Initiation to War

BattleTech Universe #58

by Robert N. Charrette

On planet Epsilon Eridani, young Tybalt Kelly dreams of one day becoming a MechWarrior - no matter how much his father hates the idea. When the local County Shu Militia starts recruiting for warrior training, Tybalt finally gets his wish. But he might not live to regret it.

Because the raw, untested forces of the Shu are about to meet their baptism of fire. Unidentified 'Mech raiders have been hitting cities and supply depots, destroying and plundering at will. And the newly fitted MechWarriors are going after them.

Now Tybalt is about to discover the hard truth that some battles have no winner - and in war, glory may be fleeting, but death is forever...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Credited on some German editions as "Robert N. Charette".

Reviews

[Brian Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A standalone novel, follows a green recruit through to the command of his own lance. Very good action and characters.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ended up feeling like a quirky "small town" book as it was largely focused on a less-known planet that does not get dragged into intergalactic politics, as is often the case in these books. And this is both the best thing about this title and maybe one of its weak points as well.

On the plus side, it's a very focused adventure that really keeps you closely tied to our protagonist characters and gives them time to grow. On the other hand, it means we have a very finite mix of BattleMechs involved in all the combat and moments when it feels like things aren't progressing all that quickly precisely because we don't exactly have a lot of Mechs to burn through.

But hey, it's a solid adventure of a new MechWarrior rising up the ranks, getting involved in a weird little civil war of sorts on their planet that somewhat mirrored the conflict between Victor Steiner-Davion and his sister but still kept things very close to home.

[Eduard N. · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the brink of Commonwealth Civil war, much smaller conflict is going to take place on now independent Epsilon Eridani, and a green mechwarrior Tybalt Kelly is taking first steps on a typical Hero's journey.

I liked the description of a small scale backwater conflict and of different roles of arms (ie. infantry being there to hold ground and die, tanks to entertain battlemechs and ... we all know who the glory boys are).

At places the story wasquite sketchy, and the ending lacked a stronger epilogue, but altogether a nice BTech read.

[J Murdock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of gas in the last lap

Well.... Took half the book to get going, the other half to fall apart. Again I had so much hope this series.
The fascination with Japanese culture once again wastes pages and pages of riddle talking. Interesting, yes, wasting pages and pages no reason.
So many unanswered questions that make the sequel probable. But with stories like this no one is going to bother reading it.

[Tim Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a decent bit of Battletech fiction, but not the authors best work. As is often the case there are a few technical errors about what certain Battlemech's can and can't do.