Customer Reviews

Mechwarrior: Dark Age #19: Blood Avatar (A BattleTech Novel)

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

 

 

I am disappointed with this novel. Not that it would be poorly-written - on the contrary, it is very enjoyable. But I see it as a copy-paste of a detective novel that would have been adapted in the BT universe. There are a few mentions of the Battletech but no `Mech, and the story is set on a single planet that looks too much like 20th Century America to have the feeling of Science-Fiction.

And you'll have to give up trying to guess the identity of the murderer: you'll never meet the character before the end.

Ilsa J. Bick strikes again, slipping in a trashy, violent, and overly graphic plot, and slapping the Mechwarrior title on it.

Despite having "A Battletech Novel" printed on the cover, along with the Mechwarrior Dark Age logo, this is not a Battletech novel. This is a murder mystery/intrigue novel wedged into the Battletech universe, with absolutely no relevant connections to the Battletech storyline until the last dozen or so pages. In addition, it has problems even as a spy thriller due to numerous factual (The most egregious of which being that at one point a medical examiner digs a slug out of a body and states that they can identify it by the firing pin mark. Firing pin marks are on the end of the shell casing where the pin strikes the primer, not on the bullet.) and continuity errors. It also suffers from the novice mystery writer's fault of cramming the answer to everything in the last 10 pages instead of building the solution. Overall, a wholly unsatisfactory entry in the Battletech/Mechwarrior library.

The MechWarrior Dark Age series latest book, "Blood Avatar," is one of the best books of the series so far. That being said, it is worthy and important to note that no 'Mech battles are featured in this book. Rather, this book is essentially a stand-alone volume that moves the overall plot of the series and sets the stage for future volumes. Subtle and intriguing hints are sprinkled throughout the book, giving tantalizing clues to what is driving events in the MechWarrior universe.

The plot of the story centers around a backwater town on a backwater world, seemingly far from and unconnected to other events in the MechWarrior universe. A disgraced cop is assigned to investigate a murder of a tourist. However, clues start to build and mysteries multiply.

The book ends up with numerous twists and turns, and unlike most MechWarrior books, nothing is for sure until the final page, and even then some questions and mysteries remain. For readers who have read "The DaVinci Code" and enjoyed it, they should find themselves pleasantly surprised and enjoy this book as well (given, of course, that they are also MechWarrior fans). There are some predictable elements, but the main plots of the book will be satisfyingly twisted.

There are, of course, some minor problems with the book. Editing, like many others in the series, misses a few finer points for example, but are easily overlooked. The book also takes for granted that the reader has a fair working knowledge of the MechWarrior/Battletech universe beyond what has been presented in the Dark Age series to date. However, these are minor problems in a book that is one of the best page turners in the series. I can highly recommend the book to fans of the series, and recommend it well to fans of the classic Battletech series as well!

It took me a month to decide to read the book after reading the introduction. I didn't enjoy her last book (Daughter of the Dragon), and these first few pages were even *more* violent and pointless. Luckily, the introduction had virtually no connection to the rest of the book... and the main reason it lost a star is because that's really pretty bad form.

The story was interesting. It wasn't anything like most Battletech books. And much as the ending was convoluted, it did give a sort of satisfaction that perhaps this whole Dark Ages concept really is going somewhere...

(This is, of course, 4 stars for the Battletech fan. Non-fans shouldn't bother.)

BLOOD AVATAR is a radical departure from the rest of the BattleTech books. Ilsa Bick even warns the reader of this in her acknowledgments. Not that it's not a part of the universe--it definitely is, and layers in hints of events to come that promise to be... interesting.

Much like Ilsa's prior works, this book pulls no punches. The main plot concerns a violent, mentally disturbed murderer, and both his thoughts and the aftermath of his work are told as they would be. I almost want to term the style hyperrealistic.

I guess the one thing keeping me from giving the books a perfect score is that while it's an *excellent* book, I'm not sure just how good of a MechWarrior/BattleTech book it is. Maybe after I see how the hints tie in to the rest of the story I'll change my mind, but for now that's how it'll be.

That said, I still highly recommend this book to anyone, BattleTech fan or not, science fiction fan or not. It doesn't really fall into either of those; it's really a psychological murder mystery trying to hide under those names. I just hope that readers are able to look past the logo on the cover & see the real book within.

I originally purchased this novel when it first came out but didnt get a chance to read it until recently. I must say that I didnt have high hopes when I first started reading this as even Ilsa J. Bick states herself in the acknowledgements that this story will be a bit of a departure from your classic battletech story. However this has worked out fine as the story is a typical story of murder intrigue set in the battletech universe and is a welcome change from your traditional battletech story where two or three sides grind each other into a bloody mess.

We are introduced in this story to some interesting characters and the story at the end does hint which faction is ultimately responsible for the HPG collapse although we are left to decide if the information is acurate or not. My only complaint about this story is that it doesnt have any references to battlemechs or armoured units we have come to expect from Mechwarrior Dark Age novels. It would have been better that somehow the town in question (Farway) would have at least one AA defence or something techy enough (aside from VTOL's) for this to be warranted a Dark Age novel.

The novel does have some religious references which may offend some readers although this shouldnt be a problem if you are already familiar with the Battletech universe.

Yup. You read it right, first few pages already dove into some gay pedophile who was torturing young boys. Please don't further tarnish the Mechwarrior series with more drek like this.

I will leave off going further, as it is not worth it. I can only speculate whose agenda is being advanced by cramming worthless filth like this into the Mechwarrior universe, but it does not belong here.

Please consider carefully the sources of other reviews for this book. To avoid mentioning that it is a homosexual rape snuff porn movie put on paper?

The Battletech universe can do just fine without the agenda of homosexual pedophile murderers being advanced, thank you. We all know that part of their agenda is to repeatedly expose normal people to their filth until by sheer weight of repetition it becomes less unacceptable.

But, it isn't working here. I am not being more swayed to be a homosexual, a homosexual pedophile, or a homosexual pedophile murderer. So, Ilsa, please quit vaunting your perversions all over the pages of reputable series, and thinking you have somehow planted the flag of the pervert agenda. We aren't going to have a homosexual pedophile murderer pride parade. We aren't going to award you with medals for dragging literature to new nadirs of filth.

There are plenty of places you can express your preference for homosexual torture and murder.

The Battletech universe is not one of them.

This book is set in the Mechwarrior Dark Age universe, but it has none of the mech battles that I love, its more of a spy novel that happens to take place in the stated background.

This book, and Ilsa Bick, are both extremely underrated in the BT/MW universe. The problems most people state are 1) overly complicated plot, 2) extreme violence, and 3) for this book only, no mech combat. I agree the plot is a bit convoluted and the violence is shockingly graphic, which I like since it IS a murder story and the violence keeps it from feeling childish.

I have a feeling that this book will be extremely relevant to the overall story of the MW universe, though we will probably have to wait another year or so to see the connection. I see this whole book as one giant example of foreshadowing. It should give the true BT fan goosebumps. You know there has to be some connection you aren't seeing to some deeper, shadowed mystery.

How is it as a detective novel? I couldn't stop reading it, right up until I was done. What more do you want?