Men of War

Rating:
Summary: The Best Historical SF In The WORLD!
Review: <The following review applies to the entire Lost Regiment series> I have already written online reviews of Turtledove's "Colonization" series and Flint's "1632". I loved them. I also loved Stirling's "Nantucket" books. However, I would not give any of them five stars. Why not? I was saving that honor for this series. Forstchen's "Lost Regiment" books (this one plus seven previous volumes) are, quite simply, the best Historical SF on the market. Turtledove, Stirling, and Flint all write excellent novels, but none of them can quite match the plotting, action, characters, and pure emotional power of this series. The story (in my mind) is the stuff of legend. A transport ship full of civil-war Yankees (one regiment of infantry and one artillery battery) is mysteriously teleported to a strange new world, a world in which a master race of aliens has reduced humanity (over the millenia, many other groups of people, including Republican Romans and medieval Russians, have also found themselves transported to this world) to the level of cattle, to be devoured at whim. Now it's time for those bastards to start worrying. The Yanks' rifles and cannon are more powerful than any other weapons in the world (although it is implied that the aliens were once a star-faring civilization, they have long ago been reduced to the technology and tactics of Mongol horse-archers), capable of mowing down massive numbers of local warriors. Still, the aliens have them vastly outnumbered. But the Yankees have a much more powerful weapon on hand: the American way. Heartened by the newfangled notions of freedom and democracy, the local humans are ready to take a stand. The Americans, who use their technological know-how to create a modern industrial society, give them a fighting chance. But it will not be such and easy fight, for the aliens learn quickly... The conflict lasts eight books, and never gets boring. This series has it all: terrific battle scenes, excellent characters (I don't think I've ever become so attached to any group of protagonists), dirty politics, brilliant technological innovations, blood-drenched horror (the aliens commit some of the most imaginative attrocities I've ever read about...), heart-rending tragedy, touching romance, and the invincible power of freedom. One thing is always clear: terror and oppression are no match for justice and liberty.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Historical SF In The WORLD!
Review: <The following review applies to the entire Lost Regiment series> I have already written online reviews of Turtledove's "Colonization" series and Flint's "1632". I loved them. I also loved Stirling's "Nantucket" books. However, I would not give any of them five stars. Why not? I was saving that honor for this series. Forstchen's "Lost Regiment" books (this one plus seven previous volumes) are, quite simply, the best Historical SF on the market. Turtledove, Stirling, and Flint all write excellent novels, but none of them can quite match the plotting, action, characters, and pure emotional power of this series. The story (in my mind) is the stuff of legend. A transport ship full of civil-war Yankees (one regiment of infantry and one artillery battery) is mysteriously teleported to a strange new world, a world in which a master race of aliens has reduced humanity (over the millenia, many other groups of people, including Republican Romans and medieval Russians, have also found themselves transported to this world) to the level of cattle, to be devoured at whim. Now it's time for those bastards to start worrying. The Yanks' rifles and cannon are more powerful than any other weapons in the world (although it is implied that the aliens were once a star-faring civilization, they have long ago been reduced to the technology and tactics of Mongol horse-archers), capable of mowing down massive numbers of local warriors. Still, the aliens have them vastly outnumbered. But the Yankees have a much more powerful weapon on hand: the American way. Heartened by the newfangled notions of freedom and democracy, the local humans are ready to take a stand. The Americans, who use their technological know-how to create a modern industrial society, give them a fighting chance. But it will not be such and easy fight, for the aliens learn quickly... The conflict lasts eight books, and never gets boring. This series has it all: terrific battle scenes, excellent characters (I don't think I've ever become so attached to any group of protagonists), dirty politics, brilliant technological innovations, blood-drenched horror (the aliens commit some of the most imaginative attrocities I've ever read about...), heart-rending tragedy, touching romance, and the invincible power of freedom. One thing is always clear: terror and oppression are no match for justice and liberty.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Historical SF In The WORLD!
Review: I have already written online reviews of Turtledove's "Colonization" series and Flint's "1632". I loved them. I also loved Stirling's "Nantucket" books. However, I would not give any of them five stars. Why not? I was saving that honor for this series. Forstchen's "Lost Regiment" books (this one plus seven previous volumes) are, quite simply, the best Historical SF on the market. Turtledove, Stirling, and Flint all write excellent novels, but none of them can quite match the plotting, action, characters, and pure emotional power of this series. The story (in my mind) is the stuff of legend. A transport ship full of civil-war Yankees (one regiment of infantry and one artillery battery) is mysteriously teleported to a strange new world, a world in which a master race of aliens has reduced humanity (over the millenia, many other groups of people, including Republican Romans and medieval Russians, have also found themselves transported to this world) to the level of cattle, to be devoured at whim. Now it's time for those bastards to start worrying. The Yanks' rifles and cannon are more powerful than any other weapons in the world (although it is implied that the aliens were once a star-faring civilization, they have long ago been reduced to the technology and tactics of Mongol horse-archers), capable of mowing down massive numbers of local warriors. Still, the aliens have them vastly outnumbered. But the Yankees have a much more powerful weapon on hand: the American way. Heartened by the newfangled notions of freedom and democracy, the local humans are ready to take a stand. The Americans, who use their technological know-how to create a modern industrial society, give them a fighting chance. But it will not be such and easy fight, for the aliens learn quickly... The conflict lasts eight books, and never gets boring. This series has it all: terrific battle scenes, excellent characters (I don't think I've ever become so attached to any group of protagonists), dirty politics, brilliant technological innovations, blood-drenched horror (the aliens commit some of the most imaginative attrocities I've ever read about...), heart-rending tragedy, touching romance, and the invincible power of freedom. One thing is always clear: terror and oppression are no match for justice and liberty.

