Just finished Hunters of the Deep. I've never actually finished one of Randall's books. I tried before with the one where Jake Kabrinski gets in an arm wrestling match (unaugmented) with an Atlas and wins in the prologue? (I hear he goes on to go into a similar arm wrestling match with a bear and a horse. Unaugmented. Though I've heard its super easy to go over the top with something with hooves?)
Anyways. Petr isn't what I expected. But maybe I shouldn't be so surprised? He is a clan mechwarrior. So the fact that he rages out at the slightest jest should not surprise me. But on the other hand, I feel like in a Clan of Warrior Merchants that being able to disseminate information easily should be something you learn early on? Also he gets half of his face burned off and does not think, "This may hurt me in negotiations."
I am wondering how a Ritual of Combat ends if it does not end in a limb being blown off? Though, I guess if you tear through either side torso you have still got a limb. So the worst case scenario would be a headshot or coring the battlemech. (If a battlemech gets cored you have to roll a 10+ on 2d6 for the component to be salvagable? I feel like thats long odds for the person in the cockpit.)
I'm wondering how long it will take for the clan to explode into its component parts. But we are still not even sure what we're doing with the money that we are amassing. So maybe thats ok.
I like how we can cheat with our totems. We are still as punny as the other clans. (Less so as a Sea Fox, but we are terrible when we are diamond sharks! How many shark metaphors can we make? luckily we are back to clan yappy dog cat thing.) So we can call on a Sea Fox to adapt to a situation and be thinky and clever. But can invoke Diamond Sharks when someone blows up our civilians and we decide to eat their armies (looking at you Draconis Combine) or attacks one of our fleets (and you wolves) and just flip out and kill everything in a fit of terrifying violence.
I also like the end where he invokes clan sea fox's honor and pride. I feel like we are a clan that enjoys inflicting pyrrhic victories on our enemies. If we cannot win I do not feel like they should win either.
Anybody else read this book and have thoughts about it?