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BattleTech Universe #2
The Sword and the Dagger
MechWarriors believe that the only way to kill a BattleMech is with another 'Mech... But Generals know that the best way to kill an army of 'Mechs is with a well-placed dagger.
The five houses of the Successor States employ both warfare and treachery in their efforts to gain control of the interstellar empire once known as the Star League. Huge, man-like, walking tanks called BattleMechs rule the battlefields, but intrigues and plots rule the imperial courts.
Hanse Davion is Prince of the Federated Suns, the largest of the five warring Houses... an idealistic man who has had to learn that politics is neither honorable nor straightforward.
Ardan Sortek is the commander of Hanse Davion's personal guard. Although a long-time friend of Hanse's, he has not yet learned the lessons of power. Through a chance series of events he stumbles upon a plot of such magnitude that it threatens the balance of power of the Inner Sphere. Unfortunately, no one will believe him... Indeed, they think he is quite mad.
Is Ardan crazy or is someone trying to kill Hanse Davion?
The five houses of the Successor States employ both warfare and treachery in their efforts to gain control of the interstellar empire once known as the Star League. Huge, man-like, walking tanks called BattleMechs rule the battlefields, but intrigues and plots rule the imperial courts.
Hanse Davion is Prince of the Federated Suns, the largest of the five warring Houses... an idealistic man who has had to learn that politics is neither honorable nor straightforward.
Ardan Sortek is the commander of Hanse Davion's personal guard. Although a long-time friend of Hanse's, he has not yet learned the lessons of power. Through a chance series of events he stumbles upon a plot of such magnitude that it threatens the balance of power of the Inner Sphere. Unfortunately, no one will believe him... Indeed, they think he is quite mad.
Is Ardan crazy or is someone trying to kill Hanse Davion?
- GenresScience FictionFiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
15 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Ardath Mayhar
141 books28 followersArdath Frances Hurst Mayhar was an American writer and poet. She began writing science fiction in 1979 after returning with her family to Texas from Oregon. She was nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and won the Balrog Award for a horror narrative poem in Masques I.
She had numerous other nominations for awards in almost every fiction genre, and won many awards for poetry. In 2008 she was honored by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as an Author Emeritus.
Mayhar wrote over 60 books ranging from science fiction to horror to young adult to historical to westerns; with some work under the pseudonyms Frank Cannon, Frances Hurst, John Killdeer, Ardath P. Mayhar. Joe R. Lansdale wrote simply: "Ardath Mayhar writes damn fine books!"
She had numerous other nominations for awards in almost every fiction genre, and won many awards for poetry. In 2008 she was honored by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as an Author Emeritus.
Mayhar wrote over 60 books ranging from science fiction to horror to young adult to historical to westerns; with some work under the pseudonyms Frank Cannon, Frances Hurst, John Killdeer, Ardath P. Mayhar. Joe R. Lansdale wrote simply: "Ardath Mayhar writes damn fine books!"
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
May 26, 2018
For a "Holy Grail" of Battletech books (this is one of the only ones never republished), I was pretty sorely disappointed. But I can now see why this one has been left on the shelf.
The book starts out in pretty good fashion with an invasion of Stein's Folly by the forces of the Capellan Confederation. We get some interesting glimpses into aerospace fighter combat and we begin to connect with a couple of the pilots, only to have them unceremoniously discarded quickly. The battles and strategies early in the book are interesting and seem to set a nice tone, but we readers are disappointed as the novel moves on. There's an interesting note publishing information page that says "Battlefield technical writing by: William H. Keith." Keith is the author of the Gray Death Legion novels that were published around the same time as this book, but are much better reads. This may certainly account for the discrepancy between the the combat writing and that of the rest of the novel.
We're also introduced to Ardan Sortek, the real protagonist of the book - a royal guardsman and Mechwarrior who has lost faith in his friend, Prince Hanse Davion, and is seeking reassignment to the frontlines. As a character, Sortek is really fairly common and doesn't ever really distinguish himself as anything original. He falls flat in many ways and I found myself hardly caring about him or his mission.
There are several other characters that never really get fully fleshed out, and the only one that really stood out for me was young Melissa Steiner, daughter of Katrina Steiner, Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth. Melissa is intelligent, earnest, creative and driven making her the most interesting character in the novel by far. She turns out to be the one who actually puts everything together and provides the impetus for the entire second half of the book. The author clearly connected with her above everyone else. At least this serves as a bit of a set-up for the Michael Stackpole trilogy to come later.
The overall plot of the book is really borrowed from the likes of Prince and the Pauper or the Man in the Iron Mask - both sources actually cited in the text, mind you! Nothing extraordinary or even that compelling.
This book is something that even Battletech fans can skip and not feel like they've missed anything. And if you're not a big fan, this is not the place to start.
The book starts out in pretty good fashion with an invasion of Stein's Folly by the forces of the Capellan Confederation. We get some interesting glimpses into aerospace fighter combat and we begin to connect with a couple of the pilots, only to have them unceremoniously discarded quickly. The battles and strategies early in the book are interesting and seem to set a nice tone, but we readers are disappointed as the novel moves on. There's an interesting note publishing information page that says "Battlefield technical writing by: William H. Keith." Keith is the author of the Gray Death Legion novels that were published around the same time as this book, but are much better reads. This may certainly account for the discrepancy between the the combat writing and that of the rest of the novel.
We're also introduced to Ardan Sortek, the real protagonist of the book - a royal guardsman and Mechwarrior who has lost faith in his friend, Prince Hanse Davion, and is seeking reassignment to the frontlines. As a character, Sortek is really fairly common and doesn't ever really distinguish himself as anything original. He falls flat in many ways and I found myself hardly caring about him or his mission.
There are several other characters that never really get fully fleshed out, and the only one that really stood out for me was young Melissa Steiner, daughter of Katrina Steiner, Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth. Melissa is intelligent, earnest, creative and driven making her the most interesting character in the novel by far. She turns out to be the one who actually puts everything together and provides the impetus for the entire second half of the book. The author clearly connected with her above everyone else. At least this serves as a bit of a set-up for the Michael Stackpole trilogy to come later.
The overall plot of the book is really borrowed from the likes of Prince and the Pauper or the Man in the Iron Mask - both sources actually cited in the text, mind you! Nothing extraordinary or even that compelling.
This book is something that even Battletech fans can skip and not feel like they've missed anything. And if you're not a big fan, this is not the place to start.
December 31, 2020
I'm back tracking a little bit with this novel, I never thought I would track down a copy at this point so I'm diving in after reading Stackpole's Warrior trilogy. The reason this book is so hard to locate is because it's the only book in the BattleTech universe that wasn't re-printed. So now it costs hundreds if you want to get a copy, luckily I managed to track it down for a semi-decent price. But, I'm happy to say I finally got a copy so I have more complete view of the BattleTech universe.
