Sten (Mass Market Paperback)

Here's a little big of background on the eight-volume series: Sten is the ultimate survivor. He's lightning quick, mean streets cunning and is blessed with the twin gifts of hungry intelligence and hard-won common sense.

Born on a factory planet, where life had less value than the most common machine, Sten rebelled against The Company that enslaved, then killed his parents. He found a new family of sorts - and the means for revenge - in the ranks of the Eternal Emperor's Imperial Forces.

A series of crucial missions brings him to the attention of the Eternal Emperor, himself. Sten's talents and unshakable loyalty are tested in crisis after crisis, brutal warfare, and assassination.

Sten rises swiftly up the ladder until he becomes a confidante and advisor to the Emperor. Through all this Sten never forgets his lowly origins. Self-depreciating humor, friendship and luck in love shield him from Fame's blinding light. If anything his empathy and sense of responsibility for the common folk of the Empire grow with each new honor, each new badge of rank.

Finally he is asked to make the supreme sacrifice - risking even those he loves - to stand up for the citizens of the Empire. Then, when he succeeds, he turns his back on the greatest honor of all.

Sten's World: Picture the greatest Empire history has known. Its boundaries are the Universe itself, containing more stars, planets and sentient life than could be calculated by the swiftest 21st Century computer. This is a place where humans live side-by-side with countless alien forms. In fact the word alien itself is offensive and all species are merely called "beings."

The planetary systems range from the sophistication of Prime World where the elite gather - to the rough and ready mining and frontier worlds at the Empire's edges.

Ruling over all this is the Eternal Emperor. A human who - as his name implies - has mastered death. He is the ultimate capitalist and when Sten steps onto the stage he has reigned for nearly three thousand years.

The source of the Emperor's power is a cheap, plentiful fuel - called Anti-Matter Two (AM2). It drives the star ships that link the Empire and provides the energy for all industry, agriculture and commerce. He alone controls its supply and price. And he alone knows where AM2 is to be found.

The Emperor is no tyrant. He prefers cunning to force, negotiation to confrontation. But if all else fails he has enormous military resources to back up his will. His past is a rigorously guarded mystery and his future is permanently entwined with the Empire he created. Despite his vast power the Emperor greatly misses the familiar things of his 21st Century youth. On a bad day he would trade it all in for a good bottle of scotch or the sweet sound of an old, hand-crafted violin. The Eternal Emperor, who has the looks of a handsome, 35-year-old man, is also a consummate cook and spends hours in his Prime World kitchens recreating the recipes of ancient Earth. The Eternal Emperor sees a bit of his long ago self in Sten. After all, as he occasionally implies, his roots are as common as Sten's. If their relationship were not by necessity that of ruler and subject they might even have become friends.

Sten admires the Emperor. Perhaps, in a way, he even considers him a father figure. And he has sworn absolute loyalty to the Empire.

In the end, however, he will realize that his loyalty is to the idea not the man. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.