Ideal War

BattleTech Universe #18

by Christopher Kubasik

Captain Paul Masters, a knight of the House of Marik, is well versed in the art of BattleMech combat. A veteran of countless battles, her personifies the virtues of the Inner Sphere MechWarrior. But when he is sent to evaluate a counterinsurgency operation on a backwater planet, he doesn't find the ideal war he expects. Instead of valiant patriots fighting villainous rebels, he discovers a guerrilla war - both sides have abandoned decency for expediency, ideals for body counts, and honor for victory. It's a dirty, dirty war...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, Space Opera, Military Science Fiction, Ebooks

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 1993

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily a 4.5

I've taken a bit of a break from the world of BattleTech since I finished all the major story arcs of the early setting. But now, I've dived back in with an author I've never heard of and boy what a ride this novel was. I ended up tearing through this book once it got going, because I really just had to find out what happened next! If you've been reading my reviews you'll notice that at some point I start to complain about the fact that none of the BattleTech books have been about the Free World's League, and it felt like that entire place was sort of an after thought for the game developers! Well, I am happy to report we finally have our first full novel in that setting.

I will admit, I was a bit worried at first, because when the first part of the book kicked off with just "politics," I was concerned we'd be in for a slog. To make matters worse the major motivation seemed to relate things to the tales of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Ideal War centers on the creation of the Knights of the Inner Sphere by Thomas Marik, one of the major leaders of the Free Worlds League. In the book our actual main character, Paul Masters, meets with Marik about the concept of forming the knighthood. In fact, Marik gives Masters a copy of Malory's "Le Morte Arthur. the Adventures of Sir Launcelot Du Lake, Ed. by T. Ponton . Allegedly Masters reads this book cover to cover in the course of a day or two, because it is so amazing and engrossing, to the point where he never even left his room. I've never read a book "this good" and I find it hard to believe Arthurian legends are this engrossing. Maybe I'm just being cynical.

Since BattleMechs are basically a proxy for the armor worn by knights in the middle ages, it does make sense to relate these things. However, if we were just going to get a medieval tale of chivalrous knights just recast in a sci-fi setting, I was prepared to be less than impressed and rather bored. Kubasik doesn't do this at all! Instead, he crafts an excellent story that challenges the entire concept of having a knightly code. Presenting the idea that living by such ideals is actually a very fragile thing and it might not take much for things to collapse. Now, usually I find the paladin archetype to be insufferable, but I think Kubasik did a fine job of balancing out our main hero Masters. While he definitely has the Paladin like qualities and he sort of expects people to follow a code of ethics in war, it makes more sense, because he really just expects wars to be conducted by the restrictions of the Ares Convention. However, on backwater worlds that are not being watched very closely, he finds out that things are not always done according to the rules.

This story takes place on the planet Gibson (for some reason I assume it's named after the author William Gibson, however, I am too lazy to look that up just now.) As with most BattleTech books there is a lot of political intrigue behind the scenes of ongoing battles. After the Battle of Tukayyid there was a schism in the realms of ComStar. At this point ComStar has split and the offshoot faction The Word of Blake has broken away from the original order. Thomas Marik promised them refuge on the planet Gibson, because of Gibson's rather tolerant outlook on differing religious factions. However, Word of Blake has ingrained itself into the planet politics, which were already toxic upon its arrival. An uprising had already been in play, however, rather than try to find a solution and help the people, Word of Blake threw their lot in with the already corrupted officials. It turns out the tactics they are willing to employ are rather beyond the pale, as Masters is soon to discover.

Marik sends Masters to the planet in order to assist in finding a peaceful solution, but what he finds is that he has been thrown into a den of intrigue with liars and zealots. The best way I can think of to describe this novel is that it's sort of like taking a knight from the time of Arthur with all those sensibilities and throwing them into the Vietnam War or something akin to that. Everything operation Masters encounters is more insane and immoral than the next. He finds the enemy could include children and rather than be horrified at this, the Word of Blake just counts them as an enemy to be tallied slaughtering towns entirely with their 'Mechs. It is an absolutely wild ride and so much more is going on than I describe here, so don't think I'm giving too much away.

