The Regiment

A heavily philosophical military science fiction novel, the first in a trilogy, I believe. I thought it was quite good, although I found the ending somewhat unsatisfying and a little disappointing. But perhaps it was fitting for the philosophical viewpoints the author was trying to get across regarding society, war, and other roles for people/beings in cultures, etc.

A rebellion takes place on a planet where some important mining is done by slaves, essentially. The slaves are physically superior to their intellectually “superior” masters, but they have some help and training, as well as weapons, and soon it turns into a real battle. So, a different race of warriors from another planet is hired as mercenaries to come in and fight show more them for the human masters. The protagonist, a journalist, joins the mercenaries to get their stories, and becomes one of them, essentially, living and training with them, even going out on missions with them. He discovers and finally understands their cultural philosophy regarding “play” and war, etc, and that changes everything.

I won’t say more because I don’t want to give away the plot or the critical ending, but it’s a good, action packed book with a lot of tension and emotion, intrigue and politics. And the aforementioned philosophical thoughts and ideas. Almost a five star book, but I’m giving it four stars due to the problematic and moderately disappointing ending. Nonetheless, definitely recommended and I intend to read the other books in the series. show less

This was a 4 star read in a lot of ways. The first half was excellent military SF. The political/conspiracy thread got stronger & made for a good second half, but there was also a thread of mysticism that ran through it that I didn't care for, although it did help support the philosophical thread to some extent.

Overall, the philosophical thread was the main one. We're introduced to it early on in a simplistic format & then it's touched on through out the book. It breaks life into major groups & then assigns motivations to them. It was interesting, although it's a far stretch. Still, that's what SF is about - exploring the far stretches.

Dalmas certainly got a lot of the trivia of the military right. As I read about the jumps, I thought show more he must have done it. He has. He jumped in WWII & later was a smoke jumper. I'm not sure which is more dangerous.

I won't be reading it again, but I'm glad I read it once. I'm going to look for the second book in this series, too. It might just be excellent, although no real reviews are on GR. show less

A mediocre take on low tech military scifi.
The Regiment follows a reporter embedded with a regiment of mysterious mercenaries as they fight an insurrection on a jungle planet. Has the setup of a pretty decent action book but quickly gets sidetracked into dune-like philosophy but without the depth