Customer Reviews

A Band of Brothers (The Lost Regiment #7)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

_A Band of Brothers_, _The Lost Regiment # 7_, is the capstone of one of the greatest series of novels I have ever read. In spite of some problems with proof-reading, which never really got in the way, this novel, like all its predecessors, manages to combine hard science-fiction, masterful military and general history, and anthropological and sociopsychological insight in a blend that cannot fail to move even the most dedicated critic. William R. Forstchen's greatest skills lie in so accurately and insightfully portraying an entire alien culture that one cannot fail to identify with those characters that are drawn from that culture -- and thus be set up for hideous disllusionment when the darker side of that culture is revealed. He presents the alien Bantag with the skill of a master antrhropologist, revealing them in all their barbaric glory, giving us glimpses of their religious and domestic life side-by-side with their enormous military skill and powerful grasp of the principles of war, so that one can't help but sympathize with them -- and then jerks the rug out from under the reader by showing the monstrous aspects of their culture. Further, he shows the Bantag in contrast with the human beings who have come to this world by accident, bringing their own strnegths, skills, weaknesses, their culture, their hopes, dreams, and fears with them, showing the two species, human and alien, locked in a life-or-death struggle to determine which will ultimately populate and master this world -- and for all their cultural glories and tremendous physical size and strength, the aliens finally come off the losers, lacking as they do any real understanding of what human beings can do, the value of such knowledge for military purposes, and even the "soft underbelly" of humanity, the capacity for compassion even toward defeated enemies, love of others that spurs them on to supreme effort when by all rights they should fall and be defeated, and their capacity for vision and creativity by means of which they are able, even in the face of overwhelmingly superior numbers, to crate a military machine capable of utterly destroying their monstrous enemies. Couldn't put any of the novels in the series down until I had finished them. I am looking forward to new novels in which that battle-torn world is presented to us a century after the events taking place in A BAND OF BROTHERS, to see what has become of the human beings and their alien foes during that time. I would also like to see a comprehensive atlas of that world, perhaps a world globe to set on my desk. William Forstchen is a serious rival to Harry Turtledove and Harry Harrison, the mastera of alternative-history science-fiction, as well as Frank Herbert, author of DUNE, and a true heir of Murray Leinster and H. P. Lovecraft. May he live for many long, productive years more, opening countless clear windows not only on this world, but many others besides.

Band of Brothers continues the Lost Regiment series, an intriguing blend of historical and military science fiction. The premise is fairly derivative of dozens of other SF books, especially Harry Turtledove's Videssos series. A US civil war regiment is transported to a world where humans are kept as slaves - "cattle" - to be eaten by a race of monstrous nine-feet high aliens reminiscent of Genghis Khan's Mongols. By the time Band of Brothers comes around, it is 10 years after the 51st Maine arrived, 10 years in which they have freed several human states and defeated two of the many hordes that feasted on them, all through the application of 19th century technology such as rifles and artillery. Beginning pretty much where book six left off, Republic troops are engaging in skirmishes with the Bantag Horde after narrowly escaping annihilation in book six. It is no secret to reveal Andrew Keane, the Commander of the 51st Maine and of the Republic's armies, is wounded (the book has the scene on the inside cover). The action focuses around Pat O'Donald, the gruff Irish artilleryman as he tries to hold the armies together. Most of the action takes place in Roum, in brutal city fighting which Forstchen writes quite well. His military actions are much better described than the tortuous scenes in Harold Coyles contemporary Civil War novels, and at least as good as Bernard Cornwell's Starbuck novels. But Band of Brothers, while not the weakest of the Lost Regiment series, is not the best, an honour I reserve for numbers three and four, Terrible Swift Sword and Fateful Lightning. Forstchen's narrative sometimes gets bogged down in descriptions of battle which are all too similar, a problem with a series like this. The technology once again takes small leaps forward in the book, one of the best parts of this series. You keep asking yourself, "what if the civil war kept going?", "What if technology leaps were injected, such as the Horde's harnessing of powered flight". But for novels which rely so much on descriptions of logistics, the lack of a map is not only annoying, but a serious omission. Forstchen should rectify this as soon as possible, even by posting one on the Net, so fans can properly appreciate his vision. In all, a good read, I stayed up till 3am to finish it.

An epic, that is all I can call it. While waiting for #8 Men of War, I sat down and re-read all seven books and believe now more than ever that these are some of the finest books I have ever read. I have a library of over one thousand books in my home, and The Lost Resiment stands high as the best I have read. Never has a book or series of books so moved me as an American and a student of American history. You can feel the power and the pain of their struggle as these fine men fight against overwhelming odds for one simple reason - to live free. The most important factor of the stories is that the heroes are people just like you and me. Just like any hero, a moment before they were a hero they were plain old folks, just another person. You can connect with the people in the story because of that, you feel for them, you feel their joy and pain, when they laugh, you laugh, and when they cry you cry with them. When one of them quotes "We few we happy few, we band of brothers" tears will well up into your eyes, because you feel the brotherhood he speaks of. I am now going to sit down and read "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield, which was recommended to me by William R. Forstchen. 'Nuff said!

This is the seventh in the series. Not the best one, but a very good installment. This one picks up right where the previous one left off. The author does not spend much time introducing the characters or the plot. It gets right into the action.