Rating:
Summary: Exhilarating ending for THE military science fiction series!
Review: Forstchen has truly created something that far surpasses anything that has come before and probably set the golden standard for the genre. Drake, Pournelle, Stirling, Niven, Saberhagen, and Forstchen's other books do not come close to this series. Rickety aerosteamers and land and sea ironclads, as primitive as they are, somehow have a superior eloquence in conveying the drama of war over the sophisticated spaceships, supersonic planes, or lasers which have up to this decade been the staple of other military science fiction. This concluding chapter itself is a true microcosm of what fans and admirers have come to expect from the series. While this means incredible battles, tense political interplay, fierce confrontations of personality and fate, surprising twists, and some heavy references to the importance of logistics, technology, and strategy, the book also carries with it some of the faults of the series; namely, the inconsistency with the characters' names begs for some coherent editorialism. True to form, Fortschen changes the Rus orthodox priest's name from Casmar to Casmir! At the end of the book one of the character's name is reshuffled in a pretty blatant mistake though it only happens once. I won't risk giving anything away, but readers will see it when they get there. However, as the series has always done, the tremendous story more than makes up for these annoyances. The conclusion to all the important threads is not COMPLETELY detailed, but the book does present a definitive conclusion to the Bantag War and the answer to humanity's future existence or extinction. By the end of the book readers will know which side won the war, what species will dominate the planet, and what the very GENERAL implications for the future of the Republic will be, so longtime readers need not despair on that account. I would have preferred a highly detailed account of the next 100 to 1000 years like one reviewer requested, but as it is, the last chapter which wraps things up is satisfying enough. Beyond that, Forstchen seems to have indicated that he is through with the Lost Regiment, and I commend him for letting this terrific series run its course and ending it with the dignity and the treatment it deserves. The new use for the aerosteamers in battle is some of the most exciting stuff I've read since the rocket barrage at Hispania or Timokin's charge at Rocky Hill! We've all wanted to see the humans on the offensive and wondering how much longer the Republic could hold out under the strain of constant war and here are the answers. This is the worthy conclusion I was looking for.

Oh, and the maps were very helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Thank you to those who took the time to comment
Review: I greatly appreciate those readers who took the time to comment on this series, both positive and negative. One frequent complaint on the earlier books "needs maps" has been addressed in this final book in the series with a map of the world and of the major battle. Hope you enjoy the tale!

Rating:
Summary: The Last One?
Review: I have read the entire saga for the second time from book one to book eight. For little more than a week I left Earth and went to Forstchen's world to live his characters' agonies and triumphs, to worry about the Republic, the Rus, the Roum, the Chin, even the Cartha and, yes, the Tugars, with Muzta leading them as best as he could. But, most of all, I went back to see the Yankees once more transforming a planet like stranded messengers of the best that the human race has to offer. "Men of War" is the end of this saga and I was elated and sad. the Republic wins, but it's not a smashing victory: this one, like all the other ones, will be obtained paying for it with thousands of lives, making terrible mistakes, letting friends die to win hours that may prove to be crucial. Forstchen, a master story-teller, weaves his tapestry from different angles to achieve a rational conclusion, but one that leaves several doors open, including that of more sequels.

Jurak, the troubled, almost noble leader of the Bantag, is back, bringing with him all the revulsion at a segment of his race gone barbarian, and feeling, apparently, all the guilt that a mamber of the hordes needs to feel at what has been done for thousands of years in that world. Keane is back, too. Not in top form (and one doubts he will ever be in top form again, given the ghosts he had to face in order to lead once more), but even at 80% Keane is better than most. A nice touch is the mention --almost literal-- of a poem by Keats, in page 11, that goes "I know that I shall meet my fate/ somewhere among the clouds above;/ those I fight I do not hate/ those I guard I do not love..." (The poem is "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"), but in this case it is Jurak who remembers such a poem from his own homeworld.

