I just finished reading Michael Stackpole's "Heir Apparent," which is the first of four linked novellas set in the rimward Periphery (the stomping grounds of the forthcoming HBS BattleTech computer game). The main character is Walter de Mesnil, who first appeared as Justin Allard's sergeant in the Kittery Training Battalion circa 3026 in Warrior: En Garde, and most recently was featured as a cab driver on Galatea who joins the nascent Kell Hounds in 3010 in "Not the Way the Smart Money Bets," both by Michael Stackpole. This novella chronicles his trials and tribulations circa 3000.
Having been writing reviews of Warrior: En Garde in the last few weeks, it was an interesting opportunity to compare modern Stackpole to vintage Stackpole in the BattleTech universe. The "future of the eighties" vibe is notably lacking, with explicit references to facial recognition software (the lack of which was a discussion point for "En Garde") and global computer networks (compared to couriers hauling discs around).
I enjoyed it, overall. While the enemy henchmen of the piece do tend to get bamboozled and one-shotted by the heroes (Medium Laser to an infantryman tends not to need follow-through), the villains do seem to be far more of an existential threat to the protagonists than the Capellans, Combine, or Michael Hasek-Davion were for the Steiner/Davion good guys in the Warrior trilogy. And, welcomingly, the wild swings of pulp fiction blind luck that frequently blesses the heroes and allows them to save the day in the early Stackpole works is largely absent - when the bad guys are outmaneuvered/outwitted, it's because Walter and his associates have laid the groundwork properly ahead of time.