Customer Reviews

Lost Regiment 07 A Band Of Brothers

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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 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.

_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.

Just in case I didnt write a SN for my review and a sneak peak at the next few books in line here it is BHSROTC @AOL.COM DOWN BY THE SEA

Hey people first of all this is the greatest series of all time and second I have followed this series from the beginningever since RALLY CRY came out all those years ago . At first I bought it cuz of the Cover but a year later I read it and became immersed . After the #8 book there will be 3 more books entitled DOWN THE SEA and it will chronicle events after the BANTAG WAR . If you have any more questions e mail me at my address .

A lot of people have asked me about bood number 8. It is scheduled to come at the end of this year, more towards December.

There is a web site I happened upon... this site is great to give all the forthcoming books for all sci-fi series.