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BattleTech Universe #16
Wolf Pack
The Succession Wars, The Marik Civil War, The War of '39, The Clan Invasions.
Wolf's Dargoons were victorious in them all!
For fifty years, the five mercenary regiments of Wolf's Dargoons have been the toughest MechWarriors in the Inner Sphere. Whatever the job, whatever the odds, Jaime Wolf's Dragoons always won.
Now an aging Colonel Wolf is facing the biggest challenge of his career. And the enemy is not an Inner Sphere Lord or a Clan Khan, but a rebellion among his own men!
Wolf's Dargoons were victorious in them all!
For fifty years, the five mercenary regiments of Wolf's Dargoons have been the toughest MechWarriors in the Inner Sphere. Whatever the job, whatever the odds, Jaime Wolf's Dragoons always won.
Now an aging Colonel Wolf is facing the biggest challenge of his career. And the enemy is not an Inner Sphere Lord or a Clan Khan, but a rebellion among his own men!
448 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1992
61 people are currently reading
201 people want to read
About the author
Robert N. Charrette
34 books57 followersCredited on some German editions as "Robert N. Charette".
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 13, 2022
Solid 4.5
This is the first book after the major turning point in BattleTech known as the Clan invasion. Robert N. Charrette returns to give us some insight into what Wolf's Dragoons are dealing with post invasion. They're one of the most famous and popular Mercenary organizations in the setting, so it's no surprise, realy, to have the first book return to their story. Since Natasha Kerensky returned to her Clan, this is one of the first with her absence, so we'll have to find closure to her story elsewhere since this story focuses on the Dragoons' new homeworld, Outreach.
I didn't really know much about the overall history of the Dragoon's, so I actually found this novel quite a wild ride. As I've usual felt about Charrette's writing, it tends to move a bit slow for me. So, it wasn't really until half way through until I found this novel really picked up for me. This novel sort of brings us into the realms of the "next generation" or at least bridges that a little bit. It's not strictly as cliche as being just a story about the next generation. Instead this deals with the fallout and risk of adhering to Clan rules by taking some as bondsmen into your forces. Jaime Wolf may have miscalculated a little as this regards his new personnel. I think Charrette did a good job of telling that particular thread, especially with how precarious events became. At the very least, as this novel picked up, we can clearly see that whatever happens with the end of this book, the structure of the Dragoon's was going to be different.
We get introduced to some new major players in this book as Brian Cameron and Maeve, who wins the surname of Wolf eventually. Maeve was a much more interesting, whereas Brian was more of a white bread lovelorn character of sorts. He didn't really have any flaws other than being a bit of the plucky character type. Maeve, on the other hand, is cast as moving towards legendary hero status, so her path was much more interesting to read about, sadly the major portions of the book are told in the first person diary form from Brian. Luckily the entire book doesn't run this way, otherwise I think I would not have liked the book very much.
One thing that I was rather shocked to see show up was some closure concerning the feud between Kurita and the Dragoon's! This was a thread that had been left hanging for a very long time. I'm not going to spoil the outcome, but that entire thread was pretty unexpected. That's one of the major reasons that a small portion of the first half turned out to be a bit of a page turner, until things slowed to build political intrigue for the final climax of the book.
As usual, I quite enjoyed Charrette's writing at the end of the day. He does a good job of giving us insight into the inner workings of one of the most secretive mercenary groups in the entire Inner Sphere. I think, despite, some of the slowness of the books, he does an overall awesome job of bringing us into the world of the Dragoon's. If you've been following BattleTech all the way so far, I think you'll be in for quite a wild ride by the end of this novel. I'm, honestly, very interested to see what the future outcome of this novel's events will be in the greater story arc of the Dragoon's into the future!
This is the first book after the major turning point in BattleTech known as the Clan invasion. Robert N. Charrette returns to give us some insight into what Wolf's Dragoons are dealing with post invasion. They're one of the most famous and popular Mercenary organizations in the setting, so it's no surprise, realy, to have the first book return to their story. Since Natasha Kerensky returned to her Clan, this is one of the first with her absence, so we'll have to find closure to her story elsewhere since this story focuses on the Dragoons' new homeworld, Outreach.
I didn't really know much about the overall history of the Dragoon's, so I actually found this novel quite a wild ride. As I've usual felt about Charrette's writing, it tends to move a bit slow for me. So, it wasn't really until half way through until I found this novel really picked up for me. This novel sort of brings us into the realms of the "next generation" or at least bridges that a little bit. It's not strictly as cliche as being just a story about the next generation. Instead this deals with the fallout and risk of adhering to Clan rules by taking some as bondsmen into your forces. Jaime Wolf may have miscalculated a little as this regards his new personnel. I think Charrette did a good job of telling that particular thread, especially with how precarious events became. At the very least, as this novel picked up, we can clearly see that whatever happens with the end of this book, the structure of the Dragoon's was going to be different.
