Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 3)

Rating:
Summary: Space operas don't get better than this!
Review: Anderson is on a role in his splendid space opera saga:Saga of the seven Suns. He returns us to his war-torn 25th century universe where human race is battling against the ancient race of Hydrogues.
the novel is seen through the eyes again with it's cast of memorable characters both human, alien and robotic.You will watch as King peter must try to defy and yet survive the machinations of the utterly ruthless Hansa chairman, Basil Wenceslas who secrets controls the terran empire and who seeks to bring the Roamers and green-priests of Theron under his heel and who will resort to anything to gain this including declaring war upon them! The newly crowned Mage-Imperator Jora'H must keep his empire together as he unravels the dark secrets of his realm and not knowing that his insane brother seeks to overthrow him and who willing to start a civil war to do it.Cesca Peroni, the leader of the roamer people struggles to keep her people free from the grasp of the terran empire while finding ways to battle the Hydrogues.She will also learn that her first love, Jess Tamblyn long thought dead is alive and who has given up his humanity to become allies with a alien race who might hold the key in winning the war. Tasia Tamblyn's the brave roamer woman who joins the terran army and becomes a war hero only to see that even war heroes are not to be trusted and her loyality to the cause will be questioned!You will be shocked at the evil Klikiss robots who have allies with the hydrogues and who seek to eradicate the human race!One thing I loved about this book is that some favorable characters who I thought have perished have survived and Anderson's universe-crafting skills are wonderful as ever as he describes political intrigues on two galactic empires and a terrible war that threatens them both!Bring on book next book quick! :)

Rating:
Summary: Blue Balls
Review: I am a High school student from DC and I am a sci-fi lover but Kevin what happpen? Dawg, this joint is redundant....... Boring, /... drags on an on and on never reaching real climax. Quality is better that quantity!!! The Saga should really can be 2 book Series.

A real good 2-book Project.
I was thinking in the back of my mind while reading the book that Kevin must be doing this on purpose just to keep getting the public to buy 4 books. I hate when authors drag it out, I bet all 4 books are already written. And they just chopped it up to make dat dough. I see a hustle a mile away. When a drug dealer does that he looses customers to people with good product. I need that Fire!!!! Not unfulfilled desire.
Blue Balls...

Rating:
Summary: Getting Better
Review: I have to admit that this series is getting better. While the Saga of the Seven Suns is certainly not great science fiction, it is really good sci-fi with characters you grow to care for. The first two books were OK, but this one really ratchets up the suspense as the war with the Hydrogues continues. This time however, betrayals and political intrigue take on epic proportions: humanity is at war with humanity; civil war is brewing inside the Ildiran worlds. But we also have a greater understanding of the various alien entities: the Hydrogues, the Faeoros, Verdani (World Trees), and the interesting Wentals. Anderson has certainly created some original characters. My greatest complaint with this series has always been the drawn-out story. There are too many characters and the story could certainly use some better editing. That being said, Anderson has my attention and I look forward to the next book.

Rating:
Summary: The Saga Continues...
Review: O.k., how do I rate this? That is the question. I feel that it's important that this book be rated by the standard set by the series. It should therefore be more harshly judged than Terry Pratchet, but not as harshly judged as George RR Martin.

One problem with the book is the characters become dumb as a brick, which was also a problem in "Hidden Empire", although they seemed somewhat more intellegent in "A Forest of Stars" (which is currently the best in the series). But the fact remainst that I have come to care about these characters, and can continue to do so.

In the end all series are judged by:

1. The author creates likeable characters, situations, and places that can make you suspend disbelief.

and

2. The author makes them work together, for instance a truly hard-science world like "2001" wouldn't have people as dumb as these, but this world can hold them properly.

In addition to that KJA made a comment in an interview, which makes me add another standard to this book, at his request:

3. The author must, unlike Robert Jordan or George RR Martin, get his books in on time, and give us a new one each year.

So far he has succeeded in all three criteria, and I can only find that the book entertains at a 4-star level.

Rating:
Summary: barely keeping me in, needs to improve
Review: The easiest way to write this review would be to send someone to my review of book one and say "ditto", except not as fun. Which was basically my review of book two. And therein lies the series' problem--if you've read one, you've read them all. That isn't to say the plot doesn't move on, doesn't become more complicated. It does. But that's all that happens. And much of the plot complication is based upon themes and plot we've seen before. King Peter and Chairman Basil edge nearer and nearer to outright confrontation, but we saw the basis of this two books and hundreds and hundreds of pages ago. The roamers are forced through their shades-of-MacGyver ingenuity to survive the unsurvivable, escape the inescapable, figure out the un-figure-outable. And as we saw in book one and two, they do. Water elementals are added to the mix, but we've seen their three brethren already so this comes as no surprise. The Klix (sp) robots are evil and deceptive, but we've seen this before. It would be different if one had a sense the plot was deepening, but it feels more like it's simply expanding. The same is true of the characters. Though as before, one or two stand out as better and more fully drawn, more compelling, in a cast of dozens that's somewhat damning with faint praise. And stylistically, the books don't seem to be getting any better. At one point a character trying to show determination both grits her teeth and lifts her chin; I'll give you a few cliches in a large book but not two in the same sentence. The first book drowned out (for the most part) these flaws with it sheer inventiveness and sense of fun, but books two and three lack that spark and so are no where near as enjoyable. One reads to see what happens (though I'm very close to not caring at this point) and that's it, not for the pleasure of reading. Had Anderson shrunk the first three books into two shorter ones, the flaws would be less obvious and the story may have carried me along past them. At this point I'm going to drag myself into book four only because I'm an optimist and I read fast. But I would not recommend this series at this point to new readers unless it picks up drastically in book four. There's too much good out there to invest time in a series that doesn't do much past book one.

