The Three-Cornered War

The Regiment #5

by John Dalmas

Alpha-Males: You can't live with 'em, but sometimes you can't live without 'em. An alien migration fleet -- 14,000 starships strong -- searches the stars for a new home, its homeworld forever lost. When they finally find planets that can support them, all they have to do is eradicate the pesky human natives, a task they assume is easily within their powers. But Earth's Commonwealth of Worlds isn't about to give up so easily -- even if it has to create and train something it hasn't had for centuries: soldiers!

Genres: Science Fiction, Military Science Fiction, Military Fiction

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

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

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better White Regiment books.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Okay concept in title, but extremely poor execution with no war in sight when book is opened. Seem to be roughly five different obfuscated, mostly unrelated stories. This is not space opera, this is barely science fiction. How can such an accomplished writer early in their career sink to garbage like this?

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best of the three books in the series I thought.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Three-Cornered War
By John Dalmas

Publisher: Baen
Published In: Riverdale, New York, USA
Date: 1999
Pgs: 419

Summary:
The dangerous ape species must be eliminated from space. Two warring empires of humans find themselves attacked by an alien empire, hence, the three-cornered war of the title. The human of the Confederation after the collapse of ancient human civilization dedicated themselves to limiting the sciences that they blamed for the wars that destroyed the star empires of man. The Caliphate functions under no such restrictions and they are coming for blood. And behind them a Garthid battle fleet is approaching. The Confederations psychic spies are their only advantage. The war is coming.

Genre:
Science Fiction; Militaria; Space Opera

Main Character:
It reads like an ensemble piece. Lotta could be the main character. Same could be said of the Emeritus Kalif.

Favorite Character:
The Emeritus Kalif

Least Favorite Character:
Admiral Loksa Siilakamasu...he’s the villain. He’s supposed to be the bad guy.

Favorite Scene:
When the Kalif realizes that his rescuer probably has an intimate past with his wife.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
If anything the Garthids seemed to get off stage too easily. Still awesome, just too cut and dried.

Last Page Sound:
Cool.

Author Assessment:
Definitely read more by this author.

Disposition of Book:
Keep It / Reread it...someday.

Why isn't there a screenplay?:
This could make an awesome movie. Loads of SFX. Though the whole psychic spies looking through alien eyes hundreds of thousands of hyperspace days away might not translate that well to the movie screen.