Hour of the Wolf: a Running Review

[HABeas2]

Yes, but the differences are important.
What people are willing to spend money on matters more than what they're willing to say on one corner of the internet.

It was close enough for planning work.

- Herb

[ActionButler]

I wonder if you would see the same ordering if you split one poll into three and isolated the Great Houses, the Clans, and the Minor Powers from one another.Did the Wolves and Falcons lose votes because people who gravitate towards them also play Davions and Steiners? Or are they both really less popular than the obviously superior Ghost Bears? Ray’s financials (which are the more important gauge) seem to imply that the Bears really are more popular, which is very surprising considering how many of us were introduced to the Battletech universe through MechWarrior 2...

Anyway, regarding the novel and the lack of Bear movement, it really circles back around to my belief that it should have been two books - one for the invasion and a second for the trial. I realize that deadlines have to be met and that there are other decisions being made by people way more important than a volunteer moderator, but dividing the content and letting both halves of the conflict have more room to breath would have allowed for a lot more things to happen around the edges.

Also we would have found out what happened to the Elementals hanging out on the outside of a Republic warship.

[Maingunnery]

I am more of a Raven guy but I can understand the Bear thing, they have a specific attitude, a lot of cool iconic units, and MW2:GBL also has an memorable effect.

[HABeas2]

I wonder if you would see the same ordering if you split one poll into three and isolated the Great Houses, the Clans, and the Minor Powers from one another.Did the Wolves and Falcons lose votes because people who gravitate towards them also play Davions and Steiners? Or are they both really less popular than the obviously superior Ghost Bears? Ray’s financials (which are the more important gauge) seem to imply that the Bears really are more popular, which is very surprising considering how many of us were introduced to the Battletech universe through MechWarrior 2...

*shrug* The question asked was straightforward enough for what I needed at the time. But it's moot now, anyway, so...meh.

- Herb

[Adrian Gideon]

so...meh.

Words to live by.

[Sartris]

*slowly puts away stack of FWL and ComStar-themed pitches*

[Ruger]

I wonder if you would see the same ordering if you split one poll into three and isolated the Great Houses, the Clans, and the Minor Powers from one another.

I know what my votes would be in this case:

House Steiner/Lyran Commonwealth
Clan Hell’s Horses
Marian Hegemony

Ruger

[Middcore]

*slowly puts away stack of FWL and ComStar-themed pitches*

[Fear Factory]

Ugh. Just another reason for me to dislike the Warden version of Clan Ghost Bear or Rasalhague Dominion. I miss the less popular Crusaders... the good ol' days. Back when they were more about blitzkrieg tactics and fast powerful units, not chonky totem things that makes Steiner fans drool.

Me Clan, but Bear waits, wow... much quirk.

[FaithBomb]

Sadly, there is like a month's worth of awesomeness in this thread, and I don't have the time to catch up on and comment on it all. Suffice it to say, this thread is my prozac. The more time goes by, the worse and worse HotW looks in retrospect. It was a tough read to begin with, and over time, even the happiness of "yay, we got a new book" has worn off to show this book in all it's warts.

The biggest being: Character. There are none in this book. It's a trend with this author that the novels are all plot and no character lately. Alaric? You can't even hate him, there's nothing to hate, he's just a superhero template. His SuperFriends? They exist just to praise him. Chance literally just sits around telling everyone how great Alaric is. WarBear is a "genius" for such things as "use lots of mechs" and "build good mechs". The Raven dude is just...well, the less said about the space battles the better.

Then there's Stone, who the sourcebooks tell us should have suffered from freezer burn right away, but magically didn't up until Terra, when suddenly he did, and nobody noticed.

Tucker? Emo whiney Tucker?

Janella Lakewood, super awesome Paladin reduced to...secretary and nursemaid?

Tara Campbell: Hair spikey as ever, flip flopping, getting tossed about from one faction to another with no character development except...plot?

Malvina: Cartoon villain. How about we add more random scenes of her shooting people in the head? ugh.

[ActionButler]

The biggest being: Character. There are none in this book. It's a trend with this author that the novels are all plot and no character lately. Alaric? You can't even hate him, there's nothing to hate, he's just a superhero template.

As was pointed out somewhere up-thread, Alaric's biggest problem is that (in this book, at least) he was clearly written to be the anti-Malvina and very little else. Was Malvina a silly cartoon villain? Absolutely. She literally did the, "you'll never survive this trap" mustache twirl before she lit all of Canada on fire.  But despite her cartoony-ness, at least she had some identifiable personality. Alaric, on the other hand, was defined almost entirely by the people he wasn't. He wasn't a bloodthirsty psychopath, like Malvina. He wasn't a decaying old man, like Stone. He wasn't a political vulture, like his mother. And so on...