Usually I rather complain if a novel wraps up too quickly, but in the case of Ideal War I think the abrupt ending makes a lot of sense. So, it ends in a fashion that I felt satisfied with for the most part. The only thing I was dissatisfied with is that we never learned what happened to Masters' astech Jen. She was a cool character, and I think we are meant to assume she is alive and well by the end of the book? However, it is never expressly stated. The book also ends with something completely shocking, something I wasn't ready to see this early in the BattleTech setting... so get ready for a shock by the end of this book.

If you are a fan of the BattleTech setting then I can't imagine someone would find this book terrible. Maybe three stars at the worst. For me, though, I loved it. It was an intense ride and quite the page turner. This was exactly the type of book I was looking to read after reading a couple of novels that went a bit slower (not BattleTech novels mind you).

[Anthony Emmel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently re-reading Ideal War. It is one of my favorite Battletech novels; however, among most fans it gets less love. Why is that you ask?

Well, first of all, Ideal War is set in the Free Worlds League that is lead by House Marik. The vast majority of fans prefer the Federated Suns and House Davion. Davion's enemies are the Chinese-Russian Cappellan Confederation (Liao) and the Japanese Draconis Combine (Kurita). The Federated Suns itself is a constitutional monarchy similar to England under the reign of the three Georges; that is, the monarch has more power than Parliament. Most of the novels are set with the scions of House Davion as the heroes of the Inner Sphere.

The FWL, on the other hand, is a loose democratic confederation headed by the Captain-General of House Marik. For over 300 years, since the beginning of the Succession Wars and the crisis that entailed, the Captain-General has ruled as a military dictator under the provisions of the legally-passed Resolution 288. Fortunately, the Captain-Generals have, for the most part, been benevolent and somewhat idealistic in their stance. The member worlds of the League still meet in Parliament and finance the military and can even refuse to send their own troops if they feel necessary; it is not a one-way street with the Captain-General in absolute control. In fact, he really only has a full say in matters of war and foreign policy. Enter the current Captain-General, Thomas Marik.

Thomas Marik assumed the Captain-Generalship when his father and older brother were killed in a terrorist bombing. He himself was wounded in the attack and half of his face was horribly disfigured. He was originally a member of the quasi-monastic ComStar, the organization that maintain the Hyper-Pulse Generators that allow interstellar communication. He is also an idealistic and has a plan.

You see, the Inner Sphere is gained better technology and, as a result of that technology warfare is beginning to target civilians again. Thomas is worried that total warfare will result in the total destruction of human civilization as it almost did before the Ares Conventions (think the Geneva Accords) were enacting, The Ares Conventions limit warfare and make it more of a battle of maneuver and skill rather than brute force. With the new technologies and economies of the Inner Sphere gearing up to full production for the first time in centuries, Thomas is concerned that once again the other four Successor Lords will use people like pawns in a chess game. To create a shining beacon of hope (and also to cement his control of the member-states of his League), Thomas creates a romantic vision and forms the Knights of the Inner Sphere, an order of Mechwarriors who swear personalty to him and the ideals of Chivalry.

The book focuses in on Paul Masters, the leader of the Knights on his first mission to a world named Gibson. and this is why most fans do not care for this book. Kubasik is obviously drawing on memories of the Vietnam War. Mercenaries in battlemechs are fighting guerrillas attempting to win their freedom. Masters is there to help the planetary government against these rebels. Things like body-counts, use of mechs against the civilian population all hearken back to Vietnam. Masters has to come to grips with the grittiness and horror of the war and determine a course of action that will fulfill his obligations while helping the oppressed population.

This is definitely worth reading and is most assuredly not in the vein of the usual action-adventure motif of the other Battletech novels.

[Clint the Cool Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story! I really liked it, the main reason being that FINALLY we have a Battletech author here who actually puts some thought into what war might be like. Instead of just focusing on boring mech battles, he focuses on the human cost of warfare, including the effect on civilians. He also includes a soldier suffering from PTSD. It finally seems like a little bit more mature and nuanced look at war, which most Battletech books are sorely lacking.

