The White Regiment

This was an interesting book. My only complaint is that is starts going off into remote viewing and instantous transport. Both are more on the order of fantsay to me than true SIFI.

As military sf, this author's work is unusual in giving at least as much space to philosophy as to tactics. Be aware first that this is an immediate sequel to The Regiment, and you should read that first to have any idea what's going on. A generation has passed since the Kettle War that Varlik Lormagen reported on, and since the Movement began its more public efforts to bring the Confederation out from under its stultifying brainwashing against technological and social innovation, and the decision is made to create a mercenary regiment from social misfits -- "intentive warriors" -- along the lines of the T'swa regiments, to be trained by T'swa veterans. Two-thirds of the book tells that story, detailing the training and psychic and psychological transformation of the recruits. While all this is going on, an exploratory squadron from a theocratic empire some distance away is making its way toward Confederation space, looking for colonizable worlds, and happens upon sparsely-settled Terfreya, where a corps of Confederation cadets has been undergoing training, quite separate from the teenaged proto-mercenaries, and the last third of the narrative is given over to the story of armed resistance to the incursion -- aided considerably by recently discovered teleport technology. Dalmas has a lot to say about what constitutes true "sanity" and also understands tactics and strategy as well as the military mind, and the result is a book that is both exciting and intellectually interesting.

The Confederation of Worlds enjoyed peace, mostly because it couldn't fight a war even on a bet. People were trained from birth, educated to think only in a certain way, to stay within the box. But many within the Confederation understand that this could be a weakness. So they decide to apply their knowledge of personnel selection technology and their planet-wide database of psysh profiles to pick the greatest warriors from their own populace. They also hire the best mercenaries in the galaxy to train them. The coal-black veterans of Tyss will help to create the first White Regiment.And just in time. For the Karghanik Empire has just entered Confederation space.