BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Novel and Sourcebook Reviews => Topic started by: Marveryn on 20 April 2019, 23:09:28
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since I don't use battlecorp I relied on my kindle and amazon for my BattleTech story and I just got my first taste of Iron Dawn. Not sure if this a reprint from a battlecorp story or not. I do like that is an academy book even if they had decided to make it place it in the YA section. I have been enjoy the bits of pieces of how a noble act and about a typical academy that you may find in any inner sphere world. Just large enough to handle the planets knights and nobles with a few sponsor exception and of course dealing with not just mech but infantry and armor.
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Not sure if this a reprint from a battlecorp story or not.
It's not.
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This appears to be a slightly amusing error in Iron Dawn.
"If we do encounter resistance, I suspect it will come from either the Robinsons or the Sandovals.”
Has the author confused the Sandoval capital planet Robinson with a family?
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you know I didn't catch that when I read it. I wonder if this event has anything to do with that chaos march look when Dark Age was introduce near the Draconis/Davion border. I haven't look at the map or the date to see if it match up
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This appears to be a slightly amusing error in Iron Dawn.
"If we do encounter resistance, I suspect it will come from either the Robinsons or the Sandovals.”
Has the author confused the Sandoval capital planet Robinson with a family?
Maybe people from the planet Robinson are referred to as Robinsons.
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In universe, it is a Drac speaking, so we probably have to assume it was a weird way of referring to any Robinson Operational Area forces which might be available (since Robinson itself is in Drac hands I believe). So it doesn't need to be changed or anything.
Out of universe, I'm guessing it is a misunderstanding by the author.
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Out of universe, I'm guessing it is a misunderstanding by the author.
Why assume that versus it being intentional?
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Because a plain and literal reading of the passage is that the "Robinsons", like the Sandovals, are a family.
I'm happy to apply strained readings to make things work lore wise, but outside of that it seems clear to me the author thought she was referring to a family (not a planet or operational area).
It is no big deal. I just thought it was a mildly amusing misunderstanding.
If I was going to make an actual criticism of the book, it would be more to do with how many tropes were recycled from the Nellus Academy Incident, but YMMV etc.
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I recently finished this book myself. Honestly, I forced myself to finish it.
It's a decent sci-fi novel. I didn't find it to be a good BattleTech novel. C+ for sci-fi, D- for BattleTech. I'd read it again before some of the early MWDA novels, but not much else.
There is a lot of "feel" to this book that doesn't match the BattleTech universe.
Why do I think that? A quick rundown:
1. The Combine invaders' plan is a bit to difficult to follow, but it pretty much boils down to ignoring brigade/regional command to carve out a multi-planet fiefdom in Davion space using what amounts to a combined arms battalion. Along the way, they plan to recruit the defending forces they overcome into their little army, without letting them in on the overall plan. This includes 'Mech pilots. To summarize: they're going to convince Federated Suns 'mechwarriors to serve in the Kuritan army with their 'Mechs. Now, the Kuritans reveal this is going to take place by holding their friends and family hostage, but anyone with a knowledge of BattleTech history is going to tell you that no one from that area of Davion space is going to freely do that, and if the Combine is stupid enough to leave them in fully-armed 'Mechs, at some point there's going to be a rebellion. When you run the numbers of attackers vs defenders, this gets even less believable.
2. For some reason, every Kuritan battle armor trooper is a referred to as a "commando", by both sides. It would be forgivable if it was the only faux pas, but it's just another little indicator that the author hasn't spent a lot of time in BattleTech lore.
3. This was the real kicker for me: in a world where cadets supposedly aren't allowed to do much beyond jack squat, someone let them modify three tanks to use projectile melee weapons in place of their primary armament. Then, these prototype systems work, taking down an assault 'Mech. So, beyond the fact that someone let cadets reduce three fully-functional combat vehicles to using single-use melee weapons, they miraculously take down the king of the battlefield.
4. The author appears to have had no exposure to what a Davion training cadre is or how they operate. Maybe they just liked to use the word cadre.
5. The planet being attacked was actually warned. They ignore the warning to the point of reader disbelief. The disbelief gets worse when you realize if they'd been the least bit ready, they'd have soundly defeated the invaders.
There were also a number of character flaws/habits I didn't enjoy, but I write most of that off to being YA material.
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It felt like he novel tried to set up a scenario similar to the early Dark Age novels, were they focussed on a single planet where nothing else in the universe matters and it was all alone.
Didn't work out very well for the early Dark Age novels, works out better here. I agree with your criticism, but judge it as less important. The story itself was good. The feeling of being left alone (at least for the cadets) was actually transported and didn't feel like it was forced on them and as you said yourself, it's YA fiction. In YA fiction adults tend to be utterly incompetent and unable to solve any kind of problem unless they can lend support to the kids and the kids are usually very inventive and can come up with ideas that are really out there, but work better than anyone could expect. As such, most of the critizism is just something that describes the genre.
Things like the "Commando" felt like a screwup, though. I agree. That should have been caught during editing.
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So this seems like sort Bick sort book where there big gap on grasp of how universe is? I still avoid her work since reading her second MWDA novel.
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Not really big gaps, no. They are there, but all in all it first rather well. Of course, since it is a YA novel, you have to deal with the usual suspense of disbelief that comes with those.