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BattleTech Universe #101
Children of Kerensky
A RACE TO VICTORY…
Terra. For centuries, it has been the Clans’ ultimate prize. As prophesied by their founder, Nicholas Kerensky, the Clan that conquers Terra shall ascend above all others to become the ilClan, ruler over the rest of the Clans. And its leader shall become the ilKhan, and will lead the Inner Sphere into a new era.
And now, nearly a century after the Clan Invasion, two Clans race to be the first to reach Terra and the ultimate prize. On one side is Alaric Ward, Khan of Clan Wolf, a brilliant warrior and complex mix of the best of the Clans and the Inner Sphere. He comes to save the Inner Sphere from itself, intending to construct a new empire among the stars. His main adversary is Chingis Khan Malvina Hazen, the brutal, ruthless leader of Clan Jade Falcon. Forged in a tradition where only the strong survive, she leads her touman not to save the Inner Sphere, but to raze it to ashes and rebuild it according to her own twisted vision.
All that stands between them and a decisive victory that will reshape the Inner Sphere forever is the impenetrable barrier shielding Terra from invasion, not to mention the forces of the once-mighty Republic, which has no plans to surrender without a vicious fight…the only question is, who will reach Terra first?
Terra. For centuries, it has been the Clans’ ultimate prize. As prophesied by their founder, Nicholas Kerensky, the Clan that conquers Terra shall ascend above all others to become the ilClan, ruler over the rest of the Clans. And its leader shall become the ilKhan, and will lead the Inner Sphere into a new era.
And now, nearly a century after the Clan Invasion, two Clans race to be the first to reach Terra and the ultimate prize. On one side is Alaric Ward, Khan of Clan Wolf, a brilliant warrior and complex mix of the best of the Clans and the Inner Sphere. He comes to save the Inner Sphere from itself, intending to construct a new empire among the stars. His main adversary is Chingis Khan Malvina Hazen, the brutal, ruthless leader of Clan Jade Falcon. Forged in a tradition where only the strong survive, she leads her touman not to save the Inner Sphere, but to raze it to ashes and rebuild it according to her own twisted vision.
All that stands between them and a decisive victory that will reshape the Inner Sphere forever is the impenetrable barrier shielding Terra from invasion, not to mention the forces of the once-mighty Republic, which has no plans to surrender without a vicious fight…the only question is, who will reach Terra first?
- GenresScience FictionFiction
190 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 19, 2020
44 people are currently reading
63 people want to read
About the author
Blaine Lee Pardoe
94 books116 followersBlaine Pardoe is a New York Times Bestselling and award winning author of numerous books in the science fiction, military non-fiction, true crime, paranormal, and business management genre's. He has appeared on a number of national television and radio shows to speak about his books. Pardoe has been a featured speaker at the US National Archives, the United States Navy Museum, and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. He was awarded the State History Award in 2011 by the Historical Society of Michigan and is a silver medal winner from the Military Writers Society of America in 2010. In 2013 he was awarded the Harritt Quimby Award as part of the induction ceremony at the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame. Mr. Pardoe is also a member of the League of WWI Aviation Historians.
His books have even been mentioned on the floor of the U.S. Congress. His works have been printed in six languages and he is recognized world-wide for his historical and fiction works. He can be followed via Twitter (bpardoe870)
His books have even been mentioned on the floor of the U.S. Congress. His works have been printed in six languages and he is recognized world-wide for his historical and fiction works. He can be followed via Twitter (bpardoe870)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 8, 2022
This book is an awesome lead up to the big final battle for Terra.
It gives a good inside into Clan Wolf’s preparations for the battle and briefly mentions Clan Jade Falcon‘s road to Terra (the focus very clearly lays on Clan Wolf though).
The storyline very comprehensively explains what happened and moves all elements that were left into the right place before „Hour of the Wolf“
Spoilers:
If I had to critique something it would probably be how the story line of the Fidels was handled (quite uneventful - I hoped there was/will be more significant things for them to come). Furthermore, the narrative quite clearly pushes you to side with Alaric instead of Malvina - I‘d have liked the storyline being a bit less black and white with Alaric not being the absolute god he is.
However, none of these points are enough to take a away a star in the rating for this absolutely stunning book!
It gives a good inside into Clan Wolf’s preparations for the battle and briefly mentions Clan Jade Falcon‘s road to Terra (the focus very clearly lays on Clan Wolf though).
