The Regiment: A Trilogy

The Regiment #1/2/4 Omnibus

by John Dalmas

The planet Tyss is so poor that it has only one exportable resource: its fighting men. Each year three regiments are sent forth into the galaxy. Hiring their services is very expensive, but well worth it, for the Tyss secret training makes their soldiers into mystic warriors, irresistible in battle. And when they offered to train soldiers from off their planet, the Confederation of Worlds jumped at the chance, using their personnel selection technology to pick the greatest potential warriors out of their planets-wide database of psych profiles. What they didn't know was that the new warriors were soon going to be necessary for the Confederation's very survival—because an invading force from another part of the galaxy is approaching with superior firepower and more advanced technology, and only the secret training of Tyss can give even a slight hope of stopping the invaders.

Three Complete Novels in the Popular Regiment Series in One Volume.

Contents:
• The Regiment
• The White Regiment
• The Regiment's War

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Science Fiction

751 pages, Hardcover

First published January 5, 2003

About the author

John Dalmas—pseudonym for John Robert Jones—wrote many books based on military and governmental themes throughout his career. He grew up in Minnesota and Michigan and resided in Spokane, Washington. He was a parachute infantryman in WWII and was discharged in 1946 without ever being put seriously in harm's way. He has worked as a longshoreman, merchant seaman, logger, construction worker, and smokejumper. He attended Michigan State University, majoring in forestry, but also took creative writing.

Reviews

[Shirley A. Coale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a series I reread. Built on an interesting premise that has meaning for the current times, I think.

[Michael Warner · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful nearly 600 page trilogy. I haven't enjoyed a warrior series so much since reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, which was finished posthumously by Brandon Sanderson. (Author of the Mistborn Series). Unlike Jordan's series, John Dalmas sets "The Regiment" in distant star systems where, after earthlings expanded to other planets, a few tens of thousands of humankind again departed further into space, fleeing massive extinction and multiple planetary ruin from trade wars. Spending nearly 10 years, having to bypass advanced hostile alien civiliations, and travelling through hyperspace, most humans, fearing war, agreed to psychoconditioning. The minority who disagreed were kept separate on the voyage of the eight great starships, being dropped off upon two unfavourable planets, with inhospitable climates and relatively high gravity. These two planets would later be named Tyss and Orlantha. Psychoconditioning became a 'Sacrament', standardizing and stifling research and further understanding of the universe. The majority soon found a favorable planet, naming it Iryala. After a century, one of the original shops explored the space sector. The rulers of Iryala monopolized the building of spaceships establishing dominance and control over future interplanetary travel and trade. After eight centuries, worried over innovation, the Standard Technology Act was passed, freezing technology in it's existing form. Shortly thereafter, over 16,000 years of emigration ensued, during which the two planets of Tyss and Orlantha were rediscovered. Then a decree prohibiting further colonization stagnates the empire for another 5,000 years under the force of the Sacrament and Standard Technology. After a brief revolt, Pertunis, newly crowned King of Iryala restabilizes and becomes Emperor of The Confederation of Worlds, which s ratified by 27 planets.

[Liam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dalmas set out to write what seems to be a philosophy book masquerading as military science fiction. In practice, The Regiment is the love child of Starship Troopers and Utopia.

I bought this book on the strength of its reviews, and was looking forward to a good read. For me, it didn't materialize. The writing was bad enough that it continually jarred me out of the impressive world that Dalmas built for his characters; something that I normally really appreciate. I'm ambiguous about the military aspect of science fiction, but the philosophy part of the book was utopian at best, awkwardly implausible at worst, and left my brain yelling "COME ON !@#%^" every 10 minutes - the T'swa have a smug answer for everything.

I made it to page 140 before I decided that my time would be better spent elsewhere, and don't intend to revisit. This book definitely has an audience (idealistic military sci-fi buffs), as evinced by its numerous glowing reviews; although I'd suggest reading both of the books in the first paragraph before reading this one alone.

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 02.05.06

[Roberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first Dalmas book I kinda like.