I like good mecha stories. I've read some of the earliest Battletech novelizations, including "Decision at Thunder Rift" (can't recall title of the top of my head), Travis Taylor's take on mecha with "One Day on Mars" and the rest of that series, and others that I can get my hands on. I liked Niemeier's take, but I had a hard time figuring out exactly who the characters were and their relation to each other. Many of the Japanese names are very similar in spelling and confuse the characters. Even though I studied Japanese language for 3 years in college, lived in Japan for 7, and love Japanese culture, I was confused by which characters was appearing in the story at times. There were no clear mannerisms to differentiate the characters from each other. There were so many different factions in the story that keeping them clear and how they are related to, or in conflict with, each other was hard. I know that the prevailing wisdom is to "show not tell" in stories, but I wish there was a little more description of who is fighting what and maps showing locations, forces, etc. Graphics would have helped. A lot. I wanted to give the story a 5, but it just is too much of a struggle at times. I will finish the book, and I won't return it for a refund. I think the author should be rewarded for the attempt, but I will be very leery of putting money down on a sequel unless I can be sure that the storytelling has improved.
Update: I got further into the book, and I just couldn't keep going. New storylines jumped up that weren't foreshadowed or even hinted at. It looked like a case of deus ex machina cropping up to keep the storyline flowing. I returned it for a refund. Sadly, I must lower the rating, therefore.
- File Size: 576 KB
- Print Length: 269 pages
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
- Publication Date: December 31, 2018
- Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07MHFXKX7
- Text-to-Speech:
Enabled
- Word Wise: Enabled
- Lending: Not Enabled
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Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#299,467 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #1814 in Colonization Science Fiction eBooks
- #1978 in Colonization Science Fiction
- #4097 in Military Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
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