Customer Reviews

Freebirth: Twilight of the Clans IV

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

I could go on and on about how awful this book was. I don't even see how it was really necessary to the Twilight series. It was more like a soap opera than anything else. The ending was the most laughable part... "It's not over yet Horse! ," the drunken Clan bloodnamed warrior Howell screamed while flailing his arms in the air. Sad, just sad... I wish I could destroy a Summoner and a Warhammer with two LAMs. Just skip this book and go on to Twilight V.

The book had it's uses to give some detail for the Clan's viewpoints, as well as laying some groundwork for the next Thuston Twilight novel, but I thought it was way overdone and rather tedious. The relevant parts could have been placed piecemeal in other books and saved us the time. I guess for me it was just too unbelievable that Rossue Howell would end up like he did after learning about him in Exodus Road. Also, considering the way Smoke Jaguar feels about freebirths, what was he trying to accomplish with all that junk about making Horse a member of SJ clan? Since he was freeborn, I couldn't see Howell caring much about him, no matter how big a JF name he was (especially considering the natural animosity between most clans). I would rather imagine he would simply delegate him to the labor cast a forget about him, except for the occasional verbal barb to JF about him. The one combat scene strikes me as written in on the spur of the moment to have one in there. It does not read very well, and almost seems out of place. Maybe it was put in there to help explain why the Clans don't use LAM's.

Anyway, this book need not have been written, and definately not placed in the Twilight series, as it does virtually nothing to advance the plot.

I really liked Thurston's Jade Phoenix trilogy which gives us the major and most detailed description of Clan society in the btech universe.
But 'Freebirth' is an absolute pain. It's chaotic, it makes no sense, it is full of logical mistakes, it's simply embarassing.
You want facts? How's this:
2 LAM's destroying 2 front class clan omnis pilotted by elite clan MW's...go dreamin'.
A proven clan officer who goes whack, acting like Jim Carey, and flopping around like Lieutenant Harris in Police Academy?
A solahma mechwarrior who's all of sudden competing like Natasha Kerensky herself (SCom Buhallin).
Oh, dear...you gotta wonder who's been the freeborn editor of this novel. So if you wanna do yourself a favor: Don't read this book, even if you're a die-hard btech reader. And its story doesnt even play any role in the subsequent novels of the Twilight of the Clans series. Go figure.

I loved the Jade Falcon trilogy. I've read them over and over again. Thurston painted a colorful picture of Clan society, its traditions, its heroes and its darker sides. Where Stackpole described Clan policy in his plot-leading novels, Thurston gave life to the Clanners themselves. Alas, Thurston didn't stop there. Freebirth is the failed attempt to show the reader new aspects of Clan society. GalComs with torn personalities, Solahma warriors that beat the crap out of bloodnamed elite pilots, ridiculous fighting scenes with absolute insane outcomes...and worst of all main characters who behave totally out of the picture while giving only fragments of hints for their motivation. The character of Russou Howell for example is a total desaster. Thurston is unable to give a motivation for that proven warrior's un-clannish behaviour. Yet, all of sudden, in the last chapter, Howell appears to be healed and at peace with himself after he just had suffered a surely humiliating defeat. Sorry, this novel is stacked with illogical conclusions and you could write a scientific thesis about the logical mistakes of this book. Okay, Sentania Buhallin gives this novel a positive touch, but if she really was that skilled, why isn't she CJF Khan or at least a GalCom in a completely combat-oriented society? (Just another one of Thurston's errors). Anyway, I'm just glad I finally got thru that attempt of a novel...:-(

I'm sorry to say that this is THurston's worst book yet. Gone are the great Jade Phoenix stories. Marthe Pryde is slipping away from teh things that made her interesting, and my fleeting appreciation for Horse lasted all of three chapters this time.

