BattleTech: Crimson Night

BattleTech Universe #YA4

by Jennifer Brozek

A WORLD IN FLAMES… Emporia has been bombed into disease-ridden ruins, and the planet’s remaining forces have been scattered. Jasper and Nadine Roux are among the few surviving cadets from the Ritza MechWarrior Academy. They and their war-torn peers are all that stands in the way of Tai-sa Takeji Yoshizawa’s plan to conquer their homeworld. Tai-sa Yoshizawa battles dissension within the ranks of his most trusted advisors as he struggles to complete his conquest. Desperate to solidify his hold on Emporia, the rogue Draconis Combine colonel will use every option at his command—including capturing the last surviving heir of Emporia and claiming him as his ward, then ruling the planet through him. It is a race to see who can reach the Ritza family first. With Nadine coordinating the survivors’ evacuation from space, and Jasper on the ground fighting his way across a shattered world, everything rests on what happens when Emporian and enemy forces collide in an epic battle and the winner takes all in this explosive conclusion to the Rogue Academy trilogy.

Genres: Science Fiction

285 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 29, 2021

About the author

Jennifer Brozek is a multi-talented, award-winning author, editor, and media tie-in writer. She is the author of the Never Let Me Sleep, and The Last Days of Salton Academy, both of which were nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Her BattleTech tie-in novel, The Nellus Academy Incident, won a Scribe Award. Her editing work has netted her Bram Stoker Award, British Fantasy Award, and Hugo Award nominations. She won the Australian Shadows Award for the Grants Pass anthology. Jennifer’s short form work has appeared in Apex Publications, Uncanny Magazine, and in anthologies set in the worlds of Valdemar, Shadowrun, V-Wars, Masters of Orion, and Predator. Jennifer is also the Creative Director of Apocalypse Ink Productions.

Jennifer has been a freelance author and editor for over ten years after leaving her high paying tech job, and she’s never been happier. She keeps a tight schedule on her writing and editing projects and somehow manages to find time to volunteer for several professional writing organizations such as SFWA, HWA, and IAMTW. She shares her husband, Jeff, with several cats and often uses him as a sounding board for her story ideas. Visit Jennifer’s worlds at jenniferbrozek.com.

Reviews

[Lorcan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final volume of the Rogue Academy Trilogy is a breathless run in more ways than one. Picking up immediately after the end of the second volume, Nadine and Jasper race against time to save the heir to Emporia's throne from capture by the Seventh Ghost Regiment - after they kinda accidentally clued the Ghosts into his existence at the end of book 2. Meanwhile Takeji Yoshizawa is facing internal pressure as his forces dwindle and his subordinates begin to question his leadership after the brutal actions he ordered in Ghost Hour. Seeing the capture of young Mason Ritza as his last chance to salvage a victory, he and the Roux siblings are in a race to see who can achieve their objective first.

While it's very common for BattleTech novels to take place over weeks, months, or even years in some cases, this novel's timespan can be measured in days, and not many of them at that. As a result it has a nice, satisfying feeling of a set of dominoes being knocked over that the prior two novels set up. There are few surprises here, the plot moves towards a few fairly inevitable final moments, but Brozek's prose flows well and her tendency to ramp up the body count makes for some exciting action sequences along the way.

When the first novel came out I described it to some friends as like Decision at Thunder Rift, but a trilogy, and I stick to that to some degree. This is in part because Decision is one of those pivotal BattleTech novels who's formula has been used repeatedly down through the years, but also the setup here with a duplicitous Kuritan leader and young trainee warriors have to take the lead in fighting them off. It definitely works as a more modern version of that template.

[J Murdock · Rating 1 out of 5]

Should have been one big book

Its way to wordy, way to much planning and WAY TO MUCH COMBINE NONSENSE!!!! The new authors should read the old volumes that made Battle tech the legend it STILL IS after almost 30 years.
We dont need lesbians, we need action and battle. You want to write "Woke" fiction do it elsewhere.

One star for a way to long not very ineresting 3 book series. If you cut out all the nonsense, it would be one 300 page book.

[Tim Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another nice bit of Battletech fiction.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finale of the Rogue Academy trilogy, very enjoyable, the whole story was worth reading for BattleTech fans.