BattleTech

Forever Faithful

By: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Narrated by: Tren Sparks

Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's Summary

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.

Give me more BattleTech Now!

CGL has been knocking it out of the park with their audiobooks lately. First, with Embers of War and now with Forever Faithful. This book isn’t the most action-packed, there are only a few fight scenes. But the way the author weaves the story still had me intrigued from start to finish. The characters were all great, and there is excellent character growth all around. The story takes place in the larger BattleTech universe but after the Twilight of the Clans series in particular. I haven’t read the Twilight of the Clans series in years, but I was able to dive right into this story without missing a beat. You might not get the full story if you haven’t read the Twilight of the Clans series prior to this. All that being said, this book is excellent. If you enjoy BattleTech or even just giant stompy mech action, this is a great book. The narration is top-notch. Tren Sparks is quickly becoming one of my favorite narrators and I hope he continues to narrate more BattleTech books in the future.

More Battletech Now!

I will buy every single Battletech book that y'all put out even if it's for some reason about the Capellans.

Colorful, Dramatic, Character-driven Space Opera

It takes some real talent to take the very stylized and totemistic world of the Clans and really make it breathe. Mr. Pardoe is able to bring these colorful factions to life, and to make each one distinct- all the while building in a allure for each. It must be difficult to write within a given universe, but Blaine Lee Pardoe seemingly navigates the rules of the universe- the pitfalls and temptations to take shortcuts so as to tell one's own story- effortlessly.

This is how you move a story forward. Evil-bad-guy factions and characters are given believable reasons for growth, and for continuing the story of their people. Canon is not thrown away, shortcuts are generally not taken, and the result is a surprisingly powerful story about just that: how to move onward. How a person can move forward, and how a people can. And that owning up to being wrong doesn't mean you have to lose the parts that were right.

Tren does a great job narrating this book, as he did with Embers of War. He's a highly competent narrator, and you'll never be confused about who is speaking, when a character is thinking, etc.

Overall, this is a great example of in-universe writing- and of how to move characters and stories forward. The momentum is palpable, and the pacing enjoyable. Some universe-specific knowledge is required, but the bar is fairly low.

This is a character-driven space opera, with the big heroes and drama that entails, and if that's your jam, you'll enjoy every minute.

Incredible

One of the best of the series. Utilizing any other narrator than Tren Sparks would be a disservice.

Battletech is back!

It has been a long time since I've read a battletech book and this book sucked me right back in. It picked up one the loose ends from a book nearly 20 years old and ran with it. If you are a fan of the old BT books I can't recommend this book enough.

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.

Great book Great narration can't wait for more

Great book Great narration cant wait for them to add more from the BattleTech collection

Any good QuAff? Neg!

A terrible story. Everything is exposition. The characters and motivations are formulaic. There is no plot. Other BattleTech stories aren’t too bad but this one is poor. I would pass. Listen to Decision at Thunder Rift instead.

The narrator is pretty good. Other books he has done are better but he does the best he can with this tale.

Come for the Battletech, stay for the performance.

As my first Battletech novel since I was 14, I was a little weary about this title. I hadn't played Battletech in years and I wasn't sure how the story has played out through the decades, though I loved the lore as a kid. I must say, however, that I've been enjoying this book very much.
The story is fine and I'm enjoying the viewpoint of the different characters as the POV changes. My only negative gripe is that characters tend to have a lot of the "I'm going to repeat sentences from the conversation I just had again in my head so that I may contemplate it" trope. It's happened enough now to notice how much it comes up and it's a bit distracting. I get that the author wanted to show the thought processes because some characters are forced to accept difficult realities as their lives change, but it just gets a bit overused I think.
What really sells this book though is Tren Sparks excellent performance. His voices are very distinct, and he handles a broad range of characters well. I'm still curious as to whether the Elemental pilots are his natural voice going down that low or if they digitally edited him down a register. It's very hard to tell and if it's just him, now that's talent.
My only issue with the performance is the editing. There are several places in the read where it's obvious that there was a second take or something had to change. Sometimes Mr. Sparks will be speaking, and a sentence, or occasionally even a single word, will inexplicably be louder or more clear from the rest of the dialogue. It's not emphasis, it's obviously an editing splice that is less than subtle. Regardless, I am still giving the performance 5 stars because that's how much I am enjoying it.
I will definitely be adding more Battletech books to my library as they become available!

Great story!

Having read and listened to many battletech books this is a great one. Hope to get more soon!