Author Topic: Angry Voices in the Dark  (Read 4465 times)

Dmon

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Angry Voices in the Dark
« on: 09 May 2019, 11:14:44 »
So the story Angry Voices in the Dark has been available on Amazon for some time, as it is only £0.99 I decided to buy it whilst on my lunch today in work.

Written by Loren L. Coleman, I am guessing as an introduction to the Dark Age stuff. Is it canon? Is it official since it makes mention of being published by "Catalyst publishing".

Or is it an elaborate fake?

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #1 on: 09 May 2019, 12:34:09 »
it was definitely written by coleman. the branding on the cover is weird, which is why i kind of looked at it sideways the first time i saw it.



why not the then-current logo, as seen on coleman's Face Full of Blades Solaris VII collection or Trial by Fire that were released about the same time?



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Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #2 on: 09 May 2019, 12:54:56 »
Angry Voices in the Dark was the first official piece of Dark Age fiction, presented as a free download off the WizKids site when MWDA first launched.

The different branding is probably because WizKids never used that logo for their output.  His other collections are originally from FanPro and Catalyst sourcebooks, so the logo would be more appropriate.
« Last Edit: 09 May 2019, 12:57:03 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Sartris

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #3 on: 09 May 2019, 13:03:04 »
WizKids site when MWDA first launched.

ah, that makes sense. i thought i remembered hearing that, but couldn't find any evidence in my cursory digging. the amazon preview of the kindle version appears to have scrubbed any mention of wizkids from the credits.

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Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #4 on: 09 May 2019, 13:38:52 »
Other free fiction included "Tides of Change," "The Inheritance of Duty," "Field to Field" and "Loyalty."
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

SteelRaven

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #5 on: 09 May 2019, 14:25:59 »
Wasn't "Angry Voice in the Dark" just the prologue to Call to Arms just prior to publication?

Edit:

Never mind, different story.
« Last Edit: 09 May 2019, 14:29:06 by SteelRaven »
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Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #6 on: 09 May 2019, 14:31:09 »
Apologies - I got the order confused - The Inheritance of Duty was the first WizKids MWDA fiction piece. 

"Angry Voices" didn't have anything to do with "Call to Arms," though, since Angry is on Mara, and Call is on Achernar.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Dmon

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #7 on: 09 May 2019, 14:43:49 »
Other free fiction included "Tides of Change," "The Inheritance of Duty," "Field to Field" and "Loyalty."

Isn't The Inheritance of Duty the one where Belle Lees grandson is given the family Victor?

I am not sure I have read the others. I will have to see if there is any info on Sarna.

Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #8 on: 09 May 2019, 15:12:34 »
Isn't The Inheritance of Duty the one where Belle Lees grandson is given the family Victor?

I am not sure I have read the others. I will have to see if there is any info on Sarna.

Inheritance of Duty - Belle Lee gives her grandson her hidden Victor.
Angry Voices in the Dark - Rival factions clash on Mara.
Field to Field - A mercenary scavenger defends her dig site on Ozawa against bandits.
Loyalty - The Scourge question their allegiance to Jacob Bannson
Tides of Change - The Senatorial Alliance battles to control other worlds after their defeat on and flight from Terra.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Colt Ward

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #9 on: 09 May 2019, 15:49:14 »
Well, the important part of Angry Voices is that it was the first appearance of Erik Gorell-Sandoval.
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Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #10 on: 09 May 2019, 16:15:21 »
Fair point.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Frabby

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #11 on: 09 May 2019, 16:41:03 »
Angry Voices in the Dark was the first official piece of Dark Age fiction, presented as a free download off the WizKids site when MWDA first launched.
When you say WizKids site, do you mean LinkNet?
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Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #12 on: 09 May 2019, 17:34:45 »
When you say WizKids site, do you mean LinkNet?

Indeed.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

roosterboy

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #13 on: 09 May 2019, 17:43:30 »
Technically, no. It was actually INN at the time; LinkNet came a couple of years later. In between was the series of PDA journal entries.

Tyler Jorgensson

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #14 on: 09 May 2019, 20:05:04 »
Are they all on Amazon still ? Or elsewhere? Because now I'm interested having just learned about them

Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #15 on: 09 May 2019, 20:36:38 »
Looks like only Loren’s MWDA story is up as a Kindle product.  Some of the BattleCorps serials have been bundled and listed as ebooks, as well.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Frabby

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #16 on: 09 May 2019, 23:17:40 »
Technically, no. It was actually INN at the time; LinkNet came a couple of years later. In between was the series of PDA journal entries.
Now you've got me confused. Please elaborate. I thought INN was a LinkNet subsection.

I only came back to BattleTech in 2007 when the real-world MWDA website was the in-character LinkNet site, and I was under the impression this same site had been there since the launch of the MWDA game. Was there an earlier website that didn't call itself LinkNet?
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StoryReader

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #17 on: 09 May 2019, 23:48:52 »
Wasn't "Angry Voice in the Dark" just the prologue to Call to Arms just prior to publication?

