Giant talking space chicken is the only thing that makes Far Country a 'wait, what!?' for Battletech. Excluding intelligent alien life in most of that particular universe, talking chicken are going to seem as just out of place as say, light sabers or space magic. In any other context, there is nothing wrong with Far Country.
The only thing that made me go 'wut?' with Star Lord was the Stefan Amaris VII bit. That said, Star Lord inspired many mission on my table.
Oh, I'm usually the first person in a thread to point out that
Far Country is actually a well-written novel. It's just not very BattleTech-y and sticks out like a sore thumb with the Tetatae.
I've also often defended
Ideal War, which imho is a decent book. In the context of what we later learn about the WoB, it gets even better. It's openly, unapologizingly Vietnam-in-Space and says so in the preface. I never had a problem with that; it's the conclusion that reeks of deus-ex-machina and is just a bit too tidy. The untidy ramnifications of what happens in this book unfortunately happen in the Jihad era so the reader doesn't immediately get to see what things built up to.
Star Lord, as someone else said, reads very much like a RPG campaign put to print. It's a fun, wild romp but some plot elements are a bit rough around the edges.