There just wasn't anything to root for with Alaric. He was the good guy purely by virtue of being the person you obviously weren'y supposed to root against.

[FaithBomb]

As was pointed out somewhere up-thread, Alaric's biggest problem is that (in this book, at least) he was clearly written to be the anti-Malvina and very little else. Was Malvina a silly cartoon villain? Absolutely. She literally did the, "you'll never survive this trap" mustache twirl before she lit all of Canada on fire.  But despite her cartoony-ness, at least she had some identifiable personality. Alaric, on the other hand, was defined almost entirely by the people he wasn't. He wasn't a bloodthirsty psychopath, like Malvina. He wasn't a decaying old man, like Stone. He wasn't a political vulture, like his mother. And so on...

There just wasn't anything to root for with Alaric. He was the good guy purely by virtue of being the person you obviously weren'y supposed to root against.

Yes and no. He was the good guy by virtue of the novels having a group of supplicants around him constantly telling you how great he was, how we was the chosen one, etc. It's the same fault that hurts most of HotW, it tends to TELL you what to think, what is going on, what characters are about rather than SHOW you. Alaric is the case in point. We never get SHOWN why he is great, awesome, whatever, we just get TOLD that he is, and then his wooden character proceeds to accomplish whatever plot point the author has in mind next.

[HABeas2]

Words to live by.

So, wanna talk birds now, AG?

- Herb

[ActionButler]

It's the same fault that hurts most of HotW, it tends to TELL you what to think, what is going on, what characters are about rather than SHOW you.

There's a lot of truth to that. I feel like a broken record for having repeated it so often, but it should have been two books so we could actually get a feel for all of the moving pieces instead of being told that this is the way it is because this is how it has to be for A, B, and C to line up. The Ghost Bears sitting things out is a good example, but Malvina's death at the hands of a character who (within this specific novel) was mentioned, maybe, twice before is an even better case. Malvina's death should have been huge. It should have had meaning and it should have been satisfying and it should have made sense. Instead, she got stabbed and bled out by someone you only know the importance of if you've followed along for X number of earlier publications. It was deeply disappointing (IMO).

But, again, even though I find myself increasingly disappointed with the vehicle that got us here, we are finally here. The book wasn't great. I've pretty much made peace with that. I'm sure there are plenty of people who disagree, and I'm really happy for them. I'm happy that they enjoyed the ride even though I didn't. I still look forward to the future of the game, though. I'm excited to see what comes next now that we finally did the thing that I've been waiting for since the end of my first playthrough of Mechwarrior 2.

[FaithBomb]

There's a lot of truth to that. I feel like a broken record for having repeated it so often, but it should have been two books so we could actually get a feel for all of the moving pieces instead of being told that this is the way it is because this is how it has to be for A, B, and C to line up.

Two books only solves half the problem. If the two books are written by authors that don't understand how characters are crafted and rather seems like they roll them up on an NPC chart somewhere, then you just have 2 bad books instead of one.

[Adrian Gideon]

So, wanna talk birds now, AG?

As in, flip you one?  :thumbsup:

[Jaim Magnus]

As in, flip you one?  :thumbsup:

I've got a graphic for that ;)
Don't worry, I won't use that here.

[Marveryn]

Two books only solves half the problem. If the two books are written by authors that don't understand how characters are crafted and rather seems like they roll them up on an NPC chart somewhere, then you just have 2 bad books instead of one.

Man faith, don't hold back cause he a fellow writer.  Honestly looking back at Aleric character we can piece a few traits about him from other sources.  He hate losing.  I mean he really hate losing to prove his point he capture the one person that defeated him and made her a bondswomen.  He has an ego.  I mean he the son of Katherine and Victor if that don't give you a huge ego nothing does.   He seem to have a knack for finding the right people for his needs.  In this book he is writing a bit of a gary stu as everything he did work out just as he plan.  He has to be one of the best planner in battletech for about to handle two different large touman with just his one clan (Or one lucky bas..)

He is do for a fall.  The guy is flying so high right now that its just a matter of time before he overplan and simple stone will make him fail.  we also know he a bit of a hyporcrite in that he all about wolf clan and bring in the dragoons to be part of his clan only to turn around and kick them out of the clan cause they are not really clanners.  He nearly crack when Stone reveal he was only following Stone master plan not his own.  Which was why stone was suffcated the thought he was merly stone pawn took a bite out of his ego.  Of course stone didn't plan on the falcons so not sure why he so upset about it.  He threw a monkey on Stone clearly not well thought out main plan. 

At this point he such a high personality he bound not to have any internal set back.  So if i was to guess his fall will be in his planning.  He seem to make detail careful plans.  Maybe too detail , too careful.  I suspect a freak event something he could never plan for is what going to do him in.  Other than that we don't see him care for anything but himself even the clan may be secondary to keeping him on top. 

[Jaim Magnus]

Critique is what keeps a writer on their toes. Comes with the territory, as does having not everyone like what you've written.

Alaric in HotW has no character besides 'focus winner guy'. Any perceived characterization comes from previous works, such as "Masters of War" and "Bonfire of Worlds".

One of Battletechs issues, and it's not related to just HotW, is consistency of character across different writers. All through the Dark Age, Anastasia Kerensky was written all over the place, because "whatever the story needed". That kind of thing needs to stop. And if a character is acting radically different, show us why.

[ActionButler]

Two books only solves half the problem. If the two books are written by authors that don't understand how characters are crafted and rather seems like they roll them up on an NPC chart somewhere, then you just have 2 bad books instead of one.

But I would have found out what happened to those space marine Elementals and, dammit, that’s a sacrifice that I’m willing to make...

[FaithBomb]

Critique is what keeps a writer on their toes. Comes with the territory, as does having not everyone like what you've written.

Alaric in HotW has no character besides 'focus winner guy'. Any perceived characterization comes from previous works, such as "Masters of War" and "Bonfire of Worlds".

One of Battletechs issues, and it's not related to just HotW, is consistency of character across different writers. All through the Dark Age, Anastasia Kerensky was written all over the place, because "whatever the story needed". That kind of thing needs to stop. And if a character is acting radically different, show us why.

I agree on that one. Anastasia Kerenesky goes from sociopath to loveable sidekick to anti-Malvina, from 'torturing' Alaric to suddenly becoming just another tool in the toolbox of SuperFriends. She NEVER has a coherent outlook, or a reasonable rationale for why she changed.

[Fear Factory]

Man, the more I read and think about it, the more I see it as the perfect conclusion to Dark Age. Such a mess.

If the Dark Age was going to be such a problem, why not just go the cartoon route and have it all retconned as a wargame played all over the Inner Sphere? BattleTech-ception.

[FaithBomb]

Sadly, there was too much material in the early dark age to be able to hand-wave it away the way they did with the cartoon.

[Fear Factory]

Sadly, there was too much material in the early dark age to be able to hand-wave it away the way they did with the cartoon.

... even if the game was so 'popular' it had a lot of novels and sourcebook material?  ;)

But yeah. There were better ways to have Hour of the Wolf go, and we didn't get any of them. Spent all the time and money to get art made for an epic augmented fight between Stone and Alaric but all we got was this stupid bag and pillow.

[FaithBomb]

... even if the game was so 'popular' it had a lot of novels and sourcebook material?  ;)

But yeah. There were better ways to have Hour of the Wolf go, and we didn't get any of them. Spent all the time and money to get art made for an epic augmented fight between Stone and Alaric but all we got was this stupid bag and pillow.

And a colostomy bag. Don't forget that. Administered no doubt by nurse-maid Janella Lakewood.

[KayEmm]

I passed on this book for reasons that are entirely unrelated to its content, and that I cannot discuss for Boar Rules reasons. That being said, your review has made it abundantly clear that I didn't miss a thing.

Thank you so much for that (and suffering through it for the sake of others)

[FaithBomb]

I passed on this book for reasons that are entirely unrelated to its content, and that I cannot discuss for Boar Rules reasons. That being said, your review has made it abundantly clear that I didn't miss a thing.

Thank you so much for that (and suffering through it for the sake of others)

I wish I'd had that kind of spine. I am hopeful, however, that TPTB have learned the lessons of HotW and hopefully we will not go down that road again. I like to think things are on a better path now.

[HABeas2]

I wish I'd had that kind of spine. I am hopeful, however, that TPTB have learned the lessons of HotW and hopefully we will not go down that road again. I like to think things are on a better path now.

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAH!

- Herb

[FaithBomb]

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHHAHAH!

- Herb

Come on herb, let a girl dream....

[Fear Factory]

Herb, can we go back to a simpler time? When everyone was angry at you/TPTB for killing factions?