Customer Reviews

Far Country (Battletech)

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

 

 

I consider Far Country badly written and unappealing. It should have a Young Adult label on the cover; it lacks the vocabulary, subtlety, and sophistication of any adult book. The quality of the Battletech novels varies greatly. When I was a child, I made the mistake of buying books based on series. The Legend of the Jade Phoenix Trilogy was excellent and it drew me into the Battletech universe. Intrigued about the Inner Sphere and the Clans, I bought many more Battletech books. Years later I have piles of uninspired stories like Far Country. Like Dragonlance and Star Wars, the Battletech name appeared on good books and then was handed out to unqualified authors. Loyal fans are drawn to any reference to Kerensky, Davion, or Clan Jade Falcon. Looking at other Battletech reviews on Amazon, I see that many fans loyally collect the entire series, and complain about the trash they were somehow compelled to buy; they recommend that the awful books are worth having just to complete the set. I've learned to buy books based on reviews and authors, not just brand name.

A Draconis JumpShip full of troops prepares to Jump to another solar system. Unfortunately, according to Rice, within the sphere of the universe there are rifts in which time, space, and mass do not exist. One of these rifts collides with the ship and randomly transports it to an unknown system. The ship is heavily damaged and the survivors settle a habitable planet, creating three civilizations. Five hundred years later, in the present day of most Battletech books, another JumpShip suffers the same fate, and arrives crippled in the same system. The survivors set down on the foreign planet.

Their latecomers' leader is our protagonist Takuda, leader of a Draconis Elite Strike Team of commandos. With them is the antagonist Vost, leader of mean-spirited mercenary MechWarriors and their Techs. Rounding out the list of survivors are the crewmembers of the JumpShip and DropShip.

The castaways meet a race of bird-like sentient aliens, making this the only Battletech novel to mention extra-terrestrials. By bizarre coincidence, these aliens strongly resemble the two Locust `Mechs stored in the crashed DropShip. In one awkward passage, a DEST member wonders whether the humans and bird-beasts could crossbreed. Apparently DEST members are not selected based on intelligence or taste.

Each character is a two-dimensional caricature. Rice summarizes the identity of each person with a simple personality trait. Nobody matures or reveal hidden aspects of their character. Yakuda is an idealist who preaches about peaceful utopias. Whenever anyone approaches him about military alliances, he tells them to put away their weapons and get along with their neighbors. When attacked by a `Mech, he orders irreplaceable Inferno missiles to be fired at the `Mech's feet, since he doesn't want to hurt his enemy. Rather than assassinate enemy `Mech pilots, which should be a specialty for a DEST commando team, he waits on the defensive for enemies to attack head on. With these weak pacifistic actions, he allows good people to be killed. He's too much of a schmuck to earn the reader's sympathy. One of his commandos is a complainer, so every reference to him mentions his complaints. Another one fears strong religions. Vost and two of his mercenaries are described in three short subsequent paragraphs, from which I've selected excerpts. "Seagroves is the easiest. All he wants is money, and he thinks gold is it." "Vost is easy too. I've been with him for almost six months, and there's only one thing he wants: women. And the more the better. The idea that women are servants is right up his alley." "The last one to deal with is Hoond. She's a typical, insecure woman. She's doing a man's job in a man's world. All you have to do is treat her like a man." This is all you will need to know about these characters.

The three civilizations settled by the first colonists are also described in three short, subsequent paragraphs that oversimplify each group. The first is a dictatorship idealizing martial discipline throughout society. The next society consists of religious fundamentalists focused on killing heretics. The third is a merchant oligarchy. Each society is violent, petty, hierarchical, and chauvinistic.

The characters stupidly fail to appreciate that they are cut off from the rest of the universe and must conserve technological resources. They fire more than a dozen irreplaceable missiles at empty buildings in order to impress the locals. They burn jet fuel way too quickly. They salvage practically nothing from the precious crashed DropShip.

Without ruining the plot, I can say that the castaways split up and spend the novel battling each other and reforming military alliances.

This excerpt accurately depicts the childishness of Rice's writing: "The window frame catches were of gold. Gold! GOLD!" Also note how a women weakly insults Vost: "`Answering that question could fill a book ... Unfortunately there would be no pictures for you to color. Maybe we could add some so that the reading wouldn't be quite so tedious.' The women snickered."

Rice tried hard to make an allegorical story about the futility of war and about the dream of humanity achieving a better society. Unfortunately, the book is neither inspiring nor thought-provoking. It meanders its way to an anticlimactic and disappointing ending. Avoid this book.

