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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780380788286
ISBN number: 0380788284
Label: Eos
Manufacturer: Eos
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: May 01, 1998
Publishing house: Eos
Release Date: May 01, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 24239
Studio: Eos
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Product Description:
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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Full disclosure: I only read up to page 33. This might disqualify me as a reviewer. On the other hand, I can't think of the last time I stopped reading a book this quickly, even a terrible one. What's more, the jingoistic U-S-A tone of the book is actually a nice attraction for me. So what's the problem? First, lame and stereotypical dialogue. Second, a crude and tasteless sex scene. It's tough to turn me off with a sex scene, but this one managed it in spades. I recommend skipping this series and going straight to Jack Campbell's Dauntless series. Besides its other merits, Campbell's series has a great opening that gets you into the action right away.
Rated by buyers 
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Too much detail slows down the story. I wonder if Sir Isaac Newton knows about a rifle bullet that goes so fast that it hits the target before the rifle recoils? (Third law of motion)
Rated by buyers -
as with each of his works there is enough hard data to go with a decent story that keeps the pages turning
Rated by buyers -
SEMPER MARS (1998) is the very first book from the "Space Marines" HERITAGE TRILOGY. This story takes place in the near future (2040), with a platoon of US Marines getting sent to Mars to disuade the anti-American UN from completely taking over the interests in a Archealogical site dating from 500,000 years ago.
The UN is also backing a group attempting to seize control of the American Southwest (Aztlan), and a group from Quebec that attempts to invade America from the North. This part of the story is quite believable - but there are other parts, such as the usual "catastrophic manmade global warming" theme, which fall flat... additionally, the predicted 2040 computer technology basically parallels what we actually have in 2008 - so, it is hard to go "wow" when the author describes one of the characters using a 1 Gigabyte memory device (heck, I've got 8GB plug-in devices right now!).
The actual endurance and space battle scenes are quite good... so, even though there are a lot of anachronisms in this very first book, I'm going to move on to the 2nd book in the series (written a year later), and hope the technology gets better.
Rated by buyers 
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Semper Mars introduced me to the work of Ian Douglas, who along with Jack Campbell (The Lost Fleet et. seq) has reignited my interest in military science fiction. I have battled my way through the Posleen wars with John Ringo when the plot to Semper Mars caught my interest. Without giving too much away, the plot for this book is all too plausible if some of the scaremongers on the right wing of American politics are to be believed. The US is been backed into a corner and has weak allies in the UK and Russia while its relationship with Japan is uneasy. The plot line is not terribly demanding: the face on Mars is an alien artifact with its secrets yet to be revealed. The United Nations has become so powerful that it threatens to overcome the US and its allies. At a critical point in time, around 2039-40, Hispanic states to the south of America threatened to seize several US states and establish a Spanish-speaking and hostile republic, while French militants in Québec threaten from the north. The US Embassy in Mexico City is stormed by militants backed by the Mexican government and as in Saigon during the Vietnam War, embassy staff are helicoptered to safety by the US Marines. The Marine Corps is under threat of dissolution but manages to work its way around the State Department and sent the detachment of Marines to safeguard US interests on Mars. The story is gritty warfare from a Marine perspective and involves heroics above and beyond the call of duty, at a fast route march. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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