Customer Reviews

Sten

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

I picked this up at a used book store recently because I have enjoyed other series by these authors (Anteros series, Last Legion series, Star Risk, and Seer King trilogy). None of their books, including this one, have ever bored me. They keep the action fast-paced, and their plots and characters are always engaging.

This is an exciting SF tale of revenge set in the far future. A very brief summary: Sten lives on Vulcan, a constructed factory world that basically enslaves its workers, never allowing them to get ahead on their contracts and thus never allowing them to leave. Sten's family is killed in an apparent accident, but it turns out that the ruler of Vulcan callously sacrificed them to cover-up his plot against the Eternal Emperor. Sten rebels and lives among outcasts who haunt the long-unoccupied sections of Vulcan. Sten then aids one of the Emperor's undercover operatives, who offers him the chance to get off-world and escape the misery of Vulcan. Sten then joins the Emperor's special forces and later returns to Vulcan to exact his revenge on the ruler of Vulcan.

This is a promising beginning to a multi-volume series. You get a glimpse of an interesting world and entertaining characters, including Sten's team members. One of the most interesting characters is the Emperor, who is hundreds of years old. He is eccentric and is constantly trying to recreate food and liquors from Earth long ago. I would recommend this book if you are looking for a readable and exciting action tale in a scifi setting.

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/

The concept of a man joining an intergalactic marine force and going through boot camp has certainly been done before. Heinlein's Starship Troopers comes to mind. So Bunch and Cole would have do something a little different in order to make this series more interesting and unique. I found that I was drawn in and engaged almost right away, so they must have done something right.

I think for me what set this apart for me was that we see much more of Sten's life before and after boot camp, which you don't get any of with Heinlein. In the beginning we see Sten as a Mig and then a Delinq, which allows so much more characterization to be built around him. We, of course, had to have the obligatory boot camp sequence which, surprisingly, also felt unique in and of itself. The authors have a way with words that can not only lighten the mood with its comedic tones but also convey the seriousness of what the characters were trying to accomplish. Just as important as the life before boot camp was his life after, where we get to see a considerable amount of him in action, especially on Vulcan and the rather predictable outcome.

One minor annoyance that I have is when authors feel the need to make the characters authentic by giving them illegible accents. Alex, for example, is unintelligible when you read his dialogue to I had to resort to skipping anything that he said because it annoyed me more than the effort it would have taken to decipher his dialogue. Readers understand accents, we don't need to be "shown" he has an accent.

Ultimately I think that Cole and Bunch were able to make this unique enough to stand apart from Heinlein's boot camp storyline as well as have it stand on its own two legs and stand amongst other authors of similar writing style, such as Asprin in his Myth and Phule series. I am definitely interested in seeing where they go with the series now that the recognizable parts of Heinlein are out of the way. A recommend.

4 stars.

Chris Bunch and Allan Cole do a good job of creating an interesting new Sci-Fi series. The main character is well conceived and interesting enough to want to follow along. The important thing is that the authors present the future in a way that makes you feel like it's not totally fictional, but don't spend too much time on science theory that you feel like you are reading a textbook.

Sten suffers through a traumatic youth after his family is killed in a freak industrial accident turned deadly due to corporate greed. He is a gifted young man and the author does a good job of leaving him very vulnerable while allowing him to succeed. To me this makes the story that much better because he is not able to instantly triumph.

On the whole, Bunch & Cole do a good job of setting the stage for a this series and giving us a taste of the adventure and drama that make readers want to come back for more.

I have always loved this series. Allan Cole and Chris Bunch started out with this series, and have gone on to their own works since then, one of them branching out into fantasy fiction.

This is the story of Sten, a youth brought up in a tyrannical space colony. His parents are lost at a young age due to a secret project, and he must have his revenge.

Sten was one of those wonderful discoveries. I was on a book buying binge and wanted to pick up a series of at least four books. The local store was very accomodating and had the first six Sten books waiting for me.

Bunch and Cole managed to hit all of my happiness receptors in this book. It has action, it is well paced, has character development, it has a relatively complex plot, and it has plenty of lighthearted humor appropriately placed. I've read this book (and the series) twice in the last three years and have recommended it to several friends with nothing but enthusiastic responses from those who have read it.

If you're not big on gritty violence, dark tone, and heroes who aren't always saints, you probably won't feel as highly as I do about this book and series, but you'll still have an enjoyable reading experience.

I bought this book because I couldn't find anything else remotely interesting at the bookstore and I generally like action sci-fi book. Its is a great action book, however, I was suprised at how good the writting was especially during "down time" and character development. These areas are usually a little lacking in this kind of book. All in all I found the books writing to be great and the story to be well balanced between action and development. The plot and story line are quite good and interesting in their own right. The only slight problem I had is that there are often large jumps forward in time that I didn't notice right away and had to go back to find out what was really going on. Not a big deal really. I think this is a great book for people who like sci-fi adventures! Plus, there are sequels.

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).