The storyline very comprehensively explains what happened and moves all elements that were left into the right place before „Hour of the Wolf“
Spoilers:
If I had to critique something it would probably be how the story line of the Fidels was handled (quite uneventful - I hoped there was/will be more significant things for them to come). Furthermore, the narrative quite clearly pushes you to side with Alaric instead of Malvina - I‘d have liked the storyline being a bit less black and white with Alaric not being the absolute god he is.
However, none of these points are enough to take a away a star in the rating for this absolutely stunning book!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2020
This book, BattleTech: Children of Kerensky by Blaine Lee Pardoe, continues the Dark Age storyline started in the Mech Warrior Dark Age series which was a continuation of the classic Battletech series. The Mech Warrior Dark Age series consisted of thirty books published by WizKids and ROC. This book is published by Catalyst Game Labs and Topps. The books in this series, like the books in the original Battletech series and the Mech Warrior Dark Age series, are by various authors.
In this one, the Jade Falcons lead by Chingis Khan Malvina Hazen and Clan Wolf lead by Khan Alaric Ward are both on a path to attack Terra and clam the title of ilClan, ruler of all Clans and all mankind. All that stands these fierce competitors and a victory over Terra and control of the Inner Sphere is the impenetrable barrier known as Fortress Republic. Fortress Republic has been reduced in size and has started to show weakness in several areas. The scientists in both clans race to find a way to bring it down. Once down the clans will be free to attack but the Republic is not going down without a fight.
This book is a great addition to this series and a must-read for all BattleTech fans.
In this one, the Jade Falcons lead by Chingis Khan Malvina Hazen and Clan Wolf lead by Khan Alaric Ward are both on a path to attack Terra and clam the title of ilClan, ruler of all Clans and all mankind. All that stands these fierce competitors and a victory over Terra and control of the Inner Sphere is the impenetrable barrier known as Fortress Republic. Fortress Republic has been reduced in size and has started to show weakness in several areas. The scientists in both clans race to find a way to bring it down. Once down the clans will be free to attack but the Republic is not going down without a fight.
This book is a great addition to this series and a must-read for all BattleTech fans.
March 2, 2021
Tedious, Mary Sue-ridden dreck. I suffered through this book as I was assured it was foundational to "Hour of the Wolf", which was more of the same. Pardoe has never heard of character development, even in a book that is supposed to detail how the protagonist and antagonist reached their eventual climactic conflict.
December 12, 2020
The vast majority of this book is nothing but filler to move the Battletech story along. There are a couple of good scenes but ultimately the book tries to get you to root for an oppressive slave owner because he's at least better than the genocidal maniac. And I've had enough of choosing better the lesser of two evils in the real world.
September 20, 2022
I wish there was more to this book than caricatures of Alaric (Victor's plot armour reborn) and Malivina (moustache twirling evil).
April 10, 2023
"And now, nearly a century after the Clan invasion, two Clans race to be the first to reach Terra. On one side is Alaric Ward, Khan of Clan Wolf, a brilliant warrior and complex mix of the best of the Clans and the Inner Sphere. He comes to save the Inner Sphere from itself, intending to construct a new empire among the stars. His main adversary is Chingis Khan Malvina Hazen, the brutal, ruthless leader of Clan Jade Falcon. Forged in a tradition where only the strong survive, she leads her touman not to save the Inner Sphere, but to raze it to ashes and rebuild it according to her own twisted vision."
The overall story is good and interesting, laying out more of the future history and setting the stage for the iLClan, and a great conflict between Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon.
However...
==================================[spoilers]==================================
...really, the Jade Falcon have no impact to the storyline. They are more of a side interest, and other than being a potential competition foil for Wolf to see who gets to Terra first, play pretty much no role in the main storyline. The juicy potential conflict and drama between the two Clans was actually pretty sedate and chill. In fact, if you removed all references to the Jade Falcon having any role in the assault on Terra, very little would change in the story. I mean, Alaric (Clan Wolf manipulative Khan) messed with the Falcon leadership, but Hazen (Jade Falcon sociopath Khan) did nothing but play a part in the background. Maybe in the sequel ("Hour of the Wolf" something will come of this. But in this book...the Jade Falcon are a pale character distracting from the rest of the story. There was a so much potential to what the Jade Falcon could have brought to the table that was left out. Ding on one star. :-/
The only other thing that bugged me about the story is how Clan Wolf got through the Fortress Republic hyperspace shield. Oh, it's outlined in pretty decent detail the accounting for how they got the information, but...what and who led up to this happening? Why did the person who provided the information do it in the manner they did? What was the motive behind it all? I *fully* expected this to play out in a very different manner than the way it did (which is to say, it was but a storyline distraction). It would have been more believable storyline-wise if the science class of Clan Wolf figured out on their own the path through the Fortress Republic shield rather than the contrived and unfulfilled manner in which they learned the information. In fact, Clan Wolf just goes along with "oh, someone gave us the information to bypass the Fortress Republic defense shield. We don't know who it was that gave us the information, how they managed it to get in and out (yeah, there are some oddities with the surveillance cameras, but...eh, let's ignore them), what their motives or agenda were for doing this, but hey! Let's go forward with this! SURELY it's not a trap..." (and it wasn't). There was a lot of potential in this one event that utterly failed to live up to what it could have been. Ding on one star. :-/
Otherwise it was a pretty good story and insightful view into Clan Wolf's (via Alaric) scheming and calculated planning for the assault on Terra. And maybe the above two items will see fruition in the sequel?
