Sorry, Meow, one last question...

1) From your words aboves, does this mean that SURRENDER YOUR DREAMS happens many years after the current Mechwarrior timeline? So...was Fortress Republic was a success?

nono it happens b4 and during the fortress republic plan time frame. the fortress plan apparent is a success in the future of republic also the republic government structure have somewat change but i do not know it change into wat

From the message thread, I would guess that the book is going over well. I'm glad. Surrender was a fun book to write. Much darker that most novels for me. This is not one where the good guys and the bad guys are clearly defined.

Stone's message to Redburn is at the front of the book.

And, no fair flipping to the last few pages. That's where the real secrets are. An enemy and ally all in one. The Republic's greatest savior was the previous ages greatest foe.

Blaine Pardoe

oo so thats the msg arr i thought some random writing haha. but they are not smoke jaguar anymore although they still have the combat traits but the clan tradition, i feel long gone already

Thanks a lot! Blaine. I really enjoyed your novels. It's probably the best you've ever written. I enjoyed SURRENDER YOUR DREAMS even more than your TWILIGHT OF THE CLANS series. I read through it with relish , loving every moment of it.

As you can tell I am a great supporter of The Republic and its ideals. It's idea of multi-culturalism and racial harmony I think is an important ideal that many nations these days should emulate. After the events of FORTRESS REPUBLIC and SWORD OF SEDITION, its nice to know that The Republic will finally be victorious at the end of the Mechwarrior timeline.

I have a few questions though...

1) Is this book considered canon? Especially its ending (though I love it).

2) It's pretty clear that the Fidelis are descended from the CLANS. The Custos at the end of your novel remarks that he knew Kerensky himself. So...are they "The Not Named Clan" or "CLAN Smoke..."?

Thanks for the message. The book is canon. I believe all of the novels are canon.

You may want to re-read that last section. It is pretty clear who the Fidelis are (especially if you read Exodus Road -- wink wink).

Blaine

From reading the replies I cant wait till I get mine. Today is the fifth and I'm anxious for it to come out. My copy is reserved and waiting for me at Barnes & Nobles here in town. Just waiting on the phone call so I can go pick it up.
After I finish it I'll leave my thoughts and some questions about it.

I would give 4 out of 5 stars for this book. It is very well written, but being the next book by Blaine Lee Pardoe (and after one year had passed) I expected (or rather hoped) it to be a direct sequel to Target of Opportunity. At least Alexi Holt and the mission to infiltrate ComStar is briefly mentioned. So I hope this story arc is not forgotten.
Still, I didn't overly enjoy reading the story mostly backwards. The big final surprise (well, the 2nd big final surprise anyway) worked for me, however. Though it became pretty clear eventually those Fidelis guys have to be clan descendants, I didn't make the connection to the evil cats. Guess I still was confused by all the time leaps. Which was the point, I suppose. Paul. Heh. Took me a while to place that name, too. It isn't like I read TWILIGHT just yesterday. Anyway, it was a stroke of genius to bring those folks back!

I don't know what to make of this 21st anniversary stuff though. So the Fortress worked - but isn't this giving too much away already? Does it mean nothing of importance will happen for the next, say, 20 books? Or will there be another considerable time leap?

I can't also help but wonder how this fortress stuff is supposed to work at all, anyway. Without an entire fleet of WarShips, and with a possible space defense system still under development, how are "the walls" supposed to "go up" around the Republic? We're talking about a lot of space, after all. Or did the Republic just plant threatening "NO TRESPASSING" and "Beware of the cats!"-signs at all jump and pirate jump points of all the outlying star systems of the Republic? Yeah, that could have worked .... :laugh:

OT: meow, I would disagree with you about whether Paladin Marik's actions/orders are treasonous (sp?). It is implied through his thoughts that while some of his missions may have hurt the republic (either it's image or ability to gain support) he considered those outcomes to be acceptable. He is even shown to be in communication with his brother in one of the Marik territories. To compare Marik's actions to Paladin Redburn's efforts in SYD is incorrect. All of the missions portrayed in SYD were protrayed in the best interest of the Republic, and were succesful. Failure (even partial failures) of those missions was not really acceptable for Redburn or the Knights reporting to him.

On Topic: Let's start some discussion about the implications of the book!

Who found Stone's plan to be a bit...melodramatic. Stone advocated three atrocities (well two directly, one indirectly) to enable the Republic to survive. Do any who have read the book feel that Stone/Redburn/Levin went too far?

To Blaine,
I complimented you on the thread on WK, but I also want to compliment you on the characterization of the characters in this book. It was not or typicalhero goes on mission, plans, missions, improvises, and complete's mission (or retreats, etc.) Instead we delved in the depths of soldiers doing things they should n ever have to do, to take on burdens no human should be ordered to do. I want to thank you for providing a very real connection to the characters in the book.

I am sorry, but what was Mariks plan anyway? In my impression in WOLF HUNTERS, he was trying to delibrately destroy the Republic's reputation. It's certainly clear that he doesn't agree tith Levin or Fortress Republic at all.

You are right about his disagreement with the Fortress plan, but he had planning to make moves before he knew of the FOrtress. Marik's plan was to creat mini coalition governments between systems throughout each prefecture. He presented this plan to Levin and two other paladins as building pro-Republic "neighborhoods", a place where the Repoublic forces from the fortress could link up with to contorl the prefectures again(once the Fortress is dropped). However, it seemed that all he cared about was setting up up neighborhoods, whether they were pro- or anti-Republic, it seemed like it didn't matter to him. Or rather that either outcome was acceptable to him. And his use of non-Republic assets (or it is implied that some of his agents were not official Republic assets) drives the point even further.

Isn't his goals then Anti-Republic? I notice that in the last few pages of WOLF HUNTERS, Marik states that it was good that the former Republic territories had lost trust in the Republic. My impression, is that he had given up and hopes to rejoin the the Marik Prefactures back to Marik.

It would seem so. I also thinks that he doesn't neccessarily want his plan to fail elsewhere. He's probably more pro-Marik than Anti-Republic. I think that Thaddeus wants the Republic to continue to draw most of the attention of the other governments because that means they are less focused on the Marik realms.

The question is, does Levin know or care? The end of either Sword of Sedition or Fortress Republic impleis that Levin now knows many of the (presumably dirty) secrets of the Paladins (thanks to the ghost Paladin). MAybe not all of them (did the Ghost Paladin and Knights know about Crow?) but enough for him to have doubts of nearly every single one of them.

I wonder if anyone has noticed this, but The Duchess of Andury has become Republic Territory in the 21 yrs into the Future according to SURRENDER YOUR DREAMS.

Uhh...that's not neccesarily true. It's stated that it is not under the control of the Duchy of Andury or any other known (at this present Fortress Republic timefram). Which means it is not part of the Republic of the Sphere. We can infere that the current government is at least friendly with members of the former repbulic or even a successor of the Republic.