Edit:

Never mind, different story.

You're correct -- It was presented as a three-part prequel (released on 6,11,13 February 2003) after "A Call to Arms" came out on 3 Feb 2003.

Wayback machine link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050121190657/http://www.wizkidsgames.com/mwdarkage/mw_article.asp?cid=37354&frame=fiction

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #18 on: 09 May 2019, 23:55:54 »
Now you've got me confused. Please elaborate. I thought INN was a LinkNet subsection.

I only came back to BattleTech in 2007 when the real-world MWDA website was the in-character LinkNet site, and I was under the impression this same site had been there since the launch of the MWDA game. Was there an earlier website that didn't call itself LinkNet?

My own notes for the sequence has these dates:

ComStar INN (Newsfeeds, Republic Primer, Republic Atlas, Touring the Stars)
June 3132 – 9 March 3134
[June 2002 – Jan 2004]

PDAs (Evan Kaiple / Deandra Lowe)
Jan – Dec 3135
[2005]

LinkNet
Jan – Aug 3136
[Jan – Aug 2006]


....these sites were a lot of fun to get immersed in back in the day!

roosterboy

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #19 on: 10 May 2019, 02:04:30 »
Now you've got me confused. Please elaborate. I thought INN was a LinkNet subsection.

I only came back to BattleTech in 2007 when the real-world MWDA website was the in-character LinkNet site, and I was under the impression this same site had been there since the launch of the MWDA game. Was there an earlier website that didn't call itself LinkNet?

StoryReader covered the real-world date details.

To elaborate more on the in-universe side of it:

  • INN was a news site based on Towne that gave us the pre-Blackout ComStar news feed and then local news after that event.

  • The PDA journals were never really given any kind of in-universe context, they were just presented as-is.

  • LinkNet was a news service set up by a handful (5 or 6, IIRC) of worlds with working HPGs to keep each other informed and not so alone.

"Angry Voices in the Dark" was originally published on the WizKids site during the INN era, although since it is fiction rather than an in-universe document I guess technically it wasn't part of INN.

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #20 on: 10 May 2019, 02:31:17 »
Amazing. Never knew there were other websites before LinkNet. Thanks StoryReader and Roosterboy!

Now I need to go back over the LinkNet and MWDA articles on Sarna and sort out the mess I made. Thou shalt not assume things.  :-\
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hf22

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #21 on: 10 May 2019, 04:18:39 »
I know stories like Loyalty are still available (its 4 parts are attached to a forum thread here somewhere), but is there anyway to get some of the other Wizkids website fiction which was released for free back in the day?

Kevin Killiany's "Tides of Change", as well as Adam Sherwood's "The Proof is in the Pudding" and "A Shot at Glory", don't seem to be available. You can see the old links on the wayback machine, but the way they were posted (pdfs for Tides of Change for example), means I don't think you can access the stories themselves.

Mendrugo

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #22 on: 10 May 2019, 05:49:18 »
Is "The Proof is in the Pudding" a MechWarrior story, or was it for HeroClix?
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

hf22

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #23 on: 10 May 2019, 08:54:01 »
Is "The Proof is in the Pudding" a MechWarrior story, or was it for HeroClix?

Huh, after just saying I couldn't find it on the wayback machine, it seems I can. The Proof Is in the Pudding can be read here - https://web.archive.org/web/20080105112445/http://www.wizkidsgames.com/mechwarrior/mw_article.asp?cid=41464

Still can't get Tides of Change however.
« Last Edit: 10 May 2019, 09:00:14 by hf22 »

Dmon

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #24 on: 10 May 2019, 10:00:44 »
Thank you for the answers guys AND for supplying the leads for a few more bits of fiction I need to track down.

Mendrugo

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"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Wrangler

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #26 on: 10 May 2019, 15:17:39 »
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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #27 on: 10 May 2019, 15:18:55 »
Lol . . . a 15 year cliffhanger for you!
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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #28 on: 10 May 2019, 15:28:41 »
Unfortunately, i wasn't able find Part 2.  The link only has Part 1.

I don’t believe Part 2 was ever released. Part 1 is the very last item in my spreadsheet listing everything posted on the WizKids site. Or, rather, the very last item that’s not a purely game-oriented news article; those continued for another few months.
« Last Edit: 10 May 2019, 15:31:32 by roosterboy »

hf22

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Re: Angry Voices in the Dark
« Reply #29 on: 10 May 2019, 18:17:35 »
I don’t believe Part 2 was ever released. Part 1 is the very last item in my spreadsheet listing everything posted on the WizKids site. Or, rather, the very last item that’s not a purely game-oriented news article; those continued for another few months.

The archived Fiction page suggests part 2 was posted, it is just that the page it was posted to was never captured by the way back machine (perhaps because it wasn't up for long).

https://web.archive.org/web/20080520002302/http://www.wizkidsgames.com/MechWarrior/mw_article.asp?cid=36765&frame=fanarea

 

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