The overall story is good and interesting, laying out more of the future history and setting the stage for the iLClan, and a great conflict between Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon.
However...
==================================[spoilers]==================================
...really, the Jade Falcon have no impact to the storyline. They are more of a side interest, and other than being a potential competition foil for Wolf to see who gets to Terra first, play pretty much no role in the main storyline. The juicy potential conflict and drama between the two Clans was actually pretty sedate and chill. In fact, if you removed all references to the Jade Falcon having any role in the assault on Terra, very little would change in the story. I mean, Alaric (Clan Wolf manipulative Khan) messed with the Falcon leadership, but Hazen (Jade Falcon sociopath Khan) did nothing but play a part in the background. Maybe in the sequel ("Hour of the Wolf" something will come of this. But in this book...the Jade Falcon are a pale character distracting from the rest of the story. There was a so much potential to what the Jade Falcon could have brought to the table that was left out. Ding on one star. :-/
The only other thing that bugged me about the story is how Clan Wolf got through the Fortress Republic hyperspace shield. Oh, it's outlined in pretty decent detail the accounting for how they got the information, but...what and who led up to this happening? Why did the person who provided the information do it in the manner they did? What was the motive behind it all? I *fully* expected this to play out in a very different manner than the way it did (which is to say, it was but a storyline distraction). It would have been more believable storyline-wise if the science class of Clan Wolf figured out on their own the path through the Fortress Republic shield rather than the contrived and unfulfilled manner in which they learned the information. In fact, Clan Wolf just goes along with "oh, someone gave us the information to bypass the Fortress Republic defense shield. We don't know who it was that gave us the information, how they managed it to get in and out (yeah, there are some oddities with the surveillance cameras, but...eh, let's ignore them), what their motives or agenda were for doing this, but hey! Let's go forward with this! SURELY it's not a trap..." (and it wasn't). There was a lot of potential in this one event that utterly failed to live up to what it could have been. Ding on one star. :-/
Otherwise it was a pretty good story and insightful view into Clan Wolf's (via Alaric) scheming and calculated planning for the assault on Terra. And maybe the above two items will see fruition in the sequel?
March 2, 2021
I have mixed feelings on the book. The book is not bad. It was mostly an enjoyable read. But nothing really happens.
Let me back up a little bit. I stopped reading the Battletech series when Endgame came out and they jumped the timeline forward into the Dark Age. I started reading the new BT books that came out in the last few years, and recently bought all the Dark Age novels (but have not read them yet). I read a few of the new ones but jumed ahead to this one because I figured it was going to be an important entry into the timeline. I also have Hour of the Wolf and I want to read that next.
All that being said, the purpose of this book seems to serve as a long preface or prologue for that next book. I think it was written to summarize the storylines from some DA novels and bring readers up to speed on the main players. I feel like it hits upon some larger events that have happend in greater detail in other works. So something that should be important and have a massive impact on Alaric for example, is only talked about after the fact. I'm assuming the actual event was described in detail in another work. I wish some of these books would have notes or the old * editorial boxes that used to be in comic books-notes that would tell you what issue (or in this case book) the events actually happened in.
So in the end I found it interesting, but I wanted more. Nothing really seems to happen. It's all just building toward the next book. It was relatively short so it's not like I wasted time, but it was a bit of a disappointment because it merely sets the stage for the next event. Not to mention that the two main groups fighting for Terra are not really likeable groups. I used to like Clan Wolf somewhat, but now I can't really stand either them nor the Jade Falcons.
Let me back up a little bit. I stopped reading the Battletech series when Endgame came out and they jumped the timeline forward into the Dark Age. I started reading the new BT books that came out in the last few years, and recently bought all the Dark Age novels (but have not read them yet). I read a few of the new ones but jumed ahead to this one because I figured it was going to be an important entry into the timeline. I also have Hour of the Wolf and I want to read that next.
