Scott's Game RoomBlood Will Rise: For the Good of the State
Can Danai Centrella-Liao find balance between her own values and the needs of the Capellan Confederation?
Blood Will Rise, a recently released BattleTech novel by Tom Leveen, follows Danai Centrella-Liao as she works to overcome various problems facing the Capellan Confederation. It picks up in the late Dark Age where the earlier Blood Will Tell left off and carries Danai into the ilClan era.
Spoiler Warning: This post will contain some spoilers for the book, but I will try to avoid any big reveals or too much of the plot.
Blood Will Tell, by Jason Schmetzer, spanned 3148 to 3149. It started with Danai Centrella-Liao as commander of the 2nd McCarron’s Armored Cavalry and an elite MechWarrior at the controls of Yen-Lo-Wang. Her central arc in it was learning how to be more than that. She got lessons in what it means to be Capellan and how to be a leader of the people rather than just a military commander and MechWarrior. If you haven’t already read Blood Will Tell, you should do so before starting on Blood Will Rise.
Blood Will Rise picks up less than a month after the conclusion of Blood Will Tell. The book is divided into three parts and brings Danai’s story line all the way to late June in 3152. Each of the three parts presents a new challenge for Danai to overcome. In the first, she must deal with civil unrest on her world of Castrovia. In the second, she travels to Sharaton to help another Capellan commander against a violent insurrection. Then in the third and final part, she confronts her greatest challenge: Chancellor Daoshen Liao.
Across those three parts, we get to see Danai continue her arc towards being a leader of the Capellan Confederation. She recognizes the heavy costs of war not just to soldiers but also to the civilians she is meant to protect, so for each problem her preference is to find a diplomatic solution. Unfortunately for her, not every problem she faces can be resolved peacefully, and the state, aka her father, demands things that she would prefer to avoid. Across the conflicts, she witnesses the costs both of leaving a problem unresolved and of unleashing the full force of the state.
The division of the novel into three parts, each with their own conflict, felt like a weak spot in the novel to me. The first part’s conflict ended up feeling unnecessary, and its quick resolution was somewhat unsatisfying. That part of the story felt meaningful not for the conflict, but for giving Danai a part of the Capellan Confederation to cherish and later worry about. Then while the conflict in the second part provided a look at Danai dealing with a problem where her preferred approach doesn’t work, it didn’t feel like it had much connection back to the third part of the book. I enjoyed reading the story, but I think its division into three parts with their own conflicts and resolutions made it feel more disjoint than it could have been.
For those who have read ilKhan’s Eyes Only, the ending of this story resolves a big question left open by the sourcebook. It follows Daoshen and Danai up through the bombardment of Liao by Clan Snow Raven. The sourcebook left their fates unknown after that attack, but the ending of Blood Will Rise lets readers know what happens to each of them during the attack on Chang-an. It also provides more background on McCarron’s Armored Cavalry’s shift from house unit to mercenary.
As I said, despite the three part division not really landing for me, I thought Blood Will Rise was a worthwhile and enjoyable read. It catches the Capellan Confederation up to the current timeline and gives readers more time with Danai who is in line to be the next Chancellor. If you’re interested in the plot of the ilClan era or a fan of House Liao, then I think Blood Will Rise is worth reading.
You can purchase a copy of Blood Will Rise from these stores:
#BattleTech #CapellanConfederation #DanaiCentrellaLiao #ilClanEra
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