So I recently picked up about 5 more of the Dark Age books, specifically the last 5 that all have to deal with the Lyran/Wolf invasion of the Free Worlds League. Just finished Masters of War, I was looking forward to reading another Stackpole book since Ghost War, but had mixed feelings finishing this one. I was glad to see the scale of battle in the book again, I don't think another DA novel has managed to really capture that since Fortress Republic or Target of Opportunity, but I was kind of miffed by some of the characters in it. Kennerly, Verena Wolf's second in command in particular felt like way too strong of an author insert, giving insight into everything and playing Devil's Advocate constantly. Anastasia Kerensky I felt was a little too omniscient in everything she did; I don't mind competent individuals, but here she seemed to be able to do no wrong. Her capture and torture of Alaric too seemed so out of place. I didn't miss her motivation for doing it, but she seemed to be planning veeerrry far ahead with those action's implications. I much prefer Killiany's Wolf Hunters interpretation of Kerensky; competent and knows what she wants, but still capable of making mistakes and being caught off guard. Seth Ward was awesome though, can't wait to see more scenes with him.
Starting Pandora's Gambit, and I can already tell House Marik is going to become my favorite faction. Jessica Marik's brood and the prologue scene alone is just great, very natural feeling. Nice to see royal dynamism playing out in a story setting that is supposed to be rife with it.
Something else I wanted to mention but don't think it warrant its own thread topic... did anyone else feel like the Dark Age novel series wasted lots of good characters with potential? Ever since I started reading the novels back in the day I couldn't help but feel Wizkids set up the setting with lots of possibly interesting characters, only to kill them off for other characters. Kal Radick of the Steel Wolves and Kev Rosse of Clan Spirit Cat come to mind kind of immediately. Kev Rosse gets to appear in about 4 novels, but always as a side character to other Nova Cat characters, while Kal Radick gets two novel appearances, and dies in the second, so that Anastasia Kerensky can become Galaxy Commander and show by brute force just how 'cool' she is. I'm sure if I think on more of the novels more characters would appear, being cut really early to make way for others.