16 replies to this topic

[Glynt]

Hey all,

I have not had much exposure to mechwarrior / battletech in the past. I played a couple of the PC games a very long time ago but never had the opportunity to play the tabletop (unfortunately, I love TT RPG).

From the snippets I have been reading, there is a deep rich history that I am missing. I am an avid reader and would really like to immerse myself fully in this story. Searching on amazon returned a TON of hits for battletech. However, i have no idea where to begin

I am assuming this IP is similar to Star Wars in the respect that a lot of different authors write the novels which take place at various points in the history. What I have found with Star Wars is that the quality of the books can vary significantly based on the author. I has also run in to issues trying to read the stories in a linear way, without jumping forward and backward in time.

Can anyone please suggest what series / author I should begin with? I would really like to read the history in a way as linear as possible. I have gone to the wiki but that doesn't tell me which novels are worth their price and which are generic, poorly written BS.

Typically I would dive in and try to get starts but most of the novels have very low user review ratings. I thought that this was a good place to get advice on what is good from the true fans. Thanks in advance.

[pesco]

I have browsed m.sarna.net at random on my way to work. It goes a surprisingly long way!

[Glynt]

Thanks Pesco, that looks like a great resource and I will definitely spend some time there.

Being that I know nothing at all about the universe I wanted to absorb the basics in novel format if possible. I don't really have any knowledge base to start with. I enjoy reading novels and currently don't have anything I am too excited to read. If the feedback ends up being, the novels aren't good, I guess I'll have to hit up the databases.

[Thom Frankfurt]

If you want to start to pick up the novels I recommend the Warrior Trilogy followed by the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy, in that order.

Warrior Trilogy has the events of the 4th SW (Silver Eagle Crisis, Hanse and Melissa's wedding, and my beloved house getting the snot kicked out of them...) It also introduced you to some of the key players, houses, and political situations/instabilities and everything that leads up to the current timeline of MWO

The Blood of Krensky Trilogy has the same for the most part but it's kind of like the passing of the torch to the younger generation; Prince Victor Steiner-Davion and his Super Friends. As well as the Clan invasion and the current timeline of MWO.

If you like those you could always pick up the Gray Death Saga, which starts back in like 3007 I think. Nice and gritty, some personal faves.

Edited by Thom Frankfurt, 23 September 2012 - 12:43 PM.

[Richtor]

stackpole is prob the main line writer of the stories, in books, one of the best places to start is the warrior trilogy the novels are en garde, riposte, and coupe, all by stackpole. Gose over the 4 succession war, and the fed com allince. Also for a more clan way of veiwing things the legend of the jade phoenix trilogy by robert thorston novels are way of the clans, bloodname, and falcon guard. And check a game store for the house books, and the star league book, game books for the rpg...that should be the best places to start, if you want a good over view book try the inner sphere rpg book. All good info and stories for battle tech.

[Stormwolf]

This is a good resource to catch up with the entire what's what of the BT universe:

http://bg.battletech...iverseGuide.pdf

[Thom Frankfurt]

And once you've read the Stackpole books and learned to hate the Capellan Confederation, pick up Binding Force, Double Blind, Highlander Gambit, and the Capellan Solution books; Threads of Ambition and the Killing Fields. They'll change your perspective on House Liao.

The Archer Christfori books by Blaine Lee Pardoe (nice guy) are good too.

All in all most of the novels are good.

But like Richtor I said earlier the Stackpole books are the best place to start.

[Glynt]

Thanks for the very helpful replies! I will pick up En Garde tonight if they have it for kindle and get started! Stormwolf thanks for the link, that looks like a very good summary!

[Shadtiger77]

Always and without fail, if you want a good read, I would recomend Wolves on the Border
Excelent merc story detailing the Dragoons time with Kurita

[Glynt]

Ok so for the moment I was a bit limited by the Kindle selection. It does not appear that "En Garde" exists as a kindle book.

I was able to find a book by Stackpole however and am currently reading "Ghost War" Dark Age #1. It says that there are 29 books in the series and this is the first, so hopefully a decent starting point?

[Shadtiger77]

depends on who you ask.

Battletech "Dark Ages" was when wizkids got the franchise back, the creator told 20 year veteran fans that they didn't know what they wanted, and then brought Stackpole back from the darkside of Lucasarts so he could write Star Was Tech and kind of destroy the universe, starting with obliterating one of the most iconic merc units in Battletech out of hand.

