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Title: Truth and Shadows (MechWarrior: Dark Age #5) by Martin Delrio ISBN: 0-451-45938-5 Publisher: Wizkids Pub. Date: 05 August, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: I really dislike this new series
Comment: I understand that the old world of battletech is dead and buried, but this new series is crap. It is poorly writen with little to no action and predictable plot twists. I hate the fact that they have thrown loyal readers into the battletech universe 50 or so years in the future with no explaining what happened to the main charaters from the civil war/clan era. Victor is brought up in Ghost War and has never been brought up again. What happened to Vlad and Katrina, Phalen Kell and the Wolves in Exile, the Clans themesleves, Kai Allard-Lao and so on. People invested years in getting to know these characters and now they are forgotten.
My biggest problem is the lack of action in these books. I don't care about retrofitted agromechs and VTOL's and groundpounders. I want 100 ton mechs blowing each other up and vicious political fighting going on in the background.
Rating: 4
Summary: Tangled Web of Betrayal
Comment: Truth and Shadows is the second book of the "Proving Grounds Trilogy" and follows "A Silence in the Heavens." I liked "Silence" very much. I was glad to see that Truth and Shadows carries forward the plot very well. More battles take place in a campaign by the Steel Wolves to conquer Northwind, but this time the war undergoes some original and unexpected turns. For example, you will be surprised to discover where the Wolves have hidden their dropships-- but I won't spoil the story by telling you.
Characters are very interesting. We learn a lot more about Ezekiel Crow. He turns out to be more complex than he seemed at first-- not just a "boy scout" type of straight arrow. In fact, he acts decisively in Truth and Shadows -- to find out whether he is a good guy or a villain, or how to interpret his actions, we will need the third and final novel of the trilogy-- not yet published.
The three motley "ground pounders" have now been promoted to sergeants, but still function wonderfully to bring us the dust and noise of battle from a grassroots view. All in all, author Delrio is to be commended for flowing the second book naturally from the first-- using the larger canvas to brush in more enriching details.
The Prefect, Duchess Tara Campbell, never comes alive for me too well, but her aide-de-camp, Captain Tara Bishop, emerges as a very interesting and important character. Another well-drawn character is the civilian medic who is taken as a bondsman by Anastasia Kerensky. This character, Ian Murchison, promises to have a major part in the coming third and final novel.
Anastasia Kerensky is her evil and sexy best-- her rock-star leathers display a figure that could cause a bishop to kick out a stained glass window. She's tougher, crueler, and lovelier than any of the other Steel Wolves she rules. She doesn't get as much play as in "Silence," but where she does appear she really steals the spotlight. Part angel, part devil, she both kills and loves without mercy and without regret. Truly a classic femme fatale. Mr. Delrio, give us more of her!
One quirk of the book that struck me is the abrupt way it ends. Many trilogies end each separate volume with some sort of reconciliation, some semi- or tentative conclusion. This book just slams on the brakes with little logic. Suddenly, one of the combatants just states, "okay, back off, cease hostilities." We know this is just a pause in the war, and it seems unmotivated. Possibly Mr. Delrio checked the word count of the manuscript, figured out he had penned the necessary 280 pages or so, and said, "hey-- time to go fishing." I wish he had shaped the ending of this book more skillfully. Especially since the third book -- which will clear up all the dangling loose ends-- is almost certainly some months away.
The way Delrio writes, one gets a real sense of the mud, the pain, the laser smoke, the fatigue of a major battle. Delrio may have some military background, or, if not, he has certainly done his homework. He makes the battlefield seem very real and very gripping.
I have read all but one of the new MechWarrior Dark Age series of novels. A couple of the others were pretty good-- and, alas, a couple were simply awful. Delrio's efforts are definitely right up there with the very best. With Delrio and Coleman writing more novels in the new series, I have hopes some good reading is in store for us.
An excellent entertainment, and I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: NorthWind Highlanders in a jam
Comment: After reading this book the Northwind Highlanders are stuck into a big jam as a true-blood clanner gets [mad]and a missing Paldian goes somewhere not know weather he is coming back or not. The Galaxy Commander is bent on teaching a lesson to Countess Cambell, she as lost the sight the true clanner. Even thou it doesn't show the GC in true clan format It does show what has happened to the clanner after years of piece. Great twists Mr. Delrio keep up the great wiriting.
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Title: Service for the Dead (Mechwarrior Dark Age, 6) by Martin Delrio ISBN: 0451459431 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: The Ruins of Power (Mechwarrior: Dark Age, 3) by Robert E. Vardeman ISBN: 0451459288 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: By Temptations and By War (MechWarrior: Dark Age) by Loren L. Coleman ISBN: 0451459474 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: A Call to Arms (MechWarrior: Dark Age #2) by Loren L. Coleman ISBN: 0451459121 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Ghost War (Mechwarrior Dark Age, 1) by Michael A. Stackpole ISBN: 0451459059 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 01 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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