Rating: 
Summary: Vietnam allegory is too obvious
Review: I never really know what to expect when I sit down to read a Battletech novel. Sometimes they are great other times they are a waste of ink and paper. This one is between those two extreme's a little to close to a waste in my opinion. The set up of the story was unkept. I expected at any time that reenforcement would arrive to relieve the Light Horse. Instead I got a thin allegory of the vietnam war.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite a letdown
Review: I'm a huge fan of the Battletech novels, I enjoy the evolving story line and snatch up new books as fast as I can, unfortunately I wish I had skipped this one.The story takes place on the planet Milos with the ELH, one of the crack mercenary units in the inner sphere sent to retake a planet conquered from the St. Ives compact by the Capellen confederation. Sent there by Victor Davion and Theodore Kurita, on a promise of a change in the star league which is never mentioned later in the novel. The characters are bland, the mech combat is even more bland and the ending is slow and boring. There are a number of historical and technical mistakes, along with the 'Immortal warrior' type of combat (the enemy commander dropping mechs in a single shot while shrugging off massive amounts of damage). My biggest problem, and if you're going to read the novel I suggest you skipping this part, was the way the ELH was handled the author quoted the Light horse motto countless times on "never leaving a man behind", which they do, with hardly a second thought. During the final battle their drop ships, their only passage off the planet are destroyed by 2 men running through a chain link fence, past 2 sentries into an open door and planting a bomb. Excuse me, but the ELH are a CRACK military unit, as mentioned by the author probably 10 times throughout the novel. They are on a hostile planet, under siege by a Capellan line regiment and the only protection they have for their multi billion c-bill drop ship are *2* sentries, and a chain link fence? laughable. This novel contains none of what makes the battletech universe fun and exciting, no politics, no heroes, no massive mech battle, nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Quite a letdown
Review: I'm a huge fan of the Battletech novels, I enjoy the evolving story line and snatch up new books as fast as I can, unfortunately I wish I had skipped this one. The story takes place on the planet Milos with the ELH, one of the crack mercenary units in the inner sphere sent to retake a planet conquered from the St. Ives compact by the Capellen confederation. Sent there by Victor Davion and Theodore Kurita, on a promise of a change in the star league which is never mentioned later in the novel. The characters are bland, the mech combat is even more bland and the ending is slow and boring. There are a number of historical and technical mistakes, along with the 'Immortal warrior' type of combat (the enemy commander dropping mechs in a single shot while shrugging off massive amounts of damage). My biggest problem, and if you're going to read the novel I suggest you skipping this part, was the way the ELH was handled the author quoted the Light horse motto countless times on "never leaving a man behind", which they do, with hardly a second thought. During the final battle their drop ships, their only passage off the planet are destroyed by 2 men running through a chain link fence, past 2 sentries into an open door and planting a bomb. Excuse me, but the ELH are a CRACK military unit, as mentioned by the author probably 10 times throughout the novel. They are on a hostile planet, under siege by a Capellan line regiment and the only protection they have for their multi billion c-bill drop ship are *2* sentries, and a chain link fence? laughable. This novel contains none of what makes the battletech universe fun and exciting, no politics, no heroes, no massive mech battle, nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Very disappointing installment on the Capellan Solution
Review: I've read all the Battletech books, have the complete collection in paperback (yes, including The Sword and the Dagger), and have always enjoyed the books whether they be part of the "big" events in the Inner Sphere or just side plots. But the Capellan Solution series has been a huge disappointment in general and Dagger Point a waste of Tom Gressman's writing in particular. The plot makes no sense given the history of the ELH, the cameos by Victor and Theodore are very much out of character and the whole Vietnam thing was done better in Ideal War (although it stunk then too). I was hoping this book would turn this sub-series around... I was thinking Kai would agree with Sun Tzu that the Confederation should indeed be reunited with a small adjustment in who would sit on the Celestial Throne but alas, this book is little more of a placeholder chapter in a very bad story overall.
Rating:
Summary: i agree with the other guys
Review: like the others, i've read and have all the btech books and loved all of them. but this one....it just lacked action. it didn't seem like a massive regimental sized battle. the guerrilla war thing went on for too long with no real climax (kyle killing the sniper wasn't that). the book had great potential, especially when i read the first part with the baby killing...it just dropped from there. they are also right, the btech series (like the real world) has dropped dramatically. what got me into the storyline years ago was the massive wars and fratricidal conflict. now its just micromanaged, and i have the real world to think about that in.
Rating:
Summary: i agree with the other guys
Review: like the others, i've read and have all the btech books and loved all of them. but this one....it just lacked action. it didn't seem like a massive regimental sized battle. the guerrilla war thing went on for too long with no real climax (kyle killing the sniper wasn't that). the book had great potential, especially when i read the first part with the baby killing...it just dropped from there. they are also right, the btech series (like the real world) has dropped dramatically. what got me into the storyline years ago was the massive wars and fratricidal conflict. now its just micromanaged, and i have the real world to think about that in.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best story!
Review: New reader of the Battletech series. A decent book, the story was pretty good until it got near the end. The mech battles toward the begining started to get less descriptive and some enemy commanders seemed to become invincible. The commander's mech in the last battle would take loads of damage and knock the other ones out with a couple shots. This is a good book but probably not the best in the world.
Rating:
Summary: Good start bad ending
Review: Personally I enjoyed this novel, that is until I got to the end. It was too quick and rushed. The story ending itself was confusing and plain stupid. The ELH were sent to Milos to take the world for a further staging ground inro the Capellan Confed. but at the end of the novel General Edwin was forced to give up the now taken planet because Arden Sortek said so, and would not send in the rest of the Brigade to help. Put simply, there was no point to the raid at all. They got there took the planet, defended, lost many troops and the left leaving behind proberly a Battlion or too destroyed units. Still. up until that point it was a good book with Mr Gressmen, improving his writing style amazingly well.
Rating:
Summary: Good start bad ending
Review: Personally I enjoyed this novel, that is until I got to the end. It was too quick and rushed. The story ending itself was confusing and plain stupid. The ELH were sent to Milos to take the world for a further staging ground inro the Capellan Confed. but at the end of the novel General Edwin was forced to give up the now taken planet because Arden Sortek said so, and would not send in the rest of the Brigade to help. Put simply, there was no point to the raid at all. They got there took the planet, defended, lost many troops and the left leaving behind proberly a Battlion or too destroyed units. Still. up until that point it was a good book with Mr Gressmen, improving his writing style amazingly well.
Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: The basic premise behind "Dagger Point" is pretty good. I rather enjoyed reading about the Eridani Light Horse in his previous novels and was looking forward to this one. It has some good points, Gressman writes excellent military sequences and has a solid grasp of military lingo and technique. His dialogue and writing style are getting better, but there is the occassional clunker. (Why do the bad guys always have to sleep with their female subordinates?) If anything, I believe this novel was the victim of a word limit. The ending felt too rushed, which resulted in the ending being unsatisfying. Still, I'd be interested in a follow-up to the ELH storyline.
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