This was the first book commissioned by Fasa and it was clearly intended to be the first novel in the universe. Sadly, there were clearly some issues and it came out about a year after it was planned, if I remember correctly. So William H. Keith Jr.'s series get split up in the release schedule and it put his novel Decision at Thunder Rift to be the first published.
Within the universe this is also considered one of the worst books in the series, so I had semi-low expectations going in. However, it was a bit better than I thought it would be, even though it did start off pretty horribly. First, I would like to applaud Fasa for commissioning a female author to write a science fiction book, no less the first novel intended to kick off their tie-in novels for the game. It has always been clear that this genre could use a great deal more diversity and to push for that in the 80's is pretty impressive.
This is the story of when the Capellan Confederation installed a double of Hanse Davion to disrupt and take over the Federated Suns. This is a story that BattleTech fans already know about in the universe so I don't feel bad throwing that out there. This book lays the foundations of details involving the treaty between Davion and Steiner and sets up future books that will involving the wedding between Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner. For those just jumping into BattleTech and are rightfully disturbed by the massive age difference between Hanse and Melissa, the general concept of the setting was to take the trappings of medieval royalty and transport them into the far future as part of the decline of human technology similar to the technological decline during medieval times. Marriages of age differences were common with these ridiculous age ranges... however, I still think it's super unrealistic that humanity would revert back to this nonsense coming so far into the future. Now, I'd believe they'd make political marriages and produce royal dynasties etc, but I don't think they would revert back to this exact same thing the way they have it setup here. It would have made way more sense to me if Melissa was twenty something and Hanse was in his thirties. I mean, I guess it's not so bad that they wait until Melissa is at least eighteen? The age difference is still creepy to me.
In any event, even though even though these political things are moving around this primarily centers on the story of Ardan Sortek who is instrumental in thwarting Maximillian Liao's plot to take control of the Federated Suns. Overall, I really did like the story and I quite liked Ardan and his team of MechWarriors throughout the book. Sadly, at times there is some objectively bad writing going on at moments of this book, but overall the story was pretty cool.
The book starts off pretty rough, part of the problem is because Mayhar insists on trying to make this a sort of "hard sci-fi" book giving us calculations on how fast each machine is going during an air fight. This makes for incredibly tedious reading, but I'm happy to report that it was sort of the only time it happened in the novel. There were also only a couple 'Mech battles, so if you're hear for that, this is mostly government conspiracy. The annoying part about the 'Mechs is that she felt the need to always include their full model numbers... which was also a bit tedious. The writing was rather bad at times though such as these gems "Ardan closed his eyes. They sprang open again as if they were on springs." It certainly gives it that pulpy sci-fi feel for sure.
There's one massive gripe that we run into in this book. Well two, but first and foremost there's a moment when Ardan runs into basically the BattleTech version of Ewoks on a world when his 'Mech gets destroyed and he needs to escape from the battlefield. I felt having creatures of this intelligence level where they had their own society and clear language and buildings was a bit beyond the scope of BattleTech where there weren't supposed to really be any aliens. Now for the second major issue. Now, I know BattleTech is supposed to be set at a time when humanity has lost some of the knowledge it gained, but not all, so they can't make some of the advanced 'Mech materials they used to, but to forget that a double could be used by royalty? Come on, that's ridiculous. The whole plot where Melissa had to look into the archives of knowledge to find instances where a double had been installed during certain governments is just ridiculous. This would not be news.
In the end, I am glad I read the book and I do wish I had read it before reading The Warrior Trilogy. It really fills in the gaps for that tale quite a bit, because the relationship between the Steiner's and Sortek is assumed pretty heavily. Also the way the Warrior Trilogy closes makes a lot more sense if you know this story pretty well. Having it fleshed out like this is so much better. I think the general idea is great and since this will never be republished I kind of wish they would commission someone else to re-write this story, but a bit more updated to make more sense in the BattleTech universe.
This was the first book commissioned by Fasa and it was clearly intended to be the first novel in the universe. Sadly, there were clearly some issues and it came out about a year after it was planned, if I remember correctly. So William H. Keith Jr.'s series get split up in the release schedule and it put his novel Decision at Thunder Rift to be the first published.
Within the universe this is also considered one of the worst books in the series, so I had semi-low expectations going in. However, it was a bit better than I thought it would be, even though it did start off pretty horribly. First, I would like to applaud Fasa for commissioning a female author to write a science fiction book, no less the first novel intended to kick off their tie-in novels for the game. It has always been clear that this genre could use a great deal more diversity and to push for that in the 80's is pretty impressive.
This is the story of when the Capellan Confederation installed a double of Hanse Davion to disrupt and take over the Federated Suns. This is a story that BattleTech fans already know about in the universe so I don't feel bad throwing that out there. This book lays the foundations of details involving the treaty between Davion and Steiner and sets up future books that will involving the wedding between Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner. For those just jumping into BattleTech and are rightfully disturbed by the massive age difference between Hanse and Melissa, the general concept of the setting was to take the trappings of medieval royalty and transport them into the far future as part of the decline of human technology similar to the technological decline during medieval times. Marriages of age differences were common with these ridiculous age ranges... however, I still think it's super unrealistic that humanity would revert back to this nonsense coming so far into the future. Now, I'd believe they'd make political marriages and produce royal dynasties etc, but I don't think they would revert back to this exact same thing the way they have it setup here. It would have made way more sense to me if Melissa was twenty something and Hanse was in his thirties. I mean, I guess it's not so bad that they wait until Melissa is at least eighteen? The age difference is still creepy to me.
In any event, even though even though these political things are moving around this primarily centers on the story of Ardan Sortek who is instrumental in thwarting Maximillian Liao's plot to take control of the Federated Suns. Overall, I really did like the story and I quite liked Ardan and his team of MechWarriors throughout the book. Sadly, at times there is some objectively bad writing going on at moments of this book, but overall the story was pretty cool.
The book starts off pretty rough, part of the problem is because Mayhar insists on trying to make this a sort of "hard sci-fi" book giving us calculations on how fast each machine is going during an air fight. This makes for incredibly tedious reading, but I'm happy to report that it was sort of the only time it happened in the novel. There were also only a couple 'Mech battles, so if you're hear for that, this is mostly government conspiracy. The annoying part about the 'Mechs is that she felt the need to always include their full model numbers... which was also a bit tedious. The writing was rather bad at times though such as these gems "Ardan closed his eyes. They sprang open again as if they were on springs." It certainly gives it that pulpy sci-fi feel for sure.
There's one massive gripe that we run into in this book. Well two, but first and foremost there's a moment when Ardan runs into basically the BattleTech version of Ewoks on a world when his 'Mech gets destroyed and he needs to escape from the battlefield. I felt having creatures of this intelligence level where they had their own society and clear language and buildings was a bit beyond the scope of BattleTech where there weren't supposed to really be any aliens. Now for the second major issue. Now, I know BattleTech is supposed to be set at a time when humanity has lost some of the knowledge it gained, but not all, so they can't make some of the advanced 'Mech materials they used to, but to forget that a double could be used by royalty? Come on, that's ridiculous. The whole plot where Melissa had to look into the archives of knowledge to find instances where a double had been installed during certain governments is just ridiculous. This would not be news.
