Rally Cry (The Lost Regiment Series Book 1)

A wonderful book. Ingenious plot line. Forschten is master of the written word. The characters are extremely well developed, especially the Colonel. Basic premise: A bunch Civil War New Englanders are stranded on a strange world where humans are but sacrifices to strange aliens. Almost no criticisms for this one, except for the rather dramatic last minute ending. Perhaps Forschten could have come up with a more realistic ending.

This book is addictively good. I started and couldn't stop. I finished the entire novel in one day! The story and characters pulled me in. The entire book was a true testament to the horror and wonder that is warfare. Opening my mind to everything from battlefield tactics to technological development. A literary wonder. If the scale gave more than five stars, this book would get it!

A book and series that has dethroned Tolkien, Morcock and Turtledove in my opinion as the best fantasy/alternative universe writing that I have ever encountered. My biggest compliments for Forstchen's writing is his detail. I love the fact that he goes into the minute details that are requried to wage the campaign in the book, and he flat out writes the best combat sequences that I have ever read. There is nothing that I hate more than battle sequences that start and finish in two sentences. Not here, Forstchen takes you vivdly throughh the battles and they are great! Once you read this book you'll be caught for the whole series. This is te only Sci-fi that I've ever given away as a gift to friends. BILL - Keep em coming!

Bought the book by chance one day, bought the complete series the next. If you like military adventures or alternate history stories or science fiction adventures (see where I'm going with this) you will love this book. Each chapter smoothly leads you into the next with tales that are gripping. The storyline moves easy enough while it weaves between imaginitive settings, war, blood and guts, drama, love (hawthorn) and surprises. If you like Ian Douglas' series you'll like this one. Buy Rally Cry and you'll be hooked in the series.

I really enjoyed this series, which is quite a nice mixture of character building and epic battles. The books are very well written and have excellent amounts of drama and suspense, while maintaining a very believable storyline.
Absolutely enjoyable. Bought the whole series on impulse (based on these reviews) a couple months back and have read the first 7 already. Well on to book # 8 :) ...

I Love civil war history and alternate worlds. The Lost Regiment stands out as a fun read. I love books with creepy, scary and realistic protagonists. The bad guys in this book fit the bill.
I have read Legion of Videssos this is just as good.
Full disclosure - I am a huge Turtledove Fan.
Just wish Forstchen would write more in this series.

The concept of a civil war regiment being transported to another planet was a decent premise.

Some of the other things didn't ring true for me. Basically ALL the plants AND animals with the exception of the Horde were from earth also. This planet had no plants or animals native to it? The massive amount of technical know-how in this 600 to 700 people is a real stretch. The industrial revolution they achieve in a year or so is pretty amazing. Sure they built mechanical reaping machines to help with the harvest but if the author ever did ANY farming he would know there is a lot more work involved farming than just harvesting. The majority of the peasants would have still been struggling to produce food. Sure the MOST labor intensive time is harvest but planting and then keeping things weeded and the birds or whatever out of the crops is never ending. Earlier in the book the original Russian rulers are grumbling about providing food for just the Regiment but almost immediately they can provide food for the regiment and 10's of thousands of people busy industrializing. I have severe doubts about their ability to produce enough iron and steel to make a railroad also with only 1 or 2 sources of ore that is. No mention of where they got the additives to change iron into steel. They are having problems getting enough nitrates out of the outhouses and compost heaps then magically they have all the nitrates they needed. (Could have found a cave full of bat crap I suppose but it was never mentioned.)

The book portrays the troops of the Union (with the exception of one private and the Captain of the transport) as being paragons and pretty much all the book portrays Rebels as scum who only fought to keep their slaves. Sorry guys it wasn't that cut and dried. Might want to do a little research on what the north did to the south with tarrifs and other legislation prior to the civil war. There are good people and bad people in any group. Minor little details like Sherman burning Columbia, South Carolina to the ground AFTER it had surrendered is just one example.

Granted its real hard to have sympathy for the Horde. :o)

Some editing problems. As another reviewer mentioned a Troop Commander is killed then comes back to life. 100's of instances of quotation marks starting a quote but no quotation marks to close the quote.

Sure the Captain of the transport is portrayed as a coward for advocating it but it WOULD have been a lot more believable if the regiment had avoided the Horde and had 20 years to build up their industries.

Also the number of people they cram into one city is unbelievable. Sorry one Jew Doctor is NOT going to change their culture enough to be able to survive that kind of crowding that fast. Not to even mention how many diseases the Regiment would be carriers for that the locals would have little to no resistances against. I could easily be wrong but immunizing 1/2 million people using the few people they had dead from smallpox sounds questionable. They had cattle, maybe use cow pox as a vaccine? Using the disease from the dead as a vaccine might work but how long until the smallpox germs are dead enough that you don't give them smallpox vice immunity? In the meantime the epidemic is blazing through the population...

So all in all I feel the book glosses over a lot of problems. So many are glossed over it ruins the book for me. Hence why I only give it 2 stars

Really good book. Forstchen did a good job of having a regiment of Civil War-era soldiers are able to convert a medieval Russian state into a 'Little America' with massive industry. The 35th is widley varried, with a history teacher, down to a circus worker. The ending part at the Battle of Suzdal was extremley surprising and shocking.

This is a wellwritten book, where the Hero's dont automaticly win because they're Heros. They get as rough a treatment as all the rest. I like that a lot and I look forward to read the next in the serie :)