I actually think this is an important book, and while Thurston was at his best with the Jade Phoenix trilogy, i believe this fits in with series. Yes, the LAM vs MECH scene was a bore, but a lot of the character interaction between Horse and Howse was great, sometimes really funny.

I often prefer political books to action books. How many times can you read "He fired his PPC straight into his centre torso, blasting away tons of armour.."? Page after page of combat can become tedious. Political intrigue is gratifying, and what this book does is give the world of Huntress, and Smoke Jaguar, a personality. Otherwise it would have been Task Force Serpent raiding just another planet. At least you get some familiarisation. And i honestly believe there is no better interaction between two characters in Btech, than that of Horse and Joanna. So Thurston deserves some credit. However, if your an Inner Sphere goody-two shoes who has no interest in the clan way of life, then you can afford to give this book a miss

I especially liked the character of Horse in the other books of Robert Thurston, so I had high expectations on a novel with him as the main character. Unfortunatly I only can say that I am a bit disappointed. The book has a lot of weak points: The 'appetizer-scene' does not appear in the whole book, the excerpt from the book before appears changed, and worst: The story does not make many sense at all. Why should a smart Khan as Marthe put a Trinary to investigate a far away small station? That's a much to clear signal to anyone who is to be investigated. The chosen way to win Horse back is simply unbelievable, not to mention that he doesn't give a good fight as to be expected by a hero like him. And if the Smoke Jaguars shot down one DropShip, I would think they will shoot down other ones as well, so it seems a bad way to plan the departure from Huntress without any further security procedure (for example informing Khan Pryde and ask her to take it to the Great Council or challenging Rossou Howell in a Trial of Departure or something like that). I would have expected Sentania and Horse to go back to the Repository and take with them their finding or take it in the first place, at least as proof.

There are good elements in this book, such as the part with Joanna, who is perfectly described (I like the old surat), or showing that there are Clans that treat their freeborns even worse than the Jade Falcons, or Horse's winning in a training run by simply using the training rules against his opponent. I liked meeting someone who failed as a warrior like Peri and how she put up with her failure. The book is not a complete washout.

But there are more bad parts. The whole book has a lack of logic in the story, and I don't know why it has been put in the TotC-series, Rossou Howell is not a that important character in the next books. I only can assume the book was written in a hurry and that Mr. Thurston or FASA or both had no time to work it over. Sorry for Horse. I would really like to see him again, but in a better story, he deserves that much.

This novel is a continuation of 'I am Jade Falcon', which was itself a follow-on to the 'Jade Phoenix' trilogy. If you are into the Clans, even for completion's sake, you could skip this book and not be missing anything.

Set about a year before the events of Operation Serpent's invasion of Clan space this story details Khan Pryde sending Aidan's old comrade Horse to the very same Huntress, for reasons we never do find out as nothing that occurs has any bearing whatsoever on later events as the Smoke Jaguars are destroyed. Actually, despite it's length this novel is in my opinion little more than an overly detailed prologue to 'Falcon Rising'.

Basically, this entire book could have been written into another novel as a short outline of events to flesh out more of Star Colonel Howell's background...which was more or less done in 'Shadows of War'.

oh man, this book is terrible.

The story does not further the time-line of the Battletech universe.
All he does is summarize information about what Freebirth means, the Clan invasion, the Clans' traditions.The author of the book can't put together a coherent plot.It is like a bad soap opera.The characters' dialogues are often interrupted by petty, trivial information. It is not smooth.
Some of the pages in the book is like a "Copy 'n Paste" of the first book in the Twilight series.

The author goes on and on about the 'death' of Trent by Howell in the first 8 chapters. The worst part of the book is the "Circle of Kinship".

When I picked up this book I was eagerly awaiting to find out what was going to happen to Task Force Serpent. This book had no place in this series and should never have been written, although if it was a book on it's own no-one would buy it. It is by far the worst book in the series so far only just behind Starlord. Hopefully the next book this man writes will follow on from the books before and not go off on a tangent as this one has done.