BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Novel and Sourcebook Reviews => Topic started by: YingJanshi on 16 February 2013, 22:16:29
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[Not really sure what category this thread should fall under.]
I read Blood Avatar again recently It's one of my favorite BT books (up there with Wolves on the Border); which is rather strange since it is not really very BTish. I enjoyed the story and mystery, even if I didn't understand all the Wobby/conspiracy stuff (even after going through the Jihad plot books I'm not sure I do).
So my question is this: Would anyone else read a BT novel if it didn't have any (or at least very few) 'Mech battles (I'll include IndustrialMechs too)? My perception of BT may be a bit odd, perhaps even unique: I've always seen BT more as a costume drama that just happens to take place 1000 years in the future than as a Sci-Fi Action/Adventure. To me BT is big enough to tell a story in just about any genre you want to.
[I do realize that BattleCorps does do different types of stories, however since I am a very infrequent subscriber I cannot comment on what kind of stories they may have.]
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There are plenty of BattleTech stories on BattleCorps without a single battle scene. Just off the top of my head (from my ongoing fiction review series):
Forms of Betrayal (Crazy Northwind Highlander assassinates the Capellan Chancellor)
Break Away (Maskirovka agents try to infiltrate the Hegemony's BattleMech development program)
Prometheus Unbound (LIC agents steal 'Mech design data from Hesperus II)
Nothing Ventured (A Davion envoy aggressively negotiates to get 'Mech technology from the Lyrans)
The Spider Dances (Maskirovka agents try to escape a National Intelligence Agency dragnet to get stolen 'Mech technology back to the Confederation)
Fall From Grace (Features a grand total of two brief 'Mech battles in the novel-length serial, which is mostly about Star League and Free Worlds League politics)
What I Remember Most (The aftermath of a massacre in the Outworlds Alliance)
A Veiled Betrayal (A Marik NIA team tries to get a Canopian colony to change sides without a fight)
Destiny's Call (Young Alek Kerensky goes to school)
Destiny's Challenge (Alek Kerensky at the Nagelring)
The Dark Night of the Soul (A Jesuit priest in Manila deals with a crisis of faith in the aftermath of the Amaris occupation)
A large number of BattleCorps stories have no 'Mech combat, since the short story format is well suited to exploring alternate areas of the Inner Sphere, from politics and intrigue to wilderness survival to exploration to bureaucracy and hijinks.
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One (very) short story I always liked was "... And then there was the time.." in the book Shrapnel.
Despite being a one page long description of what's going on in the illustration on page 150 of the House Kurita Atlas, it's pretty memorable as a reluctant 'mechbunny (asf-bunny, actually) tries to keep up a polite charade of being interested in a pilot's bragging.
If they published another book like Shrapnel I'd totally be interested.
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Oh so would I. So would I. It has some of the best pre-CI artwork anywhere.
(Just remembered wasn't that what the 25 Years of Art & Fiction book was?)
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It would depend greatly on the writing, depth of the characters and the overall plot but I probably wouldn't mind a btech story with only minimal mech combat as long as there was a character I could connect with and follow through the narrative.