Battletech + Stackpole = beach read with giant mech

Michael Stackpole is the only reason I have any interest in Battletech’s fiction. Heck, he’s practically the only reason I know the fiction even exists. And having finished his first Battletech work, the Warrior trilogy (En Garde, Riposte, Coupe), I can say that Mr. Stackpole has not failed me.

Intellectual Properties are always this weird potluck of quality, even though I am pretty sure most of the media in the world falls into that category. And gaming fiction in particular can really be all over the place, even different works from the same company.

And while I am aware there have been successful cartoons about Battletech, I still wouldn’t think it lends itself to novels. As a tactical level war game, the focus is on fighting, not storytelling. (Yes. I know I love WH40K fiction and the original game is just about beating each other up too)

Stackpole makes the Warrior trilogy work by not writing about a game with giant robots. Instead, he wrote a political thriller that just happens to have giant robots in it.

Honestly, for all intents and purposes, the series is a summer beach read. It’s not driven by character or theme but by plot. The books aren’t deep and nor are they trying to be. They focus on being entertaining and telling an engaging story. And that is something Stackpole pulls off.

The  books aren’t without their flaws. By virtue of having to work with the setting lore, there are some plot elements that don’t contribute to the larger narrative and really go nowhere. And you can figure out some of the major plot twists just by who Stackpole concentrates on as major characters.

But those are flaws that come as part of the package, particularly the second one. Stackpole made telling a good story his priority and it shows. These were some of his earliest fiction but the promise is already there.

The Warrior trilogy isn’t high art. It’s airport reading.  But they aren’t  just airport reading. They are the kind of books you are happy to find before a six-hour flight.

There are Battletech novels? Tons of them?

Ah, Battletech.

While I have been aware of Battletech since the 80s because I saw ads for it in Dragon Magazine, I have never been interested in it.

I’ve been aware of the giant robot genre since I was knee high to a grasshopper but I’ve never been really grabbed by it. Maybe it’s due to being exposed to Tranzor Z, a really bad dub of Mazinger Z, at too young an age. Put me off of Voltron without even trying to giving it a chance. The only cartoon with giant robots I really got into was Robotech and that was more because it was a soap opera like the X-Men.

(Incidentally, I know that many anime fans hate Robotech because of the massive editing that had to happen to scrunch Macross-Southern Cross-MOSPEADA into enough episodes that it could be syndicated on American television. I am not one of them because, dude, I was there. 

It’s hard to believe now, when manga and anime has become a mainstream mainstay, but when Robotech came out, there was no market for it. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before. As a cynical grownup, looking back, I’m amazed it worked. And it helped create an environment where authentic anime could flourish in a western market.

On the other hand, I completely support hating Harmony Gold for being a bunch of litigious jerks who sued anything that remotely resembled Robotech and locked Macross out of the western market. Which brings me back to Battletech, which got sued multiple times by Harmony Gold)

When Humble Bundle released a bundle Battletech fiction, I was completely non-interested. Until I saw that Michael Stackpole had written a bunch of them. Then I became very interested.

And I’ve begun to actually look into Battletech.

I’ve learned that, along with WH40K, it’s one of the OG science fiction warfare franchises. Neither of them started the genre but they both helped boost it. 

I’ve already read Warrior: En Garde, Stackpole’s first book. I was confused about how the clans didn’t get a mention in the book. Then I learned the clans hasn’t been introduced when the book had been written lol

Entirely new, setting altering factions getting added in? Damn, that is like WH40K!

I doubt I’ll ever play the actual game (just like Death Angel or Space Hilk are the only WH40K games I’m in any danger of trying) but I’ve downloaded the quick start rules to learn more about Battletech. 

However, like WH40K, I sure will read the fiction.

Aging and Super Heroes

In Michael Stackpole’s afterward to I’m Hero Years… I’m Dead, he wrote about how he had to publish the book electronically because publishers didn’t l know what to do with a superhero novel. My, how the world has changed. I credit the MCU movies with making superhero novels and Cape Punk viable.

I do think that In Hero Years is an important milestone in Cape Punk (the book labels itself Super Hero Noire) but that might just because I think Stackpole is a fun author. It does represent an example of what was to come.

(That said, it is _far_ from the first example. Even if you argue that 1930 Gladiator, which allegedly inspired Superman, doesn’t count since it predates the genre, there are works like 1977’s Superfollks. Now that is a weird read, exploring what if Superman was a sexual and neurotic being. And it’s even stranger than that sounds)

The protagonist (who has many aliases but we never learn his actual name) returns to Capital City after two decades of exile. While he was gone, super powered shenanigans  in Capital City have become literal extreme sports events. Villains post heists and heroes bid on thwarting them. There’s betting and fantasy team leagues.

I was going to say that the city has monetized crime but that’s literally the point of crime in the first place. The city has legitimized violent super crime so it’s like white collar crime. And if that sounds like an intrinsically unstable and fragile setup, Stackpole agrees with you :)

The book bounces between the hero trying to sort himself out and having to deal with the greater situation of the city. To be honest, the ending turned into a more conventional comic book ending, which felt flat for me after so much deconstruction.

However, the voice and development of the protagonist is amazing. He’s an acrobat/martial artist/detective/gadgeteer (think Batman) Having him ruminate about the nature of being a crime fighter and being a crime fighter who’s growing old is riveting. I could read a whole book of his monologues.

I read In Hero Years when it first came out and reread it recently. On the one hand, I found the plot flatter than I remembered. On the other hand, I found the protagonist even more compelling than I remember. On a whole, a win for Mr. Stackpole.

I honestly wouldn’t say that deconstruction is the point of a lot of Cape Punk. I think it’s a love for comic books and super heroes disguised as deconstruction.