A dear character will be lost at the beginning of the book, another at the end. "Men of War" has an air of closure that, although not total, seems to invite a continuation in the less immediate future. The problems with the names will continue, as well. This does not bother me very much, but I think it requires more attention. Father Casmar becomes Casmir, and Marcus Licinius Graca is mentioned now as Crassus, which does not make much sense. I have already mentioned the Jamul/Jurak problem. These are details, but they might distract readers from the better parts of the books.

"The Lost Regiment" comes to an end. Or does it? I'm not clairvoyant. I have inside information, so, cheer up: we will see more of the Republic yet. "Men of War" is the end of a story, not the end of "the" story. Happy reading.

Rating:
Summary: The Last One?
Review: I have read the entire saga for the second time from book one to book eight. For little more than a week I left Earth and went to Forstchen's world to live his characters' agonies and triumphs, to worry about the Republic, the Rus, the Roum, the Chin, even the Cartha and, yes, the Tugars, with Muzta leading them as best as he could. But, most of all, I went back to see the Yankees once more transforming a planet like stranded messengers of the best that the human race has to offer. "Men of War" is the end of this saga and I was elated and sad. the Republic wins, but it's not a smashing victory: this one, like all the other ones, will be obtained paying for it with thousands of lives, making terrible mistakes, letting friends die to win hours that may prove to be crucial. Forstchen, a master story-teller, weaves his tapestry from different angles to achieve a rational conclusion, but one that leaves several doors open, including that of more sequels.

Jurak, the troubled, almost noble leader of the Bantag, is back, bringing with him all the revulsion at a segment of his race gone barbarian, and feeling, apparently, all the guilt that a mamber of the hordes needs to feel at what has been done for thousands of years in that world. Keane is back, too. Not in top form (and one doubts he will ever be in top form again, given the ghosts he had to face in order to lead once more), but even at 80% Keane is better than most. A nice touch is the mention --almost literal-- of a poem by Keats, in page 11, that goes "I know that I shall meet my fate/ somewhere among the clouds above;/ those I fight I do not hate/ those I guard I do not love..." (The poem is "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"), but in this case it is Jurak who remembers such a poem from his own homeworld.

A dear character will be lost at the beginning of the book, another at the end. "Men of War" has an air of closure that, although not total, seems to invite a continuation in the less immediate future. The problems with the names will continue, as well. This does not bother me very much, but I think it requires more attention. Father Casmar becomes Casmir, and Marcus Licinius Graca is mentioned now as Crassus, which does not make much sense. I have already mentioned the Jamul/Jurak problem. These are details, but they might distract readers from the better parts of the books.

"The Lost Regiment" comes to an end. Or does it? I'm not clairvoyant. I have inside information, so, cheer up: we will see more of the Republic yet. "Men of War" is the end of a story, not the end of "the" story. Happy reading.

Rating:
Summary: Great book, but it shouldn't be the end
Review: I have thouroughly enjoyed the entire series, and this book is as good as the rest. I wish it wasn't the last. I would like to see Mr. Fortschen explore some of the loose ends like what happens to the Tugars (my favorite of the hoards). Anyway, you will enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: OUTSTANDING PIECE OF LITERATURE
Review: I just finished the book and it was one of the greatest in the series . If not the greatest . The Trouble begins after an ''successful'' river crossing of The 9th Corps over the Bantag Trenchlines . Suddenly out of nowhere the Bantag under Jurak ''THE REAL REDEEMER as Zartak calls him (Zartak is the Bantag equivalent of Schuder) plays his cards and the whole offensive fails within a couple of hours as 9th Corps takes a beating and sustained over 80% casualties . During the Bantag counteroffensive Marcus Gracca falls and so begins a chainreaction in a series of events that divides the Republic . I don't want to spoil the rest of the story but a hint is that the Republic's engineers have something cooked up ..... if you want to know more and find out what happens go out and get the book .If you don't you will regret it. The last few chapters were somewhat unprdictable .

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Conclusion
Review: I loved the concept and initial books of this series. It was great story telling. Couldn't wait for the next one. However, as time went on and the series was nearing the end, the character development got weaker, the story telling became abbreviated.

I feel 'ripped off' with Men of War. I just had a sense that the author just wanted to finish the series quickly. Hawthorne gets religion and you really don't know why. Keane gets banished and you don't read another word about him until the end when he comes back. Not a single new interesting character. So on, so on, so on. This doesn't hold a candle to Rally Cry or Fateful Lightening. Slam, bang and give me my check!

I gave it 3 stars only because of the earlier work, some words about characters that I liked and the concept has been interesting. Very Disappointing.

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