That what I mean, Andury is now under control under a new version of The Republic 21 yrs in the future. The book clearly states that The Republic then is very different from the version we know now (No Knights or Paladins for one thing). I get the feeling that Andury is Republic Territory due its now historical significance to the Knights and Levin. They seem very familiar with it, which differed it from foreign soil.

yup b/c a memorial is built there in honor of those who fell during/after the incident and during the fortress and during the great liberation. also levin states that the government change. the flags that flew on kamwashu is different from the of flying 21yrs ago. plus the incident that redburn cause on the planet is not welcomed by either 2 former marik grps and will not certainly allow a memorial to be build on the planet if it is still under either both gov control.

also deathzone i agree paladin marik do not care abt the outcome of the results but when he trick wolf hunters into attacking new canton he did not use the republic name and new canton is pretty suspicoius of republic and it was after this that new canton is pretty pro republic. also his plan is distrubed by the steel wolves b/c orginally he wish to both get new canton to be republic pro and crush the wolf hunters at the same time. yes he may not agree with levin plan of fortess republic but how many paladins agree with except a few paladin that openly support levin.

also i think ghost paladin do know abt crow but he decided to overlook as per redburn requested trusting he would do wat right in order to reedeem himself, b/c redburn say he made a mistake on crow which i think he may have put too much trust into him.

also i think there are still knights and paladins but they no longer hold high govnment positions. i think just hold high military positions

yup i happy that the alexi holt story is mentioned which means all the story are connected and not forgotten. i dun think we will get a time leap anytime soon. i think the author just wish to inform us that republic survive the ordeel and the next few yrs of bk will tell us how republic change under levin leadership and how the inner sphere change after the fortress plan when up

From my understanding of the chapter, the planet is pretty much deserted 21 years later because of all the chemical/biological damage that took place. I don't think either Marik government would have much interest in the planet, and the Republic is only interested in it for its historical importance.

Wording is very important in that last chapter. I don't believe it was stated that the Duchy was part of the Republic. It does state that the flag flying overhead is different.

may or may not be but the possiblity is high that the planet is under the republic control

Mr Perdoe,

I have a question. With regards to the "21 yrs after" portion of your book, did you think it was risky decision revealing such a critical spoiler of the future mechwarrior timeline like this?

Don't get me wrong, I like it that The Republic was victorious in the end. But this move seemed an unusual one at the very least. Did WizKids have any problems in you giving away this spoiler at the end?

Just curious.

dun think so. i think the same happen with the fed com civil war. we all know victor win the war but we do not know how he won. so i think they just decide to err........inform us that republic gonna survive but they will tell us the story on how it survive. it is just like the word of blake jihad. well all know they lost but how they lost we do not know and the currently source book are telling us how they lost and how the republic is formed

I ve already read too much I must go out and aqiure this book it seems like it has all the action pack suspence drama you could stuff into paper

But it's quite clearly stated that the flag the planet flies is not of ANY known government of this (present Fortress Republic) time. So it is not the Republic.

I reread all the Paladin Marik sections of WH last night (looking for the Redburn reference). After the WH/SW debacle, New Canton was at best low on its support of the Republic, and more likely apprehensive of what the Republic could do for them, during Fortress Republic. The chapter ends with Marik pretty much concluding that if the leaders of New Canton trust the Republic less, so much the better (for whom, we don't know).



I think you are right. It's implied that some of the Ghost Knights know about Crow before it goes public.(see the First Marquee storyline for the Mason Duune MadCat III for reference).

An awesome book and an enjoyable read. The only real complaint I have is that now we know there are certain people that just can't die, no matter how much we want them to. I makes me sad :(

I was worried about that too...fixing the destiny of certain members of the fiction. None of the knights I really objected too, but it was the exarchs futures that put me off (just a little).

And the TWIST.... who the Fidelis really are. Have to admit I didn't see that one coming.

All I can say is I've gotta get my grubby mitts on this book!!! :D

I would say that Wizkids was great to work with. I didn't undertake this lightly. We spent a lot of time getting the wording just right, so that some of the elements were not fully explained. Like telling people that the flag was different -- without saying which flag it was.

I was inspired by the end scene from the movie K-19 The Widowmaker. I had to have a way to bring these heroes back. A ceremony that only they and their kin would attend. Like the graveyards of WWI in Europe, this was a place where they could gather and express their emotions. I thought of that scene in Saving Private Ryan. It wrenched at you to see Ryan in the graveyard.

We went over the wording with a fine-toothed comb. In the end, I'm very happy with it.

The only piece we struggled with more was, "do we reveal the big ending?" I wanted to. There was some discussion about making it vague, leaving it to the readers to try and figure out. I was worried only because I felt we did that too often in MechWarrior/BattleTech. I wanted to have something where the fans got a real piece of the action. Closure. Far too many times we've done the, "body not found," kind of ending. In this case, the return of their greatest enemies of the past -- now their saviors. Ahh, the irony of it all.

Quite literally we debated this right up until the text went to Roc. I wanted it there because it would then turn the discussion from "who are those guys?" to "how did all of this come to pass?"

The deal was that I had to write up a document detailing how the Fidelis came into being. There are three of us with copies of it -- and for now -- I'm not telling. Suffice it to say it is an epic saga. Someday I hope we can fit it into some sourcebook or something.

A lot of fans have "blamed" me for the demise of the Smoke Jaguars over the years because of Trent and Exodus Road. The last eight months I have played that up on the fan boards out there, just so that it would be the last move you'd expect me to do. I was NOT the reason that the Smoke Jaguars were blasted...but I wanted to be the last person you'd expect to bring them back. Yes, it was a little devious on my part, but I wanted to have people hit that last page and say, "Damn! What a ride!" Then I wanted them to flip back in the book to see if they can piece together the true story of the Fidelis.

And, if they came back, I wanted it to be cool. The Fidelis are very cool, at least to me. They have shed some of their clan traits and have developed some of their own. They are distinct as a people. More importantly, their history was unique in the Inner Sphere and defined who they became.

I wanted to have elements in the book that would touch the classic BattleTech fans. I did some of the same things in the next novel I've got coming -- Fire at Will.

Surrender is intended to be a book where you are not sure who the good guys and bad guys are. I wanted some "wow" factor with it. I wanted to capture all that was happening with Fortress Republic.

Let me also say that without Randall (who thought I was crazy for this idea) and Sharon (who KNEW I was crazy), this book never would have happened. Surrender is not a filler book in the series taking up space on a shelf. It's one that forces you to go back and read it, searching for the buried clues to each storyline.

God...I'm ranting...

No you are not ranting. Whatever you do don't stop. I loved this book and all the new wars it started. Thank you Mr. Pardoe.