In the previous book, the humans have just been defeated soundly and are in full retreat to the lands of the Roum. The Bantag are in hot pursuit. The humans are counting on the winter weather to halt the Bantag campaign. However, since Ha'ark is from a different (modern) world, he understands the importance of continueing the campaign once the enemy is on the run. He pursues the humans and begins the seige in the dead of winter.

Ha'arks lines of communication and supply are tied to a single rail line leading all the way back to the Great Sea. Several hundred miles. The port city is resupplied via sea from the land of the Chin. Ha'arks supplies take 10 days to reach the front lines from the Chin. Ha'ark has plenty of trains and ships ferrying supplies.

I tell all this because resupply is the only Bantag weakness. If the humans can disrupt the resupply, even for only a few days, the tide of the battle will turn. That's all I will tell about the battle.

If you're reading the series, this one has to be read in the correct order. If you are not reading the series, a lot of the storyline may be confusing. There are lots of reference to events and people in the previous books.

Bottom line, this is a good book.

Keane is hurt and that changes him. The leader of the humans becomes the most deeply human of the lot, forced to face his fear and his guilt, while a vicious street by street fight erupts in the city of Roum, from the sewers to the buildings. The Redeemer shows himself as a less than ideal tactician, reacting to the circunstances more than creating them, which is actually what has been documented as real war, where combat is changing and fluid. Hans will end up leading "his" people, the Chin, into battle against the Bantag with little more than their hands. This is stirring writing, which appeals to our emotions as much as to our rationality. This alien world is very possible, and the technology to get there is part of theoretical physics, with wormholes between universes and/or galaxies, or sectors of galaxies, and the reversion of the hordes to primitive nomads after their ancestors "walked between the stars." "A Band Of Brothers" manages to keep the suspense alive just at the moment (the seventh installment) when most series that last this long wind down and either die, or crawl ahead to ever-diminishing interest. By shifting the focus and by making his characters more fallible and, therefore, more human, Forstchen has written a dark, different winner.

The only reason this book did not get three stars was the fact that William Forsthcen is one of my favorite authors, but otherwise it was not the best in the series. The Bantag War, compared to the Tugar and Merki Wars, is quite dull. The land ironclads are somewhat interesting, but they don't really add anything overly exciting to the tale. There were some odd things going on in Roum, as well. The Senate building (the Curia) kept being called a palace, even though it is not, and now suddenly Marcus's name has gone from Graccus to Crassus. The late Ferguson's wife is still called Varinna for some reason, even though she was originally named Olivia. Vincent kept being referred to as Chuck, which was creepy considering Chuck is dead! The airship stuff is getting boring and repetitive, and a few characters are becoming rather dull. The battle scenes, especially Hans's scuffle by the Ebro, were slow moving and confusing, and maps would have been somewhat helpful. Jurak's actions towards Ha'ark at the end of the book were predictable-- it's already happened a couple times in this series. No shocker there. The only real exciting parts in the book were the opening and the free-for-all in the Temple of Venus. Band of Brothers, I'm sorry to say, is one of my least favorite entries in the Lost Regiment series, and now that I begin Men of War, I'm hoping for much better from Mr. Forstchen.

Forstchen continues building this excellent series, his own academic interests in military and technological history, and the American Civil War coming to the fore, in which a stranded Union regeiment bootstraps both a medieval Russian and a clasical Roman society into the 19th century and beyond...

This book, the seventh in the series, is not quite as good as its prequels, if only because it is too short. Forstchen zips along the story at a fair clip, and tells it well, but still does this brevity mean that the author is becoming bored with his own tale? This is evident in that there are leaps in the story, which are not that jarring, but irritating all the same.

Otherwise, there is little to complain about. Forstchen's characterisation and technological description remains solid, but some of the actions that characters take do seem to come out of left field and are a little unexpected.

As a whole this series remains still relatively unexplored. Forstchen has concentrated upon one area of this world, so there could yet be a lot of stories beyond this. I for one would like to see this. Two areas that continue to let this series down are the lack of maps and also of a timeline - the seven books cover ten years of history and it can be difficult to place which event happens where and when... One other complaint is the inability to get these books in the UK at anything other than specialist dealers!

Further, it might be interesting to see this setting developed in other media - a computer game or role-playing supplement perhaps?

In summary, if you liked the rest of this series, you will enjoy this latest addition.

Book 7 of the Lost Regiment series stays true to form. The Bantag horde, led by Haark the Redeemer is closing in on Roum.

The transplanted Yankees, led by Civil War Colonel Andrew Keane have been on this alternative Earth for ten years. Under the very real threat of being killed and eaten by Merki warriors, the humans have advanced 50 to 75 years in military technology in only ten years and three wars.

They have tanks (land ironclads), hybrid blimp/airplanes, hand grenades, and hollow charge anti-tank rockets. Fortchen does a good job of showing the difficulties of using these new weapons effectively. He also spends a lot of time on logistics, weather, morale, etc.

My only complaint is that the book is too short at only 315 pages. I finished it in less than a day, and now I have to wait too long for the next installment.

I looked forward to Band of Brothers, preordering the book. However, I found that the book seemed rushed, as if the author, like our central character and his Republic, were tired of the long war. There were occasional moments when the author's skill resurfaced to enthrall one, but overall the book was a big disappointment, not worthy of the rest of the series.

This book is great! It combines world war II with the civil war. Brutal eastern front type knock down drag out battles fought with muskets and steam driven tanks.