Scattered Suns

The Saga of Seven Suns #4

by Kevin J. Anderson

The destructive hydrogues continue their war against humans and the fiery entities, the faeros - a struggle that kills planets and extinguishes whole stars. Newly crowned Mage-Imperator Jora'h, the leader of the ancient and vast Ildiran Empire, struggles with new knowledge he has learned: an ancient bargain and long-standing treachery that may finally bring peace with the hydrogues ...though it could mean the extermination of the human race.

In the Terran Hanseatic League, Chairman Basil Wenceslas continues his red-herring war against the Roamer clans, eager to achieve a decisive victory, even against a supposed enemy that poses no threat. Their homes destroyed, the wandering Roamers scatter into hiding, trying to keep their culture and government intact, even when faced with enemies from all sides. Cesca Peroni, leader of the Roamers, finds herself stranded on a small icy outpost where miners have uncovered a hibernating army of alien Klikiss robots. Once released, these robots trigger another dark and ancient plot, one that could lead to a massacre across all human-inhabited planets ...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Fantasy, Audiobook, Space, Aliens

712 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Peart, legendary drummer from Rush, are two of my very favorite novels ever. And my magnum opus, the science fiction epic The Saga of Seven Suns, begins with HIDDEN EMPIRE. After you've tried those, I hope you'll check out some of my other series.

I have written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and I'm the co-author of the Dune prequels. My original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity. I have also written several comic books including the Dark Horse Star Wars collection Tales of the Jedi written in collaboration with Tom Veitch, Predator titles (also for Dark Horse), and X-Files titles for Topps.

I serve as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest.

My wife is author Rebecca Moesta. We currently reside near Monument, Colorado.

Reviews

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
This series does not necessarily have the strongest character or prose, yet something about the storytelling keeps pulling me back in. I love the imagination of this vast epic universe and enjoy the developing twists and turns of the plot.

[Mouldy Squid · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried, I really tried. About 3 hours into the audio book I simply couldn't take any more. The flaws are more numerous in this novel than they were in the earlier instalments, and more obvious. At every change of character POV, Anderson insists on reminding us what happened the last time we visited that POV and this becomes tiresome almost immediately. The "twists" are telegraphed and Anderson might as well use a caber to beat the reader when he wants to point out that "something important is about to happen with this character".

I stated in review of the earlier books that there was nothing really wrong with this series, only that it was dull. I was wrong. Looking back, I realize that Anderson is a competent writer, yes, but in no way gifted. The flaws in the novels become more and more obvious as the series continues and upon review of the previous volumes. I will be revising my rating. I also won't be finishing the series. I just can't take the dullness. While there are some interesting questions I would like to find the answers to (such as what really happened in the original war and the motivations of the great powers then), I simply cannot be bothered to wade through the pablum and crushingly pedestrian prose.

Were I a 14 year old geeky kid new to Science Fiction, I would have loved this series. It has a lot to appeal to the reader who is either new to S/F or has not tempered their palate with better works. Anyone well read in the genre will immediate find that Anderson does absolutely nothing new, and those themes he does manage to explore are explored in a completely conventional way; better writers have covered all this ground before and done a better job of it.

If you want simple, easy to read, utterly forgettable American Space Opera, The Saga of the Seven Suns is what you want. If you want something interesting, well written and challenging, look elsewhere; you won't find it with Anderson.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

what can i say? yet another awesome book in the saga. i absolutely LOVE this saga! i wish these worlds were real!

[Arnis · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kevin J. Anderson certainly knows how to write big books with big plots. I don't think any other writers come close to his level of plotting, not even my favorite Brandon Sanderson.

What makes this installment nice is its vantage points. Several of them are converging, and now we get scenes in the same location with the same characters from different vantage points moving the story along, and thus it feels more connected and linear than before.

Another advantage to this book is the A-plot. The A-plot features the Ildiran rebellion that started in the end of book 3 "Horizon Storms". This was a fascinating plotline with plenty of action and twists and turns. I actually felt for some of the characters involved and had to find out what would happen in the end.

The various other plots were very engaging, and I have to say this was the strongest selection of B-plots thus far. The King Peter/Prince Daniel/Basil Winseclas plotline is still my personal favorite, but the Rlinda Kett/Dalvin Lotze/BeBob Roberts Plotline was also very satisfying. Those really gripped me and kept me turning the pages.

