Sten: Difference between revisions

=== This series contains examples of: ===

 

* [[Ace Pilot]]: "drakh-hot" Hannelore La Ciotat.

* [[Acrofatic]]: Ida, one of Sten's only surviving buddies from his original Mantis team, is a battle-hardened commando and also quite overweight.

** Readers are given almost the entire recipe for [[Hideous Hangover Cure|Angelo Stew]].

** The writers dedicate three pages to Sten making a sandwich.

* [[Friendly Sniper]]: Cind is a very nice gal. Young, pretty, lethal within a five mile radius...

* [[Gargle Blaster]]: Stregg, an alien beverage quaffed by gigantic wookie-like Space Vikings. The beverage itself is named after the "streggan," a vicious monster that these Space Viking wookies once hunted as a rite of manhood; in other words, this is the manliest, toughest drink in the universe. Sten takes a liking to the stuff after the second book, and briefly gets the Emperor hooked on the stuff too.

* [[Good Guy Bar]]: The Western Eating Parlor Number 2

* [[Good Looking Privates]]: In the course of eight books spanning a couple galaxies and a cast composed almost entirely of military personnel, it was bound to crop up.

* [[Heavyworlder]]: Kilgour. So it justifies a lot of improbable moves like:

** [[Neck Snap]]

* [[Obviously Evil]]: The Emperor's "Privy Council," composed of the wealthiest businesspeople in his empire, and every one of them a transparent [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]. Their leader, Sullamora, even chose a couple because of their "raw, open greed." Apparently they're so rich they can [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|screw the rules]], because they actually ''take over'' in the Emperor's absence. You can't really run a political empire ''quite'' the same way you run a financial empire, though, so [[It Got Worse|things get worse]].

* [[Officer and A Gentleman]]: Sten may be a [[Combat Pragmatist]], but it seems he [[Wouldn't Hit a Girl]] unless forced. There's one instance where he nearly kills a female guard but instead knocks her out, not out of chivalry, but because he doesn't have time to hide a body.

* [[One Nation Under Copyright]]: Vulcan.

* [[Only One Name]]: Sten actually has a given name, "Karl," but it's lost and forgotten quickly when he grows up on Vulcan and all military records from his enlistment on have him listed as "Sten, NI". For the record, he still knows his name, but never bothers to give it to ''anyone''.

** Royals in the Sten books tend to skew either towards being hardcore military basses or ineffectual insane armchair generals. Sadly, both types have a strong tendency towards ruining the lives of those they rule over. Sten's ''career'' is built around toppling despots, and occasionally he even pits one against the other.

* [[Sharpened to A Single Atom]]: Sten's crystal shiv. Fifteen molecules wide and able to cut through virtually anything. For bonus points, he keeps it inside his ''forearm'' in a little space that was surgically implanted and can whip it out any time he wants, so it effectively falls under "[[Blade Below the Shoulder]]" too.

** Famed diplomat Sr. Ecu sends the equally renowned psychologist Rykor a copy of an ancient Earth manuscript. Rykor says she finds the idea of [[Foundation|"psychohistory" fascinating, but found the protagonist "Selden" rather repellent]].

** Sten makes a friend at Flight School: a giant [[Charlottes Web|spider]] named Sh'aarl't. Also at Flight School is a [[The Jeeves|"servant"]] -- actually, a psychologist sizing the trainees up -- whose name is [[PG Wodehouse (Creator)|W. Grenville Pelham]].