Grand Melee
Review
Grand Melee, by , is the fifth book in the War Horses series. In it, the Chevaliers take a break from wartime contracts to participate in a massive mech tournament.
After wrapping up the Cinto DaSelva campaign in Dog Soldier, the Chevaliers enter the Grand Melee, a gigantic mech-tournament held every two years. The tournament’s structure borrows heavily from modern battle royale video games, which in turn were inspired by Battle Royale by . Teams face off in a last-team-standing format with shrinking boundaries and power-ups. There are even streamers who are more focused on chatting with their audiences than fighting.
I was genuinely surprised by how the Chevaliers’ run in the tournament ended. I expected that, even though Vandal was ordered to prioritize making the company look good over winning, the author would find a way for him to do both. Instead, Vandal negotiates contracts to put other teams ahead and ultimately disqualifies his own Chevaliers squad for a quick payday. He is becoming a true mercenary.
Grand Melee starts to hint at an even broader universe with the introduction of new factions. There’s an English mercenary company led by Captain Tanith (possibly a nod to ’s First and Only or sci-fi author ), Gundam-style Japanese mechs, and French AI-driven mechs. Several characters also have their cultural heritages highlighted for the first time. It feels like is laying the groundwork for a major expansion of the universe in the next few books. The author also drops not-so-subtle hints about a coming major conflict.
One critique I have is that the author frequently references events from earlier books—the Paladin Devils from Chevalier, Vandal’s bond with his mech from Ymir, and the various battles from Serpent Valley and Dog Soldier—but doesn’t provide much context or refreshers. I used to dislike it when authors recapped earlier books; it felt like a crutch for readers jumping into the middle of a series instead of starting from the beginning. But reading War Horses as it’s released has changed my mind. A bit of a reminder would help when it has been months or years since I read the previous books.
Once I finished, I found myself wishing there was more to read. I’m already looking forward to ’s next book in the series, Sunstone Imperative.