The Internet Book Database of Fiction

I just finished reading it, and I definitely enjoyed it. Liked the whole universe, the concept of the T'sel and the people of Tyss. The pacing of the story and the slow revelation of what's going on kept me reading. Overall I was reminded of both Starship Troopers and Foundation, which is a pretty strange combination for one book to make me think of -- but it works.

There were a couple of things that bothered me. First, the implicit gender division of labor in both the T'swa and the Ilyrians. Doesn't bother me that it's there, just that it's never explained/treated as an issue. Everything else in this universe that is different from us is, if not explained, brought to notice. But why are all the T'swa mercenaries male? Especially since they pick them young, based on natural inclination. I can see an author saying that women are different, never ever having the inclination for war. Or that they need to stay home and have babies, and therefore are forced to develop an inclination to one of the other activities. Or any other explanation that would make sense to the society. But the way Dalmas completely ignores the question was a blip of annoyance in my enjoyment of the story. Also, no government officials that we see are female, except secretaries and those of low rank. Again, why? I doubt that a preference for men is written in Standard Management.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to hunt down the next book in the series.

I recently read the regiment - in fact I located an omnibus of the first 3 books. Gripping reading!. It draws one in completely!

I do think I agree with you iover the unusual lack of women in the regiments... Perhaps the segregation is intentional - and there are female regiments?

I have toyed with the idea of starting a thread about the Matrix of T'Sel - so the we could try and figure out where we are. I should really get into gear and try to do this...

kilt

I too recently pick up a copy of The Regiment (and don’t know if I would have if not for the fact that John Dalmas was added to IBDoF). I really enjoyed the first half of the book; it seems to me that a lot of the answers in the last quarter of the book were just dropped into Varlik’s (and the reader’s) lap. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.


KILT: I think it would be a good idea to post the Matrix and plot where each one of us thinks they fall and why. It would make for some interesting conversation.

A little thread necromancy here.

Just found this site. Don't know why I never looked on google before, but hey...

I will have to reread the regiment series. While I enjoyed it and found the underlying world viewpoint partially satisfying I also found the 'sang froid' a little too much, a little too unattached to a particular lifespan to jive with my own world view and so I felt distanced from the characters.

blueworld wrote:I just finished reading it, and I definitely enjoyed it. Liked the whole universe, the concept of the T'sel and the people of Tyss.

One thing he talked about was the gender neutral aspects of Tyspi. I felt that this inferred that there were divisions where necessary on Tyss, but other than that any divisions were a matter of personal choices of the individuals.
Regarding all the Warriors being male, that would seem appropriate to tool kit and scripting of the warrior. Women warriors seem to be a quite natural idea, and I personally support the idea, but think about the T'sel and the parts of man as described in the reading. To fullfill their purpose, someone needs to become an artist and play in the area that they were born to. Some will never have that oppturnity, however they will have the tools in any case. Suppose for a moment you knew you were going to be born into a society that had warriors, but those warriors were only men, then you might chose to be a man for that lifetime. Your game piece is not that important other than in how it applies to the game your playing. In the afore mentioned scenario, if you wanted to experience being a warrior and playing at war, then in that society you would need to choose to be male. In other societies you might choose to be female, and in others you might decide to play at war, but let the game decide if you are male or female; hence adding spice to the game.

::corrected tags - Kvetch::

This was a truly good series. The only problem was waiting for the last book to come out!! I was beginning to wonder if it ever would. Finally found it and completed the series.