This guy grew up with my mother and ended up hitting the best seller list so I started reading his novels.
The most famous ones are the Rogue Squadron books, of which there are several. What I really like though are his fantasy-fiction books. The characters are really wel drawn I think and every one has been a page turner.
So, what’s your take? Favorite books? Am I a lone fan?
I have read some of his work. I thought his Revenant was exceptional. I have found his other works OK.
That was the one that I liked best as well. “Talion: Revnant” was the name and I keep wishing that he’d turn it into a series.
Once a Hero and Hreo Born are also good ones.
I’ve read the stuff he’s written for the Shadowrun RPG, which I think is some of the best fiction out there for SR. I’ve been meaning to read some of his other stuff because I like his style, but I haven’t found the time yet. There are some good pieces on his website (stormwolf.com)–especially the Merlin Bloodstone novella.
Off topic somewhat, Mike used to come to our lowly gaming convention in college, and to this day (almost 20 years later) he still recognizes me at cons. He GMed one of the best Shadowrun games I’ve ever played in–imagine a convention game with about 20 players, including three or four dedicated roleplayers, three or four rampant munchkins, and everything in between, and then imagine a GM playing the group like a virtuoso. It was a beautiful thing. 
Mike is a classy, very nice guy who runs some great writers’ workshops (and who was instrumental in calming down much of the anti-RPG hysteria of the 80s and early 90s).
Yup. I had the same impression. His parents still live on the same street as my grandmother, so I got to meet him a little while back. Really nice guy.
I’ve read his Rogue Squadron books, which were nice, but I absolutely adored his Battletech books. They were head and shoulders above all of the other authors that wrote those books.
I was incredibly disappointed when he opted not to complete his storyline and instead handed his outline over to Loren Coleman. While I was happy to see his intentions for wrapping things up, I would have preferred if he had written it with his own hand.
I really liked his battletech books. Mainly because up until then, I wasn’t able to visualize mech battles very well. Sure, there were the video games, but they were stiff and too ‘simulator like’ to really illicit any feeling of drama/intensity for me. Stackpole’s novels gave a great depiction of the desperation and violence of 31st century warfare.
I’ve read all of his Star Wars books, except for some of the comics (they’re hard to obtain!), and I’m definitely a fan, although for the X-Wing, Aaron Allston was my favorite.
But yes, Stackpole is very cool. He answered an e-mail I sent to him once and was very nice.
I loved Talion: Revenant; I’d reread it if I could find my copy. A Hero Born and Enemy Reborn were pretty good, too (I loved the living stool, it was so cute…)
I’ll have to pick up a couple of the Battletech books. I think that those are the only ones that I haven’t read 
I have his most current one Fortress Draconis almost finished. It is in the Dark Glory War series. Now I wish I could find the prequil…I think I must have left it at my mother’s place last time I was down…