We get introduced to some new major players in this book as Brian Cameron and Maeve, who wins the surname of Wolf eventually. Maeve was a much more interesting, whereas Brian was more of a white bread lovelorn character of sorts. He didn't really have any flaws other than being a bit of the plucky character type. Maeve, on the other hand, is cast as moving towards legendary hero status, so her path was much more interesting to read about, sadly the major portions of the book are told in the first person diary form from Brian. Luckily the entire book doesn't run this way, otherwise I think I would not have liked the book very much.
One thing that I was rather shocked to see show up was some closure concerning the feud between Kurita and the Dragoon's! This was a thread that had been left hanging for a very long time. I'm not going to spoil the outcome, but that entire thread was pretty unexpected. That's one of the major reasons that a small portion of the first half turned out to be a bit of a page turner, until things slowed to build political intrigue for the final climax of the book.
As usual, I quite enjoyed Charrette's writing at the end of the day. He does a good job of giving us insight into the inner workings of one of the most secretive mercenary groups in the entire Inner Sphere. I think, despite, some of the slowness of the books, he does an overall awesome job of bringing us into the world of the Dragoon's. If you've been following BattleTech all the way so far, I think you'll be in for quite a wild ride by the end of this novel. I'm, honestly, very interested to see what the future outcome of this novel's events will be in the greater story arc of the Dragoon's into the future!
July 28, 2021
Otra magistral historia del universo Battletech centrada en los Dragones, esos grandes mercenarios que dan tanto juego en las historias de este universo de ciencia ficción... Si bien el comienzo es algo descentrado, poco a poco todo va adquiriendo dimensiones de importancia, hasta que la bola de nieve empieza a crecer y crecer. Los personajes acompañan a la lectura muy cómodamente, y uno acaba pudiendo elegir entre unos u otros con cierta facilidad a través de las claras descripciones de motivaciones y comportamientos de sus personajes principales. Además, resulta una bocanada de aire fresco el tener menos combates de Mechs, y un poco más de tiempo para intrigas de historia (tanto unas como otras son bien recibidas, pero imagino que el cambio de autor queda patente por ese aspecto, aunque no desagrada ni desentona). Con un final que no quedaba tan claro, y que deja un panorama muy interesante para poder seguir leyendo qué ocurre, espero poder encontrar algún libro que conecte bien con este gran relato y me haga seguir disfrutando de este universo de lectura tan entretenido. Muy recomendado, un 9/10 dentro de mi escala de lecturas de Battletech.
January 25, 2016
A good SiFi book based on the role playing and miniature board game. Recommended
November 18, 2023
I remain fascinated by Charrette's role in the shared universe. Getting to have the original secret introduction of the Clans in Wolves on the Border, his other books, focused on House Kurita, retcon Stackpole's work when touching on the same, removing the cartoon villainy and improving some of his scenes in general by giving them more subtly and room to breath. So I already find that position in terms of what must be going on with the corporate or more business-side of the publication decisions interesting, and then there's this.
Wolf Pack is confused. I do have to note that I was happy at first to read Clanner speak that did not read as Hollywood Indian, and the author's weird sex stuff is of a much more mundane pique. But for the first half of the book it was confused. I do not mean that I was confused, it was easy enough to track what was going on, arty jumps between the first and third person notwithstanding, but the text was all mixed up. My running theories were either that Charrette wanted to write a trilogy and was told no, but still tried to package the lot in, or that he wanted to write another Kurita book and was told no, so wrote book being terminally bored with everything that wasn't Kurita.
It starts to cohere at before the midway point, where things start to focus on the power struggle within the Dragoon's that will become a...is civil war the correct terminology here? Let's go with internecine conflict over the political and moral authority of the mercenary group. It becomes thrilling in a military science fiction sense of the contests between the groups, but it is consistently weakened by something I'm going to spoiler tag, even though it's not strictly a spoiler.
But what I generally don't like is
In other words, it is just a kind of drag, where you can see the interesting questions about the philosophical contest represented by each of the factions, but that never feel to matter much because of one of the sides being one man's taste. And while the ending gets pretty charged and past-bedtime reading, the full conclusion and epilogue is something between a sitcomish thud and, improbably, a third book where things go off in directions that factually relate but have no substantive connection, and dig in with the Clan's eugenic practices that end up in one titanic eye-roll.
