BattleTech Legends: Black Dragon

BattleTech Universe #33

by Victor Milán

A deadly mercenary force named Camacho's Caballeros and their ace operative, Cassie Suthorn, attempts to unveil the traitorous Black Dragon secret society before they can succeed in sending the entire Inner Sphere off its course.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks

414 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1996

About the author

Victor Woodward Milán was an American writer known for libertarian science fiction and an interest in cybernetics. In 1986 he won the Prometheus Award for Cybernetic Samurai. He has also written several shared universe works for the Forgotten Realms, Star Trek, and Wild Cards Universes. He has also written books under the pseudonyms Keith Jarrod, Richard Austin (Jove Books The Guardians series), Robert Baron (Jove Books Stormrider series), and S. L. Hunter (Steele series with Simon Hawke, who used the pen name J. D. Masters). He also wrote at least 9 novels under the "house name" of James Axler for the Harlequin Press/Gold Eagle Books Deathlands series & Outlanders series.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story if a bit slow. Terrific ending! No character development, but the intrigue is legitimate.

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with this Camancheros' book was it being about the Camancheros.

Having bested the Secret Society of The Black Dragon on Towne, the Camancheros are invited by their patron, Uncle Chandy, to take part in Theodore Kurita's birthday celebration on Dieron, capital of the Draconis Combine. Once their they get wrapped up in gangland warfare, leading to a final confrontation of the remaining Black Dragons and their secret plots.

My opinion on this book swung wildly through the course of reading it. Its skeleton is a crossover between a mob film and an espionage thriller, as intelligence agencies and political conspiracies contest and collaborate with organized crime and conspiracies within conspiracies.

It is cliched and glorifies the mob, but as a gangster story, it is good. The two (three?) types of stories produce great co-relations between them as character's motives operate under several layers of intention. The solves lacked payoff, and it felt like the author more wanted a great reveal than came up with one, but they pass the test of necessary story function. Yes, if you layer enough cliches, it produces something that feels novel.

Stockholm Syndrome has fully set in regarding the author's purple prose. All the excessive information is still annoying, but the manner of telling has a 12-year-old boy telling you about sex sort of way in its naive enthusiasm that would be charming if not also a little Unfortunate Implications. The author understands it as a war movie, and is willing to kill important characters in a way that is not in evidence elsewhere in the Battletech books. Even the racism starts to feel benign: everyone is a stereotype, but always a positive one.

We do have the first scene of outright homophobia, and let us just call the way that the author writes women misogyny. It feels more like he thinks that they are aliens, rather than a different gender, and while some of the casualness around sexual assault is a factor of the time rather than the temper - while it is never treated luridly - it sure does come up as a plot device all the time.

The in-person action scenes are written too coyly, but that same approach gives the mech fighting scenes a sort of lift and verve that is also a fresh breeze. Again, I find myself in a situation where I did not like it until I did. It is not dry. This is okay.

The problem is the plot. At first, it felt meandering, but about 3/4ths in I realized it is not meandering. Rather the storytelling itself at its narrative core is fine. Very much of its sub-sub-genre but go for it. But so much of the book is spent talking about something else, so many indirect facts and discursive swings. Even the height of action and tension gets grafted in without purpose.

In hindsight, the problem is pretty simple: this should not be a Camancheros book. Maybe they have a cameo or whatever but their involvement in the plot in a plot-moving way is unnecessary. Not only could you cut them out, but it would be a better book without them, much more Film Noir.

As more of a personal gripe, I think that the book does Theodore Kurita poorly. He is shown of limited competence, and spends most of his time being a foil for other characters to display their cleverness. It is not the worst and I like the idea of his character changing over time as he deals with a life of stress and challenge. The problem feels related to the situation with the Camancheros. It would have been better as a cameo.

So I think that there is a great book here, but there is too much jumble, distraction, and cruft, none of which is terminal in and of itself, but together becomes a real drag.

Also, Johnny Tchang?

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book following the exploits of Camacho's Caballeros, set in 3058 period.
The Caballeros are invited to Luthien to take part in the Coordinator's birthday parade due to their role in Hearts of Chaos.
The Black Dragon Society are gunning for them and the Coordinator.

Starts fairly slow, with most of the action being centred around Cassie Suthorn, their ace scout (and ground pounder), so there's not a lot of 'mech action.

There's enough intrigue and an array of characters against them to keep things interesting, but could have got to the action quicker.

[Tim Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only problem with reading this is it's the last of the trilogy. Fabulous BattleTech fiction, fun, clever, and irreverent.

[J Murdock · Rating 1 out of 5]

My poor eyes.

So painfull to read. Mechwarrior fan from the late 80's. Still one of the longest books ever to be written and so boring to read

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 33 of the BattleTech Series, continuation of the Caballeros in Kurita Service.