10 replies to this topic

[RL Nice]

I just noticed that there haven't been any BattleTech novels published since 2008 (excluding a few e-books), and no print novels set during the Ji-had at all.

I read somewhere on sarna.net that Catalyst Game Labs was unable to publish Classic BattleTech novels during the Ji-had storyline, so I'm going to assume that there's some convoluted legal issue that prevented Word of Blake novels from being published and stopped the Dark Age novels. Can somebody explain what they are?

EDIT: Is Jihad still censored?

Edited by RL Nice, 27 December 2012 - 09:16 PM.

[Stingz]

Just about everyone dislikes the WoB-era events. it's just poorly thrown in for something bigger than the Clan Invasion [March 3050/(2013)].

Dark Age in general isn't very good, though I would gladly pilot a Hellstar or Gurkha.

[Pariah Devalis]

I never understood the Hellstar. Does it not fill the same exact role as the Warhawk?

[RL Nice]

Stingz, on 28 December 2012 - 09:13 PM, said:

Just about everyone dislikes the WoB-era events. it's just poorly thrown in for something bigger than the Clan Invasion [March 3050/(2013)].

Dark Age in general isn't very good, though I would gladly pilot a Hellstar or Gurkha.

That wouldn't have prevented Catalyst (or whatever other company deals with the literary works in the series) from publishing BattleTech books.

I can see stopping the Dark Age novels, since the game itself was discontinued in the same year, but it's really perplexing that no Jihad novels were published at all (outside of BattleCorps, I guess).

[Yiazmat]

Pariah Devalis, on 29 December 2012 - 08:04 AM, said:

I never understood the Hellstar. Does it not fill the same exact role as the Warhawk?

This'll help. The Hellstar could fire indefinitely with its ERPPC's. 30 DHS in the mech. It could Alpha all day on caustic valley in the culdara and never shut down. Honestly, it's my dream mech. I already run quad PPCs on my Stalker. I would break the game with a Hellstar.

[RotS Targe]

One place you might look into is battlecorps.com a subscription based site with tons of short stories in the universe, only place I can think of to get new stories, except for the occasional anthology they put out, but all those were on battlecorps first.

[BlackAce]

ROC had the the publishing rights to the novels and negotiated with Wizzkids, the Jordan Wisemann founded company who took BattleTech over from FASA, for exclusive Dark Age contracts. These didn't do nearly as well as the old BT Novels and the plug was formerly pulled.

Loren Coleman and Randall Bills kept BT fiction going by creating BattleCorps, an ePublishing house that releases short story anthologies from the classic era for a monthly subscription.Most of the ROC DA authors got their big break there. While there's some mediocre stuff, there are also some excellent serialized novels. The Chaos Irregulars serial, as well as the sequel to The Sword and the Dagger are worth a month's fee alone. There's also a Founding of the Clans arc that gives the true story behind the Wolverines and Nick Kerensky, but opinion is more split on that.

Edited by BlackAce, 25 February 2013 - 02:38 PM.

[Fiachdubh]

While the DA series of novels was quite poor at times it grew stronger and stronger towards the end. The second half of the run is overall very good. Left me wishing for more and stopped just as the whole thing was hitting its stride.

Unfortunately the overall planning of the series and the general universe events where a bit weak and the premise was farcical. Lets not forget there were also some real stinkers in the CBT era and some of the DA hold there own amongst the best of the CBT series.

Have looked at battlecorps but the problem with it is that the site itself is very poor. Without paying a subs fee to log in you cannot really tell what you would be paying for and the Battlecorps fiction available is not even viewable to a non subscriber. Then you have to pay again for each novel once you have paid to log in?! You are paying for the right to access the shop to buy stuff. No thanks. Check it out every couple of months but it is so just so badly done I am always put off. I am talking about the site itself not the quality of its content. It could do with a serious overhaul to attract new customers. What exactly do I get for my $10 a month which seems expensive without knowing more.

Maybe someone can enlighten me because I would love more BT novels to read but not prepared to pay out on the limited information I have.

Edited by Fiachdubh, 26 February 2013 - 11:18 AM.

[MechLife]

Fiachdubh, on 26 February 2013 - 11:08 AM, said:

Have looked at battlecorps but the problem with it is that the site itself is very poor. Without paying a subs fee to log in you cannot really tell what you would be paying for and the Battlecorps fiction available is not even viewable to a non subscriber. Then you have to pay again for each novel once you have paid to log in?! You are paying for the right to access the shop to buy stuff. No thanks. Check it out every couple of months but it is so just so badly done I am always put off. I am talking about the site itself not the quality of its content. It could do with a serious overhaul to attract new customers. What exactly do I get for my $10 a month which seems expensive without knowing more.

Completely agree. never really read any of the old novels, but if there were e-books more easily available, why not?

[Fiachdubh]

MechLife, on 02 March 2013 - 01:52 PM, said:

Completely agree. never really read any of the old novels, but if there were e-books more easily available, why not?

The old Classic BT novels are well worth tracking down. [Redacted]

Edited by Egomane, 14 June 2013 - 08:22 AM.
CoC violation

[CoffiNail]

Fiachdubh, on 02 March 2013 - 02:17 PM, said:

The old Classic BT novels are well worth tracking down. [Redacted]

I own a number of the novels, but for the past few months I have been slowly going through from the start due to [redacted]. I just started Way of the Clans. Wolves of the Border and Heir to the Dragon were pretty darn good too... though Heir to the Dragon seemed abrupt with its end. I was just starting to really get in to Theadore Kurita and it ends .

Edited by Egomane, 19 November 2013 - 05:29 AM.
Quote clean-up removed reference to quote