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I'm trying to remember the title of a book I read perhaps in 2010 or 2011. The book was a used paperback at the time, and might have been published in the naughts or the nineties. The cover of the copy I had showed some sort of slug creature that was very reminiscent of the Ohm from Nausicaä and the Valley of the Wind. It was a small, thick paperback like most other sci-fi shlock.

The book opened with two soldiers arguing about whether they were on a forest planet looking up at its forest moon, or on a forest moon looking up at its forest planet. An answer is given to them by a passing scientist. The general plot of the book, at least in the portion that I read, was the conflict between humans and a group of aliens that resembled robotic slugs, and maybe some insects or arachnids or something. The robotic slugs were prone to torturing captured humans and press-ganging them with mind-controlling chips, sort of like the Borg.

I'm sorry that this question is so vague, but I can't remember even the name of the main character. It's been bugging me (heh) for six or seven years now. Thank you in advance.

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  • Can you remember any character names?
    – Edlothiad
    Jun 20, 2017 at 0:11
  • One female marine was called Yellow. The others had ordinary modern names.
    – V. Harlan
    Jun 20, 2017 at 0:14
  • Maybe have a look at this list? It's other Story-id questions we've had that have slugs in them. I only had a quick glance, but I don't think they were quite the same
    – Edlothiad
    Jun 20, 2017 at 0:15
  • Isn't any of those. I'm looking through lists of 1990's and 2000's science fiction, but it's all a shot in the dark
    – V. Harlan
    Jun 20, 2017 at 0:17
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    Could it be one of Neal Ashers Polity novel?goodreads.com/series/49128-polity-universe-chronological-order A major antagonist in them are the aliens called Prador who are giant bio mechanical crabs, that use 'coring' technology to convert human slaves into drones.
    – Sarriesfan
    Jun 21, 2017 at 7:47

2 Answers 2

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enter image description here

Star Corps by Ian Douglas (William Keith)

He hesitated, looking up at the vast and seething globe of Marduk. "Hey, Captain?"

"What?"

"Some of the guys were having a friendly argument the other night. Is Ishtar a planet or a freakin' moon?"

Pearson chuckled. "Look it up on the local net."

"I did. Didn't understand that astrological crap."

"Astronomy, not astrology. And it's both. Marduk is a gas giant, a planet circling the Llalande sun. Ishtar is a moon of Marduk...but if it's planet-sized and has its own internally generated magnetic field and atmosphere and everything else, might as well call it a planet, right?"

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  • That's the conversation alright. Thank you.
    – V. Harlan
    Jun 25, 2017 at 8:04
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Could it be the Starfist series? I don't remember which one had the forest, but I have about ten of them. They are from the late ninetees (and early 2000s), they have marines fighting ugly aliens every time, and I vagely remember that scene with the forest (it's the type of humor typical for the series).
I am not going to re-read them all now to check, so here is a shot of the first one. It's not the right one, but maybe the series is correct:

enter image description here

enter image description here

If you want, I can upload a pic of all ten.

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  • It seems that none of the books in the Starfist series are the one I'm looking for. At least not any of the ones with plot summaries on Wikipedia. Thanks anyway.
    – V. Harlan
    Jun 20, 2017 at 1:14
  • Can you expand on this, what points actually match the OP's requirements?
    – Möoz
    Jun 20, 2017 at 1:17

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