<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=157975.msg7683323#msg7683323">Quote from: KaylaM on 06-02-2013, 23:27:00</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">I've never been able to quite figure out <em>Freebirth</em>. Near as I can tell, it was a "filler" novel to bulk out the series or because Thurston was under contract or the like. Otherwise, it's got nothing to do with the rest of the series and can be skipped without affecting the overall plot.<br/><br/>With that being said, I have an odd relationship with Thurston. I like his characters... just not when he writes them. Yes, that includes Joanna. And while he's pretty crap, he's not the worst writer ever to grace a <em>Battletech</em> novel<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>I hate Joanna, or at least any book where she's the focus character - she has literally two/three trains of thought  - hating everything, and being a Jade Falcon warrior, and getting old in combination with one of the other two. All his other characters are interesting and mostly three- dimensional, both in his books and other people's, but Joanna is painful to read.