-Zach Zelmar

This book in my opinion is the most real of the battletech series. It compares well the main differences in our culture on Earth today. The exploitation of people considered lower then Western civilisation, The idealists who wish to change the way all this works, and of course the profit makers from the wars and divisions in our people. This book contains alot of messages about the flaws in our society and if given the chance to start again, would we make the right choices? Mr Rice does a good job telling a story and the characters (at least the main four) are developed well. Vost and Takuda make the two main comparisons in leadership interesting and insightful, One a merciless climber with only his own self intrests at heart and the other a long term thinking man with everyones intrests to bear. Quite like the Republicans and Democrats really. The battles in this book are generally kept short and sweet and the aggresion from the characters is focused more into political manoevering and back handed deals. This is especially true of the mecenaries. Overall a good story and a nice break away from the main battletech stories. The writer makes a point to remind the reader that there is no Clans, no Co-ordinator, no Com Star and no way back. To be fair it isnt really a true battletech book, especially if you have read the likes of Natural Selection, but it has the same general story of battletech summed up into one planet. The Enclaves would be the successor states, with their backward technology, poor social system and a lack of good resources and all fighting for a goal which will always be unavailable. DEST plus the mercs would almost be like the Clans with their new ideas, modern technology and social differences but also like the clans for ever infighting. Its these comparisons both to our real lives here on Earth and the situation in which the battletech Universe is at that make this book so enjoyable. I would easily recommend it to anyone who reads or doesnt read the battletech novels. A Very enjoyable story.

I really enjoyed this book. It was much different from other battletech novels in that it involves a lost jump ship crew and the passengers suffer a misjump and arrive at a world populated by an alien species as well as a group of humans decended from another group who misjumped there several centuries before. Fortunately, the newly arrived humans are led by a DEST commando. The action usually seen in other battletech books is not here, but I was still intrigued by the subtle power plays in the novel. Definately a great book.

Out of 56 battletech books I rate this as number 57 behind the instructions on the receipt I paid for it. To describe it's horribleness anymore would be to give it credit....

The absolute worst BTech novel I have ever read. It made Ideal War look good. Holes enough in the plot to drop the Star League's naval fleet through, very poorly created characters, and poor writing besides. Is it any wonder that it has been 5 years or more since I read it? And even then that one time, I had to force myself to finish it. And whose idea was it to introduce aliens into BTech?

Far Country could easily have been left out of the BattleTech series, or even renamed. While, as some reviewers have stated, it has relatively decent character development, and has an intriguing premise, it adds very little if anything to the Inner Sphere/Clan Worlds story.

As a stand alone it isn't bad, and it does step back and cover a more basic level of human experience in the BattleTech universe. Still, I saw very little that requires this book to be read. Maybe it is in some way or fashion connected to the future of the Successor States, but if so, I haven't read the connection yet.

It does include a LAM, but for the most part, I did not see a lot of the things I most wanted to see.

... then this is definitely the one. Perhaps not every Battletech is up to the same standard, but in 95 % of the cases even those that don't further the core events offer a consistent level of conceptuality. One of the interesting points in the Battletech-universe is that it's sci-fi without aliens, ever ... untill this author (whose other books in other FASA-settings were any good either) tried to cross that line - and delivered a book that may or may not be worth reading (to each his tastes), but should not have been part of this series. All in all, you have to be an absolute completist in Battletech to need this book.

Oh, sweet Jesus, save me! This is one of the worst books I have ever read. I have read better- written books (while in jr. high school) from series such as 'The Executioner.' I have read the balance of this author's work published by FASA ('Monsoon,' 'Damned If You Do,' and 'Frost Death', tie-ins to the 'Renegade Legion' universe), and they are very good. The character development (in prev. works) is more thorough than I have seen in half the main-stream novels I've read. He is capable of crafting books that are readable by more than just pie-eyed, pimply-faced RPG/table-top gaming geeks. These previous books can be read by the general public without having to refer to the game rules and histories that they are written from. I do not know what happened to him between his previous works for FASA and 'Far Country.' Character development is sadly lacking, with all the depth of 1/4 can of caffeine-free diet Coke. I hope he had a very good reason to foist this on an unsuspecting public, such as paying for a new kidney for a loved one. Perhaps he was under duress. These would be the only reasons to justify ambushing poor slobs like me for my hard-earned $4.99!

ever wonder what it would be like if the jump ship you were on had a malfunction mid-jump? where would you end up? how would you survive? are the natives of the world you barely managed to make it to friendly? how do you get home. this book takes a look at these questions and will provide some intresting answers. not as fast paced as some of the other books in the series, but intresting never the less. a Draconis Elite Strike Team mis-jumps, and finds themselves on a planet with the desendants of a draconis jump ship crew, stranded centuries before by a similar accident. although i have't read this book in some time, it remains a favorite of mine.

ever wonder what it would be like if the jump ship you were on had a malfunction mid-jump? where would you end up? how would you survive? are the natives of the world you barely managed to make it to friendly? how do you get home? this book takes a look at these unique questions and will provide some intresting answers. a must read for any batletech fan.