In the end, I am glad I read the book and I do wish I had read it before reading The Warrior Trilogy. It really fills in the gaps for that tale quite a bit, because the relationship between the Steiner's and Sortek is assumed pretty heavily. Also the way the Warrior Trilogy closes makes a lot more sense if you know this story pretty well. Having it fleshed out like this is so much better. I think the general idea is great and since this will never be republished I kind of wish they would commission someone else to re-write this story, but a bit more updated to make more sense in the BattleTech universe.
May 13, 2018
Avoid this book because it might put you off Battletech novels.
First off, this is not the first book in the Battletech series. That would be Decision At Thunder Rift, a much much better book. You can completely avoid this book and have a look at the plot summary on Sarna which will tell you every, except not as an assault on the English language.
Secondly, this is a horribly written book. It is unreadable. Really bad. It is so bad that this book needs to be avoided unless you want to want to decide that Battletech is childish gibberish. The horrible writing, wooden characters and atrocious plot holes are not excused by this being a quickly written 'foundation' story book. Which it isn't.
Thirdly, there are some horrible sequences which completely contradict the universe and don't make sense outside of it. I'm having PTSD over the hero's swamp nightmares.
First off, this is not the first book in the Battletech series. That would be Decision At Thunder Rift, a much much better book. You can completely avoid this book and have a look at the plot summary on Sarna which will tell you every, except not as an assault on the English language.
Secondly, this is a horribly written book. It is unreadable. Really bad. It is so bad that this book needs to be avoided unless you want to want to decide that Battletech is childish gibberish. The horrible writing, wooden characters and atrocious plot holes are not excused by this being a quickly written 'foundation' story book. Which it isn't.
Thirdly, there are some horrible sequences which completely contradict the universe and don't make sense outside of it. I'm having PTSD over the hero's swamp nightmares.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 28, 2012
At a glance:
Plot: * *
Characters/Character Development: * *
Grip/Feeling: * *
Original concepts: * * *
Summary/Verdict (Not an average): * *
A few words about the book
This is the entry novel to the Battletech Universe. For people who are not familiar with the universe, it is the one that spawned the Mechwarrior board games and the better known computer games. It is a universe that is ruled by a number of mainly rival families, each one having armies mainly comprised by Battlemechs, giant armored suits, piloted by 1 or 2 persons called mechwarriors. It is a history rich universe, steeped in lore, wars and political intrigue. Players of the games, take note that this is pre-clan era. (No Jade Falcons etc)
Plot: * *
The premise was good. The execution was abysmal. Dont get me wrong. If it was my 1st novel ever, i would give it a 4. But it is my 200nth or something. A doppleganger has switched positions with the true leader of the Federated Suns, Hanse Davion and his loyal friend Ardan Sortek, a Mechwarrior himself, tries to unvover the conspiracy. As a plot, it is a good idea but it was very very poorly executed. No intrigue at all, no sufficient explanation of the process of creating the doppleganger, no dialogue, no day to day operations, no depth at all.
Characters/Character Development: * *
We get introduced to characters with sooooo much potential. Two unparalleled Mechwarriors the Prince of the Federated Suns, Hanse Davion and his childhood friend Ardan Sortek a Mechwarrior veteran and leader. We just get hints on their personalities. Hanse seems a dynamic, charismatic no nonsence leader who has to compromise and condone dirtier deeds for the grater good. Ardan is more thoughtful, does not rush in, and does not understand politics. And that is all we get to know about their personalities. Really. And the secondary fill-in characters are not developed whatsoeever. We do not even know how they look. Cursory descriptions, non existent dialogue, nothing.
Grip/Feeling: * *
3 stars for the Gauntlet (no spoilers here), the FEW battle scenes and the last 2 chapters where the action picks up. This book had good action but only in the beginning and the end. I cought myself skipreading. Never a good sign. The end however is quite rewarding and promises many more things for the future and i give you my word that the next novel is VERY rewarding.
Original concepts: * * *
3 stars for the Battlemech idea/concept. It is a 5 star idea that was "2 star developed". This idea spawned a universe unparalleled in war,strategy and lore. Even that however was soooo pooorly developed. You get a variety of Battlemechs, each holding and fulfilling a specialised role in the battlefield, and we only get their names. As i said above, the battle scenes are rewarding but the battlescenes that show what a Mech can do vs a different type of Mech are few...mainly one.
Summary/Verdict (Not an average): * *
It is a pity this is the entry novel to the Battletech universe, since it might prevent readers of reading the next ones. You have my word this is not the case. The other novels are good to excellent (in the constraints of the specific universe and of course i dont compare them with the great sci fi novels by Clarke, Dietz, etc)
A WORD OF ADVICE
1. Read it to get a sense of what is coming. Persevere and you will be rewarded by the next novels in the series. And just wait till you reach the Stackpole written novels. Then you will be completely satisfied.
2. Enter the universe by reading it using the correct timeline.
3. For gamers, i am sure you know it, but there are 2 upcoming games in the Battletech Universe. One a simulator (like the old games) and one with tactical combat. From what i see so far, they are both worth checking out.
Plot: * *
Characters/Character Development: * *
Grip/Feeling: * *
Original concepts: * * *
Summary/Verdict (Not an average): * *
A few words about the book
This is the entry novel to the Battletech Universe. For people who are not familiar with the universe, it is the one that spawned the Mechwarrior board games and the better known computer games. It is a universe that is ruled by a number of mainly rival families, each one having armies mainly comprised by Battlemechs, giant armored suits, piloted by 1 or 2 persons called mechwarriors. It is a history rich universe, steeped in lore, wars and political intrigue. Players of the games, take note that this is pre-clan era. (No Jade Falcons etc)
Plot: * *
The premise was good. The execution was abysmal. Dont get me wrong. If it was my 1st novel ever, i would give it a 4. But it is my 200nth or something. A doppleganger has switched positions with the true leader of the Federated Suns, Hanse Davion and his loyal friend Ardan Sortek, a Mechwarrior himself, tries to unvover the conspiracy. As a plot, it is a good idea but it was very very poorly executed. No intrigue at all, no sufficient explanation of the process of creating the doppleganger, no dialogue, no day to day operations, no depth at all.
Characters/Character Development: * *
We get introduced to characters with sooooo much potential. Two unparalleled Mechwarriors the Prince of the Federated Suns, Hanse Davion and his childhood friend Ardan Sortek a Mechwarrior veteran and leader. We just get hints on their personalities. Hanse seems a dynamic, charismatic no nonsence leader who has to compromise and condone dirtier deeds for the grater good. Ardan is more thoughtful, does not rush in, and does not understand politics. And that is all we get to know about their personalities. Really. And the secondary fill-in characters are not developed whatsoeever. We do not even know how they look. Cursory descriptions, non existent dialogue, nothing.
