Battle Hymn

The Lost Regiment, Book 5

By: William R. Forstchen

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

The veterans of the 35th Maine are back in action against their deadliest foe yet.

A regiment of American Civil War soldiers is swept from the battlefields of Earth to a distant alien world, where they face a wave of terror with only their ideals to save a fledgling human republic.

©1997 William R. Forstchen (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Great story, excellent narrator

I’ve read this story numerous times. That is saying something coming from a Southern boy. This is a grand story where failure doesn’t mean slavery as much as it means extinction. So if you love a story where failure is NOT an option then give this one a try.

Excellent

Forstchen can maintain both suspense and frenetic action for longer than any other author I can recall. This book starts in a very dark place with the protagonist (Hans Schuder) and everyone around him under imminent threat of becoming a blood sacrifice. In many ways, this is a more personal story than the earlier books in the series.

And again, nobody comes out unscathed.

If you like grimdark fiction with a solid underpinning of military action, this series is among the very best.

Make this a tv series!

my only real complaint at this time is the fact that each book plays out about the same. overwhelming odds, extreme loss of life, constant threat of annihilation, sudden miracle that saves the day. on the one hand, that's what makes it good, but on the other, it's about as predictable as a Saturday morning cartoon.

One of the best of the series!!

Great addition to the series! An interesting change in the sorry line as the story continues.

Great addition to the series.

Really enjoyed this book. It gives you a better insight on how one can adapt to thing around, and what one must do to survive.

Second verse, a lot like the first...

It's at this point in the series where the story begins to lose steam to some degree. Now, after beating the Tugars and the Merki, the humans have to fight ANOTHER tribe of aliens called the Bantag. However, there's one significant difference with this foe. Earlier in the series, its been established that the aliens had been transplanted to the planet just like the humans were. We get confirmation of this when a group of alien soldiers (with knowledge of 20th century technology) are transported to Valennia among the Bantag, with one of them even being marked as a mythical chosen one. This group of intelligent Bantag begin producing weapons such as tanks and more powerful firearms with the use of a large Chinese slave labor force, all for the purpose of destroying the Americans and their allies. Half the book involves Keane trying to convince his government to make ready to fight the Bantag, while the other half deals with Schuder and his fellow slaves trying to escape Bantag captivity. While the scenario certainly begins to feel like its all been played out before in this series, but the details work to keep it as fresh as possible.

That said, there's some things I took issue with. For one thing, in the earlier books, we're introduced to a Roman woman who becomes romantically involved with one of the American. For some reason, from this book onward, the author calls her by a different name. And then there's the depiction of other groups of humans; or rather, the lack thereof. At the beginning of the story, its established that the Americans, Russians and Romans have extended their railway so far that they've connected with a city of transplanted Viking descendants, and will be soon connecting with Japanese. After that one-time shout out, neither group is mentioned again and once again its all about the Americans, Russians and Romans. The Chinese (and a handful of Africans) are only more prominent because they're the dominant slave population among the Bantag. It could've been so cool to see members of these other societies working together against a more technologically powerful force, but nope. Also, its at this point of the series where the author really begins to lay it on thick about how starry-eyed he is about the old school United States and showing off how much studying he's done on the subject.

Overall, this isn't a bad addition to the series, and its still written well. Just expect a lot of repetition from this point on.

Good read

the book was a little slower to get into after the Merki war but still goes well with the story line

another great tale

I've really been enjoying this series of books. this one in particular is a real departure in the storyline, creates a whole new set of challenges for the protagonist and the characters in the story. I look forward to the next book in the series.