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I've been contemplating my Thoughts On Michael Stackpole for a while, so I figured I'd collect them. He is, of course, the writer of five books in the X-Wing Series, I, Jedi, two books in the NJO, some short stories, and various novels that aren't part of the Star Wars EU. I've read all of his SWEU work and some of his originals.
It seems like Stackpole just about always has a central character who is always, always confident. In and out of the SWEU. In, of course, it's Corran. These centrals have a strong tendency to be Mary-Sues to one extent or another.
Stackpole likes ending just about every chapter with a declarative statement, even when it doesn't fit at all. His non-centrals strongly tend to be flat and ignored, to the point where the X-Wing books are basically "Corran and the Corranettes, the Anti-Corran, and this guy called Wedge". More pagetime in Rogue Squadron was spent on characters talking about Lujayne Forge after she died than was spent on her when she was alive. I used to have trouble following the plots. He likes telling instead of showing, say, public opinion turning against the New Republic.
For all that? I don't dislike Stackpole. Not at all. He's got great worldbuilding. The details he comes up with are fascinating, and his technobabble is some of the best I've seen. And I don't mind his Sues too much.
Take Naomi Novik's Temeraire. I seem to be in the minority with this opinion, but I'm very unimpressed with those books. I love the worldbuilding. Most of the characters are flat. I hate Temeraire with a sullen passion. He's just the most speshul ossum dragon-Sue who is better at every field - size, flight, breath weapon, intellect - than any but those dragons who are sharply focused on their field and aren't that great in the others, and he's got the unique language thing. He's got values that are perfectly and completely in line with modern Western values. His flaws don't make him more accessible. Everyone loves him for no reason I can discern. He undergoes no character development. And he's always right.
Corran is also a speshul ossum Sue, though of the policeman-pilot-Jedi variety. Certainly I have my objections to him, chiefest among them being how he tends to eclipse everything else about the stories he's in. And how he's endlessly sure of himself. But you know what? He's not always right. In fact, sometimes he's dead wrong. He gets embarrassed and doesn't always recover from it right away. He'll eat crow when he has to. And enough happens around him to make those books worth reading.
I haven't read the NJO pair recently or gone through most of Stackpole's originals, but my favorite of his X-Wing novels is the Krytos Trap. Because with Corran on the Lusankya, the other half of the plot actually has to focus on the other characters, who can't and don't mourn him every waking moment. So we have more focus on Wedge, Tycho, Asyr, Gavin, Iella, the bad guys, and Nawara. And you know what? I like those parts of the book, even if all the other Rogues have like two lines each. The trial was fascinating.
But in all honesty, I think I, Jedi is the best novel Stackpole has ever written. All right, it's a first-person with who else but Corran narrating, but I just find it a better read than any of his others. Corran's snarky, he goes through some trauma, he gets humiliated and ground down a time or two, and, well, it's the nature of a first-person account to be focused on the narrator. Plus, it made the Jedi Academy Trilogy more palatable. Wow, do I hate the Jedi Academy Trilogy.
Though Stackpole seems to work really well with Zahn on those collaborations they've had. Zahn, of course, is someone I started out not liking very much, and then I got older, could follow his plots, and now he can do no wrong. Zahn's characters seem to give Stackpole's something to focus on, and so Corran in Side Trip doesn't overwhelm everything, nor does his father in Interlude at Darknell. I wish I knew how they fit together in The Reenlistment of Baron Fel. Because I like Stackpole in the comics. I like him there a lot.
Teal deer? Stackpole's not bad. Allston definitely writes better, but you can read worse than Stackpole.
It seems like Stackpole just about always has a central character who is always, always confident. In and out of the SWEU. In, of course, it's Corran. These centrals have a strong tendency to be Mary-Sues to one extent or another.
Stackpole likes ending just about every chapter with a declarative statement, even when it doesn't fit at all. His non-centrals strongly tend to be flat and ignored, to the point where the X-Wing books are basically "Corran and the Corranettes, the Anti-Corran, and this guy called Wedge". More pagetime in Rogue Squadron was spent on characters talking about Lujayne Forge after she died than was spent on her when she was alive. I used to have trouble following the plots. He likes telling instead of showing, say, public opinion turning against the New Republic.
For all that? I don't dislike Stackpole. Not at all. He's got great worldbuilding. The details he comes up with are fascinating, and his technobabble is some of the best I've seen. And I don't mind his Sues too much.
Take Naomi Novik's Temeraire. I seem to be in the minority with this opinion, but I'm very unimpressed with those books. I love the worldbuilding. Most of the characters are flat. I hate Temeraire with a sullen passion. He's just the most speshul ossum dragon-Sue who is better at every field - size, flight, breath weapon, intellect - than any but those dragons who are sharply focused on their field and aren't that great in the others, and he's got the unique language thing. He's got values that are perfectly and completely in line with modern Western values. His flaws don't make him more accessible. Everyone loves him for no reason I can discern. He undergoes no character development. And he's always right.
Corran is also a speshul ossum Sue, though of the policeman-pilot-Jedi variety. Certainly I have my objections to him, chiefest among them being how he tends to eclipse everything else about the stories he's in. And how he's endlessly sure of himself. But you know what? He's not always right. In fact, sometimes he's dead wrong. He gets embarrassed and doesn't always recover from it right away. He'll eat crow when he has to. And enough happens around him to make those books worth reading.
I haven't read the NJO pair recently or gone through most of Stackpole's originals, but my favorite of his X-Wing novels is the Krytos Trap. Because with Corran on the Lusankya, the other half of the plot actually has to focus on the other characters, who can't and don't mourn him every waking moment. So we have more focus on Wedge, Tycho, Asyr, Gavin, Iella, the bad guys, and Nawara. And you know what? I like those parts of the book, even if all the other Rogues have like two lines each. The trial was fascinating.
But in all honesty, I think I, Jedi is the best novel Stackpole has ever written. All right, it's a first-person with who else but Corran narrating, but I just find it a better read than any of his others. Corran's snarky, he goes through some trauma, he gets humiliated and ground down a time or two, and, well, it's the nature of a first-person account to be focused on the narrator. Plus, it made the Jedi Academy Trilogy more palatable. Wow, do I hate the Jedi Academy Trilogy.
Though Stackpole seems to work really well with Zahn on those collaborations they've had. Zahn, of course, is someone I started out not liking very much, and then I got older, could follow his plots, and now he can do no wrong. Zahn's characters seem to give Stackpole's something to focus on, and so Corran in Side Trip doesn't overwhelm everything, nor does his father in Interlude at Darknell. I wish I knew how they fit together in The Reenlistment of Baron Fel. Because I like Stackpole in the comics. I like him there a lot.
Teal deer? Stackpole's not bad. Allston definitely writes better, but you can read worse than Stackpole.
