BattleTech 16: Duo Infernale (German Edition)

1. A VOICE FROM THE CONGO.
2. Duo Infernale.
3. BattleTech 25: Andurienkriege 3!
4. New Products in Computer Science (1).
5. 2 Trade Smart.

Two survivors - childish Mad Cat pilot "Mad Dog" Maloy and serious Elemental Shin - discover that they really guarded a Star League era nuke storehouse, and now several warheads have been stolen by Free Skye Separatists. The two women escape and track down the perpetrators, enlisting the help of a down-on-his-luck ComStar tech and a mysterious rogue. This book is notable for not one but two great showdowns plus a minor plot twist ending.

The pacing is fast, the action is cool, the story isn't half bad. This could be a really good book save for the silly main character and some weaker parts in the story that all happen early on. If you pull through, the story picks up speed. Team Albatross is activated once more, this time to investigate FedSuns research into super soldiers.

These so-called Basilisks are humans genetically adapted to accept a symbiont lifeform in their blood that can repair essentially any physical damage within minutes even brain damage. Naturally, Basilisks can see in the infrared spectrum and have superhuman strength, too. As a BattleTech novel, this book falls flat on its face. The Basilisks don't fit the BattleTech aesthetics at all, and what's worse is that the "protagonists" in this book - Team Albatross - could be left out entirely. They deploy far from the base, march through the jungle and arrive too late to prevent the destruction of the base in a Kurita attack.

That's it, that's really the entire story. There's a side-story about a Basilisk couple that escape from the base as they don't want to be misused as lab rats anymore. When you look closely, theirs is the real story of this book. If it didn't try to sell itself as a BattleTech novel, might be 3 out of 5. The small defending contingents of Kell Hounds and Wolves-in-Exile don't get along well, hampering defense efforts. The story might have worked as well or better when told on a smaller scale, why did it have to be Arc-Royal during the FCCW?

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The premise doesn't sit well with me, it feels shoehorned into canon. That issue I have with the rather thin plot aside, the battle scenes are okay. Some story elements feel contrived. So some good parts, some bad, and a lot of middle ground. Like the Jihad in general, this is a very "Shadowrunny" novel with lots of intrigue and betrayal and a few minor loopholes in the plot, or perhaps I missed something.

Minor factchecking points aside, the book has some issues that preclude giving it a higher rating: I feel it is way too long; the real combat action only begins some pages into the book and there are excessive amounts of explanation, background information and cameos by major characters the whole New Avalon scene - having a BBQ with Hanse Davion, Ardan Sortek and Quintus Allard that does little if anything for the story , needlessly bloating the text. The protagonists are interchangeable in the sense that there is no mercenary feel to the mercenaries and no specific CapCon feel to the defenders.

Finally, the story "arc" is quite linear - a siege wearing the defenders down and then a final assault. The conflict is told through the eyes of a small group of protagonists on either side of the conflict, with no real hero or villain characters, so as a reader I didn't particularly root for either side to win or fail. On the bright side, the overall adaption of the Pleione conflict from the 4th SW Atlas is very good, the combat scenes are well-written, the siege is gritty and the many episodes or sub-plots are quite enjoyable - I especially liked the Long Tom ammunition situation and its twists and turns.

The novel may not be top-notch brilliant, but still a very solid BT story and a promising entree for a new BT author. Reviews continue in posting below , as this post has hit its maximum allowed size. Author of the BattleCorps stories Feather vs. Interesting, thank you for this. Actually I now feel less bad about not getting to read these. Avatar stollen from spacebattles. The ability to lose battles to Davion forces in new and implausible ways".

Don't get me wrong on the ratings - 3 is "average", not "bad". It's only at 2 stars or below where the reading gets painful. The German novels are up to par compared to the English novels. In fact, there aren't many classic BT novels that I would rate higher than 3 either. But reading the summaries, none of them made me go "oh, I'd love that I'll admit that some most of the plots are a bit uninspired.

But have you checked the plot of any other BattleTech novel lately? Seriously, there's only so many different plots that can be told. To me, it's the narration itself that makes a plot shine or fail. Good characters and attention to detail can even salvage poor plots in my opinion. No, I haven't reread any for a while.

SteelRaven Lieutenant Colonel Posts: I should have studied German, it would be cool to talk shop with fellow BT fans across the Atlantic I mean outside of this forum. Battletech Art and Commissions http: Brotherhood of Steel Mercenary Company. I'm aware but I would if I could return the favor just need to find time to study up. DoctorMonkey on 07 December , Frabby, Thanks for these great pocket reviews - much appreciated!

