Mechwarrior Dark Age #4 Silence Heavens: Book One of the Proving Grounds Trilogy (a Battletech Novel)

by Martin Delrio

Book Overview

Sent to Northwind by the Republic to help Duchess Tara Cambell protect her world from deadly invaders, Paladin Ezekiel Crow and his BattleMech go up against MechWarrior Anastasia Kerensky and the Steel Wolves - all of whom are determined to conquer Northwind and use it for their own evil purposes.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451459326
• ISBN13: 9780451459329
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Ace Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Great Mech battle Action

A well written book that includes lots of mech battles, a great heroine with the countess of Northwind who is a Mechwarrior of the highest order, perhaps one of the greatest of her time.

Skillful writing, good balance

Having just read several of the "Mechwarrior: Dark Age" novels in the past few weeks, this one stands out as a journeyman piece of writing. It is certainly ahead of amateurish efforts like "the Ruins of Power." In DelRio's novel the descriptions are fresh and show a flair for fresh images, the characters are genuinely interesting and make sense, with sensible and believable motivations, and the books' "straight-ahead" plot draws us forward to learn the fate of Northwind.In case anyone cares, the title is taken from a line in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Much of the book's fascination comes with the clash of two well-drawn woman characters-- Anastasia Kerensky, who is also known as Tassa Kay, and Tara Campbell, the beautiful Dutchess of Northwind. The character of Tassa Kay comes forward from another "Mechwarrior: Dark Age" novel entitled "Call to Duty." She was the most interesting character in that novel, and she loses little of her luster here. Tassa/Anastasia is a warrior, but also a rather hot number with a flair for passionate, extracurricular love affairs. Since I really enjoyed this book, I will very much look forward to the second and third volumes of the trilogy. Yup, that's right-- this is the first book of a 3-volume trilogy. Probably the trilogy structure accounts for one of the greatest faults of "A Silence in the Heavens," which is the lame, unsatisfying ending. It is more a hiatus than a true ending, since the writer is priming us for the second novel. It probably should be mentioned that the book well balances "palace intrigue" against battle action. Two major battles are portrayed in detail as the author skillfully incorporates several points of view -- an infantryman's view, a tank commander's view, a mechwarrior's view, and the supreme commander's view. Some readers have complained about particular BattleTech novels as being starved for action scenes-- they will surely be satisfied with "A Silence in the Heavens."A good book. I eagerly await the remaining volumes of this trilogy.Patrick Callahan

Now I get it! *slaps head*

My biggest problem with Ghost War, Mike Stackpole's Dark AGe book, was that i didn't have a frigging clue what was going on most of the time. I'm an avid BattleTech reader, and I pretty much have what went on in THAT Series down pat, so when Mikey boy comes up and tells me my favorite characters are all dead (Damnit, I LIKED Andy redburn and Morgan Allard and Phelan Ward!) I got kind of miffed. When he told me "hey guess what, there's a new government in place!" but didn't exactly explain what was going on, I got totally lost. Prefect whaa? Exarch who? Why is this paladin and his ONE battleMech so important? Wouldn't sending a regiment of the Crucius Lancers be a better idea?Okay. Now enter this book. Suddenly, things seem more clear to me. So everyone GAVE UP their mechs!! The Paladins are the MechWarriors of these times! NOW I get it! Martin DelRio explains most of the new world very, very well.Now, as to the book itself. It's written in a very different style from most of the BattleTech books. It characterizes the foot soldiers as more important, has them playing an active role. The descriptions are no more then necessary, and there is actual HUMOR, and a good deal of it, present in the book. I laughed out loud several times, something that usually only Mike Stackpole was able to do regarding B-tech. You will too, probably.The plot is...straightforward. It would have been a LOT better, the plot anyway, if he hadn't told us what was going on on both sides. SImply put, the Steel Wolves versus the planet of Northwind. Simple, right?Yep. If he'd kept it strictly to one side or the other, he would have had a very good element of mystery added into the story. However, knowing what was going on in both side's heads, I could pretty accurately predict what was going to happen, except at the end.It's written in a lighthearted way that I can appreciate, instead of taking itself so seriously like SOME of the B-tech authors do. Overall, 4/5. Plotline lacks the element of mystery and surprise, but the book is FUN. Definately read it.The one question that the book failed to answer...WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE HIGHLANDERS?!

MechWarrior Dark Age is back on track

First off, I must say that I'm glad to see the MechWarrior books tying in with characters from the game. Tara Bishop graces us with her presence and we see the return of the Kerenskys once again. I was impressed and surprised to see Anastasia Kerensky's philosophy differed from the Warden Ulric that I knew and loved, but it makes for a much more twisted story. I was disappointed, though, to see the relative ease with which one of the main characters from the game was so removed from the MechWarrior Dark Age Universe and the fact that the Steel Wolves just can't seem to get a break. Maybe the people at WizKids are thinking that the Wolves were just too powerful in the previous story arcs, but I would like to see them win at least one battle!! The action in this book is good and I am looking forward to the sequel. I'm also hoping that we'll find out more about the Liao campaigns as the storyline progresses. For us old-timers, this book goes a ways to redeeming the storyline from The Ruins of Power novel. A good read overall.