And it's funny because I can even make an argument that the epilogue's twist would have made a better twist as part of the core plot, like if it were , with next to all the Kurita parts elided because suddenly NINJAS is, I think, weirdly acceptable, for the parts when it factors in, and let whomever is confused be chided for not reading the previous books for why there's this secret graveyard and all that, but that's getting particularly far afield here. It is an okay book, pretty cool at moments, but seems to do its best work in addressing its own irrelevance.
Wolf Pack is confused. I do have to note that I was happy at first to read Clanner speak that did not read as Hollywood Indian, and the author's weird sex stuff is of a much more mundane pique. But for the first half of the book it was confused. I do not mean that I was confused, it was easy enough to track what was going on, arty jumps between the first and third person notwithstanding, but the text was all mixed up. My running theories were either that Charrette wanted to write a trilogy and was told no, but still tried to package the lot in, or that he wanted to write another Kurita book and was told no, so wrote book being terminally bored with everything that wasn't Kurita.
It starts to cohere at before the midway point, where things start to focus on the power struggle within the Dragoon's that will become a...is civil war the correct terminology here? Let's go with internecine conflict over the political and moral authority of the mercenary group. It becomes thrilling in a military science fiction sense of the contests between the groups, but it is consistently weakened by something I'm going to spoiler tag, even though it's not strictly a spoiler.
But what I generally don't like is
In other words, it is just a kind of drag, where you can see the interesting questions about the philosophical contest represented by each of the factions, but that never feel to matter much because of one of the sides being one man's taste. And while the ending gets pretty charged and past-bedtime reading, the full conclusion and epilogue is something between a sitcomish thud and, improbably, a third book where things go off in directions that factually relate but have no substantive connection, and dig in with the Clan's eugenic practices that end up in one titanic eye-roll.
And it's funny because I can even make an argument that the epilogue's twist would have made a better twist as part of the core plot, like if it were , with next to all the Kurita parts elided because suddenly NINJAS is, I think, weirdly acceptable, for the parts when it factors in, and let whomever is confused be chided for not reading the previous books for why there's this secret graveyard and all that, but that's getting particularly far afield here. It is an okay book, pretty cool at moments, but seems to do its best work in addressing its own irrelevance.
December 10, 2021
Very slow start with elementary styles of writing attempts at romance but sophisticated understanding and writing of politics, military action, and philosophy. Too bad it took half the book to get to the current story.
March 29, 2021
Not one of my favorite BattleTech novels, this book details a 'civil war' within Wolf's Dragoons. Book 16 of the BattleTech novels
January 2, 2024
Charette wrote multiple perspectives quite well while maintaining a strong voice from the main character in the story. A fun time that builds on the Battletech world very well!
June 20, 2024
Un capítulo auto-conclusivo sobre los Dragones de Wolf y su enfrentamiento con el Coordinador del condominio. Hay una pequeña guerra civil y se revela un pequeño secreto.
April 23, 2025
Good slop, a cut above average. I appreciate that there are barely any Mechs in it until the back third and otherwise it's an increasingly tense political thriller.
April 22, 2013
Wolf Pack by Robert Charrette tells the story of the Wolf's Dragoons civil war. It is told as recollections of Brian Cameron, Jaime Wolf's communications officer.
I found this was a hard book to get into. As it is told in recollections there is a lot of inner voice and not much dialogue. Editing also was not the best with spelling mistakes, such as role instead of roll and common instead of comms. These spelling mistakes interrupt the flow of the novel.
I found this was a hard book to get into. As it is told in recollections there is a lot of inner voice and not much dialogue. Editing also was not the best with spelling mistakes, such as role instead of roll and common instead of comms. These spelling mistakes interrupt the flow of the novel.
February 1, 2021
Set after the events in the Blood of Kerensky series, focusing on Wolfs Dragoons.
Two-thirds of the book are to do with in-fighting amongst the members, which is still done well enough to keep reading.
The last third is kind of what you want in a Battletech book, involving big stompy robot battles.
Written in the style of a report compiled by one of the people there, it starts slow but soon picks up.
Two-thirds of the book are to do with in-fighting amongst the members, which is still done well enough to keep reading.
The last third is kind of what you want in a Battletech book, involving big stompy robot battles.
Written in the style of a report compiled by one of the people there, it starts slow but soon picks up.
August 18, 2015
Not too bad but I had higher hopes. Wolf was a little two dimension. Dechan Fraser is a stock character of a spy who was hung out to dry... in his mind. Some of the other characters could use a bit more depth. But then BattleTech is better known for first person shooter Mechs and destruction of the enemy, not storylines. ;)
February 16, 2020
A mech version of King Lear but not written as well
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews