Lit Opinions on Michael A. Stackpole's writing?1

I find it quite amusing that this seems to live on so vividly in the popular perception while Horn later nearly losing his soul to the dark side and Luke's kicking of a great deal of Jensauuri arse is less so.

 

Luke's to-the-rescue moment when Corran is confronted by five Jensaarai is honestly one of the parts of the book that has stuck with me the most vividly. Albeit partly just for the "full spectrum" joke.

 

On a purely technical level, Stackpole is not one of the great writers of the EU. He's given to very clunky dialogue, he hammers his points pretty hard . . . he's just kind of awkward as a writer. Yet nonetheless he's one of the best writers ever to write for the EU. Why? Because his writing is so much greater than the sum of its prose parts. Stackpole's books have exciting plots, exceptionally strong characterization, memorable moments, a real Star Wars adventure feel, and an incredible ability to make the galaxy real. Stackpole really intuitively gets into a level of detail that makes the setting come alive and makes his characters feel like real people. From discussing fashion to New Republic politics to food to sex, Stackpole situates his characters in something that feels like everyday life even as it feels like the Star Wars galaxy. Who else discusses stuff like Corran's apartment being destroyed in Dark Empire and having to have his wife buy him a new wardrobe? Who else gets into the actual politics of interspecies romance? Who else talks about popular trends and has his characters go out to eat? And it's never clunky, like Jacen eating Chinese in the bath as he thinks about Darthness. It's just natural. Stackpole has a WEGlike ability to make the world feel real and lived-in.

He also has incredible characters. Yes, your Riv Shiels and Peshk Vri'syks don't get much development. But people like Corran, Wedge, Iella, Mirax, and Tycho feel developed in a way almost no other characters are in the EU. He gets so deep into these characters, their psyches, their lives, that it feels like we know them. And goddammit, Corran Horn is his crowning triumph. Trip and I were just talking about this recently. There isn't another character in the EU developed remotely as deeply as Corran. Sure, we know Talon Karrde's personality. We have lots of facetime with Mara. But even characters like Luke and Leia aren't as consistently well-developed as Corran, precisely because Stackpole devotes so much time to him. He's by far the most human character in the entire EU. We know all about his relationship with his father and grandfather. We know about how his mother was killed by a drunk driver. We know he doesn't like shorts. We know about his romantic past, about his feelings about marriage, about the way he feels both uncomfortable and jealous among a big, friendly family because he's the only child of only children. We know about what an arrogant doof he is even as he constantly examines and criticizes himself. We watch him make dumb mistakes, wince at what an ass he's been, and do awesome things in between being a dumbass. We watch him fall in love, figure out how to make friends, struggle with faithfulness when he feels like he's losing his identity in an undercover mission. We see him grow from a surprisingly reflective cocky jackass to a more mature but still fallible man, to an overconfident Jedi student, to a much more humble Jedi, and eventually to a fully mature Jedi Master who can give life advice to the next generation of Jedi.

Corran's a great character and a mainstay of the EU, and the NJO would be much poorer without his significant role throughout it. He's the crowning triumph of one of the greatest authors ever to write Star Wars. He's supposed to be kind of a cocky dumbass. That's what makes him great. That, and the fact that he's trying not to be so much of a cocky dumbass even if he doesn't always succeed, is what makes him human and real and genuine. I wish more people appreciated Corran for what he is.

 

I will say that he falls deeply into the mil-sci-fi trap of 'military ubermensch standing against the civilians who are stabbing them in the back.' The moment the EU started into the Denningverse was when Stackpole had the heroes threaten the fairly elected democratic representatives of the people with a military coup, and be portrayed as morally right.

 

Is "Denningverse" a negative term? Because I've only read one Denning book (Tatooine Ghost) but it was great.

 

Denningverse specifically refers to the post-NJO books from DNT through Crucible.

 

It's a common trap and there's certainly something to that. Though I do think Kre'fey's threat was portrayed more in terms of Borsk finally running into a Bothan who can play cutthroat politics right back at him, and depended on the knowledge that it wasn't really a serious threat to work for the reader, which is why Stackpole thought it would fly, it's still problematic. I don't know that Stackpole fell deeply into it, though -- he uses Borsk as a foil for the Rogues, but he doesn't portray all politicians or civilians as the enemy. There are self-interested politicians like Borsk, who are a problem for the heroes in general, and then there are public-spirited and well-meaning politicians like Leia, Mon Mothma, Elegos, and Cal Omas who are heroes. There was a balance, and some of it is simply the nature of having a series revolving around military heroes.

 

The most positive response I can give you is that TG is not representative of his later work, which was a shame.

 

Maybe it's just me but Zahn, Stackpole, and Denning all look similar as they get older.

