Rating: 
Summary: Good read
Review: I found this to be a creative story. My main criticisim is that the story took too long to develop. Much of the character development seems unnecessary. I found myself skimming through sections of the book. The story starts to get better by the middle of the book. Hopefully, all the character development will pay off in the second instatllment.
Rating:
Summary: I like it!
Review: I thought it was a very FUN book to read. While I am a huge SF fan at heart, I am not the most experienced. I have read the more popular series such as Dune (all of them + prequels), Tolken (LOTR123,Hobbit,Simirillian, etc), and some others. Being a fan without knowing too many others with the same interest, everybook I pickup is a too much of a chance for me. I really can't recall the titles, but I remember picking up some horrible books only to shelve them after the first couple chapters. Thanks to the Dune prequels, I decided to check out more of Kevin Anderson's writing, so I read the Hidden Empire. I finished it last night and now I am waiting for my order of the book 2 from amazon! :)While I absolutly loved the book, I do have some minor gripes on the book. First, as many people have mentioned, I felt overwhelmed at first at the number of characters and locations in the beginning. First half of the book is literally just character introduction. At that, it's an introduction of about 100 characters (ok, I'm being funny). I personally had hard time keeping up. After the half way point, actually about 70% through the book when there was actually some fighting going on, it started to get really interesting. The second gripe worth mentioning is... Can you really breath fresh air in the high altitudes of a gas giant? I think Kevin could have left that one out. or did I misread the book? I know that he disclaimed that the book is not about gadgets or formulas, and the fact that to the current known science that planets are super scarce, etc... but breating fresh air on a planet such as Jupitor? Ok, let's say it's not fresh air, but naturally breathable air by humans? *************** With those two mentionables aside... It was pretty damn fun reading the book. After the half way mark, I could not put it down. I consider myself a slow reader and I did the second half in two sittings! Reading the last few chapters late into the night had me a bit spooked too!
Rating: 
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: While I don't usually read sci-fi (I'm generally more of a fantasy sort of guy), my local bookstore guy told me this book was phenomonal and I had to read it. Okay, so I plopped down my 7.99 and WOW!!!!!!!! All I can say is it's an AMAZING read. Great characters, story, worlds, writing, etc. I have no idea how some of the other readers providing reviews on this page didn't enjoy this book? I've already started the next book, and I know I'm going to be extremely disappointed when I'm through...because I'll have to wait until next summer for the next book.....Great job Kevin!
Rating: 
Summary: For 10 yr. olds it could be good writing
Review: Maybe I'm a little too picky. I'm in my 30's and was looking for a good epic book, something like Wingrove, Niven, or Stephen Donaldson. Those are high standards, I admit. The more I read this book (I'm around page 350) the more fascinating it is to me how awful the writing is. At first I wanted to be polite and circumspect in my criticism, but now I'm sick of it. The character development is so-so, the action is horrible! Major huge turning points are literally dealt with in about 10-12 sentences (or less) and bam!... onto the next scene. There is not one iota of wonder, grandeur, "space opera" or any of that. It could be an interesting universe, but the writing just kills it (as another reviewer said). The dialogue is something a high-schooler might write "I'm very eager to see your shipyard, ambassador!" or "Wow, this is the most amazing archaeological find ever!" are examples of the kind of things you'll find in here. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, b/c there are plenty of books accessible to young readers that are very well-written.
Rating:
Summary: Sensational Space Opera
Review: An exciting space opera filled with interesting characters and fascinating aliens and exciting action. Hidden Empire is a galaxy spanning space opera epic with multiple plotlines and an intriguing cliffhanger. It's a little slow in place but overall it flows quickly. Anderson has created an interesting universe here. A great fun read. Recommended for Star Trek and Star Wars fans or fans of light sci-fi space opera.
Rating:
Summary: Got me... hook, line and sinker.
Review: I've read a couple of Anderson's other books... not one of them being a Star Wars or Dune series, and have been caught up in his wonderful prose and writing style. This book has been no exception, and I am anxiously awaiting the second to come. From the history of the human race's struggle to expand into space... to the alien Ildaran's humanitarian (alienatarian?) efforts to help the humans... to the corporate struggle of a government with a "puppet" king... to the break-away factions of humans from the original colony ships trying their best to be independant... to the workings and struggles between each and every faction and their power struggles, this book kept me reading for hours on end. A wonderful, fantastical romp with characters you can imagine are real, Hidden Empire is one that I would gladly lend or offer to buy for the most skeptical. You won't be sorry (except for the fact that you'll have to wait for the next ones to come out) if you get this title.
