Customer Reviews

Storms of Fate (Battletech, No. 54)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Overall a good book but I am becoming frustrated with the slow pace of the storyline and the lack of supporting characters. The Battletech universe had such a wide variety of interesting characters that are not being used at all in this civil war storyline. Kai Allard-Liao, Wolf's Dragoons, the Kell Hounds, Phelan Kell, all the clans and many others seem to have no role in this civil war. The Clans must have some interest in the war, Phalen Kell was such a large part of the Clan wars and now he is just sitting around and Kai is going to sit by and wait to see what happens??? My frustration is more with the story line and less with the writing, which is very good and has a nice mix of battle and politics.

P.S. The foreword of the book made it seem like the Battletech line was being sold to a new company b/c FASA was closing. It also seem to say that novels were going to end b/c of this sale. I would certainly hope that the novels are not ending and that someone continues to write more in this series.

Once again, I am disappointed with the shallow depth of the "progression" of the battletech story line. Coleman is a very capable writer, but the complete lack of main characters is ridiculous. Kai, Phelan, the Clans. Look, I know the Clans were beat up, but there is no way that they would stand by while a civil war continues. A must read for battletech fans, however, big storyline developements. Good battles.

*As a note to the guy from Ohio above, the Battletech license was sold to a company called WizKidz, and a new era of battletech has been created. Mike Stackpole has signed on to write a book in fall/winter of this year.

Well, since I have been reading/playing battletech for years now, I imagine I have some seniority on the matter. This book, while still the same civil war does much to keep it from tiring. In this novel specifically, we loose a charecter, see a charecter at their worst, and see an old charecter come back from the grave, such as it were. If you are not already an avid fan/reader of the Battletech series, this may not be a spectacular place to start, but as long as you have read one or two books in the series and know the politics and such in general, this is a spectacular book. It brings the current story closer to a close (which any good reader knows won't stay closed), and opens up new possibilites with the election of a "fair" Star Leauge ruler and the addition of two new member states to the leauge. Nobody does them like Coleman.

Can we move past the Civil war. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but it is nice to have the good guys occasionally win in the end. The 3 book series concept was great. The Gray Death, The Warrior Trilogy, The Blood of Kerensky, even the Way of the clans. Twighlight of the clans was pushing it with 8 or 9 books. This civil war feels like it is dragging on forever. (Spare me the reality speech. If I wanted reality, I wouldn't be reading so many books) Storms of fate, while well written, (I like Loren Coleman alot) does nothing but deliver more traumatic blows to the good guys. The whole story line has grown very stale, and is becoming unpleasant reading. I also believe the death of a certain character to be a sad mistake that removed a quality from the overall universe. The Assasin thing is also getting old. Surely, the leaders of these huge blocks of worlds can protect themselves better. It seems like they have "Assasins get in half price" night at the Luthien palaces. The only reason I would reccomend this book is because it is part of a series. This is not a book to get someone interested in Battletech. It is merely a stepping stone that I don't want to miss because I want to understand the ending to this line of events. (Lord, let it be soon please.)

I've followed the Davion/Steiner drama for many years. This newest volume fits the bill. Loren Coleman does a good job in showing how Victor's forces don't always win and when they do, it's not always pretty. The loss of one of the BTech characters, though, seemed trite. Still, it adds a touch of realism to the BTech storyline and will (hopefully) provide some fireworks as the civil war appears to be winding down. Coleman remains a good author and provides BTech fans with a solid novel continuing the main storyline. I'm continually pleased to see the continuity between the Davion/Steiner novels over the past 5-10 years.

The battletech series is one of the longer running and larger series out there. That alone should be enough to recommend this book. But New battletech and Old are now quite different. The stories are still great but some of the detail has been lost.

Take Storm of Fate. It is a very good Battletech book with all the great battles and intrigue that you would expect. The story line is also very gripping. But it isn't the space oddessy's that Stackpole wrote back in the day. One may argue that this book is almost as good but one thing about Stackpole(an origional B-Tech writer who is now on Star Wars) was his amazing detail. And the other B-tech writers were not far behind him. Now, they all seem to be letting it off some.

I think that this book is a worthy addition to the battletech universe. It starts out a couple months after the second battle of Coventry, as Victor fights against a new lyran general in the ongoing civil war. You will see familiar characters along the way, but not much of them. From the lyran theater to the star league conference to Tikonov, Victor fights against Katherine and his own tragic loss. Overall, the book is good, but it could have been a lot better if it was longer.

Like its sister book Patriots and Tyrants, Storms of Fate is a very solid book. As I have noticed, many Stackpole fans grieve his departure from FASA and criticize Coleman's work. I find Coleman's style much more interesting. He has a much more personal insight to his characters and, overall, I like his version of Victor Davion much better than Stackpole's. Storms of Fate begins with a bang with a terrible twist involving the assassination of a person very dear to Victor. It rises continually in action involving the politics of the Star League Council and it ends and leaves you hanging and hungering for more. The political issues in this book are masterfully created and I believe that Coleman lives up to, if not surpasses, Stackpole's legacy. Read this book. You will not be able to set it down. This is definitely worth your six bucks.

Great Classic Battletech novel. The story line continues its twists and turns between Victor and Katherine up til the last page. Loren L.Coleman really draws you into the story, enjoy!

I have been a long time Battletech fan, I have all the games and all the old novels. Throughout the years I have missed Michael Stackpole's universe changing novels. In my personal opinion Loren Coleman has ably filled that gaping hole with his recent novels. Storms of Fate tops em all.

The good -- universe shattering changes... all characters well depicted.....amazing subplots....

The bad -- Omi -- i won't go into futher detail because it is a major spoiler.......

Overall almost at the levelof Stackpole's Btech novels