<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: By far not the best
Review: Hi, i have just finished the first Sten novel and i have to disagree with all the reviews i found here... It is not a great military SF, not even a good one. The character development is primitive and all charactes are cliche to the extreme. There is a hero with tragic past, his "girl" who is very smart, an Emperor who appears good natured enough and totaly extravagant and a "team" composed of ppl from different planets with very standard quirks. To give an example, Alex is a short stocky man who likes to blow things up and happens to be really really strong(coz he is from high-g world). Does that remind you of someone? Like every second dwarf/gnome alchemist character ever described. Or another alien who looks like a huge teddy bear but comes from species that hate everything and everyone. So that gives him an excuse to throw lame sarcastic remarks about humans. Like "I would suggest we avoid usual imbecile human congratulations. We have for minutes" ... before the explosion that is. The list goes on and on. In general all characters are one dimensional and able to express one kind of emotion throughout the whole book. In addition to lame characters, the book offers equally lame universe. To give an example; Sten's homeworld Vulcan is a huge artifical spacestation/factory. The fact that it has normal 1-g gravity implies that there is an antigravity device of some kind. Robots that work on factories are smart enought to give sarcastic remarks and they even have antimatter weapons. Now with all that tech they still need a whole bunch of human workers!! And for no other reason but to do dirty work for robots, like bringing pieces that robots assemble together! Why?? Anyway i could go on and on, but this book is not worth it. If you really want some good military SF try "Starship Troopers" by Heinlein, or "Ender's Game" by Card, or "Seafort Saga" by Feintuch. There are so many great military SF novels around that there really is no reason to fall as low as "Sten"
Rating: 
Summary: When is the movie coming out?!!
Review: Military Science Fiction of the highest order. This series is one of the best I've ever read (and re-read and read again and so on) The characters are true to themselves for the entire series. The storylines are great. I should say storyline (singular), because after the first two books develop Alex's and Sten's characters, the next 6 present an excellent story arc, each book satisfying yet you crave the next book. (I was stationed overseas when the last book came out and I had to wait for Christmas for my relatives to send it to me) Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A hero is made! Is he good or is he just lucky?
Review: Remember his name, Carl, because you will never see it again. He is Sten! The warrior about whoom legends are told accross the Galaxy. Cole and Bunch know their military tactics. Special operations is their motto! It was refreshing to read a series of books which describes SpecOps the way it could happen, or should be done, not the HolyWeird version. The authors also know their history and make various references which I on a rare occasion had to look up. It is refreshing to read a book that doesn't play down to the LCD. And The EE can really cook. I've even tried the recepies personaly :-) One small complaint is their use of Galaxy, Universe, stelar distances and time spans seems inconsisten at times, and I couldn't build even a simulated map of the Empire.
Rating: 
Summary: Sten - an international favorite
Review: Set three thousand years in the future, the story of Sten is the life and times of a most unusual hero, told in eight volumes. The series has sold more than two million copies, making the books consistent best sellers. It is also being published in Germany, Poland and Russia, where it has been on the best seller charts for two years straight. And has been hailed by critics both in the U.S. and abroad as a "landmark science fiction series." Here's a little big of background on the eight-volume series:
Sten is the ultimate survivor. He's lightning quick, mean streets cunning and blessed with the twin gifts of hungry intelligence and hard-won common sense. Born on a factory planet, where life had less value than the lowliest machine, Sten rebelled against The Company that enslaved, then killed his parents. He found a new family of sorts - and the means for revenge - in the ranks of the Eternal Emperor's Imperial Forces. A series of crucial missions brings him to the attention of the Eternal Emperor himself. Sten's talents and unshakable loyalty are tested in crisis after crisis, brutal warfare, and assassination. Sten rises swiftly up the ladder until he becomes a confidante and advisor to the Emperor. Through all this Sten never forgets his lowly origins. Self-depreciating humor, friendship and luck in love shield him from Fame's blinding light. If anything his empathy and sense of responsibility for the common folk of the Empire grow with each new honor, each new badge of rank. Finally he is asked to make the supreme sacrifice - risking even those he loves - to stand up for the citizens of the Empire. Then, when he succeeds, he turns his back on the greatest honor of all. Sten's World: Picture the greatest Empire history has known. Its boundaries are the Universe itself, containing more stars, planets and sentient life than could be calculated by the swiftest 20th Century computer. This is a place where humans live side-by-side with countless alien forms. In fact the word alien itself is offensive and all species are merely called "beings." The planetary systems range from the sophistication of Prime World where the elite gather - to the rough and ready mining and frontier worlds at the Empire's edges. Ruling over all this is the Eternal Emperor. A human who - as his name implies - has mastered death. He is the ultimate capitalist and when Sten steps onto the stage he has reigned for nearly three thousand years. The source of the Emperor's power is a cheap, plentiful fuel - called Anti-Matter Two (AM2). It drives the star ships that link the Empire and provides the energy for all industry, agriculture and commerce. He alone controls its supply and price. And he alone knows where AM2 is to be found. The Emperor is no tyrant. He prefers wit to force, negotiation to confrontation. But if all else fails he has enormous military resources to back up his will. His past is a rigorously guarded mystery and his future is permanently entwined with the Empire he created. Despite his vast power the Emperor greatly misses the familiar things of his 21st Century youth. On a bad day he would trade it all in for a good bottle of scotch or the sweet sound of an old, hand-crafted violin. The Emperor, who has the looks of a handsome, 35-year-old man, is also a consummate cook and spends hours in his Prime World kitchens recreating the recipes of ancient Earth. (check out the cookbook on my homepage - http:\\www.acole.com)
The Eternal Emperor sees a bit of his long ago self in Sten. After all, as he occasionally implies, his roots are as common as Sten's. If their relationship were not by necessity that of ruler and subject they might even have become friends. Sten admires the Emperor. Perhaps, in a way, he even considers him a father figure. And he has sworn absolute loyalty to the Empire. In the end, however, he will realize that his loyalty is to the idea not the man.