Grip/Feeling: * *
3 stars for the Gauntlet (no spoilers here), the FEW battle scenes and the last 2 chapters where the action picks up. This book had good action but only in the beginning and the end. I cought myself skipreading. Never a good sign. The end however is quite rewarding and promises many more things for the future and i give you my word that the next novel is VERY rewarding.
Original concepts: * * *
3 stars for the Battlemech idea/concept. It is a 5 star idea that was "2 star developed". This idea spawned a universe unparalleled in war,strategy and lore. Even that however was soooo pooorly developed. You get a variety of Battlemechs, each holding and fulfilling a specialised role in the battlefield, and we only get their names. As i said above, the battle scenes are rewarding but the battlescenes that show what a Mech can do vs a different type of Mech are few...mainly one.
Summary/Verdict (Not an average): * *
It is a pity this is the entry novel to the Battletech universe, since it might prevent readers of reading the next ones. You have my word this is not the case. The other novels are good to excellent (in the constraints of the specific universe and of course i dont compare them with the great sci fi novels by Clarke, Dietz, etc)
A WORD OF ADVICE
1. Read it to get a sense of what is coming. Persevere and you will be rewarded by the next novels in the series. And just wait till you reach the Stackpole written novels. Then you will be completely satisfied.
2. Enter the universe by reading it using the correct timeline.
3. For gamers, i am sure you know it, but there are 2 upcoming games in the Battletech Universe. One a simulator (like the old games) and one with tactical combat. From what i see so far, they are both worth checking out.
June 3, 2019
Apart from a well written battle near the beginning of the book, nothing much of interest happens for most of the book and then your rewarded with a very rushed ending. Characters are poorly developed and described.
Most of the writing is fine but there are some very bad lines in this book that will make you visibly cringe.
As this is a very early Battletech novel it has some weird details that aren't really seen in the rest of the fiction and the stuff that happens isn't particularly relevant to the overall picture.
Even if you're reading the novels to get a deeper understanding of the universe, it's safe to skip this one and I recommend that you do so.
Most of the writing is fine but there are some very bad lines in this book that will make you visibly cringe.
As this is a very early Battletech novel it has some weird details that aren't really seen in the rest of the fiction and the stuff that happens isn't particularly relevant to the overall picture.
Even if you're reading the novels to get a deeper understanding of the universe, it's safe to skip this one and I recommend that you do so.
March 2, 2013
No joke, no hyperbole: the most poorly written book I've ever read in my entire life. Ardath Mayhar is an embarrassment to the English language. Her characters might as well be stilted caricature sock puppets. I've seen better written prose in car commercials and better dialogue in newspaper obituaries. I won't even begin to touch on the matter-of-fact anti-Asian racism rampant throughout the book, staining any mention of House Kurita. It's truly a shame, because the meat of this book is used as a pillar of the Battletech space opera.
February 7, 2018
I have to say ,i'm not impressed at all
This was supposed to be epic and grand
Instead,it felt claustrophobic and timid
A few hundred giant robots to conquer a planet,afew hundreds giant robots considered enough to weaken an interstellar empire,a dog fight between probably 14air fighters considered a big planetary last stand Battle
Disappointing
This was supposed to be epic and grand
Instead,it felt claustrophobic and timid
A few hundred giant robots to conquer a planet,afew hundreds giant robots considered enough to weaken an interstellar empire,a dog fight between probably 14air fighters considered a big planetary last stand Battle
Disappointing
March 6, 2013
This book gives a good overview of the Battletech universe, so my purpose in reading it was accomplished. I would not read this if you are looking for fantastic writing, though. There is a gaping James Bond villain plot hole (the bad guys could have easily killed the main character and saved themselves a lot of time and trouble) and the characters don't have a whole lot of depth. If I were grading the author's prose, I would have some positive things to circle, but I would also offer copious suggestions for revision. The book is readable and atmospheric in some places (especially the mech battles) but I had to expend some effort of will to finish it.
April 18, 2018
I was advised to skip this book when getting into Battletech lore and now I see why. It is definitely the type of book you pick up at your local drug store in the bargain bin. Grammar, spelling mistakes, formatting errors, and these are the least of the books problems that don't involve characters and plot. Still though, I did find the segments where the Battletech's engaged in combat oddly exciting so it wasn't a complete loss of a read, and the book was mercifully short.
November 29, 2013
Pretty weak fiction, flat characters, full of plot holes... but at least it's an introduction to the Battletech lore.
December 12, 2022
This is only my third Battletech story and a second full book that I have read. By no means am I an expert on the universe, while there is a plethora of background fiction written, my experience is mainly from PC Mechwarrior and Battletech games. So while I might be missing the nuances of the in world events, from what I understand this was supposed to have been the first ever Battletech book, but due to delays was released second. As I am reading in chronological, published order I should be getting the experience of an average consumer at the time and so my complaints should still be quite valid.
Enough of the prelude, lets dive into the review.
***Some spoilers ahead***
Battletech universe is touted as a far future firmly anchored in reality, the robots are stompy but industrial looking, there are no advanced alien civilisations and its all about politics and backstabbing.
I like that, so the start of "The Sword and the Dagger" was immediately appealing to me. We have a big picture of house Liao trying to get some territory from house Davion, with the secret plans brewing under the surface. This is where Battletech universe should shine. Unfortunately the execution of the book really falls apart and is a big mess.
Lets cover the good first as there isn't much of it, the pacing is decent and the premise is interesting. There were parts that were fun and intriguing and unlike "Tigana" I didn't want to throw the book down in frustration. Slim pickings here unfortunately and here is why this is not a good book.
First the whole book feels disjointed, almost as if it was written by a bunch of different people with different ideas of what the book should be about with no editor ever going through the book:
We have Capellan confederacy starfighter pilot, who is missing half her body and is bitter. No I do not remember her name because that's all we get. One chapter is dedicated to her and you'd think that we would get more development down the line, but no her fighter makes a token appearance which gets a whole paragraph from the main characters perspective and its implied it is the Capellan bitter cucumber we have met earlier, but that is it.
We get Chairman Liao himself for a chapter, that doesn't go anywhere either. What about cutting back to him when his plot gets foiled...nah we'll just leave that hanging and get no development that way.
We get mysterious sentient monkey-like aliens...for whole two chapters, but then they get dropped by the wayside as well. Why are they setup as a mystery if we are not going to dwell further in and just abandon that by the wayside?
There are more side characters, mysteries and plot threads that get introduced, then dropped without a word. We even get four new side characters introduced in the last 30 pages or so that are instrumental in the plot resolution.
As for the main character his thoughts and feeling are driven by the plot and plot alone. At first he is irrationally mad at his best friend and the ruler of House Davion "Hanse" for, well for becoming a good ruler and a politician I suppose. Half way through the book he changes his mind without any reason and he wholeheartedly supports everything Hanse does and thinks. There is no compelling reason for him to do either.
