Michael Stackpole
#61
Posted 26 June 2012 - 12:56 PM
Such as exploding fusion reactors. Or Aidan claiming he was "using up his weapon energy too quickly" (THAT was a head scratcher).
I'll add to the list as I come up with some others.
#62
Posted 26 June 2012 - 12:59 PM
My introduction to Battletech was 'Decision at Thunder Rift' and 'Sword and Dagger'. I was 15 at the time when they came out along with Battletech itself. It was good for young readers and these books got me hooked. These weren't by Stackpole
Then I read Stackpole's Warrior Triology and later all his stuff. I devoured it at the time as I was a BT fanatic. I'd say it was passable teenage pulp-fiction. I've re-read it several times since then and realise its really pretty bad. Its contrived to the extreme, and so predictable. Comparing Stackpole to any credible Sci-Fi author is like comparing a 'Mills and Boon' novel to 'Dune' or 'Enders Game'.
The good guys overcome with such ease it makes you want to dry-reach. You almost feel for their opponents and their stupidity. With Stackpole, the outcome isn't really the question. All of this I could forgive in a action novel, except that he can't write action well either. His descriptions are tedious and lack any real tension.
I wish I could say better for the guy, he did plot out most of the timeline of the Inner Sphere in his books, but that's just the truth as I see it. If a friend of mine wanted to borrow my books, I'd warn him about them just the same. If you want to learn some of the characters and history of the Inner Sphere they are good. The younger you are the better.
Edited by Radgor Ryan, 26 June 2012 - 01:00 PM.
#63
Posted 26 June 2012 - 01:00 PM
#64
Posted 26 June 2012 - 01:13 PM
In the early days the authors had enough respect for the game to know what it allowed, and didn't use so much creative license. Once the game was being affected by the books I turned against the books at first and then against the game I loved. I have all the early books for the game, but none of the latter stuff which I detest. I believe TRO 3055 was one of the last game books I bought back then. I have everything up to then. I heard about the unseen thing later ... most of you don't even know the game was originally called Battledroids.
EDIT: Have all the TROs to 3060, everything after I ignored.
Edited by Thorn Blackwell, 26 June 2012 - 01:33 PM.
#65
Posted 26 June 2012 - 01:21 PM
#66
Posted 26 June 2012 - 01:59 PM
The only drawback I could mention, if it even is one at that, is that all his lead characters tend to be the same person whether Corran Horn/Luke Skywalker flying an X-Wing or Victor Davion/Kai Allard Liao in a battlemech.
I am not familiar with any of his non BT/Star Wars work unfortunatly.
Edited by Fiachdubh, 26 June 2012 - 02:01 PM.
#67
Posted 26 June 2012 - 07:43 PM
#68
Posted 26 June 2012 - 07:56 PM
Radgor Ryan, on 26 June 2012 - 12:59 PM, said:
I think the only particular book of his I remember reading specifically was the first Dark Age book and this basically described it. The character was the ultimate super spy that no matter how bad the situation, was the most awesome guy ever. Then again I can't stand Burn Notice either. Don't think I've read his other novels though, so not much of an opinion here.
#69
Posted 27 June 2012 - 04:42 AM
I hope he gets a chance to see this so he knows his loyal fans are still out there!
#70
Posted 27 June 2012 - 04:58 AM
#71
Posted 27 June 2012 - 05:16 AM
Unless it has BattleTech somewhere on the cover, EVERYTHING else I try to read I find to be written by a monkey with a typewriter; little imagination, little inter-weaving of political and personal intrigue, rather than just the right amount of politics, personal interaction, combat, and just really well-written stories.
Aegic, on 26 June 2012 - 08:41 AM, said:
Rixx, on 26 June 2012 - 09:14 AM, said:
B. He's involved with the introduction of the clans. The pre-clan BT fans tended to hate the clans. They were vested in the Inner Sphere politics and saw the Clans as a really shallow attempt to revitalize the BT universe.