If they're translated I think I'll seek out the Andurien Wars series. The Aundrian novels really make we want to play out the Victoria War and repeat some of these situations. Have you already taken a look at the first two Silent Reapers eBooks? Would like to see how you rate them for completely unknown reasons, shrouded in mystery.

German novelist and part time Battletech writer. DarkISI on 27 December , Riskante Ziele and Gejagt were in the mail today. Expect reviews here soon. Looking forward to it. Well, Gejagt took a tad bit longer to read because I got it together with Riskante Ziele which I read first. Anyways, my ratings and opinion: Convicted of breaching their contract, they fall on hard times financially and have to resort to illegal missions including murder to stay afloat, until a year-long garrison contract in Lyran space which is just glossed over as the novel jumps ahead a year consolidates their finances.

Mercs I think , and then finally a black ops against Word of Blake on Mars - infiltrate their Clantech research factories and steal parts and data, or if possible even 'Mechs. It's that easy, Wolf's Dragoons and the AMC were apparently just stupid and later played up the WoB spookiness to cover up their incompetence. Any merc unit could have walked right into Mars and stolen Celestials in I might add. I'm a bit disappointed that George didn't get a copy of Blake's Writings signed by The Master while he was there.

After their triumphant return, their employer sets a trap for the Biting Bear's Bashes to cover their tracks lest the WoB take revenge. The last part is a drawn-out guerilla campaign where George's unit is whittled down and he himself dies in the last stand; a few of his subordinates manage to escape by impersonating mercs from the opposing force. I am really sorry to have to say this as I really wanted to like the book, but it is probably the weakest book in the entire series. It features everything I didn't like in earlier books - episodic approach and lack of a true story arc, the feeling of being a transcript of a RPG campaign, sub-par writing that often explains things instead of narrating them, canon problems Celesital 'Mechs are stolen from WoB in though they only debuted in ; plotting of another JumpShip's "jump vector" to determine where it jumped to and pursue it, which isn't possible.

The individual missions are somewhat bland especially the Pike IV campaign , and the part where the unit commits murders for money without remorse is just weird. George's Clan upbringing and honor code, which are occasionally mentioned like tacked-on window dressing in lieu of character development , somehow don't prevent him from assassination missions but near the end he decides to die in a pointless fight just for honor, because he can't stomach dishonorably ambushing enemy forces after having been doing exactly that for a long time - there's a disconnect here.

The book isn't all bad though. The battle scenes, contrived as the setup may be at times, are narrated pretty well and I also like the "live by the sword, die by the sword" vibe. It's just weird how handily they duped the WoB of all factions, only to be eradicated in yet another employer betrayal which is par for the course in their merc world.

1. William Ellery Leonard: The Professor and the Locomotive-God?
2. Carolina Möbis?
3. Are You an Author?.

Consider that the Jihad had absolutely zero screen time in German products so far, and a surprisingly large portion of the German fan base doesn't read English language products. The impression I got was that most are put off by the perceived massive changes to the setting, a Clan Invasion squared so to say.

And now there's a German Jihad era novel. I reckon it comes with a lot of baggage. The Jihad basically brought Shadowrun into the BT universe and the book indeed reads a bit like Shadowrun, but in a good way. And yet, he avoided the pitfall of making his novel a Jihad introduction book; it is quite its own story.

The writing is good, the pacing is fast and gripping. Quality-wise, this book is certainly on par with BattleCorps and the better BT novels out there, English and German alike. It introduces the Silent Reapers a merc unit consisting of four OmniMechs and two squads of battle armor plus axiliaries such as infiltration experts and an ex-ComStar hacker. Specialized in black ops, they are hired for a hit against the Capra HPG and abducting the precentor. But the precentor is "interrogated" to death by the employer's interrogation specialist and the HPG blows up around the Reapers, branding them as terrorists.

They go to ground and are offered to work for the WoB, the only faction who will still hire them. They warily accept while one of their agents goes back to Capra to investigate. The story forks into two branches at this point: The Reapers, now posing as another merc unit, are confronted by a mysterious man who blackmails them with their true identity. They capture him but cannot make him reveal his backers; eventually he escapes and the Reapers realize they must have a mole inside the unit, and one unit member the protagonist's lover is taken hostage.

