Customer Reviews

Dagger Point (Battletech, No. 46)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

What can I say, It was a good effort, and it had a good story, but it seemed rushed and way too hurried an effort. It needed polishing and almost all of the characters needed more in the way of depth. There was also some realism questions and a feeling of abruptness with the ending. I was left lacking.

I've read all the Battletech books, have the complete collection in paperback (yes, including The Sword and the Dagger), and have always enjoyed the books whether they be part of the "big" events in the Inner Sphere or just side plots. But the Capellan Solution series has been a huge disappointment in general and Dagger Point a waste of Tom Gressman's writing in particular. The plot makes no sense given the history of the ELH, the cameos by Victor and Theodore are very much out of character and the whole Vietnam thing was done better in Ideal War (although it stunk then too). I was hoping this book would turn this sub-series around... I was thinking Kai would agree with Sun Tzu that the Confederation should indeed be reunited with a small adjustment in who would sit on the Celestial Throne but alas, this book is little more of a placeholder chapter in a very bad story overall.

I have been a fan of BT for 12 years and the novels are usually good. I didn't much like this one.

First off, the 'mech combat was too limited. They didn't FEEL like battles between REGIMENTs of huge armored vehicles. It was more like 1 on 1 fights between individual 'mechs. I would expect that more from a BT book about the clans than the inner sphere.

Second the story didn't make much sense. It never explained WHY the STAR LEAGUE would send troops to fight against a Star League member state. If they were put there as a warning to Sun Tzu, and then an 'incedent' caused them to intervene, fine, but the Light Horse went in shooting.

Alot of different things in the story didn't make sense. Like I said, it could have been MUCH better.

I just finished this book yesterday, and found it to be barely readable. Poor writing, poor plot, and poor characters (except in a few instances), all combined to make this a poor read. Also, several minor technical errors also made the book hard to get through. I'm just glad I was paid to take the book, and didn't have to spend any of my money on it. Still, it was better than Ideal War and Far Country.

I'm a huge fan of the Battletech novels, I enjoy the evolving story line and snatch up new books as fast as I can, unfortunately I wish I had skipped this one.

The story takes place on the planet Milos with the ELH, one of the crack mercenary units in the inner sphere sent to retake a planet conquered from the St. Ives compact by the Capellen confederation. Sent there by Victor Davion and Theodore Kurita, on a promise of a change in the star league which is never mentioned later in the novel. The characters are bland, the mech combat is even more bland and the ending is slow and boring. There are a number of historical and technical mistakes, along with the 'Immortal warrior' type of combat (the enemy commander dropping mechs in a single shot while shrugging off massive amounts of damage).

My biggest problem, and if you're going to read the novel I suggest you skipping this part, was the way the ELH was handled the author quoted the Light horse motto countless times on "never leaving a man behind", which they do, with hardly a second thought. During the final battle their drop ships, their only passage off the planet are destroyed by 2 men running through a chain link fence, past 2 sentries into an open door and planting a bomb. Excuse me, but the ELH are a CRACK military unit, as mentioned by the author probably 10 times throughout the novel. They are on a hostile planet, under siege by a Capellan line regiment and the only protection they have for their multi billion c-bill drop ship are *2* sentries, and a chain link fence? laughable.

This novel contains none of what makes the battletech universe fun and exciting, no politics, no heroes, no massive mech battle, nothing.

Dagger Point, by Thomas Gressman, offers a non-Capellan viewpoint into the family dispute known as the Capellan Solution. Focusing on the Eridani Light Horse and their attempts to bring order to a situation that's chaotic at the best of times, Dagger Point shows the difficulties in 'peacekeeping' between two factions that aren't interested in peace.

Additionally, Gressman's writing style seems to be evolving as well. There are fewer of the straight exposition scenes that were evident in The Hunters and Sword and Fire, and an attempt to pass more information to the readers through character conversation. The only drawback to this, however, is the tendancy for a chapter to end up a conversation between three or four characters who seem to be floating about in limbo, talking about action that doesn't seem quite real.

Overall, though, a solid read.

This was about the tenth book in the Battletech series, and it is NOT the best book I have read. The rushed feeling in the end made the plot lose a fraction of it's luster.

Also, Mr. Gressman needs to research into other books and clan history. The Tau glaxy was not from the Nova Cats, but was the Smoke Jaguar's galaxy, commanded by Devon Osis, the was beaten severely by the joint efforts of the Nova Cats and the mercenary group, the Northwind Highlanders.

However it was still a decent book, and kept up with the continuing battle against the Cappellan Confederation.

Dagger Point is a good novel. The Eridani Light House are brought to Milos to resist Sun-Tzu's attempts to take the entire St. Ives Compact. A fair amount of Tech fights, good character interaction as well as some interesting side plots make the novel a good read. It is a big improvement in comparison to Gressman's previous massive battles which were all but impossible to follow. It would be nice if authors other than Stackpole (whose novels are the best admittingly) had more opportunities to affect the macro-cosmos. Until this is not the case, however, we have to take what is offered and this novel is quite good at that. I would definitely recommend it. Just don't expect any drastic changes to the BT universe to come from this novel (and that is about the only criticizm I have for this novel).

like the others, i've read and have all the btech books and loved all of them. but this one....it just lacked action. it didn't seem like a massive regimental sized battle. the guerrilla war thing went on for too long with no real climax (kyle killing the sniper wasn't that). the book had great potential, especially when i read the first part with the baby killing...it just dropped from there. they are also right, the btech series (like the real world) has dropped dramatically. what got me into the storyline years ago was the massive wars and fratricidal conflict. now its just micromanaged, and i have the real world to think about that in.

I never really know what to expect when I sit down to read a Battletech novel. Sometimes they are great other times they are a waste of ink and paper. This one is between those two extreme's a little to close to a waste in my opinion. The set up of the story was unkept. I expected at any time that reenforcement would arrive to relieve the Light Horse. Instead I got a thin allegory of the vietnam war.