That said. There are a lot of damn fine books, stories and characters in Dark Ages, and I enjoyed a good many of them. I will have a look for some good background history circa 3000 to 3065 and give you titles I can find here later tonight. As far as canon history, I wouldn't suggest you quote much in those books, as once they brought some of the other writers back, they began the repair of the world by trying to make more believable tales in the 3070 to 3100 range.

Dark Ages and the blackout that happens in those novels is in 3132+ I think.

[Sephlock]

*SPOILER THAT IMHO ISN'T REALLY A SPOILER IMHO BUT I THOUGHT I'D PUT THIS DISCLAIMER HERE JUST IN CASE*

All you really need to know that Katherine Steiner = bad.

I hate her.

[Glynt]

So it seems then that "Dark Ages" timeline is well inline with when Mechwarrior Online takes place. Stackpole's writing seems pretty good so far, its a good read. I'll try to get to a book store and pick up the original recommendations that were suggested since it sounds like they are more consistant with the story that will be presented in MWO.

Does the "Dark Ages" series give an accurate portrayal of the factions in Battletech universe? I'm really interested in learning about the "houses?" since we will be able to chose one in MWO.

Thanks again to everyone for their help so far.

[PirateLincoln]

Actually the Dark Ages take place in the 32nd Century, MWO is in the 31st.

As far as the factions, it DOES give an accurate portrayal...of how they'll act in about ninety years.

Honestly, if you're wanting stuff that's contemporary with MWO, then avoid any novel with MechWarrior in the title because (I'm pretty sure) they're all set in the Dark Ages. Since you're looking for Kindle stuff you absolutely want to go with the three BattleCorps anthologies (titled The Core, First Strike, and Weapons Free, respectively).

Now, I ain't sayin' the Dark Ages novels are bad, I have a handful myself...I'm saying they screwed with the setting so tremendously that I really don't recognize it as BattleTech anymore...but that's 'cause it was created by WizKids marketing department instead of BattleTech fans. My opinion, anyways! Still has good ol' 'mech fights, so there's that.

I think someone already mentioned this, but...

http://www.battletec...erseGuide-1.pdf

...has nice summaries of the general attitudes of the houses, as well as the history of the setting.

My advice is read this and then start plowing through the BattleCorps stuff. Enjoy!

Edited by Samuel Graves, 26 September 2012 - 08:46 AM.

[SlasH58]

Sephlock, on 25 September 2012 - 10:16 PM, said:

*SPOILER THAT IMHO ISN'T REALLY A SPOILER IMHO BUT I THOUGHT I'D PUT THIS DISCLAIMER HERE JUST IN CASE*

All you really need to know that Katherine Steiner = bad.

I hate her.

Don't you mean; Katrina Steiner? Katherine was her mother, IIRC...

BTW, there are a LOT of BT novels out there ( I think I have close to 70 BT novels so far along with countless source books and TROs). The Sword and The Dagger, by Ardath Mayhar (which up until a minute ago, I thought was the very first BT novel!!) was the most difficult one for to find http://m.sarna.net/w...iew_normal_site

Here's a list of all BT novels to date, including the German language books from Heyne and FanPro http://www.sarna.net...ttleTech_novels

The thing I really like about the novels is that the timeline is preserved for the most part. In some cases; the books look at a conflict from a different perspective, which is one of the things that hooked me in the first place!

Edited by SlasH58, 26 September 2012 - 08:51 AM.

[Listless Nomad]

Glynt, on 26 September 2012 - 08:14 AM, said:

So it seems then that "Dark Ages" timeline is well inline with when Mechwarrior Online takes place. Stackpole's writing seems pretty good so far, its a good read. I'll try to get to a book store and pick up the original recommendations that were suggested since it sounds like they are more consistant with the story that will be presented in MWO.

Does the "Dark Ages" series give an accurate portrayal of the factions in Battletech universe? I'm really interested in learning about the "houses?" since we will be able to chose one in MWO.

Thanks again to everyone for their help so far.

The blood of kerensky series is THE contempory series for mwo. It occurs in exactly the same time line as mwo. If you want to learn about the houses etc as they stand in mwo, stackpole's blood of kerensky is what you need

Edited by Listless Nomad, 26 September 2012 - 09:59 AM.

[ZIM]

Books to avoid: Sword and the Dagger, Far Country, and Star Lord.