The book is not without its flaws. The reasons behind the conflict itself is still unclear to me, and I feel like it really needed some good proofreading. That said, I still give it 5 stars. Because at least the author tried to make something with a little more depth.

Another thing I really like about this story is the King Arthur parallel with Thomas Marik. The Knights of the Inner Sphere is a really neat and cool concept. And this book served to develop Thomas Marik into an interesting and likable character.

Part of the disadvantage of having multiple authors writing these books is that all of this cool character development established here by Christopher Kubasik is quickly jettisoned by all the other writers. Especially Michael Stockpole, who is the main driver behind the Inner Sphere politics. His stories pay short shrift to Thomas Marik, or anything established about his character in this book. He’s too busy focusing on Victor Steiner-Davion and all that jazz. It’s kind of disappointing to me, because again, the Knights of the Inner Sphere with Marik at the head and the movement growing is an awesome concept! It deserves better than it got.

Unfortunately, this is the only Battletech book by this author too. It’s too bad. I feel like he was on to something good here. It can still be enjoyed for what it is. Recommended.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first started this book I was disappointed as it didn't grab me. It seemed like it was going to be another of these political struggle books and not what was promised on the back. After about getting a third of the way through the story really picks up.

Thomas Marik, the leader of the Free Worlds League chooses a friend to try and bring the concepts he has gathered from le Morte de Arthur to his people by creating the 'Knights of the Inner Sphere'. When help is asked to help quell an uprising on one of the planets of the League. Thomas sends his friend to help. When he arrives on planet he sees the horror of a guerilla war close up where it is all about body count and anybody or anything in a 'free fire zone' is considered and enemy and can be killed to up the body count. This is the best part of the book where you and the main character are sickened by the senseless violence perpetuated on the planet. His descriptions echo the horror of all the guerilla wars of the 20th century and this is the strong point of this book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow start. Idealistic story-not a bad thing but maybe a little bit hard to relate to, especially since the story is so epically distant already.

[Logan Kedzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was looking forward to Ideal War. House Marik and the Free Worlds League is sort of the House Not-Appearing-in-this-Picture of the Inner Sphere up to this point in the books. Even in Blood Legacy, when the all the house leadership and The Next Generation meet up, the role for Marik is as a sort of political Worf Effect as Hanse Davion generously agrees to take Joshua as hostage as they fall first into the coalition.

The FWL is interesting in the sense that it is the most outright imperial, in terms of its component states having overt, quasi-democratic, political power, and since I find the polities to be where some of the best action is in Battletech writing, I was interested. Equally so when the preface goes on a tirade about McNamara and Co., which felt...different, considering that the preface for Blood Legacy all but tied the book in a yellow ribbon.

Having finished the book, what the ********* Kubasik? I looked you up after this, if only because it seemed like weaker writing than the usual stable, and I am glad to see that you went on to do well in film. I thought The Booth at the End was great, though it has been a few years since I watched it. Really neat way of playing with the audience's interpretations to a story. But this?

I am wondering to what extent that this would have played better in '93, and before the forever wars of the 21st century, when a measured discussion about Vietnam was just starting to be possible and when all of this might have seemed like shocking and trenchant criticism. But it is not like we haven't had a Vietnam Battletech book, which was Mercenary's Star. Nor is it that we have only had jingoistic Stackpole, again with Keith Jr. in Price of Glory, (likewise the only book with major Marik action, though there effectively faceless). While Price exists for a much different purpose in the Battletech universe, it does feel like it does everything that Ideal War sets out to do, just backwards and in heels.

And the opening starts strong. Thomas Marik and Masters, our protagonist, in a meeting that feels like a Gothic version of Henry V's first scene. A plot grows as they trade lectures on military history, Marik's version of pulling an Palpitine in looking to secure perpetual power, but much more awful in Marik's good intentions.

