The fiction Timeline
Have you ever wondered in what order to read the Battletech novels? It is a daunting task to tackle all the fiction out there. Some were available for purchase as a physical product, but many were also only digital releases. Hopefully this list will provide some respite from collecting all the fiction out there!
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4th Succescion War - Pre-Clan Invasion
Decision At Thunder Rift - William H. Keith, JR.
In-Universe Date: 3024
Synopsis: Thirty meters tall, seventy tons of quick-striding death and destruction, the armored war machines called BattleMechs are the front line forces of the crumbling star empire locked in the horror of the endless Succession Wars. Their pilots are MechWarriors, 31st-Century knights riding armored machines powerful enough to take a city apart.
Grayson Death Carlyle had been training to be a MechWarrior since he was 10 years old, but his graduation came sooner than expected. With his friends and family dead and his father's regiment destroyed, young Grayson finds himself stranded on a world turned hostile. Now he must learn the hardest lesson of all: it takes more than a BattleMech to make a MechWarrior...
But to claim that title, all Grayson has to do is go out and capture one of those giant killing machines...if it doesn't kill him first.
The Sword and the Dagger - Ardath Mayhar
In-Universe Date: 3025
Synopsis: MechWarriors believe that the only way to kill a BattleMech is with another 'Mech... But Generals know that the best way to kill an army of 'Mechs is with a well-placed dagger. The five houses of the Successor States employ both warfare and treachery in their efforts to gain control of the interstellar empire once known as the Star League. Huge, man-like, walking tanks called BattleMechs rule the battlefields, but intrigues and plots rule the imperial courts. Hanse Davion is Prince of the Federated Suns, the largest of the five warring Houses... an idealistic man who has had to learn that politics is neither honorable nor straightforward. Ardan Sortek is the commander of Hanse Davion's personal guard. Although a long-time friend of Hanse's, he has not yet learned the lessons of power. Through a chance series of events he stumbles upon a plot of such magnitude, that it threatens the balance of power of Inner Sphere. Unfortunately, no one will believe him... Indeed, they think he is quite mad.
Is Ardan crazy or is someone trying to kill Hanse Davion?
MERCENARY'S Star - William H. Keith, JR.
In-Universe Date: 3025 - 3026
Synopsis: Galatea. The Mercenary's Star. Even the most down on their luck units can find work here. Leading the newly-formed Gray Death Legion has been challenging for Grayson Death Carlyle, so when a job comes their way, he’s only too happy to take it. The mission: train the local resistance on the planet Verthandi to resist their Draconis Combine masters. But things do not go well almost from the moment the Legion arrives. Trapped on Verthandi and facing a superior force and a fractured populace, the men and women of the Legion find themselves in a situation that makes the campaign on Trellwan look like a walk in the park. And Grayson quickly learns that repeating his past successes may not be so easy this time…
Warrior: En Garde - Michael A. Stackpole
In-Universe Date: 3022-3027
Synopsis: Betrayed by his own House and stripped of his rank, exiled Mechwarrior Justin Allard is given one last chance to save his honor—by risking his life in the gladiatorial arenas of Solaris VII. But his newest Game World opponent—more skilled at 'Mech-to-'Mech combat than any other rival—raises the stakes even higher. It's Philip Capet, former mechwarrior in the Davion military—until he was kicked out by none other than Justin Allard before his own unfortunate fall from grace. Both Justin and Philip face their own fierce battles, but in the InnerSphere, where nobles have schemed for centuries to win the ultimate power, those who interfere with the Successor Lords are sometimes called heroes.
And sometimes called victims…
The Price of Glory - William H. Keith, JR.
In-Universe Date: 3027-3028
Synopsis: The Gray Death Legion is in the employ of the Free Worlds League and has even been given a landhold on the planet Helm. But dark forces conspire against them and the Legion soon finds themselves declared renegade war criminals, fair game for anyone to attack. Now they are on the run on their home planet, trying desperately to reach safety before the might of House Marik falls upon them. They are about to discover the true motives of those who engineered their downfall. And what they discover will change the Inner Sphere forever...
