Anyone read this one yet? I saw it today at Barnes and Noble and flipped through it and saw that Rikkard Nova Cat is in it but that was about it. Anyone got a review of it? Just curious before I pick it up.

Thanks,

Chris

I just started it the other day and haven't gotten far - so I can't tell you too much right now. When I finish, I will post more.

I just finished reading Pandora's Gambit this afternoon and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It was the first MechWarrior/Battletech book by Randall Bills that I actually liked. Not to knock Mr Bills, but I have not been able to recommend Hunters of the Deep and Heretic's Faith to anyone.

Pandora's Gambit actually had what his other books lacked, namely a sense of purpose, characters that you could actually empathise with and root for, interesting verbal jousting, and most importantly the sense that you were reading something worthwhile...

I can honestly say that I recommend this book and that I was hardly able to put it down for the couple of days it took to read it. Good job Mr. Bills! I didn't know you had it in you.

Might have to get it. Though I could recommend "Heretics Faith" myself.:)

Read it. Not bad. Spoilers.

It seemed odd that the older Marik children hadn't found (or been placed into) useful roles at their advanced ages, or at least as useful as they were going to have. Decades of constantly testing your kids to see who's fit to lead seems rather foolish, given that House leaders can have bad things happen to them at any time, and very few retire peacefully.

The really interesting revelation is that the Word of Blake is NOT just a group of pre-tech farmers as we heard back in Ghost War. They active enough to need to be hunted down and purged and are still engaging in very high-level terrorist operations. They may very well have been behind the Blackout.

Are they? Or is all that "Blakist" activity really the work of various intelligence agencies, like SAFE-Oriente? The one in this book is, after all, so you really have to wonder how much so-called Blakist activity is falsified.

From Jessica's reaction and comments, her realm hadn't been involved in faking a WoB op before, and she was in power 20 years back, when the prior WoB purge happened (as far as I can tell).

I just can't see doing such a thing regularly being worth the risk for a nation-state. It's going to attract a lot of interest from a LOT of parties as it did from the Fiefs in this case. It's very difficult to have a network of well-trained and equipped suicide terorrists with no connection at all back to the sponsors... if it was uncovered, there would be hell to pay. And if they DID hide the connection to the government, then it'd be indistinguishable from a real Word of Blake group, leading to its own problems, up to and including Great Houses dropping by to do their own purges.

Also, the assassin in the end was clearly a real WoB person... given the state of Jessica's family, neither of her main rivals would have hesitated to use such an asset on her well before then.

The book was OK. I think you need a little more background for that many new characters. The ending was totally Jessica's influence.

Look at the long term ramifications of what happens in that book.

Might we see House Marik in game "soon"? Could they be allied with the Nova Cat and/or Sea Fox? Are the Lyrans getting restless enough to start taking worlds back?

Overall a good read. Not much mech-on-mech action, but perhaps we needed a break to get this story out there.

I didn't necessarily mean Jessica specifically was responsible for all of it. But as a resurgent Word of Blake would be the ultimate boogeyman in the Dark Age, I can easily see various intel and counterintel agencies throughout the Inner Sphere -- including the Ghost Knights -- faking Blakist activities for a number of different purposes.

I think it would easily be worth the risk under the right circumstances. I'm not saying they do this kind of thing at the drop of a hat, but faking Blakist activities could be a very effective tool.

Of course, we also have known for a long time that Victor's statement about the Word of Blake being reduced to a Stone Age existence is wishful thinking on his part. Early INN articles mention neo-Blakist terrorist groups and the LinkNet stuff is full of references to the Soldiers of Apollyon and the Broadsword Brotherhood. It's the fact that these groups really do exist that makes things like Operation Stormdrain so effective and at the same time things like Operation Stormdrain make us have to question every report of Blakist or neo-Blakist activity we get.

I'm curious why you think she was a Blakist when nothing in the text indicates or even hints at it. Don't forget that just a few pages (and a few weeks in the novel's timeline) before she struck, both Lester and Anson vowed to make Jessica pay for the Clipperton incident and the loss of Marik respectively. They are far more likely to be behind the attacks than Blakists.

I'm nearing the endgame of the book myself. I'm enjoying it. I like Bills' stuff. The funeral novel was compelling enough. There is a novel mostly about the Spirit Cats that I really enjoyed especially as I was a SC player at the time.

Light sci-fi. Could have used more Mech violence. And I think it's odd that they focused on a family that is not in "play" with the collectible game. They couldn't have chosen a Steiner family?

Later,

T

I read this book in a few days, I'm not a huge Marik fan,but it did put some emphasis on all the characters,(though with all the thinking the characters where doing I started to believe I was reading DUNE the movie).:laugh:

How ever the real reason I wanted to read it was because of the Spirit cat mentions,regarding Rikkard and Kev Rosse, and Janis (poor nutjob). Anyway the keeping with the balance of the past books is nice and the way the information passes between stories was good. I was pretty pleased with this book,especialy since Im not huge oriente protectorate fan.

I recommencd the book fro SC fans jsut for the bits and how it ,ties into "Heritics faith" and the Death of Victor a bit. if you don't I will be glad to give the up to dates on the SC characters and the book,just ask.:) I'm not putting spoilers up for now,since the novel is still new.

We'll be getting much more about the Steiners in the next novel, Fire at Will.

It'd be like the someone dropping Osama bin Laden's name as a diversion when they stole a plane for ransom.. No stone would go unturned. An operation would attract a huge amount of attention if it hinted at the WoB, and everyone would be searching until they found the WoBies involved, or else who really WAS involved.

Why would they wait though? Jessica had been a thorn in their sides for years, decades, and her heirs would not be anywhere near as good as she was at her job. It'd take the whole state out of play for a considerable length of time and remove an obstacle to their own influence. With a completely deep-cover assassin as a tool, they could bump her off with impunity. Why kill her heirs and leave her alive as a message? It just doesn't make sense for either Lester or Anson to not kill her.