This book finally brought back the Hydrogue threat which was really missing in the last book. It is balanced with the EDF/Roamer war well and helps show everyone where the bigger issue lies.

There is also plenty of situational irony and references to literature in this book that I really enjoyed. The Compy's being smarter than their boss as well as the irritation that Peter and Daniel cause Basil is just funny throughout.

Anderson seems a bit afraid to make drastic actions and deaths and thus the story feels a little safe. Some characters do die in this installment, but very few. The cast remains too large and needs whittling. I hope that happens in the next few books because otherwise it will be very difficult to recommend this series.

Overall, this is the best book of the series, but it still falls short of the "five star" rating on Goodreads, and instead gets an 8.5 out of 10. A really good installment, and this series is getting better and better, but it still isn't there yet. "We were so close to greatness...we were *this* close".


My side note for everybook in this series: The cover style for the version I read is very bland and has very little information on the story. The Original cover art from Aspect Publishing was much better at conveying the scope and tone of the book and genre it was reaching for. Please learn your lesson publishers, less artwork(or rather no artwork) is more boring.

[Graeme Wyllie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Completist in me keeps reading, picked the whole run up cheap in thrift store so it could not be that bad, right? It's the scifi equivalent to cheezwhizz - it claims to be one thing that i love but ultimately has little to no nutritional value. It's space opera at it's lightest with so much deus ex machina and the twists are choreographed far in advance. it is however the kind of book that can be read in brief chunks so made good public transport reading as it's overuse of internal recaps means you are told again and again what happened.

will i continue - probably but it's a few months till next volume gets cracked

[D.w. · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 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.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike previous books where the action jumped years into the future, Scattered Suns begins just
two weeks after the end of Horizon Storms. I’m still very impressed by the pacing of the events. While some plotlines are taking much longer to come to fruition, others have come to their conclusion much sooner than expected. The contrasting pace of plots gives the story a political realism.

I was also thrilled to find that the winner of a battle is no longer predictable. The number of players in this galactic war has reached a point where enemies or allies could join a battle at the last moment and decide the outcome. Alliances have become so tangled and shift so often, I can’t predict who will come out victorious and who will fall.

After finishing this book, there is only one thing to say: onto Of Fire and Night …

[John D'alessio · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot lines in this series were very interesting, and it was just enough to keep me reading it through to the end, but I found the writing repetitive, than tiresome and finally flat out boring.

Anderson writes each chapter as if you may have forgotten the setting laid down previously...I get it that the roamers are inventive, I get it that Ildarians can feel each other through some sort of psychic link, and I get it that the Chairman is distrustful of others...you don't need to continually beat me about the head with this information.

[Mihai Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems like everything falls apart, then fall back in place, then falls apart again and so on. We start to understand some of the misteries laid for us and also we meet new one. With action all along the pass, intrigues, love and betrayls, in my opinion, this is the best book of the series so far.

[Gene Parish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recently finished listening to Scattered Suns written by Kevin J. Anderson and narrated by David Colacci. This is the fourth book in the Saga of the Seven Suns.

I should note that most series are hard to review without giving some spoilers. If this an issue for you I suggest you skip to the conclusion.

Most series allow for you to jump in somewhere in the middle, assuming you don't mind a few spoilers. This is not such a series. It's so tight knit that your only hope of fully grasping it is to start with the first book Hidden Empire. Now that I have said all of that I will do my best to review the book for those who haven't moved onto the conclusion.

The Ildarin empire faces civil war as a rebel Mage-Imperator rears his head and begins turning Ildarin against Ildarin. Additionally, Jora'h's daughter has finally reached the peak of her mental abilities that may allow her to speak directly to the Hydrogues.

The EDF, turns its military might against it's far flung colonies and the Roamer clans. Chairman Wenceslas sees this as a fight they can win. The chairman is also regretting his decision to not actively aid Theroc.

The various elemental entities wage war on the Hydrogues, mostly a war they are losing.

The Kilkiss robots proceed with their plan to destroy humankind. This will be accomplished partially because the humans borrowed Klikiss design to build soldier robots, unwitting of the dangers of doing so.

Believe it or not, this is really just the start of the book. The book starts off slow and initially made me question if I would continue with the series. It does, however, pick up pace and address the issues it created. Since it did so I will continue with the series.