The scouring of Outreach and later the supposed nuking of Tharkad make them wary, and when they discover the Lakegaard data is actually a bioweapon they refuse to further work with WoB, stalling handing over the data until the mole in the unit is uncovered. The agent on Capra meanwhile works with the yakuza against the Reapers' former employer, House Sandoval, but it later turns out that the Sandovals actually had nothing to do with the job and were framed as much as the Reapers whom they held responsible.

Eventually, the Word of Blake is revealed to be behind it all. With the help of House Sandoval and later ComStar the agent returns to the Reapers just as they're being hunted by WoB, and turns the final battle in the Reapers' favor. I had to think long and hard how to rate this, and finally decided to give the book only 4 out of 5 stars initially I was going to give 4.

There's a number of punctuation, grammar and spelling errors and one or two minor things that I'd have highlighted as a factchecker. The worst problem for me was the setup: Yet they bumble into the WoB trap like idiots in the Capra mission, with no failsafes whatsoever against a dishonest and mistrusted employer.

And the simple threat to kill his daughter totally tames the unit commander and makes him to the employer's bidding against his better judgement. No contingency plans, no nothing. Further, this black ops unit, who have no qualms whatsoever about gunning down the precentor's four bodyguards, becomes surprisingly wimpy all of a sudden about the possibility that the captive might be tortured to death, even afraid of being complicit in "murder".

Gunning down hapless bodyguards, agents and sentries left and right apparently doesn't count as murder to them though. And then there's that odd scene with the four ROM agents in the mortuary. Not only are they stupid enough to be caught pants-down after not even posting a guard! But really, these are minor points; similar loopholes exist in many BT stories and the novel is still a fun ride.

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I intended the suicide scene as a plot hook. Why the hell would ComStar agents not gun their way out when face with the Reapers? The ending was intended to solve this: CS wanted the Reapers to work for them, they needed them for something. Given that, gunning down their agents was an absolute no-go. Getting captured was the same, because they didn't know who inside the Reapers reported to WoB and could possibly have gotten information out of them. With no way to run but through the Reapers, suicide was the only option.

Regarding getting whimpy about the captured prisoners: You kill people who point their guns at you. But killing an unarmed prisoner?

Classic BattleTech: German Novels Series

That's a completely different level. And General McFaris is simply a family man. Losing his wife was too much, it sent him on a murderous revenge mission. The thought of losing his daughter, too And yes, I know she could have died during any mission, but that is something else entirely.

List of German BattleTech novels

Getting killed during a job is different from getting assassinated - at least as far as he is concerned. Don't know if those explanations fix things for you, but they are the reasoning behind me writing it the way I did. No idea if it makes sense. I like that you liked it. Makes me long for the days of BattleTech novels in the states. Hard to believe Endgame was released in Nice reviews guys, thank you!

As of yet nobody can sell me a copy of Embers of War Hint, hint Catalyst! Die Kanonen von Thunder Rock was in the mail today. I'm very excited, as this is a good old grognardy Clan-free 4th Succession War novel, and it looks like the author did his research and factchecking homework. Can't wait to read it, unfortunately I have a very heavy workload these days so it may be a while. I note that the author mentioned both Sarna. This seems to indicate Bernd Perplies is indeed an active member of this forum community - care to step forward and drop the mask?

Bongfu Warrant Officer Posts: Is there a good place to buy them to have them shipped to the US? I tried looking on Amazon, but shipping is crazy. Then again, I have no idea what is normal in the US. Ah I didn't catch that one. Granted it has been awhile since I looked so their stocks and locations might have changed.

Bongfu on 21 August , I may add a bit to the Bear Cycle It was at first aimed to be more than just 6 books, but Heyne cut it down, thus, some plot points just had to fall through, and the finish had a bit to be rushed.

In my view, the final stand makes sense, as a unit can only take so much without falling apart. George's final sacrifice allowed his people to live on instead of being wiped out and try again, perhaps, with them fighting on, perhaps even winning against the Mercs, would have seen their doom by the Blakies. I thought at first that tricking the Word at Mars would be madness, but the writer showed me some way, and remember, the Wob did not take that lightly and probably more than a few heads were rolling after this, and security got way more tight.

They might even have tracked down the robbed hardware to make it useless to Kurita later, who knows. But I thought it could have worked. Wob is was still mostly human that time. Humans can be duped and make mistakes. Even WoB is not almighty, especially when not yet active as the Great Boogeyman with unlimited resources tm. Also the Clan Watch plot could not be finished, bummer for me too. He had an idea about what they were up to, but after the capture, he could not get back there due to the above mentioned reasons, it certainly could have ended better. Unfollow battletech to stop getting updates on your eBay feed.

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