Talking of Hanse and the shtick of the book, conspiracy to swap him with his double. At first the double is implanted in such a way to discredit the original and goes out of his way to do so. However, when the plot is resolved we get a sit down to tell us what we have been reading, for the past 300 pages or so, and we are told that double is not at fault at all but is the victim of the whole situation.
Finally I can only speculate on the reasoning for the why all out war is not declared on Capellan Confederation after this, why the doubles plot needs to be kept secret. I can only speculate because all we get in the book: the plot says so. Would it have killed them to come up with a plausible excuse like: Hey we are already expending tremendous resources on fighting with Kurita, or that might strengthen house Marik or a number of other things that takes a little longer than 2 seconds to come up with.
I would also like to mention the quality of the writing, it is serviceable at best. The most egregious example being the rescue of the main character from a Capellan holding facility, we get ten or so short paragraphs each starting with "they" and having at least two "theys" in each sentence. This really brought me back to early middle school years writing my first essay, with "that" conversation I had with my parents about synonyms.
In summary, this book does not live up to its premise, it lacks the depth to be a good politics, conspiracy, sci-fi thriller. The quality of the prose ranges from serviceable to middle school essay-like, the characters behave strictly in the way plot dictates. The plot does not know what it wants to be, with more plot threads started and dropped than I have ever seen in any of the books I've read.
You won't miss much if you decide to skip this book and move on to something more competent.
Enough of the prelude, lets dive into the review.
***Some spoilers ahead***
Battletech universe is touted as a far future firmly anchored in reality, the robots are stompy but industrial looking, there are no advanced alien civilisations and its all about politics and backstabbing.
I like that, so the start of "The Sword and the Dagger" was immediately appealing to me. We have a big picture of house Liao trying to get some territory from house Davion, with the secret plans brewing under the surface. This is where Battletech universe should shine. Unfortunately the execution of the book really falls apart and is a big mess.
Lets cover the good first as there isn't much of it, the pacing is decent and the premise is interesting. There were parts that were fun and intriguing and unlike "Tigana" I didn't want to throw the book down in frustration. Slim pickings here unfortunately and here is why this is not a good book.
First the whole book feels disjointed, almost as if it was written by a bunch of different people with different ideas of what the book should be about with no editor ever going through the book:
We have Capellan confederacy starfighter pilot, who is missing half her body and is bitter. No I do not remember her name because that's all we get. One chapter is dedicated to her and you'd think that we would get more development down the line, but no her fighter makes a token appearance which gets a whole paragraph from the main characters perspective and its implied it is the Capellan bitter cucumber we have met earlier, but that is it.
We get Chairman Liao himself for a chapter, that doesn't go anywhere either. What about cutting back to him when his plot gets foiled...nah we'll just leave that hanging and get no development that way.
We get mysterious sentient monkey-like aliens...for whole two chapters, but then they get dropped by the wayside as well. Why are they setup as a mystery if we are not going to dwell further in and just abandon that by the wayside?
There are more side characters, mysteries and plot threads that get introduced, then dropped without a word. We even get four new side characters introduced in the last 30 pages or so that are instrumental in the plot resolution.
As for the main character his thoughts and feeling are driven by the plot and plot alone. At first he is irrationally mad at his best friend and the ruler of House Davion "Hanse" for, well for becoming a good ruler and a politician I suppose. Half way through the book he changes his mind without any reason and he wholeheartedly supports everything Hanse does and thinks. There is no compelling reason for him to do either.
Talking of Hanse and the shtick of the book, conspiracy to swap him with his double. At first the double is implanted in such a way to discredit the original and goes out of his way to do so. However, when the plot is resolved we get a sit down to tell us what we have been reading, for the past 300 pages or so, and we are told that double is not at fault at all but is the victim of the whole situation.
Finally I can only speculate on the reasoning for the why all out war is not declared on Capellan Confederation after this, why the doubles plot needs to be kept secret. I can only speculate because all we get in the book: the plot says so. Would it have killed them to come up with a plausible excuse like: Hey we are already expending tremendous resources on fighting with Kurita, or that might strengthen house Marik or a number of other things that takes a little longer than 2 seconds to come up with.
I would also like to mention the quality of the writing, it is serviceable at best. The most egregious example being the rescue of the main character from a Capellan holding facility, we get ten or so short paragraphs each starting with "they" and having at least two "theys" in each sentence. This really brought me back to early middle school years writing my first essay, with "that" conversation I had with my parents about synonyms.
In summary, this book does not live up to its premise, it lacks the depth to be a good politics, conspiracy, sci-fi thriller. The quality of the prose ranges from serviceable to middle school essay-like, the characters behave strictly in the way plot dictates. The plot does not know what it wants to be, with more plot threads started and dropped than I have ever seen in any of the books I've read.
You won't miss much if you decide to skip this book and move on to something more competent.
October 4, 2017
I never really got into the whole RPG thing but I did spend a lot of time playing BattleTech: The Crescent Hawks' Revenge back in the early 90's and, what with Macross and Robotech hitting the small screen around that time (where I was at the time anyway) the whole "giant fighting robots" definitely lodged in the "is cool" portion of my brain. I always enjoyed the giant fighting robots thing and I've been meaning to investigate the BattleTech media for a long time to see if the stories live up to the potential.
The Sword and the Dagger is the first of the "classic" BattleTech books by internal chronology (published the year after the second book, Decision at Thunder Rift) so I started with it.
The story was surprisingly light on giant robot battles, in fact only three appear in the book in total (I think). I was really expecting a lot more giant-robot-battle and a lot less of the political intrigue. Unfortunately the characterisation is pretty basic and so there's not a stupendous amount of care for the characters that would imbue the political intrigue with any real care or tension. There are pretty obvious "goodies" and "badies" and we all know who's going to win :)
This reminded me of some of Robert Heinlein's juveniles actually (specifically The Rolling Stones), for a couple of reasons:
1) There are some strong female characters that are strong in their own right. The story opens with the lead (in terms of confirmed kills) fighter pilot for the Capellan Confederation, Uchita Tucker (admittedly poorly nicknamed "Old Iron Pants") causing some serious destruction; one of the main characters is Candent Septarian, a qualified and apparently very, very good MechWarrior; the head of House Steiner, ruler of the Lyran Commonwealth is Katrina Steiner, painted as quite an adept lady (as is her daughter Melissa).
2) The story doesn't really do cause and effect too stringently. If there's something that needs to happen, it just happens - I don't want to give examples because they're spoilery in nature but rest assured that there are no stunning plot twists or unexpected happenings, you can guess the (happy) ending by the end of the second chapter pretty easily.
3) It's just a fun action-movie-in-a-book, kinda like most of Alistair MacLean's work actually, now that I think about it.
