BattleTech

Forever Faithful

By: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Narrated by: Tren Sparks

SEMPER FIDELIS

In the year 3060, the reborn Star League has destroyed Clan Smoke Jaguar, conquered their home world Huntress, and scattered the few remaining Jaguar warriors to the winds. Now the League seeks to end the Clan invasion for good by using former Smoke Jaguars against their own people.

Meanwhile, two bitter enemies seek to salvage a future for the last Jaguars in existence: Trent, who betrayed his wayward Clan to help them regain their honor, and Paul Moon, a disgraced warrior torn between his pledged loyalty to the Star League and a duty to the Smoke Jaguar civilization he was born to protect.

But power-hungry predators lurk in Clan space, waiting for the right time to strike the vulnerable Star League forces. And to the victor will go the spoils: The priceless artifacts of a destroyed Clan and the sacred genetics of the final generation of Smoke Jaguar warriors.

Trent and Paul Moon must fight tooth and nail against would-be conquerors to save the soul of the surviving Jaguar people before they are consigned to the annals of history. But will their divergent plans tear the survivors apart, or lead them toward freedom?

©2019 Topps, Inc. (P)2020 Topps, Inc.

Battletech fans from the 90s need to come back for this.

I was a huge battletech fan as kid in the 90s. When it was at its peak and bookstores always had battletech books for sale. There was even a Saturday morning cartoon. I read a bunch of novels back then. With gritty mercenary companies and politics of inner sphere houses; I couldn’t get enough. The clan invasion brought it all to new heights. It was a great time in my childhood and I couldn’t get enough.

Then the dark age came and I lost interest for the next 20 years. I would still pull out some older novels but never ventured into anything new largely because there wasn’t anything new outside the dark age. I wasn’t interested after the first two novels in the dark age. But this book was a continuation of the first book in twilight of clans. I had to read it. I read it and got it on audible because its a good book by any standard. After 20 some years of wondering and imagining what happened to Trent it was great. I have already read Rock of the Republic and am starting children of Kerensky. Also the new Kell hounds stuff and the re-emerging of the gray death legion that just came out. All this stuff that harkens back to my childhood. At 35 I feel like a kid again engrossed in a universe I once loved…. It’s nice to be able to love it agin. And the writing and story lines are better than ever.

This was my 4th "Battletech" book .

I've played every "Mechwarrior" video game in the franchise and I'm currently playing "Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries" which is set in the same timeline as this book which made it that much better. So many Mechs, Clans, and Units I remember from the games were in this book. A great listen. I'll be starting a new one tonight. Cheers.

Best Battletech book

This is the bast battletech book I have heard/read out of many. I must read/listen for fun’s of the universe even if you’re a freebirth!

In depth story line reveal

I without a doubt highly recommend this book, or any other battletech book! Battletech has some of my favorite mechanics and world building, I wish more people will find this amazing world of battletech, everything ties together, there are so many storylines going on at once, it’s incredible!

Must listen for Battletech fans.

Pardon has delivered an enduring work for the franchise and a firm foundation for the future. Bravo!

Great story, great narration.

Great stuff here, Blane got the shaft. Battletech is lesser for it. Well worth the purchase price!

Perfect

I have enjoyed the book from start to finish. Finding books in such quality here is great. This looks like a good time to be a battletech fan.

Heavy on lore, light on stompy mech combat.

Decent plot and political intrigue but very little of the mech combat that would make it feel like BattleTech. The lore was fun, focusing on lesser-known aspects of the Clans. The characters were mostly reasonable, though sometimes a bit repetitive. Given the lack of recent BattleTech novels, I'd still recommend this to fans of the setting, but "Embers of War" was closer to the original series.

Based on the descriptions of the fights, I suspect the author read some of the BattleTech books but never played the games (disregard for weapon ranges, torso twisting, mobility advantage).

Narrator was good, though his choice of voices missed the mark a few times, though that might be attributed to the writing. 31-year-old Victor Steiner-Davion, seasoned combatant and commander, sounds like whiny college freshman.

A slice of the batteltech universe in one story

Its a cool story that gives an interesting look at the inner sphere post clan invasion, and its fallout on the clans afterwards. Come for big stompy robots, stay for two old clanners coming to terms with their failures and eachother whiletrying to find a new way through the galaxy. has the distinct honor of being the only batteltech book to make me cry a little.

Echoes of Great Battletech Novels Past

This novel feels like a return to an earlier era of BT fiction, where characters were interesting and had actual story arcs, and political maneuvering and spycraft were as important as 'Mech battles.

It's great to pair up Paul Moon and Trent again, and give their story some closure, just as it's interesting to see Clans Nova Cat and Goliath Scorpion portrayed with nuance. BLP is an old hand at BT fiction, but his love of the canon is obvious (...even if Paul Moon's redemption comes a little faster than one would expect of a Smoke Jaguar).

Oh, one hit on the narration (and only one): referring to the Smoke Jaguars as the Smoke "Jagwires" was really distracting. I think the UK English "Jag'-yew-wer" pronunciation would have been less jarring, honestly. Otherwise, a fantastic performance.

Overall, a good tale, told as a remembrance of Victor Steiner-Davion, post-Jihad and post-founding of the Republic of the Sphere (and, please God, can we retcon then entire MW:DA era as the fever dream of a dying Victor at some point?). BLP took the opportunity to fill in some of the historical gaps, and did so with great skill. Well worth the read or listen.