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edits
Sten: Difference between revisions
Harun al-Rashid wasn't a fictional sultan, but a real caliph. The incognito spying, though, was exaggerated if not outright made up.
(Hakone actually did have military experience.) |
(Harun al-Rashid wasn't a fictional sultan, but a real caliph. The incognito spying, though, was exaggerated if not outright made up.) |
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* [[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.
** To give a measure of how powerful stregg is, at one point the Eternal Emperor hands Sten a glass of 180-proof home-brewed moonshine, expecting it to knock Sten straight on his ass. Sten tosses the entire glass back
* [[Ghost Ship]]: Sh'aarl't discovers one.
* [[Gold Fever]]: A variation of it occurs in the Emperor's backstory. He was a simple space engineer at the time on a ship that accidentally discovered the portal to an alternate universe filled with antimatter--a nearly limitless supply of energy that would completely transform society upon its discovery, and make anyone who had a monopoly on it insanely rich. This would be enough to make people think greedy thoughts on its own. The ship becomes badly damaged, however, and while it's limping back to Earth it becomes clear that the fewer survivors there are the more air and food there will be for the rest...
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* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]: [[Anyone Can Die]], but those who make it out of one book alive have a good chance of turning up again in a later novel, even in passing.
* [[Martial Arts and Crafts]]: acrobats, knife jugglers, sharpshooters and other sideshow performers in one of the Emperor's games are actually Mantis operatives, showing off for the only one who knows who they really are: their Emperor.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: The Emperor often goes incognito as "H.E. Raschid," based on the name of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harun_al-Rashid a wily monarch] who some stories claimed would go around his own peasants in disguise to learn how to curry favor from them.
* [[Mind Probe]]: One of the more unpleasant devices Rykor (and others liker her) can use is a machine that scans every memory you've ever had. It's unfortunately of limited use on those who have been driven insane, however, so when they use it on a guy who's gone catatonic from nearly being eaten by a [[Starfish Alien]], they mostly get jumbles with only a few clue threads.
* [[Nepali With Nasty Knives]]: the Gurkhas, real-life badasses who continue to be badass in space.
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** Sten makes a friend at Flight School: a giant [[Charlotte's 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 [[P. G. Wodehouse|W. Grenville Pelham]].
** Sten's friend Ida acted as a stockbroker for him, and her investments made him wealthy enough to own an uninhabited but Earthlike ''planet'', Smallbridge. ([[Horatio Hornblower]] became Baron Hornblower of Smallbridge.)
** Mercury Corps call the "appear unlike who you really are and like no one in particular" camouflage tactic a [[
* [[Smug Snake]]: Several, but probably the worst offender is Sr. Hakone, a [[Shell-Shocked Veteran]] who believed that the Empire was a little too decadent and needed a good, long war with another government to get things going again. Sten obligingly fries Hakone with an electrical cable [[Shut UP, Hannibal|right in the middle of another of his self-important speeches]].
* [[Space Navy]]: therefore...
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