Rating:
Summary: for Fans of Star Wars
Review: The Terran Hanseatic League led by Chairman Basil Wencelas used the Kliss Torch device to ignite a giant gas giant thus creating a small sun. The plan was to terraform the gas giant's moons into new colonies but unbeknownst to anyone, the planet was inhabited by an unknown alien species the hydrogues. The Hanseatic's action destroyed a populated world. The hydrogues unwilling to let this genocide go unpunished declares war on the Hansea, cutting off the fuel supply needed for space exploration.

The Hansea is allied with the Ildira but they are carrying out a breeding program that will hopefully allow one of the group to communicate with the hydrogues. A civil war is brewing among the Ildira and depending on which side wins, The Hansea may be alone in its fight against the hydrogue. The roamers, independent spacers who supply fuel to the Hansea have broken their ties with the league after an act of treachery leaving the ruler of the Hansea with the need to obtain another way of finding worlds for the people to colonize. Also in league with the hydrogues are the evil sentient Kliss robots who have the same goal as the hydrogues: the Hansea's destruction.

Book three in the Saga of the Seven sons is space opera at its best. Fans of Star Wars will want to see this series made into a movie because it is epic in scope. Considering how many action scenes there are in HORIZON STORMS, Kevin Anderson does a terrific job in character development. There are so many different other races in this saga, not all of the humanoid, that the readers find themselves looking at the tale as an anthropological study.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Interesting space opera but serious 'middle book' problems
Review: The war against the hydrogues continues to go badly--only the Ildiran suicide-ramming attack has had any effect at all--and the duplicity of the Klikiss robots is gradually becoming apparent, but the Chairman of the Hansa decides that he must have a victory--and unite the human population. When the Roamers refuse to deliver essential fuel, he authorizes a series of attacks on them, planning on pressuring them into rejoining the Hansa majority.

The hydrogues appear to be winning the war, but ancient enemies, including the tree-forests of Theron, the powerful but chaotic star-dwelling faeros, and the strange conscious water-being, embedded in Jess Tamblyn, keep the hydrogues from spending more than token attention on humans and their humanoid allies, the Ildiran. Which is lucky for humanity--since both Ildiran and humans are launching their own civil wars.

Author Kevin J. Anderson jumps from character to character, describing the war, the lucky technology finds, and the slimy-types who use the moment of humanity's greatest danger to pursue their personal goals.

HORZION STORMS is the third in a huge series detailing the war, the multiple 'civilizations,' of the distant future, and the strange symbiotic relationships developing between human and Ildiran, human and water-creature, and human and tree. HORIZON does suffer from middle-book syndrome. There is a lot of setting up, a lot of angsting over choices, a lot of repeating what readers of earlier books already know, and not enough action and forward-moving plot.

Fans of the series will want to grab HORIZON STORMS. This probably is not the place to start reading the series--the story just doesn't make sense without the earlier books. Also, I suspect that missing this one wouldn't dramatically reduce the reader's enjoyment of the next story--not enough happens. Still, fans of Space Opera SF will enjoy this one.


Rating:
Summary: A great addition to a great series.
Review: This book is a great addition to an already great series. I like to think of this as the next Dune, though not quite as indepth! Great book, very good read, recomend to anyone who is interested in a very unique scifi.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely lame series...
Review: This series is utter crap.
Having started reading a series I hate giving up on them, but in this case I just might. Book one in the series was ok, but in no way great. Hoping it all would end in book two I read that too. It was worse that the first. Book three in the series is terrible. I in no way recommend this series.

If you want to read a great epic series by a very talented author get the Night's dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton.

Rating:
Summary: Great extension of the series
Review: Well, after finishing the book in two days I am left feeling sad, knowing that I have to wait until the next book is released. The Saga of the Seven Suns series has been a tremendous surprise for me and has become one of my favorite series of all time. In this third book, the plots begin to thicken with betrayals and the focus being closer to the characters and the various races than on the external war. This is one of those series in which I have truly begun to care for the chracters, and about what happens to them. I find myself actually annoyed or upset when something bad happens to them, and that is a true sign of a great book. If you didn't like the first two you probably won't like this one, but for me that certainly wasn't a concern. I highly reccomend it if you liked the first two books.