The Mechwarrior: Dark Age #3: Ruins of Power: Dark Age #3: Ruins of Power (Mech Warrior: Dark Age)

I can't begin to tell you how upset I am at this book. Vardeman should definitely stick to writing about Vor.

Something that threw me off very early in the story was that the main characters (Dale, Austin & Sergio) shared the same last name as Raul Ortega from 'A Call to Arms.' This universe is still in it's infancy, lets at least wait till we're about 15 novels into it before we start recycling surnames.

'Ruins of Power' had the potential to be a powerful story with the characters it introduced. Unfortunately, the author never takes any time to dig deep into any of the characters; many questions go unanswered. Why is Sergio Ortega so adamant a pacifist? What evidence is there that Sergio was a great mechwarrior in his past? Why does Segio not confide in his own son, Austin, as to what Dale and Hanna knew of Lady Elora's work to undermine his authority as governor? It is obvious Sergio can trust no one, so why not his son? Is it because he feels that Austin is incompetent...Read more

Some devoted BattleTech fans have been quite critical of Robert E. Vardeman's The Ruins of Power, the third book in the MechWarrior: Dark Age series. I am a newcomer to the BattleTech world, so I made a point of reading the two earlier entries in this series so as to put myself in a better position to judge the merits of this book. While The Ruins of Power isn't on par with its predecessors, I found this to be an entertaining, quite satisfying novel. Vardeman does tend to avoid certain questions about the background of events, fails to expound upon a few seemingly unlikely details, and leaves room for the questioning of several characters' motives and agendas, but the basic story holds together pretty well, certain explanations are rightly held back until the closing pages, and important aspects of society and leadership are addressed. BattleTech veterans may find fault with a number of things in these pages, but those new to the series stand a good chance of enjoying a pretty...Read more

I'll start off by saying that out of 60+ Battletech books, I only thought one, Far Country, was dumb. That number has now increased to two. I don't know what Mr. Vardeman has written before but I do know that his first foray into the Battletech universe was not very good. My biggest complaint about the book is the lack of action. The last one hundred pages of the book are about the build up to this battle that never really materializes. Heck, the Atlas mech spends most of it's time seemingly just standing there getting shot at and nothing else. The reason for this is because the governor is a pacificst and doesn't want people to get hurt. Well, that's great but what do people want to see in a Battletech book? They want to see Mechs shooting at other Mechs and blowing stuff up. Now don't get me wrong, character development and plot are important too otherwise it's just a big Solaris match and that's it. However, this book didn't even have that. The conversations felt forced...Read more