The first part of a three-volume adaptation of Haldeman's Nebula Award-winning SF novel presents a gripping tale with disturbing echoes of the Vietnam war, in which Haldeman was wounded. After a colony spacecraft from Earth is mysteriously destroyed, America prepares for the first time to engage extraterrestrial life in combat. William Mandella is one of a small, elite force trained and sent across millions of miles of space to attack an enemy base. The author vividly recreates the tedium, stupidity, terror and destruction of combat. The soldiers' first encounter turns into a bloody massacre of unarmed aliens, an act which leaves Mandella "horrified at the prospect of living with myself for sixty more years," and which sets the stage for the beginning of a war with no end in sight. Marvano and Marchand combine their talents to create a complex technological environment and an alien planet battleground, both represented with distinctive spare line work and a limited but rich palette. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.