Rating: 
Summary: Too ambitious?
Review: I didn't really start to enjoy this book until I was about halfway through. Anderson starts off by introducing you to ALL the characters immediately, and there's a good number of them. I think this is mainly because he's trying to set up a whole elaborate universe, and wants to set down all the rules and history immediately, rather than exposing you to them as it becomes necessary. So it's a bit confusing at first. He does start bringing their plot lines together around the midpoint, and as I mentioned, that made it more interesting and coherent. However, I never really identified or personally cared for any of the characters. Anderson never sold me on any of them.
Also, it should be noted that this is indeed the first book of a series, and it can NOT stand on it's own. He leaves you with cliffhangers, so expect to read the sequel(s?) also.
Rating:
Summary: Growing on me...
Review: I just finisihed Orson Scott Cards ender series...and was looking for something else to get my teeth into. I like series. I recgonised Anderson from an X files novel (ground zero) that I read at an airport... I started, put it down and was bored. Each chaper a new character, and soon I was frustrated wanting some of the narratives to hang together..then I returned to it, and at the 200 page point it clicks... My hope is that the next one pciks up where this left off. So it's growing on me and I can't wait to see what comes next. Give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Old-fashioned Space Opera
Review: Hidden Empire is the first novel in the Saga of Seven Suns series. In it can be seen the dark side of Kevin Anderson; he introduces likable characters and then kills them off and he piles threat upon threat until...The End...To Be Continued. This novel is definitely not fun, but does have some interesting characters. There are the archaeologists Margaret and Louis Colicos, the green priest Beneto Theron and his sister Esterra, the Young Prince Peter, Prime Designate Jora'h, the merchant Rlinda Kett, the Roamer sweethearts Jess Tamblyn and Cesca Peroni, and the green priest Nira Khali. Then there are the villains: Chairman of the Terran Hanseatic League Basil Wenceslas, Theron Ambassador Sarein, and the Mage-Imperator of the Ildiran Empire. In addition, there are the usual supporters, hanger-ons, and stooges, plus the robots, both Terran and Klikiss. It starts with the Hansa converting a gas-giant planet, Oncier, into a sun with technology discovered by the Colicos team among Klikiss ruins. Unknown to the watchers, the abrupt ignition of Oncier kills millions, and maybe billions, of alien Hydrogues living in the planet. Some survivors escape in their diamond-skinned spherical spaceships and later come back to destroy the science station that had initiated the conversion. Subsequently the Hydrogues destroy a Roamer skymine skimming hydrogen from the gas-giant Golgen and then others at Erphano and elsewhere. They even destroy the skymine at Qronha 3 in the alien Ildiran Empire. Apparently the Hydrogues cannot discriminate between different rock-dwelling polities or species. The Hansa has no clue about the situation until the Mage-Imperator tells them that the Klikiss Torch had provoked the Hydrogues to war. The Mage-Imperator knows even more about the Hydrogues than he is willing to tell and he has a plan to divert the ire of the gas-planet dwellers from his empire. This plan entails the involuntary involvement of humans and their genetic material. This novel starts slowly as Anderson introduces the various characters and cultures, but picks up speed just before the break. Some secrets are revealed, but not all; the Hydrogues, for example, are totally incomprehensible. The science is by no means hard; in fact, it is rather soggy. For example, Anderson doesn't understand the high velocities possible to the generation ships using even a low acceleration, but constant boost drive; thus, the novel feels like the pulp fiction of the 1930s in that regard. Hopefully, the next volume will be more positive than this one. Readers might want to buy this volume now and hold it until the next book is available; might avert some bad dreams. Stay tuned.
Rating:
Summary: Complex, yet user-friendly and fun
Review: "Hidden Empire" begins an epic, complex saga of interstellar races, weird cultures, and shadowy motivations, laced with cool anthropological details, thoughtful world histories, and nuanced characters (none of which are all good or all bad). Anderson wants to give you an epic of "Dune" proportions, but one that won't potentially alienate large segments of his readership with long stretches of endless description. In other words, he keeps things moving with short chapters, a zippy pace, and exciting developments. The cynics may say that this approach is a depressing concession to the MTV generation and its short attention span; but, in the end, what's wrong with wanting to tell an exciting, fast-moving story? Bring on volume two, this one's a winner.
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