https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09ZP7RTP2/
How did I ever think the Clans could be presented as the good guys?
...and spoiler warnings for the above book...
So I decided to get back into the universe with some fiction, and I just started reading one of the books set in the most current era of the universe. I am only at the beginning of this one. Still, so far, we have a lot of post-battle cleanup by a new commander of Wolf's Dragoons, a legendary unit that I feel by this point has become a corporate "in name only" franchise compared to the original.
That is the problem with nostalgia unless you keep rebooting your new characters seem either like soft copies of the originals, or the entire thing you are trying to sell the latest version of seems like the Wall Street version of "Idea Incorporated" and the whole thing feels chewed over by marketers for car and food commercials.
So on one side, the new CEO of Wolf's Dragoons Incorporated is cleaning the house after 80% of the unit died and making deals. Good stuff, sort of the meat and potatoes of a good BattleTech story, but on a bit of a macro scale for my first book. I know I am jumping in on end, so at this time, we are likely only planning D-Day-style invasions rather than the more minor, more intimate local battles that I prefer.
The thing is, I don't really feel anything for this new CEO other than, well, I guess he got the job after Enron failed; good luck. What do you do? Do they have money to rebuild? Will others with a bent against them reach out and strike? Are there mechs and supplies to buy after the big war on Earth? Should they just dissolve the company and move on? None of that is really answered, other than, well, okay, let's magically rebuild everything and get a new cast of characters. I wanted that harrowing flight to get the heck out of Dodge, that taking stock moment of what we have left, and that Independence Day pep talk. Some drama. Some revenge. Some tension.
We got a bunch of meetings instead.
On the other side, we have the Clans.
They are like a wargamer's idea of how the ideal fascist society should work. Really, they are just horrible. Grown in tanks, genetic purity, trial by combat, leaders are chosen by action, entitled, somewhat spoiled, okay really spoiled, somehow greatness is passed down in genes, eternal war focused, zero freedom, no art, no journalism, no love, little emotion, state industry, just a mess of one-note space Nazis.
They are even worse than the Empire in Star Wars.
Maybe this is just how the book presents them, but to get angry about "but I didn't get to fight for Terra!" feels less like a warrior caste and more like a spoiled brat caste. With the "no alien races" rule in BattleTech, I feel they come very close. They are like this cloned race of genetically superior humans, and I feel this falls outside of BattleTech lore and feeling just a little. They might as well be green Martians.
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| "We are here to reclaim the real Jade Falcon Clan - for Mars!" |
I get the feeling the real people in control of the Clans are these secretive industrial concerns who let the soldiers play and do their battle trials and pageantry. At the same time, they sit back and clock C-Bills in war profits as the warrior caste believes that the purity of combat gives them the right to rule - and they really have no power at all when those in the back rooms say yea or nay to an idea.
And that is how fascist states really work.
I don't even see how a society like that works and sustains interstellar commerce unless there is a "Clan Cabal" controlling the unholy marriage of state and industry behind the scenes. You work for the state, produce for the state, cheer for state propaganda, or big evil Clan soldier guy comes and steps all over your factories and city populations in a mech. Support the war effort, comrade! Glory to our great warriors! The war is justified and for our greater society!
Just imagining peoples' lives on planets conquered by them gives me the creeps.
The endgame of a fascist society is ALWAYS war. Industry supplies them with weapons and propaganda, while the state provides the warm bodies to fill the front lines. War is the last thing that holds this mess together as the host body of the decaying state dies and is torn apart by internal forces.
I am still reading this through, but ugh, what a mess.
I should be happy there are good and bad guys in this universe, but I had forgotten how horrid the Clans really were. If the Clans were Kerensky's legacy, he would rank up there with Stalin or Hitler. Who cares if they have all the cool toys and mechs at this point? It is like getting excited about a Panzer tank; yeah, cool, but...
Now I see why many like the classic era.
Good book, but wow, what a mess. Not one I would recommend people read if they wanted to get involved with "low level" BattleTech, you know, a book that covers lower-level mercenary life, the day-to-day, the getting contracts, and keeping your head down sort of life. Don't piss off the big players, local governments, house forces, and larger mercenary outfits. This is more like the sweeping intergalactic big brush war stories with generals in charge and the grand macro strategy.
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