Scattered Suns

Book 4 of the Saga of the Seven Suns. After a rough beginning, I'm now pretty much on board with the characters now. In this volume, the Elderians became embroiled in a civil war, the Hansa attacked the outlier Roamer clans after they essentially went on strike when it was found one of their ships was destroyed by a Hansa raider, and the war against the Hydroges has taken a turn for the better, partially because of a weapon of Roamer design that shatters the diamond war globes, and partly because the ancient enemies of the Hydroges, the water-based Wentles, have joined the human cause.

More finished then yet to be finished. That is a good thing with this series. This series is too long.

So long that it can put you to sleep.

Technically there are things that make your suspension of disbelief impossible because the author does not dot his eyes and cross his tees. We have the problem of time, over and over again. Some pages you can jump across the galaxy in hours, and on others it takes months.

This is because all of this is done to propel the human story. So much so that the alien races we have been introduced are really also humans. A close reading of the emotions and personalities of the aliens will show you that. Just an alien body with a human inside.

Initially the enemy was alien enough, but the addition of so many show more additional enemies has made that irrelevant, especially when the logical to their own way of thinking illogical robots prove to be as human as any other member of the story.

Then the illogical leaders of the story who think they can use propaganda so absolutely that they can start and continue to wage a war. A society so far advanced than ours that their is no dissident press. That there are no checks and balances on absolute power. That there no longer is a joint chiefs of staff to ensure that the military has become narrow focused.

Anderson needed to check with Turtledove who is much better at this sort of thing. Turtledove can take history (having taught it) and change the names and places but follow the path so that we can believe what we read. Even when our own world had Hitler, there were dissidents in Germany that looked for ways to remedy that, fled Germany when they saw the rise of the megalomaniacs, and many were rounded up and killed to Germany was weeded out, or knew to turn a blind eye, but knew what was occurring. In the world of Anderson, a much bigger sphere as it has most of human space under the thumb of the stories Dictator, only one or two are aware of the wrongness occurring.

It is a shame, because this could have been a lot better than it really is. show less

To be fair, right off the bat, I did not finish this book. The narrator was O.K., but I don't really like it when men try to change their voice for women. Also, this being the fourth in the series, but my first, didn't help matters. I am not a die hard fantasy fan and the many nonsensical (to me) words in this made it very difficult to follow. It had many characters that didn't grip me and a lot of it seemed gleaned from other fantasy works. But don't let me stop you from reading it, I just picked up the wrong book for me. Oh, and you should probably start with the first one if you try it!

This review is written with a GPL 3.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at Bookstooge.booklikes.blogspot.wordpress.leafmarks.tumblr.com by express permission of this reviewer. Title: Scattered Suns Series: Saga of the Seven Suns Author: Kevin Anderson Rating: 1 of 5 Stars Genre: SFF Pages: --- My Thoughts:
I am done with Anderson. Nothing in the first chapters of this book drew me on and given the track records of the previous 3 books, I thought it best to simply Abandon this book, this series and Anderson as an author. Wanted to clear out my Currently Reading list and get all the show more reviews out of the way before the New Years. Not a review really, but everything by Anderson just bores me. " show less

Booklist Review: Chairman Basil Wenceslas leads a beleaguered human race, and the stress is beginning to tell on him--he views any dissent, of any sort, from his leadership as treason. This, of course, does nothing to calm fears in the human colonies. Meanwhile, the divisions of allegiance among the alien Ildiran increase the pain of their leader, Jora’h, at the disruption of his people’s long-standing psychic network. The question begins to ask itself: Is the war more dangerous to both sides than the victory of either side would be? Anderson’s colossal story of the clash of space empires, Saga of the Seven Suns, has definitely been influenced by his work for the Star Wars franchise and collaboration with Brian Herbert in show more expanding the universe of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels. Despite all the sweep, scope, and fast action of the saga, Anderson handles the essential conflicts in it so as to enhance characterization as well as keep things moving. A fine continuation of a fine saga.
-- Roland Green (BookList, 07-01-2005, p1910) show less

Soleils éclatés est le 4ème tome de la saga des 7 soleils qui en compte 7. C'est du grand Space opera. Si j'ai trouvé le tome 1 un peu poussif, il n'en est plus rien pour le tome 4 où plusieurs des complots qui se développent dans les épisodes précédents éclatent. L'action s'accélère et les personnages doivent affronter des situations extrêmes. Du grand spectacle!

Hey, aangenaam verrast.

Twee (en een halve) nieuwe soort aliens, en zowaar diepgang in de personages!