Rating:
Summary: The Sten series is pure Genius
Review: The Dynamic Duo of Allan Cole and Chris Bunch has pulles together one of the greatest scifi series i've ever seen. The Sten series. Sten a man living a life of hell on the laboring planet of Vulcan found a way to get off that godforsaken rock and with a lil luck made it into the imperial army. With Stens luck he could make it through anything but being promoted to the Mantis section of the imperial army will he be able to pull of the impossable mission of recapturing Vulcan for the Eternal Emperor? Or will his luck finnal run out?(Come Check out my Site for more info on scifi and fantasy books http://scifi-fantasy.8k.com/
Rating:
Summary: a smart, fast paced sci-fi adventure series.
Review: The Sten series offers sci-fi diehards the opportunity to explore a universe where the greater good isn't all that's cracked up to be. Follow our hero Sten as he slices, kicks and punches his way through some of the toughest and dangerous assignments for the Eternal Emperor. An unlikely man thrust into unlikely dangers, only to survive and come back for more. With his heavy-worlder sidekick Alex at his side, trouble is never too far away! Follow plot twists more crooked than a Campbell! If high adventure in space is your game then Sten is your man.
Rating: 
Summary: The Sten submachine gun
Review: The Sten submachine gun was introduced in June, 1941 - An interesting name for a military SciFi protagonist. My husband and I enjoyed this book a great deal, particularly the quirky characters (i.e., the emperor) and their smart-alec dialogue (We tried to read out loud Alex's dialogue - couldn't do it, but never-the-less we liked it - a bit like Scotty on Star Trek, but with more pepper).
Rating:
Summary: The Sten submachine gun
Review: The Sten submachine gun was introduced in June, 1941 - An interesting name for a military SciFi protagonist. My husband and I enjoyed this book a great deal, particularly the quirky characters (i.e., the emperor) and their smart-alec dialogue (We tried to read out loud Alex's dialogue - couldn't do it, but never-the-less we liked it - a bit like Scotty on Star Trek, but with more pepper).
Rating:
Summary: When is the movie coming out?!!
Review: This is the first of the "Sten" series. It's a great sci-fi read with pleanty of classic sci-fi premisies with a few twists. One of the nice things about this series is that it ends. Once you get excited about reading these books and become attached to the characters, you can simply pick up the next book and continue on. There is no waiting through years of writers block or movies deals (a la Robert Asprin and JK Rowling). Yes, it's sad that a series you enjoy ends, but at least you have the sense of completion and closure to the story. Since no series can go on forever it's nice to finish strong. This, as the first installment, is a great read on it's own merits. It's a great story with great characters. If you're a fan of books like Starship Troopers (book NOT movie) and Ender's Game - I think you'll like this book and it's sequels.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Start to a Great Series
Review: This is the first of the "Sten" series. It's a great sci-fi read with pleanty of classic sci-fi premisies with a few twists. One of the nice things about this series is that it ends. Once you get excited about reading these books and become attached to the characters, you can simply pick up the next book and continue on. There is no waiting through years of writers block or movies deals (a la Robert Asprin and JK Rowling). Yes, it's sad that a series you enjoy ends, but at least you have the sense of completion and closure to the story. Since no series can go on forever it's nice to finish strong. This, as the first installment, is a great read on it's own merits. It's a great story with great characters. If you're a fan of books like Starship Troopers (book NOT movie) and Ender's Game - I think you'll like this book and it's sequels.
<< 1 >>
| 