All that being said, the purpose of this book seems to serve as a long preface or prologue for that next book. I think it was written to summarize the storylines from some DA novels and bring readers up to speed on the main players. I feel like it hits upon some larger events that have happend in greater detail in other works. So something that should be important and have a massive impact on Alaric for example, is only talked about after the fact. I'm assuming the actual event was described in detail in another work. I wish some of these books would have notes or the old * editorial boxes that used to be in comic books-notes that would tell you what issue (or in this case book) the events actually happened in.
So in the end I found it interesting, but I wanted more. Nothing really seems to happen. It's all just building toward the next book. It was relatively short so it's not like I wasted time, but it was a bit of a disappointment because it merely sets the stage for the next event. Not to mention that the two main groups fighting for Terra are not really likeable groups. I used to like Clan Wolf somewhat, but now I can't really stand either them nor the Jade Falcons.
October 25, 2020
Gripping Battletech fiction!
Blaine Pardoe sets the table for the final conquest of Terra by the invading clans and paints a fascinating portrait of the leaders of the Jade Falcons and the Wolves. Characters are given a worthy opportunity to join the iconic ranks of luminaries from the game's past. The Dark Age is finally coming to a conclusion in the best traditions of Battletech's deep, rich lore. A must read for fans of the venerable Battletech universe and fine military sci-fi.
Blaine Pardoe sets the table for the final conquest of Terra by the invading clans and paints a fascinating portrait of the leaders of the Jade Falcons and the Wolves. Characters are given a worthy opportunity to join the iconic ranks of luminaries from the game's past. The Dark Age is finally coming to a conclusion in the best traditions of Battletech's deep, rich lore. A must read for fans of the venerable Battletech universe and fine military sci-fi.
November 3, 2021
This is more a collection of short stories on the lives of Alaric Ward and Malvina Hazen. It includes several important turning points in their individual lives leading up to the invasion of Terra.
I enjoyed the book. The stories had action and brought back the overall Inner Sphere story arcs. But it was all pretty simple, straight forward, and overblown.
It is probably closest to classic Battletech but not an award winning story.
I don't say anything above to discourage reading. It is a great bit of entertainment, just a realization as I read it.
I enjoyed the book. The stories had action and brought back the overall Inner Sphere story arcs. But it was all pretty simple, straight forward, and overblown.
It is probably closest to classic Battletech but not an award winning story.
I don't say anything above to discourage reading. It is a great bit of entertainment, just a realization as I read it.
June 19, 2023
I have a huge soft spot for these battletech books. While not always the best written pieces of SF, the action and political outcomes are mostly fun and exciting to read. This one has a lot of that political and planning maneuvering. It has a bit of mech and space combat that I like, but, it is a first book of two so it needed to get the preliminary stuff done with. It’s got a great ending and gets the juices flowing for next installment.
July 1, 2023
This book catches you up on clans jadefalcon and wolf, specifically the leaders of the two clans (Malvina Hazen and Alaric Ward) summarizing their activities through dark age and sets the stage for ilclan.
I havent read much of the Dark Age fiction yet but Bonfire of worlds is another novel featuring these two characters that covers the events near the middle of this book in greater detail.
I havent read much of the Dark Age fiction yet but Bonfire of worlds is another novel featuring these two characters that covers the events near the middle of this book in greater detail.
July 16, 2024
This probably wasn’t the best book to start reading in the BattleTech universe, but it was a fun & quick read. I think the most impressive part was that the characters didn’t feel 2d; they certainly weren’t the most developed, but they contained enough that you can imagine them as actual people.
May 13, 2023
It's been over 100 years since the clans returned. In that time none of them have succeeded in attacking Terra.
The time has come. Both clan Wolf and Jade Falcon are poised to make their run. A few solo mech fights, but but this book is primarily the setup for the battle to come.
The time has come. Both clan Wolf and Jade Falcon are poised to make their run. A few solo mech fights, but but this book is primarily the setup for the battle to come.
October 22, 2020
Great read!!!
Another great story. A great addition to the story of the Clans. Cannot wait to see what happens next!!! Very worth the read!!!
Another great story. A great addition to the story of the Clans. Cannot wait to see what happens next!!! Very worth the read!!!
November 10, 2020
A good book, but probably easily could have been the first half of a longer book, with this half setting up the action to come.
February 10, 2021
Enjoyed the world and story, but the e-book is in desperate need of copy editing.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews