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BattleTech Universe
BattleTech: The Battle of Tukayyid
ALL OR NOTHING...
On 1 May 3052, twenty-five Galaxies from seven Clans clashed with twelve armies of ComStar’s Com Guards on the pastoral planet of Tukayyid. For twenty-one days, one of the largest campaigns in BattleMech warfare unfolded to decide the fate of the Inner Sphere.
The Battle of Tukayyid is one of BattleTech’s most pivotal conflicts. Now, explore this crucial campaign through eight different points of view—from the enigmatic ComStar, whose relatively untested forces are the Inner Sphere’s last defense against the seemingly unstoppable Clans, to each Clan, as their leaders and MechWarriors attempt to achieve victory on their own terms.
The fate of the Inner Sphere hangs in the balance…and it all comes down to one planet…
Featuring stories by:
Jason Schmetzer
Michael J. Ciaravella
Randall N. Bills
Blaine Lee Pardoe
Steven Mohan, Jr.
Bryan Young
Chris Hussey
Joel Steverson
On 1 May 3052, twenty-five Galaxies from seven Clans clashed with twelve armies of ComStar’s Com Guards on the pastoral planet of Tukayyid. For twenty-one days, one of the largest campaigns in BattleMech warfare unfolded to decide the fate of the Inner Sphere.
The Battle of Tukayyid is one of BattleTech’s most pivotal conflicts. Now, explore this crucial campaign through eight different points of view—from the enigmatic ComStar, whose relatively untested forces are the Inner Sphere’s last defense against the seemingly unstoppable Clans, to each Clan, as their leaders and MechWarriors attempt to achieve victory on their own terms.
The fate of the Inner Sphere hangs in the balance…and it all comes down to one planet…
Featuring stories by:
Jason Schmetzer
Michael J. Ciaravella
Randall N. Bills
Blaine Lee Pardoe
Steven Mohan, Jr.
Bryan Young
Chris Hussey
Joel Steverson
- GenresScience Fiction
210 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 14, 2021
47 people are currently reading
45 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 27, 2021
3.5 Really
With the re-launch of the Battletech: Clan Invasion Boxed Set in the BattleTech universe I decided to skip to this newer publication instead of continuing my trek through BattleTech in order. Just a quick deviation, especially with the release of the new game book Battletech: Battle Of Tukayyid, which I am interested into playing sooner than later. There was an original game book, Tukayyid, which brought you through some of the battles, but this was a much smaller adventure compared to the much expanded new hard bound game book. So, why not read the anthology book that sort of brings up the stories behind those battles in a little more detail.
Now, this isn't the type of novel you can jump right into, you are, at the very least, better off reading through Michael A. Stackpole's "Blood of Kerensky Trilogy" starting with the novel Lethal Heritage. Reading that trilogy, at the bare minimum will bring you up to speed on the basics of the Clan Invasion. The actual Battle of Tukayyid, however, does not show up until Lost Destiny and after this, you can probably read this Anthology without much confusion on why this battle was such a big deal.
Now that we've gotten the setting all taken care of as to where this occurs in the world of BattleTech, I must confess that I'm not really a big fan of anthologies or short story things like this too much. I typically buy them for the sake of completeness in my collection. So, take my rating with a bit of a grain of salt in some ways, it is probably quite biased against this general format and if you are someone that loves BattleTech and loves short stories like this, then I have no doubt you will be thoroughly entertained. It's actually a fairly short Anthology at only a little over a hundred pages, so it truly is a quick read and for that I was happy. There are certainly some gems in here, such as Blaine Lee Pardoe's Burden of Honor. I thought this was a really wonderful story with a very interesting twist to it dealing with a Bondsman released to be a Warrior. It's interesting because it does not take the path that Phelan did. For that reason it stood out against the others a bit more due to spending a bit more time on the characters. Chris Hussey's The Icarus Lament was a powerful tale for similar reasons and I really enjoyed that as well. This one gave us insight into the ways of the Steel Vipers, which involved an interesting relationship between the Khan and a rising commander that was originally from another Clan before being captured. I think these were my two favorites, but Bryan Young's The Lions of Prezno was a really excellent read because of the concept behind the story. If you want a quick recap on the influence there was a movie got "Ghost and the Darkness" starring Michael Douglas from 1996 and this will give you an idea of what it's about. I think I found the story cooler, because I understood some of the reference, anyway, kudos to Bryan for the inspiration it made the story really interesting overall. This story covered a particular situation where the Jade Falcons were being harassed by Com Guards in nightly engagements, but the Com Guards were just disappearing and the Falcons were having a terrible time trying to figure out where they were.
I tend to enjoy the more political and character driven stories in this setting rather than the blow by blow 'Mech battles... possibly because I do play the game. BUT, if you like the blow by blow run down, this Anthology is even more for you. This covers key battles on Tukayyid from various Clans and one of the things I really enjoyed was getting a bit of a deeper view into the different clans that were involved. If you've read Stackpole's original trilogy, his story focused mainly on the Wolf Clan and we never really got to see the others in action, well that's what this Anthology seeks to change. Here we fill in the gaps and add key moments for each battle the differing Clans faced. Naturally, a Tukayyid book would not be complete without some battles from the Wolf Clan and Joel Steverson had that honor with their story We Do the Impossible.
I have no doubt, that this is an incomplete array, but I think that's intentional because players should be picking up their 'Mechs and taking the battle to the game board to live out the battle of Tukayyid themselves. In any event, if you're a BattleTech fan, I imagine you will find some enjoyment in this book. It may not be all stories, but I didn't find any to be outright terrible or annoying to read.
With the re-launch of the Battletech: Clan Invasion Boxed Set in the BattleTech universe I decided to skip to this newer publication instead of continuing my trek through BattleTech in order. Just a quick deviation, especially with the release of the new game book Battletech: Battle Of Tukayyid, which I am interested into playing sooner than later. There was an original game book, Tukayyid, which brought you through some of the battles, but this was a much smaller adventure compared to the much expanded new hard bound game book. So, why not read the anthology book that sort of brings up the stories behind those battles in a little more detail.
Now, this isn't the type of novel you can jump right into, you are, at the very least, better off reading through Michael A. Stackpole's "Blood of Kerensky Trilogy" starting with the novel Lethal Heritage. Reading that trilogy, at the bare minimum will bring you up to speed on the basics of the Clan Invasion. The actual Battle of Tukayyid, however, does not show up until Lost Destiny and after this, you can probably read this Anthology without much confusion on why this battle was such a big deal.
Now that we've gotten the setting all taken care of as to where this occurs in the world of BattleTech, I must confess that I'm not really a big fan of anthologies or short story things like this too much. I typically buy them for the sake of completeness in my collection. So, take my rating with a bit of a grain of salt in some ways, it is probably quite biased against this general format and if you are someone that loves BattleTech and loves short stories like this, then I have no doubt you will be thoroughly entertained. It's actually a fairly short Anthology at only a little over a hundred pages, so it truly is a quick read and for that I was happy. There are certainly some gems in here, such as Blaine Lee Pardoe's Burden of Honor. I thought this was a really wonderful story with a very interesting twist to it dealing with a Bondsman released to be a Warrior. It's interesting because it does not take the path that Phelan did. For that reason it stood out against the others a bit more due to spending a bit more time on the characters. Chris Hussey's The Icarus Lament was a powerful tale for similar reasons and I really enjoyed that as well. This one gave us insight into the ways of the Steel Vipers, which involved an interesting relationship between the Khan and a rising commander that was originally from another Clan before being captured. I think these were my two favorites, but Bryan Young's The Lions of Prezno was a really excellent read because of the concept behind the story. If you want a quick recap on the influence there was a movie got "Ghost and the Darkness" starring Michael Douglas from 1996 and this will give you an idea of what it's about. I think I found the story cooler, because I understood some of the reference, anyway, kudos to Bryan for the inspiration it made the story really interesting overall. This story covered a particular situation where the Jade Falcons were being harassed by Com Guards in nightly engagements, but the Com Guards were just disappearing and the Falcons were having a terrible time trying to figure out where they were.