Quote
My real problem with Dark Age begins with the stupid Jihad; that was the most ignorant move ever made in the short history of the BattleTech universe. It was trite in writing and real-world parallel, and it allowed for a single man -supposedly with amazing charisma- to convince the leaders of the Inner Sphere, who had been at war with one-another for four-hundred years, family hatreds that make the Hatfield's and McCoy's feud look like a bad joke, to lay down their arms, sing Kumbaya around a camp fire, and go destroy even respected House and Mercenary units, who knew warfare in such a way that these types of defeats were ignorant in scope... that's a run-on sentence, and I apologize. Dark Age is NOT BattleTech, any more than Mercs-4 is BattleTech -and just because Microsoft slapped an Official BattleTech Product logo on the box for that game does NOT mean it is BattleTech; M$ wouldn't know BattleTech if it bit them in the hiney-, and it is just as much crap, and whomever came up with the Jihad, the whole Devlin Stone idea, and everything leading up to Dark Age, should be well-ashamed of themselves for writing them.
Edited by Kay Wolf, 27 June 2012 - 05:18 AM.
#72
Posted 27 June 2012 - 05:26 AM
I'm all for nostalgia and his books will keep their places in my bookshelf, but I'm not tempted to read them again.
#73
Posted 27 June 2012 - 05:50 AM
Kay Wolf, on 27 June 2012 - 05:16 AM, said:
Just generally speaking.
If a book (or movie for that matter) never has something unbelievable/unlikely happen I just don't find it interesting.
For example ***Minor Spoilers ahead***
-A Mechwarrior besting multiple Elementals in hand to hand combat.
-A veteran mechwarrior missing a crippled opponent at point blank range and then calling a draw (Morgan Kells phantom ability?).
-A Khan being made from a freeborn whelp.
These are just a few examples of things I enjoyed and others call foul. "Oh that would never happen" "Oh thats BS"
They want
-A Mechwarrior being slaughtered by an elemental in hand to hand combat
-A veteran mechwarrior demolishing a crippled opponent at point blank range.
-A Freeborn whelp dying in servitude.
I dont read fiction to get depressed, I read it for fun and to enjoy the universe.
#74
Posted 27 June 2012 - 06:03 AM
I will say this; everyone I know who was into Stackpole's work has ended up intensely disliking him. He's apparently got quite the ego going. I know a die hard Stackpole who met him at Phoenix Comicon a year or so back and was so disillusioned with how the Stack carried himself that after going on about it on his ride home, he dropped his books into a box in a closet and hasn't said a word about the man since. Big turnaround.
#75
Posted 27 June 2012 - 06:28 AM
#76
Posted 27 June 2012 - 06:35 AM
Because he's an arrogant ****, who thinks he is the Leonardo da Vinci of sci-fi literature, but is no better than Ned Buntline.
I would not mind it if he was simply another mediocre writer. I would not mind it his ego were somewhat smaller than a large moon. I would not mind it if Mason Dunne were a different character than Phelan Kell were a different character from Corran Horn were a different character from Victor Steiner-Davion. But they're not: They are the exact same characters, with the exact same relationships with the exact same people, from their strong-damsels-in-distress to their villains (who are all the same baffoonishly cartoonish characters).
I enjoyed Stackpole's books when I was younger. I recently picked up Lethal Heritage to psyche myself up for MWO, but had to put the book down after five pages, because it was just so painful to read. Someone said that he's a good writer for a teenager to read his book and, were it not for JK Rowling, et al., I would agree.
But, I suppose that the poll proves the age-old adige: No one ever lost money underestimating the taste of the American people.
#77
Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:03 AM
However please don't resort to passive aggressively flame people who do enjoy his writing. I understand your POV and can respect why you feel the way you do, we just have different tastes is all.
Just remember that we all have different opinions on just about everything.
#78
Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:55 AM
#79
Posted 27 June 2012 - 09:44 AM
I've read three or four of his books.
"I, Jedi" I've read twice.. Great writer.
#80
Posted 27 June 2012 - 11:54 AM
He's still the iconic writer of the BattleTech universe to me, though.
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