Closing the Dragon’s Door
Well, you’d think this would be another update…and you would be correct. Except that it isn’t anymore.
Despite my (paltry) efforts in trying to sneak open looks into the forthcoming HBHK, interest in this book has never really taken off aside from a relative few Kurita fans. Which, in all honesty, isn’t that surprising. The book’s been near-vaporware for several years, the victim of other priority projects that kept leapfrogging it. It’s sadly become somewhat of an afterthought, a “let’s get this out to finish off the series because we’re completists at heart” project.
Don’t get the wrong idea, though. I think because of the book’s specific nature, there’s little in it to appeal to other diehard faction fans of the universe. I mean, staunch Capellan loyalists aren’t going to much care about what goes on in Kurita space or how citizens of the Dragon live. It’s the inherent nature of the beast.
With the end of the 3067 Era now decently behind us and the Jihad/Dawn of the Republic drawing to a close, it makes this book even more anachronistic. I tried to mitigate that somewhat by putting in information that I’ve accumulated over the last 7-8 years while writing a lot of the Combine’s material. Knowing that the book would eventually come out, it was important to me that concepts or story threads that seemingly “popped up” in various Jihad-era books (and to a smaller extent, Dark Age material) be grounded in this Housebook. Like how the Nova Cats are really perceived by the citizen at large and the Dragon’s bureaucratic monolith. Or why Aix-La-Chapelle was a viable alternative to begin rebuilding the Combine war machine. Or why the Black Dragons seemingly never died but kept resurging. Or the bubbling cauldron of class warfare that ends up exploding well after 3067…
But, sadly, there’s just little interest in the project. My site stats don’t really lie; I barely see a ripple on these posts. (Interesting side note: My Wars of Reaving articles – now nearly two years after the project’s publication – still sees constant traffic.) On days when a HBHK peek debuts, those pages still see less activity than those hitting various Wars of Reaving pages. And never mind the anemic thread on the official BattleTech forums… I love the fact there are 5-6 constant readers…but it’s also disheartening there’s little discussion on a lot of the previews I’ve posted. When selecting material to post, I try to put up stuff that is interesting, fresh, and new to spur some chatter – but it’s just not happening.
Now, understand – I’m not complaining. The book’s getting printed this year regardless of who reads these previews (or not). I just had high hopes the process would spur more interest and drive the book into a higher bracket than the bestseller of the line, House Davion.
So, this’ll probably be the last on the topic until it is released in print. In the meantime, please enjoy my limited weekly series on the Clan Box Set strategy and tactics guide (every Friday). I’ll get around to finishing the Lego Death Star construction project as well, don’t worry!