I tend to enjoy the more political and character driven stories in this setting rather than the blow by blow 'Mech battles... possibly because I do play the game. BUT, if you like the blow by blow run down, this Anthology is even more for you. This covers key battles on Tukayyid from various Clans and one of the things I really enjoyed was getting a bit of a deeper view into the different clans that were involved. If you've read Stackpole's original trilogy, his story focused mainly on the Wolf Clan and we never really got to see the others in action, well that's what this Anthology seeks to change. Here we fill in the gaps and add key moments for each battle the differing Clans faced. Naturally, a Tukayyid book would not be complete without some battles from the Wolf Clan and Joel Steverson had that honor with their story We Do the Impossible.
I have no doubt, that this is an incomplete array, but I think that's intentional because players should be picking up their 'Mechs and taking the battle to the game board to live out the battle of Tukayyid themselves. In any event, if you're a BattleTech fan, I imagine you will find some enjoyment in this book. It may not be all stories, but I didn't find any to be outright terrible or annoying to read.
October 2, 2022
The current line of Battletech books have been overcrowded with short story collections. This fact plays some into my review. I am eager for longer stories and more time with the characters within. The longer stories also usually advance the world building, whereas the short stories just add minor battle fluff. It's not bad, just there has been a lot recently.
The other issue with the stories is they really blunt the Clans' abilities. They get a pretty unfavorable light in these stories. The losses seem almost unbelievable compared to how this story played out in the initial game and novel timeline.
There are some good gems in this volume but it feels like the current stories are stuck in Devil's Bath.
The other issue with the stories is they really blunt the Clans' abilities. They get a pretty unfavorable light in these stories. The losses seem almost unbelievable compared to how this story played out in the initial game and novel timeline.
There are some good gems in this volume but it feels like the current stories are stuck in Devil's Bath.
February 6, 2022
The Clans are tactically dumb
Anthology of stories shedding light on the battles on Tukayyid. The Clans we're so unbelievably dumb, that I'm shocked they had any success. I suppose it made sense from a narrative standpoint to move the global story forward, but it made zero sense. Clans after clan, battle after battle the Clans blundered into ambush after ambush and learned nothing in the process. It's silly.
Would not recommend.
Anthology of stories shedding light on the battles on Tukayyid. The Clans we're so unbelievably dumb, that I'm shocked they had any success. I suppose it made sense from a narrative standpoint to move the global story forward, but it made zero sense. Clans after clan, battle after battle the Clans blundered into ambush after ambush and learned nothing in the process. It's silly.
Would not recommend.
February 6, 2021
Small glimpse into a huge battle
Great writing, just needed a little more to be perfect, like a story from Stackpole. Still a 5 star worth reading. Hoping for more Tukayyid stories.
Great writing, just needed a little more to be perfect, like a story from Stackpole. Still a 5 star worth reading. Hoping for more Tukayyid stories.
March 22, 2022
Great collection
Great collection of short stories centered on the battlefields of Tukayyid from different units and different forces involved. Gives you some ideas for either table top or role play games and campaigns.
Great collection of short stories centered on the battlefields of Tukayyid from different units and different forces involved. Gives you some ideas for either table top or role play games and campaigns.
January 24, 2023
Individual story ratings:
Blake’s Own: 4
Two Roads Diverged: 2.5
Shadow of Death: 3
The Burdens of Honor: 5
Always Moving: 2
The Lions of Prezno: 1
The Icarus Lament: 1.5
We Do the Impossible: 4.5
Broken Promises: 4
Blake’s Own: 4
Two Roads Diverged: 2.5
Shadow of Death: 3
The Burdens of Honor: 5
Always Moving: 2
The Lions of Prezno: 1
The Icarus Lament: 1.5
We Do the Impossible: 4.5
Broken Promises: 4
February 3, 2021
A nice little anthology for those who like Battletech.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews