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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exciting battle oriented work of science fiction, December 2, 2003
The Word of Blake, an Armageddon cult, launched its jihad against the colonized worlds over sixty five years ago, wanting to destroy any trace of life in the galaxy. A leader rose up during this time, Destin Stone, and eventually he destroyed the Word of Blake after millions were savagely murdered. As a reward for his victory, he becomes the leader of the new Republic of the Sphere made up all the planets in a 125 light year radius of Terra.Part of the Cappellan worlds including Liao was forced out of their confederacy and into the republic without being given a voice in their own destiny. Years later the Chancellor of the Cappellan Confederation Daosher Lia wants to bring these worlds back under his government rather than the weakening republic. He sends his emissary Mai Wa to Liao to sow dissent and discord that will start a revolution. With the help of freedom fighter Evan Kurst, Wa's former protégée, they start a civil war that spreads across the galaxy. Military strategists will find BY TEMPTATIONS AND BY WAR an exciting battle oriented work of science fiction. It is not always easy to follow the movements of a particular skirmish but readers will grasp the general battle plan and that knowledge is enough to keep and maintain audience attention. The heroic Evan never stops trying to free his country from the occupying forces. Harriet Klausner
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of the Darkage setting, March 8, 2004
By A Customer
I'm a huge fan of the battletech novels and the mechwarrior games, but I've been relatively disappointed with the new novels in the Dark Age setting. I was particularly displeased with the Proving Grounds trilogy, which seemed to leave out the most important thing in a BT book.....interesting mechs!Fortunately, By Temptations and By War does not suffer from this problem. While it fits in well in the Dark Age setting by not having regiments of Battlemechs stomping around, the author has still managed to put a decent number of mechs in (actual battlemechs, not agromechs). Even better, the author has included a couple of interesting Cappellan mech designs that I hadn't heard of before. The storyline is also well written, and provides a perspective that few of the battletech books in the past have shown since it is told mostly from a Cappellan view point, and the Liaos aren't automatically painted as the (somewhat shallow) bad guys as they were in some earlier novels. By Temptations and By War is definitely the best book that has been written in the Dark Age setting so far, and is one of the better books that Coleman has written. Even if you don't like the Dark Age timeline, I think I can recommend this book as a good read for battletech fans.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Coleman's CapCon Craze Continues, May 10, 2006
Loren L. Coleman is, in my opinion, one of the best writers in the Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise, so after a number of weak entries in the Dark Age series (The Ruins of Power, the trilogy preceding this book), I was hoping Coleman could get things back on track. Sadly, he left me disappointed.
To begin with, I found the main characters of Mai Uhn Wa and Evan Kurst to be wholly unlikable, so I found myself not caring much at all about their quest for the independence of Liao, and actually rooting against them for the entire book. Kurst was especially bad, as his motivations for certain actions were rather confusing. For example, he openly hates the Betrayer of Liao, who brought about the Capellan attack on Liao that killed Evan's parents...but he joins a movement that encourages violence, and gladly welcomes another violent Capellan invasion. Odd. He also distances himself from his only friends for the majority of the book, so when Coleman tries (poorly) to humanize him near the end, it comes across as a bit too little, too late.
In fact, the only two likable characters I found in the book were Planetary Legate Viktor Ruskoff and Ritter Michaelson, but as they are non-Capellans in a Coleman book, I'm sure you can guess how well they fare. Michaelson seems wasted here, as I saw a hundred different (and more interesting!) ways the character could have been used in the Dark Age universe. Oh well, though.
And, since this a Coleman book...despite being Capellan, everyone's Chinese is absolutely terrible. While this will not bother anyone who doesn't speak the language, it really takes me out of the experience when Mai Uhn Wa uses "rong yi" for the "relax" meaning of the English word "easy". This is a mistake that not even a first-year student would make, Mr. Coleman.
Despite these problems, his writing in general is as good as ever. Scenes, battles, and characters are described well, and his technical knowledge of the Battletech universe is much more sound than some of the other writers in this series. The only minor issue I have tech-wise is that Kurst's Mech seems capable of doing everything and anything, all the time...but since Kurst is a Capellan Mechwarrior in a Coleman book, this is to be expected.
So, overall, an okay book.
Not great, and certainly not up to the standard that Ghost War set for the Dark Age universe, but it's better than the four books that preceded it.
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