Bruce Jensen Loren L. Coleman Loren L. Coleman has written other BattleTech novels. Sun-Tzu is one sneaky guy. Threads of Ambition is part of the extensive BattleTech line of novels and is the first book of a new duology. BattleTech is, at its heart, a combat setting.
Big guns is only one part of a combat setting though.
Strategy is another and BattleTech has it aplenty. The primary story arc of the line recently has been the invasion of the Inner Sphere by the Clans, fierce warriors descended from an idealistic army that struck off into deep space generations before. Politics and treachery never take holidays. Threads of Ambition centres around some of that political manoeuvring. While Victor Steiner-Davion leads a unified strikeforce against the Clans, things are afoot in the Capellan Confederation.