The other problem I have, and it's not this book's fault, is similar to the suspension of disbelief problem that comes with attempting to read the (canon) history of Star Wars, in that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. In this case we have a humanity that has spread through multiple star systems over at least a thousand year period before succumbing to general human nature and everyone starts fighting everyone else for control, ultimately "losing" the knowledge of how to create the high-level technology (ie the giant fighting robots) but retaining a lot of tech required to maintain star-spanning groupings and actively battle for them...for several hundred years and counting. This is only vaguely alluded to in this book with mentions of being able to repair, but not create BattleMechs and touching briefly on the birth of the NAIS at the behest of Hanse Davion, but the whole concept is waiting in the wings to annoy me in general.
All that said, this isn't a bad book, it's just not a great book either. It falls solidly into the two-star "it was OK" category. I believe it does some core groundwork for laying out the lay of the land for the rest of the BattleTech canon so that's enough for me. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone who isn't looking for a BattleTech history lesson, but it's no worse than wading through some of the early Star Wars canon either.
The Sword and the Dagger is the first of the "classic" BattleTech books by internal chronology (published the year after the second book, Decision at Thunder Rift) so I started with it.
The story was surprisingly light on giant robot battles, in fact only three appear in the book in total (I think). I was really expecting a lot more giant-robot-battle and a lot less of the political intrigue. Unfortunately the characterisation is pretty basic and so there's not a stupendous amount of care for the characters that would imbue the political intrigue with any real care or tension. There are pretty obvious "goodies" and "badies" and we all know who's going to win :)
This reminded me of some of Robert Heinlein's juveniles actually (specifically The Rolling Stones), for a couple of reasons:
1) There are some strong female characters that are strong in their own right. The story opens with the lead (in terms of confirmed kills) fighter pilot for the Capellan Confederation, Uchita Tucker (admittedly poorly nicknamed "Old Iron Pants") causing some serious destruction; one of the main characters is Candent Septarian, a qualified and apparently very, very good MechWarrior; the head of House Steiner, ruler of the Lyran Commonwealth is Katrina Steiner, painted as quite an adept lady (as is her daughter Melissa).
2) The story doesn't really do cause and effect too stringently. If there's something that needs to happen, it just happens - I don't want to give examples because they're spoilery in nature but rest assured that there are no stunning plot twists or unexpected happenings, you can guess the (happy) ending by the end of the second chapter pretty easily.
3) It's just a fun action-movie-in-a-book, kinda like most of Alistair MacLean's work actually, now that I think about it.
The other problem I have, and it's not this book's fault, is similar to the suspension of disbelief problem that comes with attempting to read the (canon) history of Star Wars, in that it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. In this case we have a humanity that has spread through multiple star systems over at least a thousand year period before succumbing to general human nature and everyone starts fighting everyone else for control, ultimately "losing" the knowledge of how to create the high-level technology (ie the giant fighting robots) but retaining a lot of tech required to maintain star-spanning groupings and actively battle for them...for several hundred years and counting. This is only vaguely alluded to in this book with mentions of being able to repair, but not create BattleMechs and touching briefly on the birth of the NAIS at the behest of Hanse Davion, but the whole concept is waiting in the wings to annoy me in general.
All that said, this isn't a bad book, it's just not a great book either. It falls solidly into the two-star "it was OK" category. I believe it does some core groundwork for laying out the lay of the land for the rest of the BattleTech canon so that's enough for me. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone who isn't looking for a BattleTech history lesson, but it's no worse than wading through some of the early Star Wars canon either.
April 13, 2023
Interesting ideas, poor execution.
For what was supposed to be the first Battletech novel written to expand on the universe, I wasn't sure what exactly to expect considering it's not the first I've read in the series. Having read Michael Stackpole's Warrior Trilogy which references the events in this story enough to pique my interest and William Keith's Gray Death Legion Trilogy who wrote this novel's mech action scenes, I was hoping that The Sword and the Dagger was better than it really is.
The escapade of Ardan Sortek, Prince Hanse Davion's childhood friend and confidante starts humbly - disgruntled with his friend/leader's political decisions, Sortek decides to leave behind his duties as Prince Davion's personal guard along with his comrades and potential love interest to fight on the front lines of a Davion/Liao border star system, Stein's Folly. During his time there, Sortek's adventure turns into a rollercoaster of events as he loses his treasured mech during a battle, encounters a some-what primitive alien species that attempts to sacrifice him, becomes deathly ill, and uncovers House Liao's plot to replace Hanse Davion with a body double to destroy the Federated Suns from the inside.
On the surface level, it sounds like it may be an entertaining, sci-fi mystery/thriller if it weren't for the fact it involves the Battletech universe. It honestly doesn't feel like the story has anything to do with Battletech despite the setting and the characters involved. The majority of the book focuses on Sortek learning about and overcoming this body double scheme and every time something can go wrong, it does. Trying to convince everyone there's a scheme? No-one believes you because there's spies telling everyone you're crazy. Going to the medical center to find evidence to prove you're not crazy? The building is booby trapped and collapses, twice. Trying to escape from hiding in Davion's private estate? Get caught and thrown in the dungeon. This cycle continues, and at some points just seems silly due to sudden nature of these revelations. It got to the point where it seemed like the author couldn't think of any more twists to add and then decided to end the story.
Some other story aspects stand out as well, for better or worse. Occasionally the subject of Sortek suffering from a form of PTSD is brought up and somehow resolves itself despite nothing really happening to cause that change. Prince Davion doesn't live up to his nickname of being "the Fox" as he gives little if any ideas or suggestions on how to get out of the mess he's in, instead relying solely on Sortek to do so. I couldn't decide what part was the most egregious about his lack of cunning and wit - although the fact he had zero clue about the security system and hidden tunnels at his house that he's had for years is a contender. What little romance plot exists between Sortek and his love interest might as well not even be a thing as no time was spent developing it, giving them no chemistry to work off of.
Ultimately, The Sword and the Dagger is far from being a good read for both fans and newcomers to the Battletech universe. Many will argue that it's not worthwhile, and I'm inclined to agree with that sentiment. Unless you're a diehard fan who just has to know exactly how it went down, it's best to skip this one.
For what was supposed to be the first Battletech novel written to expand on the universe, I wasn't sure what exactly to expect considering it's not the first I've read in the series. Having read Michael Stackpole's Warrior Trilogy which references the events in this story enough to pique my interest and William Keith's Gray Death Legion Trilogy who wrote this novel's mech action scenes, I was hoping that The Sword and the Dagger was better than it really is.
The escapade of Ardan Sortek, Prince Hanse Davion's childhood friend and confidante starts humbly - disgruntled with his friend/leader's political decisions, Sortek decides to leave behind his duties as Prince Davion's personal guard along with his comrades and potential love interest to fight on the front lines of a Davion/Liao border star system, Stein's Folly. During his time there, Sortek's adventure turns into a rollercoaster of events as he loses his treasured mech during a battle, encounters a some-what primitive alien species that attempts to sacrifice him, becomes deathly ill, and uncovers House Liao's plot to replace Hanse Davion with a body double to destroy the Federated Suns from the inside.
