Mechwarrior: Dark Age #25: Masters Of War (A Battletech Novel)

 (5 customer reviews)

This novel was quite well written, but I would not recommend someone who has never read any Battletech books. A new reader would probably be clueless as to why anything in the novel is happening. Clan Wolf's traditions as well as such important events as the HPG blackout are not heavily explained in this novel. If you already know what these are, you should be set to read this book. And yes, Katrina Steiner-Davion makes an appearance, manipulative and deceptive as ever. One last thing: I believe that the cover shown is not the correct one, since the previous (or next, I'm not sure) has the exact same cover.

No one can write characters in the BattleTech universe like Stackpole. He gets into the grime and muck of their motivations, their hopes and dreams, and gets you to root for them regardless of how despicable they might be.

As a return after more than five years away from BT novels, Stackpole delivers an off-main arc story in this one. While it does not really serve as a good introductory novel to the BT universe, for those versed in the details and history it is exceptional.

Focusing primarily on two main characters, a Wolf-in-Exile castoff named Verena who manages to achieve fame and rank through accident rather than design, and Alaric Wolf, a Clan Wolf Star colonel who considers himself a god amongst mortals destined to rule over all he surveys. Alaric happens to be the son of Katherine Steiner-Davion (known still as Katrina) and her brother, Victor, through some Clan genetic milkshake process.

Through various machinations, the Wolf Clan chooses to...Read more

I was really hoping for something more with this book. This was Stackpole's return to the Dark Age novel line for the first time since Ghost War, the first novel; and it came at a time when the books have been generally getting better, with a story going on that's interesting (Fortress Republic). But I don't really know why I expected Stackpole to write about *that*.

Masters of War is about the Wolves. It has Katrina S-D in it, somehow, and her son is the main character. It has Galaxies of 'Mechs, but the conflicts are fairly small. And, well, while there are some ideas in it that are interesting and large-scale, the fundamental ideas just seem small and personal.

This wasn't what I was looking for. It was still Stackpole, so it was competently done and interesting, but... I was hoping for Surrender Your Dreams again (the best Battletech book since the Warrior series), but this time from the writer that made this universe something worth reading for the...Read more