Wolves on The Border - Robert N. Charrette
In-Universe Date: 3021 - 3028
Synopsis: LIFE, DEATH, HONOR, FEALTY.
Bushido governs all these concepts. As a MechWarrior of the Draconis Combine, Monobu Tetsuhara was bound by Bushido—a code that demands loyal service—to the devious Warlord Grieg Samsonov. But when Minobu came upon a strange blue-and-gold ARcher, the field littered with its vanquished opponents and its weapons now empty, Bushido also dictated that he not destroy the honorable but helpless warrior. And so he rescued Jaime Wolf. Minobu was then assigned as liaison to the Wolf’s Dragoons, one of the Combine’s most elite mercenary units, who treated him with the respect due a fellow warrior. When the mercenaries refused to renew their contract with Samsonov, Minobu was indstructed to destroy them. Now Bushido dictates that Minobu oppose his honorable foe, a man with whom he has served and who deserves far batter than betrayal…
wARRIOR: rIPOSTE - mICHAEL a. sTACKPOLE
In-Universe Date: 3027 - 3029
Synopsis: Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner have united two Great Houses of the Inner Sphere in a marriage that upsets the balance of power among the stars. Though some hope this may bring an end to centuries of war, Maximilian Liao of the Capellan Confederation has enlisted the aid of two highly placed Davion traitors to destroy Hanse Davion and the Federated Suns from both within and without. But in the distant star chambers of the Capellan March and Draconis Combine, the warlords of Maximilian Liao are honoring a different and more deadly vow: to wage an unholy war that threatens to rip apart the vulnerable worlds of the Federated Suns. As Davion ’Mech commander Andrew Redburn and his mercenaries streak into battle, an explosive clash of metal and men signals the return of a formidable foe. Interstellar legend Yorinaga Kurita has returned to stake his claim as the most bloodthirsty warrior of all. For both men, it is do-or-die combat that could ensure the triumph of a glorious new alliance—or result in total annihilation…
Warrior: Coupe - Michael A. Stackpole
In-Universe Date: 3029 - 3030
Synopsis: THE FINAL ENGAGEMENT...
The minions of Maximilian Liao are about to deliver a crippling blow to the forces of Prince Hanse Davion—discovering a way to use Hanse’s own technology against him. Half a galaxy away, assassins stalk Hanse's wife, Melissa Steiner, and her mother, Archon Katrina Steiner, in the passageways of their own palace. Invasion is imminent. The only ’Mech force capable of stopping that invasion—the Kell Hounds mercenary unit—is trapped in a game of search and destroy with the most fearsome Kurita unit ever created. Even if they come back in time...how many would make it? In a world where ten-meter-tall war machines are the soul of battle, assassins are state policy, and a spy’s loyalty is always for sale, the only thing certain is death. Who can you trust? And in the bitter end, how will you be betrayed?
Heir to the Dragon - Robert N. Charrette
In-Universe Date: 3004 - 3040
Synopsis: A flash of steel, a thin crimson line, and a foamy gurgle of confusion marked the beginning of Takashi's rule, and the passing of Theodore's grandfather. Theodore Kurita is the son of Takashi Kurita, and heir apparent to the Draconis Combine, one of the most powerful realms of the Inner Sphere. But the Draconis Combine has never been a place of smooth transitions. Historically, a Kurita proves himself a fit leader by a successful bid for power, political or... otherwise. Theodore's perilous journey to power is a twenty-year odyssey beginning with his graduation from Sun Zhang Military Academy. At each level of ascendancy, Theodore finds that keeping power is far more difficult than getting it, and failure lies in wait at every turn.
Theodore's tactical knowledge is put to the test all too many times. His successes in impossible situations are dismissed as smoke and mirror trickery by some, but lauded as genius by others. Upon reaching the level of Lord of the Combine Military, his new power allows him to see the uncertain future of his people. Theodore must step carefully as he bargains for his future with ComStar, the mystic sect, and the Yakuza, an interstellar network of organized crime. All the while, maintaining an uneasy truce with the man whom he must one day depose... his father, Coordinator of the Draconis Combine!