 

Havac raises a good point - Stackpole did have a balance of characters and POVs, even if the military were (by some necessity) the focal point.

I suspect part of what Stackpole and other SW writers of the era were facing was a question that, in some ways, nu!-canon actually does a slightly better job of addressing (at least in a more varied manner) - how does a government transitioning from totalitarianism to (ostensible) democracy avoid falling back into the totalitarian rhythms when many of the revolution's leaders are in positions of power?

Mon Mothma was, at least, slightly removed from the "General- to General-Secretary" trap; Leia, not so easily, and Borsk least of all. (Among Bothans, though, I suspect societial safeguards against sinking into space-fascism were more widespread with the Spynet.)

Seen from that POV, the Rogue's fights against Borsk's fits and tantrums are almost more an in-house spat among old comrades-in-arms (or allies of convenience) than a threat to the fundamental nature of democracy.

It doesn't excuse the over-use of the trope, or the message of "don't trust the rabble of the public", but it's less egregious in some ways than ... well, Daala.

 

The thing is according to the new canon, most of the fighting force of the NR came from defected (damn traitors) Imperial troops. There are guys like Thane Kyrell who actually fight the Empire because he feels it's "evil". Then there are The guys who are opportunists (and the majority), who join whoever is winning and whoever pays more, feed them better, equip them better.

The opportunists do not care about the NR "revolution". So when the Empire is defeated and the NR get sets up, all of their old habits will pop up. (lack of discipline, centrists, Imperial sympathizers, warlordism behaviors).

 

paraphrasing here....
but
an Imperial is an imperial is an imperial, for the new republic.

Also, was it he who started using ISDs exclusively for the NRs? I know Rojo had an ISD againstg the Praetorate Vong, and it got destroyed because of Rojo's incompetence. This was in RA Salvatore's book one of NJO. But did Stackpole started using exclusive ISDs?
Got rid of all the Mon Cal ships?

 

Nah during the X-Wing series they still had mostly classic "rebel" ships and the Star Destroyers were the Imperials IIRC

 

What aspects did you find unprofessional? What was so painful about it?

 

Well, I thought the climax being Horn having a one v one with the Vong guy was somewhat... ...it felt like Stackpole just likes this character too much and that it would have been better for someone else to write the duology because face it- Corran is not going to be the one saving the galaxy.
Using his pet character that much in this big narrative by multiple authors made reading them feel like a waste of time.

Also his prose just isn't good.

 

sigh.
I mean if a student of Luke can't go one on one with a Vong for some time (don't have to defeat said Vong, just a draw or after a duel one flaw and lose), how are we supposed to get the next generation of Jedi?
It's like you want Luke to be the one saving everything everytime everywhere. Which is cool, I guess, but then we got a problem.... Like TFA.
I guess it really is a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation with Luke's NJO.

Prose isn't good....
Do you see grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes that take you out of the magic Star Wars feel or something?
Did Stackpole read like instruction manual to you? Please explain.
I personally thought I Jedi was great.
If I had to complain about the NJO I would say it made Jaina into a ultra Mary Sue (I'll call her a stanged Mary Sue and not a pet If I want to stang it). She's soooo good a pilot that only she could navigate the asteroid field. The kid can fly!!!!! She's a goddesssss! The vong even said so!!!!!!! She's a cooooliio Sword of the Jedi!!!!!!@. And Mara. What did they do to you? And now, all that complaints, Stackpole had nothing to do with it. So he was actually the best NJO author in my book.

 

Uh... the Solo kids are the next generation.
And his prose is just not good. Compare Luceno's prose or Stover's prose to Stackpole's. He reads like a YA author in comparison. I also think that his writing isn't really good for the printed medium. Too many long descriptions of fighting. Talking in books. Action in movies.

 

I'm with you on that. It's not even close for me.


Sent from Moto X-Wing

 

So you'd rather it just be the same characters in the climax of every book? That was already unrealistic and tedious enough as it is. Corran being the man is a nice change when you look at the series as a whole.

 

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I thought Corran vs. Shai was pretty good. Corran getting the blame afterwards was stupid, but no more stupid than most of what happened in the NJO and post-NJO (blame everything on the Jedi!).

And honestly it was good to see a Jedi other than Luke fighting a big fight. Unfortunately that problem would get even worse much later on.

If you don't like his prose, that's fine, that's your choice. I don't think there was anything wrong with it, it was quite good. Not super, super great, but still very decent at the least.

Fleet battles weren't quite as big a thing in the X-wing books as in others, but captured ISDs did play a role, but so did Mon Cal ships. Heck, we got Booster Terrik flying around in his own personal Star Destroyer out of his books, an idea I always loved.