Michael Stackpole
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Michael Stackpole (born 1957) is, among other things, a science-fiction author best known for his Star Wars and Battletech books. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, but raised in Vermont. He has a BA in history from the University of Vermont.
From 1977 on, he worked as a designer of role-playing games for various gaming companies, and wrote dozens of magazine articles for the industry. During this time, in response to the accusations of Patricia Pulling and a few others who felt that the "occult" elements of Dungeons & Dragons were driving people to Satanism, murder and suicide, perhaps even as part of a vast Satanic ritual abuse conspiracy, Stackpole did a research study on all American legal cases where injury or death had been attributed to gaming, and found that not only were the links to gaming very weak, but that even if all of the reports had been valid, they showed that gamers were violent or suicidal far less often than the general public (see External links below).
In the 1980s, Stackpole began designing computer games for Coleco and then Interplay Productions. The best known was Bard's Tale III.
In 1986 Stackpole wrote his first novel, the fantasy story of Talion: Revenant. However, the manuscript would not be published until 1997 by Bantam Books. At the time, the 175,000 word book was seen as too long for an unknown author by his editors. The story remained unpublished for the next 11 years and then only minor changes were effected by Stackpole's editor, Anne Lesley Groell. Stackpole clarifies these issues himself in the afterword of the published version of Talion.
In 1987 he began writing novels set in the BattleTech universe for FASA, and became one of the most popular authors in that genre. Some of his Battletech books were used as the source for a televised animated series.
Based on that popularity, he was selected to write several novels in the Star Wars universe for Bantam Books.
In addition, he has written several highly praised novels and short stories based in settings of his own creation. His most recent novels form a series called the DragonCrown War Cycle. Like many of his works, these books break many fantasy conventions: among other things, the stories feature the advent of firearms in a fantasy setting.
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Novels
DragonCrown War
Published by Bantam Books.
- 2000 The Dark Glory War
- 2001 Fortress Draconis
- 2002 When Dragons Rage
- 2003 The Grand Crusade (December 30th, 2003)
BattleTech
Published by Fasa Corporation.
Warrior
- 1988 Warrior: En Garde
- 1988 Warrior: Riposte
- 1989 Warrior: Coupe
Blood of Kerensky
- 1989 Lethal Heritage (FASA)
- 1990 Blood Legacy (FASA)
- 1991 Lost Destiny (FASA)
Other BattleTech
- 1992 Natural Selection (FASA/ROC)
- 1993 Assumption of Risk (ROC/FASA)
- 1994 Bred For War (ROC/FASA)
- 1996 Malicious Intent (ROC/FASA)
- 1997 Grave Covenant (ROC/FASA)
- 1998 Prince of Havoc (ROC/FASA)
- 2002 Ghost War (ROC/WizKids)
Star Wars
- 1996 Rogue Squadron (Bantam Books)
- 1996 Wedge's Gamble (Bantam Books)
- 1996 The Krytos Trap (Bantam Books)
- 1997 The Bacta War (Bantam Books)
- 1998 I, Jedi (Bantam Books)
- 1999 Isard's Revenge (Bantam Books)
- 2000 Onslaught (Del Rey Books)
- 2000 Ruin (Del Rey Books)
Dark Conspiracy
Published by GDW.
- 1991 A Gathering Evil
- 1991 Evil Ascending
- 1992 Evil Triumphant
Others
- 1994 Once a Hero (Bantam Books)
- 1994 Dementia (Roc/Target)
- 1997 Talion: Revenant (Bantam Books)
- 1997 A Hero Born (HarperPrism)
- 1998 An Enemy Reborn {HarperPrism)
- 1998 Wolf and Raven (Roc/FASA)
- 1998 Eyes of Silver (Bantam Books)
- 2004 "The Secret Atlas" (Bantam Books - forthcoming)
Other Publications
- 1989 Game Hysteria and the Truth
- 1990 The Pulling Report (http://www.rpgstudies.net/stackpole/pulling_report.html)
- 1994 GAMA News, Model Retailer, March, 98-99
External links
- Personal Website (http://www.stormwolf.com)
- Bibliography (http://scifan.com/writers/ss/StackpoleMichael.asp) on SciFan
- The Pulling Report (http://members.tripod.com/~limsk/pulling.htm): the result of Stackpole's research (see above)
- Wars CCG Short Story collection online (http://warstcg.fanhq.com/Articles/Article.aspx?ID=438)
- Interview with Mike Stackpole by GameSpy (http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/539/539635p1.html)