What I’m Reading #1 – Cole and Bunch
I’m starting this with a kind of “Year In Review” thing. (And I wrote this all out the other night and it’s FREAKIN’ LONG, so I’m breaking it up.
From March 2007 to Now (because I’ve gone back to them). I’ve read a lot of Allan Cole and Chris Bunch. I read the entire STEN series. Which I LOVED.
The Sten Series is classic Space Adventure (though not quite Space Opera). It’s military, but not overly so. Which is good because I go in spurts when it comes to military SF. But what I really liked about the entire series it reminded me of the Vorkosigan Series by Lois McMaster Bujold (I read her first — which is why it goes that way).
The element that I dig in both these series is the fact that they both use Non-Traditional Heroes (Bujold’s a bit more blatantly). But Sten never asked to be a hero, he was shanghaied into it, and still manages to keep a sense of honor and duty despite seeing harsh realities and having to do less than glorious things.
Oh, and Sten has an AWESOME sidekick. A big, heavy worlder SCOTSMAN!!!! Alex ROCKS.
These books are out of print, but are available on Amazon and used book stores. Depending on the printing you get depends on whether they’re “Cole and Bunch” or “Bunch and Cole”. But TOTALLY worth reading. They’re fun. There are lessons to be learned. And some really cool twists and turns. Check them out.
Now for the time leaps… I’ve also read Far Kingdoms and am CURRENTLY reading Warrior’s Tale which is their Anteros series. This one is classic FANTASY, so completely different. But still with good heroes, good bad guys, magic, quests, and twists you don’t really see coming. It’s totally different than the Sten books, but still hold up.
What I like about the Anteros. Is actually it’s more a “Sequence” than a “Series”. The books (so far) tell interwoven stories focusing on different characters. So you don’t HAVE to read them in order — it makes a bit more sense if you do, so you KNOW what the Far Kingdoms are, etc. — but you don’t have to. I’m glad they did it this way, because the POV character in the 2nd book was someone I really wanted to know more about in the 1st book, but couldn’t.
These are also iffy to find. If you CAN, find the first printing with the Tom Kidd Covers (he signed them Gnemo). THOSE rock so hard, and are some of the basis of Tom Kidd’s Gnemo stuff. The Parkinson covers aren’t BAD, but they’re not as integral to the story as the Kidd Covers. Nor are they as detailed. The Kidd Covers just ROCK.