It is a promising start, and a novel that I want to read, but three things here start to spike the heat gauge. The first is that there is no dialog. I do not mean that the characters do not speak to one another, but it takes the form of telling anecdotes about military history. This will become the routine way that people talk to one another in the book. It is probably more naturalistic than not, but it feels showy, and unrealistic in the sense of the conversation being topics that we could have, today, while there have been generations of war, warfare, and writing on war between us. Not even the nominal sort of aside to fictional writer cribbing from a real one. It could read as a great dialog on military thought but it feels more like people showing off what they know.

Second, Marik's plan amounts to bringing back chivalry. This is not as stupid as it sounds, and fits with themes that exist in the Battletech universe, but it is stupid. However the proper discussion of that fits better later, so wait until it's what Masters is saying about the war on Gibson.

The third and I think most grievous thing is that this is it, this is the sum total of the action about and around the plan that we are going to get. The reader is told that this is drastic, and how it is about asking all these MechWarriors (and did no no one show Kubasik the style guide?) to betray their homes for the sake of Marik's idealism. This, I think, would have been the kickass FWL novel, but there is no interrogation of what that means to these characters, how they got here and what political problems remain for them. Instead it is just a scene from Excalibur.

Marik has a problem, however, that shows up at the party after the induction ceremony where the Knights of the Inner Sphere are formed, and that problem is Gibson, a planet in the FWL where the Word of Blake has been promised refuge, in part because of Gibson's history of religious tolerance, their having broken off from their former polity when said polity (Regulus) attempted to enforce Hinduism, something even the local Hindus of Gibson took offense at (also, taxes, but that is not mentioned yet).

Who is the Word of Blake? I'm glad you asked, we will be addressing it something like ten chapters later. And I, from the future, know who the WoB is. I also generally like this as a storytelling technique, and not exposing at the reader, or at least teasing answers that the reader then gets to have the joy of seeing whether their interpretations were right. This felt more like I missed a book.

I am going to take an aside to mention, as it arises first at the party, then repeatedly throughout the novel, that every time sex comes up it feels uncomfortable. I think that the protagonist, Masters, is meant to come off as a James Bond sort of love 'em and leave 'em rake, but even after having read Sharp Objects immediately after this book, I am bothered more by the sex here. There are not any sex scenes here, but everyone behaves super-creepy about sex and sexuality. I'm leaving it at that absent someone really wanting to get into that discussion.

Anyway, the Protagonist is now off to Gibson, which is Vietnam. No, really, no effort has been made to make it like the Vietnam War, it just is the Vietnam War. The reader is subjected to a series of historical events and tropes from the Vietnam War. Strategic Hamlets, Free Fire Zones, the psychologically broken squaddies, and so on. The best gag, and really where the author should have stopped, is having the WoB talk in full-bore accounting terminology when discussing the war.

Allusion is not allegory, however, at a point where there is too many allusions, where too much history is lift, it is difficult not to read it as allegory. But as allegory it is nonsense. Nothing lines up with anything in any sort of reasonable way. Like the set up sounds more like the Balfour declaration, and as a stand-in for the Vietnam War, well, stick another pin where you stuck one before about the messaging. I think it is mean to pick on a book for something that it plainly did not intend, but it evidences a failure of understanding the history. If you remove the colonialism, the Cold War with its bipolar power structure, and things like the Domino Theory, a story like this does not fit.

And speaking of the racism, this book has some ugly bits. Battletech has a mixed track record on this; better than claimed, but still bad. But what is here is particularly incoherent. Like with the sexuality, I do not think that I need to get into it, when there are such other more textual problems, but it stood out.

Anyway, the place all this is going is the book's thesis to the point that there is some sort of just war and unjust war, or more specifically that all war is awful, as the Farmer in the book points out (in broken language), but that there are ways for warriors to channel their ways to produce fair and honorable war.

Now, I do want a moment of Devil's advocacy here, because this is an idea that Battletech plays with at various points in time as a sort of justification for why things are as they are. Things have been so bad that it scared people into following a set of rules of limited war, which happen to make the narrative functional. It is specifically invoked here in the twist at the ending, which I will not spoil, except to say that the fridge logic was pretty distracting. So all this is not without citation. The Clans are a further exploration of this, and we see in the stories centering on them the same sort of exploration of the conflict between those rules and how they are practiced.

