THE EPIC FIRST NOVEL OF THE LEGENDARY SCIENCE FICTION SERIES... 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.

ABOUT BATTLETECH: Decision at Thunder Rift is one of the first of more than 100 novels set in the BattleTech universe, a 31st-century setting of constant war between planets, nations, and peoples. A 'Mech is a 12-meter-tall, 100-ton walking war machine. Only another 'Mech can face one. Mercenary armies battle for pay, for honor, and for causes innumerable.

REVIEW EXCERPTS: "Decision at Thunder Rift is BattleTech at its best. Coming of age story, mixed with good dose of mech-based war, betrayal, and romance brings about a great page-turner that's hard to let go once you start." 5-star review

"That's the key to Decision at Thunder Rift as a novel. More than a damn good read, it ultimately gave us someone we can root for." 5-star review