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ksiazkoty's review
4.0
3,5
Ciekawy i wciągający tytuł, przy którym nie można się nudzić. Tutaj cały czas coś się działo, jedna akcja od razu napędzała drugą. Niestety na tym ucierpiało ukazanie relacji między bohaterami - największy minus tej książki. Nagle dostajemy małe przeskoki czasowe, gdzie przy głównym bohaterze pojawiają się nowe postacie, z którymi już go łączą jakieś relacje. A nam nie było dane ich tak naprawdę poznać :(
Mimo to - kosmiczna rozrywka:) Na pewno sięgnę po dalsze tomy.
Ciekawy i wciągający tytuł, przy którym nie można się nudzić. Tutaj cały czas coś się działo, jedna akcja od razu napędzała drugą. Niestety na tym ucierpiało ukazanie relacji między bohaterami - największy minus tej książki. Nagle dostajemy małe przeskoki czasowe, gdzie przy głównym bohaterze pojawiają się nowe postacie, z którymi już go łączą jakieś relacje. A nam nie było dane ich tak naprawdę poznać :(
Mimo to - kosmiczna rozrywka:) Na pewno sięgnę po dalsze tomy.
dingowashisnamo's review
4.0
A fun series to read.
Written in a similar worldbuilding style to John Ringo or David Weber without the pitfalls that both of those authors seem to fall into (ie getting lost in minutiae, vigorous political commentary, or excessive "historical" reference)
In just about every long science fiction series Ive read, Ive found myself skimming through boring bits (sometimes chapters, sometimes whole books). This is not the case for the Sten series. Every book in the series is a fresh and compelling read on its own, I didnt find myself slogging through sections just to find out what happens in the overall arc.
The first book of the series (Sten) is probably the weakest one. Sten's reaction to his family's death was a bit rushed, and the climax of the book a bit hokey.
In the series, much was made of Sten's "secret weapon", a nearly magical knife. The authors go on and on about how cool it is. While it is brought up in the books at several points, I never felt that it was really necessary to the overall progression, and could have easily been omitted to make the character a little more believable. However the authors do not lean on this crutch excessively, and it is only a nitpick on my part to point it out.
This is a fine series that I would point out to anyone looking for an enjoyable read. It has a few caveats, but overall I rank it 4 out of 5 stars.
Written in a similar worldbuilding style to John Ringo or David Weber without the pitfalls that both of those authors seem to fall into (ie getting lost in minutiae, vigorous political commentary, or excessive "historical" reference)
In just about every long science fiction series Ive read, Ive found myself skimming through boring bits (sometimes chapters, sometimes whole books). This is not the case for the Sten series. Every book in the series is a fresh and compelling read on its own, I didnt find myself slogging through sections just to find out what happens in the overall arc.
The first book of the series (Sten) is probably the weakest one. Sten's reaction to his family's death was a bit rushed, and the climax of the book a bit hokey.
In the series, much was made of Sten's "secret weapon", a nearly magical knife. The authors go on and on about how cool it is. While it is brought up in the books at several points, I never felt that it was really necessary to the overall progression, and could have easily been omitted to make the character a little more believable. However the authors do not lean on this crutch excessively, and it is only a nitpick on my part to point it out.
This is a fine series that I would point out to anyone looking for an enjoyable read. It has a few caveats, but overall I rank it 4 out of 5 stars.
wynnz's review
4.0
Didn’t know what to expect, the blurb sounded good, I thought I'd give it a bash. It was quite good. I enjoyed it, plenty of gory well written fight scenes, an ok-ish plot, what’s not to like.
craftingrama's review
4.0
It was different not thrilled with the character voices and accents but I've listened to worse
trike's review
4.0
Re-read.
Back when this book first came out, I loved it. I think I was 17 at the time and I just found it to be immense fun. Lots of action, some cool sci-fi stuff, a protagonist I could relate to, witty banter and a quick read. I probably read it another 3 or 4 times as the other books in the series came out.
Upon rereading it again after more than 25 years have passed, I thoroughly enjoyed it once again.
Allan Cole and Chris Bunch were screenwriters, and that really comes across in this book. The descriptions are spare without being sparse and the dialogue is punchy. Rarely in films do you hear characters say more than a couple lines at a time, particularly in action movies, and that's the case here. It also helps that Cole's dad was a spy for the CIA and Bunch (1943-2005) was a Vietnam vet, which makes the military scenes ring true.
I was genuinely surprised at how well the science fictional aspects hold up. This is definitely in the Space Fantasy subgenre inhabited by Star Wars and Star Trek, but other than the computers being a little dated (and big), it wasn't too bad. Usually this stuff ages badly, but it held up rather well, all things considered.
As I recall, the series waxed and waned in quality as it went along, and Cole & Bunch unabashedly cribbed their plots from famous movies, but rather than feeling cheap, it kind of added to the fun for me. This book, though, is fun in and of itself. It's not very deep, but it is plenty fast, and there's a brief section with miniature T. rexes fighting.
I actually think this would make for an excellent movie, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn it started life as a script. Lotsa fun.
Back when this book first came out, I loved it. I think I was 17 at the time and I just found it to be immense fun. Lots of action, some cool sci-fi stuff, a protagonist I could relate to, witty banter and a quick read. I probably read it another 3 or 4 times as the other books in the series came out.
Upon rereading it again after more than 25 years have passed, I thoroughly enjoyed it once again.
Allan Cole and Chris Bunch were screenwriters, and that really comes across in this book. The descriptions are spare without being sparse and the dialogue is punchy. Rarely in films do you hear characters say more than a couple lines at a time, particularly in action movies, and that's the case here. It also helps that Cole's dad was a spy for the CIA and Bunch (1943-2005) was a Vietnam vet, which makes the military scenes ring true.
I was genuinely surprised at how well the science fictional aspects hold up. This is definitely in the Space Fantasy subgenre inhabited by Star Wars and Star Trek, but other than the computers being a little dated (and big), it wasn't too bad. Usually this stuff ages badly, but it held up rather well, all things considered.
As I recall, the series waxed and waned in quality as it went along, and Cole & Bunch unabashedly cribbed their plots from famous movies, but rather than feeling cheap, it kind of added to the fun for me. This book, though, is fun in and of itself. It's not very deep, but it is plenty fast, and there's a brief section with miniature T. rexes fighting.
I actually think this would make for an excellent movie, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn it started life as a script. Lotsa fun.
grimread's review
3.0
It's a solid sci-fi novel. The only irritating thing was the overuse or repetitive use of the names. In chapter 16 on 7ish pages Sten's name is used 47 time. You might think, "well he is the main character and the book is about him", and I would say - fine, I don't mind. But when every sentence and every paragraph starts with his name, (one paragraph has 3 sentences all of them start with his name, one has it twice) it just becomes annoying to read the book that way. It makes me feel like somebody ignored editors comments.
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