There are Battletech novels? Tons of them?

Ah, Battletech.

While I have been aware of Battletech since the 80s because I saw ads for it in Dragon Magazine, I have never been interested in it.

I’ve been aware of the giant robot genre since I was knee high to a grasshopper but I’ve never been really grabbed by it. Maybe it’s due to being exposed to Tranzor Z, a really bad dub of Mazinger Z, at too young an age. Put me off of Voltron without even trying to giving it a chance. The only cartoon with giant robots I really got into was Robotech and that was more because it was a soap opera like the X-Men.

(Incidentally, I know that many anime fans hate Robotech because of the massive editing that had to happen to scrunch Macross-Southern Cross-MOSPEADA into enough episodes that it could be syndicated on American television. I am not one of them because, dude, I was there. 

It’s hard to believe now, when manga and anime has become a mainstream mainstay, but when Robotech came out, there was no market for it. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before. As a cynical grownup, looking back, I’m amazed it worked. And it helped create an environment where authentic anime could flourish in a western market.

On the other hand, I completely support hating Harmony Gold for being a bunch of litigious jerks who sued anything that remotely resembled Robotech and locked Macross out of the western market. Which brings me back to Battletech, which got sued multiple times by Harmony Gold)

When Humble Bundle released a bundle Battletech fiction, I was completely non-interested. Until I saw that Michael Stackpole had written a bunch of them. Then I became very interested.

And I’ve begun to actually look into Battletech.

I’ve learned that, along with WH40K, it’s one of the OG science fiction warfare franchises. Neither of them started the genre but they both helped boost it. 

I’ve already read Warrior: En Garde, Stackpole’s first book. I was confused about how the clans didn’t get a mention in the book. Then I learned the clans hasn’t been introduced when the book had been written lol

Entirely new, setting altering factions getting added in? Damn, that is like WH40K!

I doubt I’ll ever play the actual game (just like Death Angel or Space Hilk are the only WH40K games I’m in any danger of trying) but I’ve downloaded the quick start rules to learn more about Battletech. 

However, like WH40K, I sure will read the fiction.