Classic BattleTech: The Legend of the Jade Phoenix Trilogy

Rating:
Summary: Excellent glimpse into the Clan warrior lifestyle
Review: Wow. I am actually angry at myself for not having read this trilogy when it came out more than ten years ago. The tale of Aidan Pryde is truly one of the best in the Battletech series.

The trilogy edition is a nice product, with a new flashy cover. Interstingly, the separate novels maintain their own page numbers, unlike some other novel compilations I have read, so each one has its old title page and starts on page 1. I liked that.

The first novel takes us through the Warrior training regimen in Clan Jade Falcon. The lifestyle of the trainees and the established warriors is very well done. The competition between the siblings and their relationships is great reading. The eventual result of the training, and the application of non-standard tactics makes this one a page turner, especially with the atypical path events take.

The second novel deals with the warrior life of Aidan, in his assumed guise of a different person. The lower status of this other has led him to low-prestige assignments, but a rare opportunity to show his abilities, despite his differences with higher-ranking officers, affords him a rare opportunity to fight for a Bloodname. But the path to that status is anything but easy. This novel has a great deal more mech combat than Way of the Clans had, but it does not detract from the story.

The third novel takes place at a later point in Aidan's life, after he has served for some time as a Bloodnamed warrior. He has been assigned to command the rebuilt disgraced Jade Falcon unit which was lost in the Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere, primarily because he himself was looked down upon as a disgraced warrior due to his colored past. His unit is to be among those fighting ComStar on Tukayyid. The fate of this battle was detailed in a prior novel, but not from the Clan point of view, and not in the singular detail that this one provides. The exhibition of battlefield acumen staves off certain defeat, but it is a pyrrhic victory at best. Again, the quixotic nature of Clan interpersonal relationships is delved into, but in a different way than the earlier novels. Again, a great read and a real page-turner.