On the surface level, it sounds like it may be an entertaining, sci-fi mystery/thriller if it weren't for the fact it involves the Battletech universe. It honestly doesn't feel like the story has anything to do with Battletech despite the setting and the characters involved. The majority of the book focuses on Sortek learning about and overcoming this body double scheme and every time something can go wrong, it does. Trying to convince everyone there's a scheme? No-one believes you because there's spies telling everyone you're crazy. Going to the medical center to find evidence to prove you're not crazy? The building is booby trapped and collapses, twice. Trying to escape from hiding in Davion's private estate? Get caught and thrown in the dungeon. This cycle continues, and at some points just seems silly due to sudden nature of these revelations. It got to the point where it seemed like the author couldn't think of any more twists to add and then decided to end the story.
Some other story aspects stand out as well, for better or worse. Occasionally the subject of Sortek suffering from a form of PTSD is brought up and somehow resolves itself despite nothing really happening to cause that change. Prince Davion doesn't live up to his nickname of being "the Fox" as he gives little if any ideas or suggestions on how to get out of the mess he's in, instead relying solely on Sortek to do so. I couldn't decide what part was the most egregious about his lack of cunning and wit - although the fact he had zero clue about the security system and hidden tunnels at his house that he's had for years is a contender. What little romance plot exists between Sortek and his love interest might as well not even be a thing as no time was spent developing it, giving them no chemistry to work off of.
Ultimately, The Sword and the Dagger is far from being a good read for both fans and newcomers to the Battletech universe. Many will argue that it's not worthwhile, and I'm inclined to agree with that sentiment. Unless you're a diehard fan who just has to know exactly how it went down, it's best to skip this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 10, 2021
I was a big fan of th BattleTech Tabletop Game and after it got a re-release, I thought I might dive into the lore again, as I, at least thats what I remember, always loved the novels, but man what a disapointment.
First of all the main Character is captain Good, he sees through every plot the evil villain (he is just an evil villain, there is nothing that could make him compelling in any way) has thought out.
But also his "Boss" the prince of House Davion... oh my..
just let me give you an example:
Ardan was raised by a minor noble house so he knows a bit more about the worries of the lower classes and as the prince of House Davion is his Childhood friend and called him to court, he hoped that he could make a change for the people, but after a while he sees that the prince is less inclined to make compromises in favour of the poor, than he had promised before, so Ardan disappointed asks for a frontline command to leave court, which is granted...
Ardan gets injured and ends up in an hospital owned by House Steiner, the House Prince Davion wants to unite with through marriage... and the future wife of Hanse Davion asks Ardan to describe her future husband....
AND THAN... just by remembering childhood memories Ardan recognizes that Davion is a good man even if he doesn't care so much for the poor and Ardan feels stupid for beeing angry...
I vomited into my mouth when I read this passage...
I mean com'on, I know this book was written in the 80s were people were still afraid of communism... but thats really just... buargh
than there comes a chapter where Ardan and the future Wife of Hanse Davion just talk about what a great man Hanse Davion is! Seriously! The half of the chapter is a conversation of two characters about a third, telling each other how great and good he is...
Also every evil spy and traitor is inmediatly "discovered" simply by the fact that Ardan or Melissa Steiner (Hanse Davion's future wife, a 15 year old girl), don't like the person on the first instant...
Really that's enough for us readers to know that the person is evil and will betray the others or try to do so...
I wanted to force myself to read it to the end, but couldn't do so...
One star
First of all the main Character is captain Good, he sees through every plot the evil villain (he is just an evil villain, there is nothing that could make him compelling in any way) has thought out.
But also his "Boss" the prince of House Davion... oh my..
just let me give you an example:
Ardan was raised by a minor noble house so he knows a bit more about the worries of the lower classes and as the prince of House Davion is his Childhood friend and called him to court, he hoped that he could make a change for the people, but after a while he sees that the prince is less inclined to make compromises in favour of the poor, than he had promised before, so Ardan disappointed asks for a frontline command to leave court, which is granted...
Ardan gets injured and ends up in an hospital owned by House Steiner, the House Prince Davion wants to unite with through marriage... and the future wife of Hanse Davion asks Ardan to describe her future husband....
AND THAN... just by remembering childhood memories Ardan recognizes that Davion is a good man even if he doesn't care so much for the poor and Ardan feels stupid for beeing angry...
I vomited into my mouth when I read this passage...
I mean com'on, I know this book was written in the 80s were people were still afraid of communism... but thats really just... buargh
than there comes a chapter where Ardan and the future Wife of Hanse Davion just talk about what a great man Hanse Davion is! Seriously! The half of the chapter is a conversation of two characters about a third, telling each other how great and good he is...
Also every evil spy and traitor is inmediatly "discovered" simply by the fact that Ardan or Melissa Steiner (Hanse Davion's future wife, a 15 year old girl), don't like the person on the first instant...
Really that's enough for us readers to know that the person is evil and will betray the others or try to do so...
I wanted to force myself to read it to the end, but couldn't do so...
One star
September 27, 2024
Well this was a fun read. It goes quickly and is a simple straightforward adventure book. It is also really hard to find and very expensive when you do find it. Fortunately the Internet Archive has a copy available to check out for reading. ((https://archive.org/details/sworddagg...))
It's not my preferred method but I am also glad I didn't spend hundreds of dollars.
I have long been a fan of the MechWarrior games and have devoured most of them as they came out, with one exception of a year long wait for the game to be released on Steam. Most of what I know of the cannon of the universe comes from the games. A new game is slated to be released originally scheduled for October 3rd, but now delayed to the 17th. Being frustrated I looked into the books published and found a recommended, and mostly internally chronologically consistent reading list.
The Sword and the Dagger is the first in that list. Book-wise, it's far too simple, almost YA in it's sophistication. The characters are largely one dimensional heroes or villains, with little complexity or mixed motivations. The story jumps from point of view to another to show the machinations of each side and to convince the reader of the qualities of each character without having to understand what is inside their minds.
Story wise it is straightforward and enjoyable. I was surprised at how little information on the actual Mechs there were. It felt like some was made up on the spot for convenience. All in all it was a fun piece of history and I might look at reading some more in the recommended reading order. I'm led to understand that the next three books are much better. So for fun reading where good prevails over perfidy give this one a read and tip the Internet Archive for saving things like this while you are there.
It's not my preferred method but I am also glad I didn't spend hundreds of dollars.
I have long been a fan of the MechWarrior games and have devoured most of them as they came out, with one exception of a year long wait for the game to be released on Steam. Most of what I know of the cannon of the universe comes from the games. A new game is slated to be released originally scheduled for October 3rd, but now delayed to the 17th. Being frustrated I looked into the books published and found a recommended, and mostly internally chronologically consistent reading list.
