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Rally Cry | Rating | |
| A | |||
| William R. Forstchen | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| The Lost Regiment | Rally Cry, Union Forever, Terrible Swift Sword, Fateful Lightning, Battle Hymn, Never Sound Retreat, A Band of Brothers, Men of War, Down to the Sea | ||
There are many books and series out there dealing with transplanting modern technology, morals, and society to past times, differing mainly in who gets transported and where they end up. Stirling put the entire island of Nantucket back in the Bronze Age, Flint placed a mining town from West Virginia down in Germany of 1632, and Frankowski put a single gifted engineer in thirteenth-century Poland. But this series, I feel, is among the best of its type. A regiment of soldiers from the American Civil War is transported into a society roughly equivalent to tenth-century Russia. But there is a major twist: this is another world, not Earth's past, and there are also the alien Tugars to deal with. These creatures endlessly circle the world on their horses, and they demand - and receive - payment in human flesh in order to not annihilate the humans in their cities. And since no American is about to just walk into a stewpot, that means they'll have to fight almost two hundred thousand of the nine-foot-tall aliens - and win.
I say this is among the best, possibly the best, of this mini-genre not because of this twist, however. While unique, it's still just another plot element. No, it is because it is told so well, and the elements are so nicely balanced. This type of tale typically has three main thrusts: political maneuvering, battles (usually modern weapons and techniques against native ones), and exploring technology by creating a modern technological base. Unlike in the other series I mentioned above, though, in this book none of those three elements ever overwhelms the others. Just when I was getting tired of one aspect, Forstchen switched his focus to another.
The characters, too, are well-written and believably deep. We even get to see some scenes from the Tugar viewpoint, making them not monsters but people - albeit a very brutal people. But they have conflicts and troubles of their own that must be overcome. Still, some few characters are painted with a very different brush that shows them clearly as nasties to be defeated. There are no surprise villains in this book, not even to the characters. The sides are obvious. Also, the romance between the colonel and Kathleen the nurse is telegraphed from the page they meet, and it's a bit cliche in how it develops. It's nice, but obvious.
This was also the my introduction to military fiction, and thus holds a special place in my mind. I'm glad to see upon rereading that it holds up to my memories. The plot is dire enough, the characters deep enough, and the battles are detailed enough to hold my interest with no problems whatsoever. The story never got bogged down in detail or a side issue. Everything contributes, making this a very, very solid book.
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