Mechwarrior: Dark Age #1:: Ghost War (A Battletech Novel)

For those who've read a lot of books by Michael Stackpole, they will be pleased to see him go back to a first person narrative and a brash, active, go-for-it type of hero (easily compaired to Wolfgang Kies). For those who've read tons of Battletech-novels, this one might seem very different from Stackpole's other books in the series. There are hints of the larger picture in this universe, the so-called center-thread Stackpole used to "own" before ... but the events are not of the same magnitude: the plot is about single planets (perhaps indicative of the communications problems that define this new era) instead of star-spanning realms or even the whole Inner Sphere. Then again, as it was probably intended, it is a good jumping-on point for new readers (new players of the new game) with only minimal referals to all that happened a century before.
My only real "beef" with the book, is that 95 % of the story could just as easily have been set in another story- or...Read more

Oh how death does walk again... Stackpole's maiden novel in the new Mechwarrior Dark Age Era is, in my honest opinion, the fourth best book in the entire Battletech/Mechwarrior series (the first three being the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy, also by him). Although written in the first person, a new point of view for the series, Sam Lubin is compelling as a mech jockey for hire w/ a penchalant for bad luck and the narrator of the story... his story. The character of Mason Dunne provides an anti-Sam, and Janella Lakewood rounds out the compilation with both a strong authority, and a soft tenderness only a Knight-Errant could provide. The opposition of course is not only portrayed as ruthless, cunning, and abominable... but also beautiful and attractive in this time of crisis. Their true identity is of course part of the guessing game that draws you into the book. The energy Stackpole spends here is not wasted... he does not give Lubin the invincible Victor trait he has been highly...Read more

Welcome to the Dark Age, courtesy of Michael Stackpole. After a leap of several decades into the future from the last Battletech novel, things have changed far more, perhaps, than during the entire succession wars period. Nearly all the familiar characters from the past are dead, leaving only a very limited tie to the past; in fact there is really only one returning character from the old days.

Humanity is still fractured with regards to any single galactic government, but there has been an inroad to peace, if only in a limited region of space. Unfortunately, though this new principality has been around for a while, it is not so secure as its residents might hope. The initiation of the Dark Age concept actually occurs several months before the book begins, with the centuries-old, high-speed interstellar communications network being sabotaged by unknown conspirators. This has forced all the interdependent worlds to begin fending for themselves for the first time in a long...Read more