Rating: 
Summary: Ah, come on, its not that bad.
Review:
I actually think this is an important book, and while Thurston was at his best with the Jade Phoenix trilogy, i believe this fits in with series. Yes, the LAM vs MECH scene was a bore, but a lot of the character interaction between Horse and Howse was great, sometimes really funny.
I often prefer political books to action books. How many times can you read "He fired his PPC straight into his centre torso, blasting away tons of armour.."? Page after page of combat can become tedious. Political intrigue is gratifying, and what this book does is give the world of Huntress, and Smoke Jaguar, a personality. Otherwise it would have been Task Force Serpent raiding just another planet. At least you get some familiarisation. And i honestly believe there is no better interaction between two characters in Btech, than that of Horse and Joanna. So Thurston deserves some credit. However, if your an Inner Sphere goody-two shoes who has no interest in the clan way of life, then you can afford to give this book a miss
Rating:
Summary: The book was disappointing
Review: Fasa shouldn't of added Freebirth. Sure it did
tell about how Rossou is prepping the two galaxies, but Fasa could've mentioned that without
having to spend a whole book on it. I wanted to know more about task-force serpent, and they could've placed the Smoke Jaguar storyline concurrently in the same book, the Jade Falcon involvment was useless.
Rating: 
Summary: Robert Thurston has better BT novels available
Review: Freebirth, #4 in the Twilight of the Clans series, really seems to derail from the general plot of the series. There is very little combat in this book, and most of the book is spent on talking. My best suggestion is to skip this book and go straight from The Hunters to Sword and Fire. You won't miss much. I would have to say that this is the only BattleTech novel that I've read that I really didn't like. If you really want a Robert Thurston book, try I am Jade Falcon or the Legend of the Jade Pheonix Trilogy instead.
Rating:
Summary: The book...too different
Review: I agree with the rest of you. The book added very, very little to the Task Force Serpent story. Then again, how many of you think it's amazing how they got this far? Let's face it, the Clans will eventually be killed off, the writers have an obvious bias towards the Inner Sphere...
Rating:
Summary: A somewhat disappointing addition to the Twilight series ...
Review: I can see the reasons of the addition of this storyline to the Twilight series, for it predicts the upcoming problems for Task Force Serpent. It also continues on story Russou which was left hanging after The Exodos. However, what's up with the character of Russou? It seems probable that Russou is disturbed by Trent's death and the politics occurring in Clan Smoke Jaguar. But he seemed as honorable and dedicated to Kerensky's vision as Trent. Yet in this book he is seen as sadistic. Would Trent even recognize this character? However the book provide some interesting events like a battle b/w LAMS and Omni-Mechs and events that propel the storyline. I just wonder where the excerpt in the beginning is in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: What a load of tripe.
Review: I can't believe that people would actually buy this sorry excuse for a novel. What do you mean Robert Thurston is a good novelist? His style is plodding at best and at worst it's pompous and artificial. Michael Stackpole on the other hand is one of the best authors I have ever read and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as literary giants such as Raymond E. Feist, Frank Herbert and so on. Now to the review: Why is Russou Howell such a sadist? Why are the suthors so anti-clan? Why oh why was nothing added to the Task Force Serpent story? Whatever you do don't buy this. This is trash.
Rating: 
Summary: awesome
Review: I could go on and on about how awful this book was. I don't even see how it was really necessary to the Twilight series. It was more like a soap opera than anything else. The ending was the most laughable part... "It's not over yet Horse! ," the drunken Clan bloodnamed warrior Howell screamed while flailing his arms in the air. Sad, just sad... I wish I could destroy a Summoner and a Warhammer with two LAMs. Just skip this book and go on to Twilight V.
Rating:
Summary: This book was awful!
Review: I could go on and on about how awful this book was. I don't even see how it was really necessary to the Twilight series. It was more like a soap opera than anything else. The ending was the most laughable part... "It's not over yet Horse! ," the drunken Clan bloodnamed warrior Howell screamed while flailing his arms in the air. Sad, just sad... I wish I could destroy a Summoner and a Warhammer with two LAMs. Just skip this book and go on to Twilight V.
Rating:
Summary: Seems to be written in a hurry
Review: I especially liked the character of Horse in the other books of Robert Thurston, so I had high expectations on a novel with him as the main character. Unfortunatly I only can say that I am a bit disappointed. The book has a lot of weak points: The 'appetizer-scene' does not appear in the whole book, the excerpt from the book before appears changed, and worst: The story does not make many sense at all. Why should a smart Khan as Marthe put a Trinary to investigate a far away small station? That's a much to clear signal to anyone who is to be investigated. The chosen way to win Horse back is simply unbelievable, not to mention that he doesn't give a good fight as to be expected by a hero like him. And if the Smoke Jaguars shot down one DropShip, I would think they will shoot down other ones as well, so it seems a bad way to plan the departure from Huntress without any further security procedure (for example informing Khan Pryde and ask her to take it to the Great Council or challenging Rossou Howell in a Trial of Departure or something like that). I would have expected Sentania and Horse to go back to the Repository and take with them their finding or take it in the first place, at least as proof.There are good elements in this book, such as the part with Joanna, who is perfectly described (I like the old surat), or showing that there are Clans that treat their freeborns even worse than the Jade Falcons, or Horse's winning in a training run by simply using the training rules against his opponent. I liked meeting someone who failed as a warrior like Peri and how she put up with her failure. The book is not a complete washout. But there are more bad parts. The whole book has a lack of logic in the story, and I don't know why it has been put in the TotC-series, Rossou Howell is not a that important character in the next books. I only can assume the book was written in a hurry and that Mr. Thurston or FASA or both had no time to work it over. Sorry for Horse. I would really like to see him again, but in a better story, he deserves that much.
Rating:
Summary: <YAWN>
Review: I hate this book. It is the WORST book I have ever read. It is incredibly boring and has nothing to do wtih the twilight of the clans. The story is boring,the ONE combat is boring, the charecters are boring. It was a chore to finish this book. I had to have caffiene to stay awake while reading it. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Also, when I finished Prince of Havoc and found out that thurston is writing the next twilight of the clans i screamed.
|