The Sword and the Dagger is the first in that list. Book-wise, it's far too simple, almost YA in it's sophistication. The characters are largely one dimensional heroes or villains, with little complexity or mixed motivations. The story jumps from point of view to another to show the machinations of each side and to convince the reader of the qualities of each character without having to understand what is inside their minds.
Story wise it is straightforward and enjoyable. I was surprised at how little information on the actual Mechs there were. It felt like some was made up on the spot for convenience. All in all it was a fun piece of history and I might look at reading some more in the recommended reading order. I'm led to understand that the next three books are much better. So for fun reading where good prevails over perfidy give this one a read and tip the Internet Archive for saving things like this while you are there.
August 14, 2021
This book has received an astonishing number of negative reviews, so I expected an almost unreadable book and assumed I would regret trying to read it. Nevertheless, I did read it, and I do not regret it.
First, there's nothing wrong with the writing. The writing style is (in my opinion) fairly similar to the Keith and Stackpole books, and I kept thinking maybe the editing is what causes people to dislike it, but I could never identify any specific problems with the editing either.
I suspect that what makes people dislike it is the fact that the ending is fairly predictable and more than a little anticlimactic. However, that wasn't a very big deal for me.
There was a short section in the book that has been pointed out as unrealistic within the premises of the Battletech universe, but what bugged me most was that it was never explored further, remarkable as it was.
In conclusion, it's not as good as most other Battletech books I've read, but if you want to read all of it, there's no reason whatsoever to skip over this one. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
First, there's nothing wrong with the writing. The writing style is (in my opinion) fairly similar to the Keith and Stackpole books, and I kept thinking maybe the editing is what causes people to dislike it, but I could never identify any specific problems with the editing either.
I suspect that what makes people dislike it is the fact that the ending is fairly predictable and more than a little anticlimactic. However, that wasn't a very big deal for me.
There was a short section in the book that has been pointed out as unrealistic within the premises of the Battletech universe, but what bugged me most was that it was never explored further, remarkable as it was.
In conclusion, it's not as good as most other Battletech books I've read, but if you want to read all of it, there's no reason whatsoever to skip over this one. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
July 5, 2025
This is a hard one to rate. As a book, this is terrible. The entire first and second arc essentially have nothing to do with the rest of the book. But as a book in the series and larger BattleTech universe it's a good read.
The introduction of the main characters in the late succession wars, and the relationship between Fed Sun, Lyran and Capellan are so important to the lore. I paused the reading of the Warriors trilogy and went back to this book (initially skipped precisely because of the bad review). And I'm glad I did.
The introduction of the main characters in the late succession wars, and the relationship between Fed Sun, Lyran and Capellan are so important to the lore. I paused the reading of the Warriors trilogy and went back to this book (initially skipped precisely because of the bad review). And I'm glad I did.
July 16, 2020
This book is written as if someone off the street had a great idea for a book, then sat down and wrote it. The premise is good. The writing isn't terrible. But the parts that one wants to take a little time are zoomed over and the parts that need expedited drag on. The characters are well developed to tell the story, but flat in other areas. It is quite possible that a movie of this would be better than the book.
Nothing offensive comes to mind. Mild language. Mild violence.
Nothing offensive comes to mind. Mild language. Mild violence.
December 9, 2019
Great starting opener scene, epic introduction with the planetary invasion that mixed the tactical feel, the intrigue and the viciousness of the war machine quite well. However, the main plot felt a bit by-numbers and the intrigue was kind of lukewarm. For a recommended Battletech 'classic', it honestly was a bit lacklustre.
February 11, 2021
BattleTech veers into gonzo territory with this one with a cheesy plot, forgettable characters, and, for some reason, medieval dungeons. Other than highlighting a major turning point in BattleTech history, it's skippable.
February 22, 2021
First book chronologically of the BattleTech Series, rereading it from the beginning to the end, almost 100 books in the series.
This is the only book of the BattleTech universe that has never been reprinted.
Plot to overthrow Davion leadership at the top, will Hanse be replaced?
This is the only book of the BattleTech universe that has never been reprinted.
Plot to overthrow Davion leadership at the top, will Hanse be replaced?
December 18, 2023
The broader setting is captivating when considered as an entire body of work. The book itself is filled with some questionable plot holes and obvious solutions overlooked. It is still enjoyable for a fan of the Battle universe.
December 3, 2024
Really enjoyed the mix of a not overbearing amount of mech action and a bit of politicking. Moves quite quickly and sets the scene for games into the setting. A great way into the Battletech universe.
October 21, 2019
Definitely better than Thunder Rift (the sacrilege!), this doubles story from high circles is still quite straightforward, as are its characters. Enjoyable read, though.
July 8, 2022
Clever. Quite clever.
May 10, 2024
Really bad
February 28, 2025
Very battletech.
September 1, 2011
I've read this book twice with about 10 yrs between readings. I'm a fan of the Classic Battletech universe and as such I enjoyed the story. Unfortunately, the writing is way below par. With the exception of Sortek all the characters are one dimensional. Action is clear and decently paced but hardly exciting. Other books in the series (from other writers) paint more of a sprawling, politically charged, epic universe. None of that is present here. Only a few factions are even mentioned and their relationships are barely hinted at beyond the couple directly involved in the plot. The rest of the Battletech books build off both the events and, what would become, Battletech novel conventions in this book, so it's a great place to start. It's light and breezy so you can't really go wrong. It's short so it's over before it wears out it's welcome.
December 23, 2013
I've been a big fan of the MechWarrior games over the years, so decided to finally read the books and get more background. This is usually listed as being the first book based off the BattleTech world, so off I went! I saw the reviews, so I wasn't expecting much, and that's about what I got.
That said, its not terrible. It's just not amazing. I enjoyed reading through and the story was interesting. Again, nothing epic or super memorable. It's more like watching an episode of a TV series. The characters aren't very deep, but the book does move fast and doesn't linger too often. The battles were pretty good and accurate to what I knew background wise. Story was a bit predictable but it was ok for what it is.
Looking forward the next books though, heard its all up from here!
That said, its not terrible. It's just not amazing. I enjoyed reading through and the story was interesting. Again, nothing epic or super memorable. It's more like watching an episode of a TV series. The characters aren't very deep, but the book does move fast and doesn't linger too often. The battles were pretty good and accurate to what I knew background wise. Story was a bit predictable but it was ok for what it is.
Looking forward the next books though, heard its all up from here!
August 7, 2015
First thing you need to understand about this book, is it is the first book in the BattleTech series. There are a couple of inconsistencies, both technical and story/plot. However, this story is integral to understanding what happens later in the BattleTech storyline. Again, BT was still relatively new when this book was written and most of the history, up to this point, was only found in source books and technical read outs.
Do not read this book if you are looking for a Nutmeg award caliber book. It is not that. However, if you are a BT fan and interested in the early history within the BT universe, then this is a must read.
Do not read this book if you are looking for a Nutmeg award caliber book. It is not that. However, if you are a BT fan and interested in the early history within the BT universe, then this is a must read.
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