All of which is to say that the author is not completely off of the reservation in terms of making this sort of thing a thesis. And on paper, it sounds good, because yes, yes, some of the books have glorified war, and so something that looks at a more dire perspective is warranted.

But it is the hawk argument on the Vietnam War.

Was this intentional? I do not know. The author's invocation of 'ideal' war in the title would suggest that it is not intentional. But the book concludes with the triumph of ideal war, so maybe, and the chances are that if you are writing military sci fi, you are at least hawk-adjacent.

So, to be clear, and in a way that minimizes spoliers, the book concludes with the combatants sitting down and having a right and proper fight. It is understood that this is a better way of doing things. That happens to be awfully similar to to a lot of the rhetoric around the Vietnam War. You know, the U.S won whenever there was a straight up fight. The U.S. actually won the war, you know, but North Vietnam and the Viet Cong diminished the political will sufficient for the U.S. to have to quit. If those slurs had fought like proper white people, if our slur allies hadn't been so corrupt and venial.

It goes so far as to justify Domino Theory, in the sense that the secret off-world backers of the revolutionaries are very much so there and involved, popping up to scheme or attack the protagonist as necessary, which is not only a hawk fever dream of secret foreign allies but makes it look like the locals, with a real grievance about political autonomy, are just pawns in the game of powers. Which is a wrong lesson to learn from history.

There are other complaints. The protagonist is much more action hero than in other novels, taking a number of bullets without blinking. The author seems to be operating from a different model of communication in mech warfare. The rising action to set up the climax is rushed, when it could have been a book on its own.

There is praise as well. The final political showdown is awesome, unrealistic but clever as the factions keep sorting and resorting themselves based on each slight shift in power and condition. Even if some of the subsequent discussion about the Clan way of life is nonsense, it is cool to see a part of the Inner Sphere that remains affected but unaffected, where the invasion has had consequences but also is a distant sort of thing, not fully understood, and that was a welcome change of context.

But in large part, I am displeased by this book because of what it doesn't do. The set up for the political challenge to the parliament by Marik is an interesting situation. What a war like the Vietnam War would mean in the context of the technology of Battletech is an interesting situation. Even things like what the individual struggles for getting the Knights of the Inner Sphere off the ground would be interesting, or a more elaborate and realistic take on the final round of manipulation of Gibson's leadership that sets off the conclusion would be interesting.

What is not interesting is this regurgitation of fact without context or learning. And again, I have this point of hesitancy, because I do wonder about whether this was doing the best it could of its time, like this was as far as the author could go in the early 90s, or whether this did represent a radical take and only looks like a sublimated concession now. I am legitimately upset about this rating - look at how many words I've written on it - in the sense that there is some meta way that this is the direction the series ought to be heading, so I do not want to seem to be standing in opposition to that. But it is not okay.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm reading every Battletech book by release date, and so far, this was the worst one. I was excited for this book as it's the first novel from the perspective of the Free Worlds League (my favorite).

So why don't I like it? The writer made the main character Masters, a veteran Mechwarrior and Captain in the FWLM, super naive. So naive to the point where I had to question if Masters had ever been around soldiers before or seen a battlefield.

The Author said that his inspiration for this book was the Vietnam War and the "ladder climbers" of the Pentagon, but it's clear that he's got no real experience with actual soldiers or how militaries function. This is most clear when Masters shows up to the Word of Blake base and discovers that they are training their soldiers by telling them to say "Kill" while training. The problem in Masters mind is that this make the soldiers mindless killing machines, not professional soldiers he then meets the commander for the first time ever and instead of discussing his issues like a rational officer he berates him, his new commanding officer.

Now, funny enough, I've literally done that. I was a soldier and we marched around and yelled "Kill" every time our right foot hit the ground, and i can tell you it didn't make me or any of my fellow soldiers anymore of a killer after doing it. It sounds cool and kind of intimidating, and that's basically why we did it. It made certain 1st Sergeants happy they weren't home with their 5th wife.

