The Mercenary Life

[Dragon Cat]

The Mercenary Life is a tie into the MechWarrior 5 Mercenaries computer game telling the prequel story behind Nik's Cavaliers and is written by Randall N. Bills

I'll star with I loved it honestly I thought going into it I don't know what I'm getting its a story about a Merc unit I've never heard of and a tie into a game I haven't played yet but I also thought its a BattleTech story so here goes

Told through 9 parts The Mercenary Life shows you where each characters origins lie before they reached the Cavaliers. The stories are told initially featuring one of the main characters backstories before they come together in the Cavaliers as the stories progress

We have one part featuring some minor nobles like Maxmillian Liao and Hanse Davion... that was a neat surprise having chapters on Sian and New Avalon.  ComStar playing their games behind the scenes as well and some how it all seems relevant to the larger story of the Cavaliers.  Interstellar Expeditions feature promently and their actions in the search for knowledge shape the stories.

The Cavaliers get embroiled in a precursor to the Marik Civil War and the outside influences in it.  You have an origin story to Brooklynn Jales and her unit Jales Jannasaries who we're promised to see again

Overall this review probably feels a bit disjointed as initially the book is told from several perspectives and is told around Inner Sphere shaking events but all of them are leasing to one thing the rise of the unit featured in the game.  Its a believable mix of massive events and small units being linked together and to those

I loved after each part you get the authors perspective behind the story and what he was trying to tell us with each individual section how they weved their story around events and made it feel like it was about this story and not bigger ones beyons

[DEZOAT]

 I just finish reading the dead tree book from Mr King store. Oh I do have ebook. On whole I love the story and the people in it. Thanks Dragon Cat on your review. I just want say that I'm not picky about the authors and stories that written in Battletech Universe. 

[Marveryn]

I think reading Herb idea on why he choose what he choose work for me in the story.  My only issue was having a character who started out as a merchant trader and somehow he end up being a mechwarrior and good enough in the field that no one leave after the conclusion of the book.  Most of the story were good to ok as they go from one theater of operation to the next. 

[five_corparty]

I picked this up a while ago, and finally started in on it.  About a third of the way through, finding it interesting to see how the team forms.  I'm VERY much enjoying the author's notes, tho, getting an idea on why he did what he did in the story.  I write totally differently, so it's good to get a peek into the brains of other writers.  :)

I did like seeing Rayna again and liked that the author tied this book to the ELH anthology.   :)

[five_corparty]

Finally finished this last night!  And it was all great- I knew Chloe was going to die but the how was really well done.

Then, I start reading the final story and I realized that... wait a second, is this story about to start interweaving with one of mine???  This feels... weird?

And then I imagined Mike Stackpole somewhere out there in the universe jumping off his couch like Loki to shout at me  :D ;D


No, it was VERY cool to see that something I wrote became part of someone else's story, and Randall's kind words in the Author notes meant a lot.  :)

Overall, I really liked this anthlogoy.  It showed places we haven't seen, it showed the "traditional" look at a unit starting up but showed it really well, it had politics and treachery and just... good stuff.  Well worth the read! :-)

[Hawkeye Jim]

The book must have been pretty good. Got me started reading BT again. Still waiting for the new GDL book to come out in print.

[J_Schmetzer]

The book must have been pretty good. Got me started reading BT again. Still waiting for the new GDL book to come out in print.

This one?


https://www.amazon.com/BattleTech-Place-Death-Legion-Novel/dp/1638610401/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1632789529&sr=8-1

[ds9guy]

I thought this was a very interesting read as I have been playing through Mechwarrior 5.  Interesting to see the backstory on the characters in the game.

The Interstellar Expedition stuff I thought was especially intriguing as I really did not know much about them other than that they did some of the same stuff that the old Comstar Explorer Corps guys did.  So that was cool. 

Is randall still writing fiction since he left leadership of the battletech team? 

[Middcore]

Is randall still writing fiction since he left leadership of the battletech team?

Randall wrote one of the recent ELH short stories (canonizing Ryana Campbell and Chloe Reed in the process).