TowerOfTheArchmage reviewed Sten (STEN Adventure #1) by Allan Cole
Review of 'Sten (STEN Adventure #1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I picked this up at a used book sale without any idea what it would be like, but figuring that it would be a quick pulpy read. Based on the blurb on the back I thought it would be a Spartacus type story, set on an alien world. I was right in that it was a quick pulpy read, but the quality ended up being much better than I expected.
What most impressed me was the authors' ability to get some fairly impressive world building done in under 300 pages. Vulcan, the starting location of the book, isn't so much an alien world, but a mega-industrial complex floating in space built up over hundreds of years, with numerous parts abandoned and built around as the needs of the complex changed.
The story itself was a little thin in parts, and some resolutions seemed a little convenient, but given the speed …
I picked this up at a used book sale without any idea what it would be like, but figuring that it would be a quick pulpy read. Based on the blurb on the back I thought it would be a Spartacus type story, set on an alien world. I was right in that it was a quick pulpy read, but the quality ended up being much better than I expected.
What most impressed me was the authors' ability to get some fairly impressive world building done in under 300 pages. Vulcan, the starting location of the book, isn't so much an alien world, but a mega-industrial complex floating in space built up over hundreds of years, with numerous parts abandoned and built around as the needs of the complex changed.
The story itself was a little thin in parts, and some resolutions seemed a little convenient, but given the speed of the story, a lot of that can be forgiven. The language used by the authors was also interesting. Migs - the contract slave workers of Vulcan comes from Migrant Workers. Livee - a live play.
The Eternal Emperor, the imperial guard, the gritty feel of the world all made me think that this could be a story set in the pre-history of the Warhammer 40k world, before the Space Maries were created and the great crusade.