The biggest issue isn't that this same scene couldn't have worked out. It just doesn't work with a decorated Mechwarrior. Let it be a politician, or even a fresh-faced Mechwarrior fresh out of the academy. Otherwise, this book is an easy 4 star middle of the road Battletech book.

The Kindle version has many typos and errors. I reported as many as I could find. There's also this weird problem where a character will speak, and then in the same paragraph, the second character speaks, followed by a new paragraph for the previous speaker. It happened at least 6 times, and I had to double or triple take to make sure I had the proper people saying the correct dialog.

[F. Jeremiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A surprisingly intelligent war story about a man forced into a universally awful position with nothing but his moral compass and warrior code of honor to guide him. This book does not pull its punches and dives into the personalities and beliefs of its many interesting characters. For a book about giant stompy mechs and a game with more charts than an accountant has ever seen, it took me by quite the pleasant surprise hearing lines like “I would have called him [von Clausewitz] an infant in the history of humanity.” I listened to the audiobook version that Razorfist recorded on his YouTube channel, which he does an excellent job of, complete with sound effects and different voices for different characters.

[Andrew Knapp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good story and themes in a universe which is characterized by giant mechs smashing into each other. Sometimes the rules from the tabletop game would bleed into the scenes (only the action sequences), which I found a bit of a detriment to my immersion. But that only impacts a small portion of the book.

What it does have is a great, knightly main character trying to navigate vicious guerilla war on a backwater planet. Techno-religious schisms and political intrigue force our hero to climb out of his 45 ton mech and face the savagery burning just beneath the surface of the political class's external facade.

[Jason · Rating 1 out of 5]

Allegory for the the Vietnam War, and its about as subtle about it as a rhinoceros horn up the backside. It dawns on me that this book is trying to be a Battletech "Dr. Strangelove" but fails in that it just isn't funny or interesting. So far, it's the only Battletech novel I haven't enjoyed.

[Bridger Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first BT novel. It was pretty fun, if a bit campy at times. The combat was well described and created good tension. I liked how gritty it was and how all the factions had their shades of gray.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, but gives away the game that it's trying to send up Vietnam on the dedication page.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vietnam war type situation in the future. Promising beginning that gets bogged down in politics that are not set up on solid foundation.

[Corey Keast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely amazing! By far one of the Best Battletech books I have come across. Good job and well done!

[Fivefivefive · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic Battletech lore, for insight into Word of Blake, the infighting within the Free Worlds League, the Knights of the Inner Sphere.

[Sean O'Connor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mech Vietnam

[Peter D. Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

Mostly intrigue, very little battle for a BattleTech novel. Starts out slow and doesn’t pick up the pace much except in a few places.

[Eric Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ideal War, by Christopher Kubasik, tells the tale of Sir Paul Masters, one of the initial Knights of the Inner Sphere, investigating the war on Gibson. The Knights of the Inner Sphere were created by the leader of the Free Worlds League to reintroduce chivalry to the Inner Sphere.

War is not civilised, war is not neat. War is degrading, dehumanizing and destructive. This book shows the atrocities that all sides in war eventually enact. Sir Paul Masters eventually comes to realise this and try and change the course of Gibson.

[Brian Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

The beginning of the Knights of the Inner Sphere (who play a pretty big part in the Twilight of the Clans series).
Quite a lot of politics going on, very little 'mech action.
It's a good enough read if you know the background/what will happen later. If you pick it up as a standalone read then you're going to be disappointed.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting note about this book: Boris Vallejo did the artwork for the cover.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've posted a full review of this book on my blog here:
http://www.geeky-guide.com/2010/05/bo...

[John Somers · Rating 2 out of 5]

7/20.

[Hustion Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the only Battletech novel I could find (outside of one that was part of a series--- but not the first part), so it's the only one I've been able to read. I thought the first part involving the creation of an order of knights was much more interesting than the very on-the-nose metaphor of the Vietnam War that takes place over the remainder of the novel. Nothing about the book really stood out to me as particularly good or particularly bad. It was very mediocre.