My first BT book was Ideal War I believe, I don't really recall anything from the book with the exception that it created the Knights of the Inner Sphere and the end was<div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Paul in his Phoenix Hawk running his machine guns over the villain with a nuke.</div></div><br/>I kind of like the BT universe because of how (with me being a cynic) close it kind of seemed to resemble the 'current' state of human nature.  I grew up on Star Trek and Star Wars and love them, but BattleTech had a grittier realism to it (also why I think Deep Space Nine is one of the best Star Trek series out there)...but then again I am both cynical and sarcastic.<br/><br/>Matt