what series is the best to read?

[saintbrandon]

Hey
I'm a long time battletech fan but have just recently gotten into the game heavily
I would like to know more of the fluff so I plan on picking up some novels.
Now I don't plan on reading 80+ books and I read the clan invasion series.
Are the dark age books good? I just purchased ghost war to read on my blackberry while I am pretending to work, but if the jihad books are far superior or if the very first books are alright should I start there?
Thanks guys

[Humansquish]

IMO the first dozen or so of the dark age books are utter crap. I would suggest the Warrior trilogy or the Twilight of the Clans series.

[Skyth]

The books about the 17th Recon are the best ones out there in my opinion. 

However, if you want a broad overview, the Warrior trilogy followed by the Warriors of Kerensky trilogy would be the best bet.

[saintbrandon]

Thanks guys, I will check them out.
What series takes place in the 3020's? I prefer low tech if possible

[Skyth]

The Warrior Trilogy.

Also, the initial three books of the Grey Death trilogy.  Wolves on the Border and Heir to the Dragon go from the 3020's to the 3030's.

[roosterboy]

Wolves on the Border and Heir to the Dragon go from the 3020's to the 3030's.

WotB ends in 3028, a couple of days before the start of the 4SW.

[Alex Keller]

Wolves on the Border is perhaps the highest quality novel in all of Battletech, and it's a 3025 era book so I'd try to pick up that one. 

The Warrior Trilogy is also pretty good.

[Top Sergeant]

The books about the 17th Recon are the best ones out there in my opinion. 

I concur!  [cheers]

[Degman]

I loved all three parts of Capellan duology  :D

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Binding_Force
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Threads_of_Ambition
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/The_Killing_Fields

[StuartYee]

I've only read the Warrior trilogy, which is set between 3026 and 3030.

It provides a good introduction to the Battletech universe, details the 4th Succession War, and is chronologically one of the first series of novels for Battletech.

I like the overall plot flow, but much of the dialogue is crap. It is otherwise a good means to get an immersed glimpse of the Succession Wars era Battletech universe.

[Darth Nichos]

I agree that the Capellan Trilogy is good

As for Dark Age, the last 10 novels were really good to me- I actually liked Bonfire of Worlds a lot

[HikageMaru]

My all-time, hands down favorite is the original Grey Death Legion trilogy---Decision at Thunder Rift, Mercenary Star, and Price of Glory.  They're all 3025 or earlier and Decision at Thunder Rift is the first Battletech book ever published.  What I love about Decision at Thunder Rift (my all-time favorite Battletech novel) is how William H. Keith makes the planet Trell I itself a psydo-character in the novel.

[Dirtie_Deeds]

Agreed on the Gray Death Legion trilogy. Lots of good action. I remember doing a book report in high school on Decision At Thunder Rift.

[Banzai]

It is a great book, but if you are going to read Heir of the Dragon be sure to read the Warrior trilogy first.   It is almost a meta-novel, in that many of scenes in Heir happen immediately after scenes in the Warrior books, without showing said scenes.  I had no idea what was happening in a lot of the book the first time I read it.  After reading Stackpole, it was a favorite. 

Post 3025, I love Milan's 17th Recon books.

[StoneGiant]

He's right, I read Heir To The Dragon WAY later as it was one of the last books I collected and it would have made little sense if I had not already read the Warrior Trilogy.

[FrostWeasel]

My all-time, hands down favorite is the original Grey Death Legion trilogy---Decision at Thunder Rift, Mercenary Star, and Price of Glory.  They're all 3025 or earlier and Decision at Thunder Rift is the first Battletech book ever published.  What I love about Decision at Thunder Rift (my all-time favorite Battletech novel) is how William H. Keith makes the planet Trell I itself a psydo-character in the novel.

**Edit:  Someone corrected me.  Thanks Banzai.**

  That being said, the Grey Death Legion Trilogy is a very good set of books.  I would recommend this trilogy, the Warrior Trilogy, and the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy are very good.  I believe I have read all but one or two of the BTech novels to this point and at least 15 of the Mechwarrior DA books.   Some are good, some not.   There are some chronological reading lists out there with a google search if you want to approach it that way.  I read through the series that way once over the period of a 8 or 9 months and it made some of the less interesting/well written books go by easier as part of a much grander scale.

That being said, where do I go now if I am trying to get back into BTech fiction?  I have read up through the end of the BTech novels and most of the MDA novels.  Where do I go from here to pick back up since they haven't started publishing more novels?
Thanks.

[Banzai]

Heh.  To be pedantic, The Sword and The Dagger came out in April of 1987; Decision at Thunder Rift was 1986.

[FrostWeasel]

Heh.  To be pedantic, The Sword and The Dagger came out in April of 1987; Decision at Thunder Rift was 1986.

