I recently managed to get my hands on a copy of Grave Covenant, which is great because I've been meaning to read all of the Twilight of the Clans series. However, I'm only three chapters in and I'm already starting to get annoyed. I can't tell if it's Stackpole's writing in general or just his characterizations of the major players we see.
Specifically, I'm bothered by what I see in the third chapter where Victor, Hohiro, Kai, Morgan, Jerry Cranston, and Theodore are having their conversation. It's not that there are people from different realms getting along -- if anything, that should be expected and it makes sense considering where the universe is at the time. It's not the characters themselves -- I like them all (at least when they're written by other writers). I'm not sure what it is, but it just doesn't sit right with me.
I think it comes down to Victor's training in what I think is Iaido or maybe it is Stackpole's channelling of the late 90s/early 00s zeitgeist where everyone was fascinated in everything Japanese and all internal monolog had to be melodramatic. This idea that Hanse Davion has this sort of ridiculous perception gap of his understanding of the Draconis Combine; that Hohiro teaches Victor how to use a Katana, but Victor teaches Hohiro boxing -- all of this represents Stackpole's inability to really deal with nuance. Everything has to be in absolutes.
This isn't just a dig at the Combine. You can just take a look at any other of Stackpole's books and the roles flip. I only mention those examples because I came across them in the past 30 minutes. I'm seriously supposed to believe that Victor hadn't been at least taught some form of fencing? Not even just sabre? But he has boxing? Again: absolutes of elegance vs. (at least perceived) brutishness.
So why is this in the Inner Sphere board? Well, I suppose it could have gone into the General board, but it's Stackpole's approach to Inner Sphere characters that I think turns people off to certain factions or turns them on to others. This goes all the way back to the Warrior Trilogy and continues up to the last book he's written. Many of these characters that were movers and shakers were fleshed out under his watch.
Stackpole's books do have a history of selling well. Maybe he just writes for his audience or maybe that's simply his style and it works for the audience. But I can't really be the only one who notices this, can I?