings, but tries to work past them.

Any additional comments?

It's going to be a bit of work to go back through the Heritage, Legacy, and the first two books of the Inheritance trilogies, but I think it will be worth it.

Needed proof read by a Marine

Read the book before serving as a Marine radio operator and really enjoyed it so many years later I purchased the audio book and realized how bad this book is.

Lots of little issues with pronunciations from the narrator.

Several times i found my self yelling out in my car due to things I felt uncharacteristic to the story. Marines do not use foxholes they use fighting holes. Why would you let the observer contact their superiors with out contacting yours. Why where they at a low alert when there are possible hostile agents who outnumber you nearby. Why is a communications officer 1. not have information to setup radios from scratch 2. leading an infantry assault. The list goes on and on.

Very Enjoyable

The book was highly interesting. I thought the Mars and politics where combined realistically. I did think they could have left the tin foil hat stuff, face on mars, aliens guided building pyramids off, and the story would have been even better.

not bad

story line had a slow start but a good finish. not bad over all thougha

Hoorah! Realistic and exciting.

Definitely continuing with book 2. Narrator does a good job expressing characters' personalities. Author presents realistic characters -- ordinary people accomplishing great feats with ordinary skills (ordinary for Marines, that is).

Fun space opera

If you like space opera this one is fun. Douglas puts an interesting twist on the future as the US gets a substantial dose of its own real politik. There are a lot of classic plot lines and good characterization for this genre. Definitely worth it.

Great book and a wonderful series

A great sci fi book about the stars. one book I always love to back too. iys a great story that always keeps me thinking and involved with the story. one of my favorite story lines.