Product Description
Anastasia Kerensky and her Steel Wolves tried to take the planet Northwind once before and failed. Kerensky doesn't take defeat lightly and won't give up until she holds this pivotal world in her grasp. Now Countess Tara Campbell must marshall her Highlander troops for a new fight. She'll depend upon Paladin Ezekiel Crow for help, but what she discovers is that her greatest ally may yet prove to be her worst enemy. Book 2 in The Proving Grounds Trilogy, Truth and Shadows by Martin Delrio is the fifth novel set in the universe of MechWarrior: Dark Age.
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Truth and Shadows (MechWarrior: Dark Age #5)
- Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages (2003-08-05)
- Publisher: WizKids; 2003-08
- Label: WizKids
- Studio: WizKids
- ISBN: 0451459385
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 6 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #789272
Avg. Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: In lux veritas 2008-03-15
Comment: TRUTH AND SHADOWS continues the storyline of Northwind that began in A Silence in the Heavens, again utilizing a structure similar to its predecessor. This time, it's Ezekiel Crow, Paladin of the Sphere, who undergoes life-altering changes.
It's been several months since the Steel Wolves have been seen, and Northwind is finally starting to breathe easy. But Crow can't really do so—not when the specter of Liao is being hung over his head by an unknown party.
As before, much of the first two-thirds is spent on character development, with some minor action from the secondary cast. Only towards the end do Tara Campbell and Crow hop into their BattleMechs and join the fray.
The Wolves' defeat feels more honest this time, in that they weren't actually defeated. Rather, in the face of the scorched earth tactics the Highlanders used ("If we can't have it, you can't either"), the Wolves decide that Northwind is more trouble than it's worth, and set their sights on a new target in time for the trilogy's conclusion: Terra.
While the structure of the trilogy has already gotten repetitive, "Delrio"'s strong writing more than makes up for it. The lies, deception, and betrayals keep the reader guessing even as the story moves on towards a conflict that's been over a decade in the waiting.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: So, so book--better if taken as part of the trilogy. 2005-07-20
Comment: Battlemechs CANNOT knock each other over by doing a running forward handstand into a flip. Nor can they roll around on the ground clenching each other like lovers.
Delrio obviously didn't research his topic.
Other than the glaring lack of knowledge of the game universe that this series is based on, I felt that the book was okay. It worked as part of the larger trilogy. Let the buyer decide whether or not they can suspend their disbelief.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: I really dislike this new series 2003-12-20
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.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Suspension of disbelief 2003-10-16
Comment: Uh, did anyone find it a little wierd how Anastasia got away from Paladin Crow in the first novel. Apparently after their climatic duel, in which Crow overloaded her Ryoken by stroking it with lightning, he let her go free. Picture this, Crow brings the Ryoken crashing down, and does not come to Tara's aid against the IndustrialMech's because he's guarding the Ryoken. Tara finally gets out of her predicament, and Crow tells her to come see what he's caught. THEN, suddenly the Steel Wolves are leaving the planet, and we are supposed to just ASSUME that the DEACTIVATED Ryoken just got back up, said adieu to the Paladin and joined her buddies off planet? Talk about wierd! Other than that little quirk, the second book is pretty good, and if you can handle a little suspension of disbelief, you'll be fine.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tangled Web of Betrayal 2003-08-16
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.
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Truth and Shadows (MechWarrior: Dark Age #5)
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