Really?  I saw a publish date much later for DaTR than for SaD.   If that is the case, my apologies.   Man, my first post and look at the impression I make.  :)

Anyway.. back to my other question.  Where do I go from here between the end of the original BTech books and the beginning of the MDA ones?

[Cerberus_02]

I love Milan's 17th Recon books.

Cassie Suthorn, ftw.

[StoneGiant]

There's two anthologies of Battlecorps Short Stories in print if you don't want to sign up to Battlecorps, but I'm JUST cracking the first one open and cannot judge them just yet, anyone else want to chime in and give their two cents on those?

I've noticed while thumbing through that the sporadic art isn't the best by far, but I don't read BT fiction for the art and it's usually few and far between so that's probably not a big deal.

[17th Spartans]

The 17th Recon Novels are the Best of them all. But then I have never read a Battletech novel I did not like. Now the dark age stuff I cant talk about. I read the first two and decided I did not wish to go down that road yet. I have been picking up the books when I come across them at the used book stores but Have not read any of them. Heir to The Dragon and Wolves on the Border are great Reads also. I think I must like the Combine Novels the best. must be why I am a Combine fan. I even have the Dragon tattooed on my left shoulder. The Fiction is what makes the Game come to life.  Long Live the Dragon.

[Demos]

I'd start with the Warrior Trilogy, Wolves on the Border and Heir of the dragon.
Then (if not read already) Blood of Kerensky Trilogy and the other novels of Stackpole (Natural Selection, Calculated Risk, Impetus of War (?)) as well as the Capellan Trilogy and (maybe) the Camachos Caballeros novels.
With these 5 + 9-12 novels you should have a good overview of the timeline 3025-3039 and 3050-3062.

Approximately half of the novels of DA are exhausting to read, but I iked especially the last third of the published novels.

[ApokalypseTest]

Somewhat OT, but what do I get access to if I sign up for Battlecorps? And what format is the stuff in.

[Lorcan Nagle]

As well as short stories, you get scenarios and profiles of small units, solaris stables and ships, and fictional news items (including writeups of many variant mechs that only appear in Record sheet books)

You get whatever fiction is published to date in the month you subscribed, plus anything else published until your subscription runs out.  If you skip a month or whatever you'll still have access to all the stories published when you were subscribed. You get access to the whole news archive too.

beyond that you need to pay for back catalogue, but the fiction is fairly cheap - generally less than $2 depending on the size of the story, and many of the multi-part stories have compliations which are cheaper than buying the individual parts.

The files are in PDF format, and the fiction comes in versions formatted for the screen or for printing.

[Frabby]

Somewhat OT, but what do I get access to if I sign up for Battlecorps? And what format is the stuff in.

Think of BattleCorps as a magazine, similar perhaps to the BattleTechnology of old. Once you subscribe, you get a bunch of "current" downloads, plus everything that is published during the period of your subscription. If you want back issues (i.e. fiction that was published earlier, when you weren't subscribing), you can purchase them via the BattleShop. Curiously, you need to be a current subscriber to be able to purchase old BattleCorps fiction. Which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

BattleCorps publications come in PDF form. Mostly, anyways; a couple of items are published through the site's "News" section or through the previews and downloads forums.

The site does offer a number of free stories (The Heart of Dixie, Of Love and Peace and Cherry Trees Parts I + II, Art of the Deal among them), even if you're not a subscriber. Check these out to see the format the stories. Other types of publication include scenarios, unit digests, stable reports and ship profiles; there's also "interviews" but these were kinda thin on content.

Some people have been complaining recently about the amount of output, which has apparently decreased considerably compared to BattleCorps' earlier years.
Then again, I have to say the quality is much higher than any fanzine, MechForce publication, or even some BattleTechnology stuff. Every BattleCorps submission is thoroughly fact-checked for compliance with established Canon, and is fully canonical for the BattleTech universe. So while you get less content, the overall quality is higher (not counting occasional spelling issues, which I try to ignore but which, in all honesty, need to be mentioned).

[ApokalypseTest]

hm,

for the price I'd expect roughly a novels worth of content a month, is that happening? Also, is there any way to get the stuff in ePub format?

[warden]

I picked up DaFr and Mercenarys Star yesterday on my kindle, both great reads but the third book isn't on amazon yet.

[Lorcan Nagle]

hm,

for the price I'd expect roughly a novels worth of content a month, is that happening? Also, is there any way to get the stuff in ePub format?

content's been sadly thin on the ground recently, apparently due to a lack of good submissions.

[ApokalypseTest]

Thats unfortunate,

it just seems that paying 10$/month to have access to purchase older fiction while not really getting much for the basic payment is not exactly a great deal.

Also, do I understand it correctly that the content is not available as epub?

[Lorcan Nagle]

Yeah, PDF only.  And it's a shame that new fiction has been thin on the ground recently, but there's been a lot of good stuff too.  I don't regret my subscription, that's for sure.