The narrator David Colacci is a fairly solid workaday narrator. Had they left his narration alone it might have been merely pleasantly forgettable. They did not leave his narration alone, I'm sad to say. They often apply a whole hosts of filters to his voice trying to imply he is a suit com, speaking as a robot, etc. While not a breaking point for me, I do consider the narration on this book subpar as a result.

Conclusion: This is a solid entry in the Saga of the Seven Suns. If you are interested in the series and haven't started with the Hidden Empire, I suggest you do so rather than jumping in here. It's a fairly solid Sci-fi novel, good but not great. A must for those who are reading the Saga of the Seven Suns.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Because I'm a completist I will keep reading till the end. Yet...

(spoilers beware)

As many have pointed out, the constant re-exposition which is the beginning of every chapter and most of the character thoughts makes this a tiresome read. At first I thought this was just a problem for the pacing and the writing style, but as I keep skipping over these paragraphs I realized that there's a bigger catch: when something does not make sense, and you're beaten with it many times, even someone like me that doesn't usually stop to find flaws or overanalyze starts seeing the glaring plot holes. And at that point the story that's buried below the re-exposition suffers dearly.

Case in point: The Dobro plot, which is kind of a poor's man Kwisatz Haderach, is emphasized time and again as necessary for the salvation of the Ildirans. But: the outcome ("success", as told in the book) of the plan is the interbreeding of an Ildiran not in the breeding camps, and a human also not a product of the breeding program. Hence: could have been achieved in one generation without all the nonsense.

Second major bother: the totally overpowered Hidrogues. Not only are they ultrapowerful (a single big ship could obliterate countless cities), but they're shown to have thousands or more of ships in battles against the Faeros. Also, they know (have visited) the location of both Earth and Ildira. So they could wipe both heads of the main organizations in the book with 0.000001% investment of resources. It's simply unbelievable that they have not done it already.

Corollary: any "epic" battle involving our protagonists and the hidrogues will necessarily end in some deus ex-machina, because otherwise there's no chance they wouldn't be wiped out every time there's an encounter. Frankly, not conducive to suspense.

I keep repeating to me that this is not SF but pulp fantasy, and certainly there's something behind all of it that makes me want to know how it all ends. I only hope there are no loose threads in the end for the characters I care about.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eigentlich kann ich gar nicht so viel sagen zu diesem Band, weil "Die Saga der Sieben Sonnen" sich von dem Konzept von Einzelbänden weit entfernt hat. Es gibt nur ein paar grobe Eckpunkte, die hier als wirkliche Plotpunkte hervorstechen - die Rückkehr der Wentals ist nun allgemein bekannt und König Peter hat auch einen Breaking Point erreicht in seiner Beziehung mit dem Vorsitzenden, aber ansonsten laufen alle Storylines weiter, die schon etabliert sind: TVF gegen Roamer, Menschen gegen Hydroger, andere mystische Alienrassen gegen Hydroger, was tun die Ildiraner ... hier gibt es noch eine neue Storyline, die aber auch gleich wieder abgeschlossen ist, ansonsten fallen die unzähligen winzig kurzen Kapitel mit so vielen Sichtweisen, dass es mir schwer fallen würde, alle aufzuzählen, eher ins große Ganze. Ich trauere immer noch ein bisschen dem archäologischen Aspekt aus dem ersten Band hinterher, als die Menschen die Klikiss-Welten auch wirklich erforscht haben und nicht nur von einer zur anderen gehüpft sind und sich wegen Hydrogern gefürchtet haben oder irgendwelche Bösen die Ausrottung einer anderen Spezies planen. Generell darf man auf Charaktermotivation wieder nicht viel schauen, da Anderson einfach keinen Fokus darauf legt. Ob das nun ein Freundlich-Kompi ist oder ein Mensch oder Ildiraner, sie tun sich alle schwer damit, das ihnen einmal zugeschriebene Handlungsmuster abzulegen und handeln eben ob ihrer Rolle in der Saga. Da gibt es dann die Nervigen, die man mit dem Kopf gegen die Wand schlagen will, und die "Netten", von denen man will, dass sie endlich ihr Glück finden, obwohl man eigentlich mit ihnen genauso wenig mitfiebert wie mit anderen, weil sie alle ein wenig austauschbar sind. Ob nun Celli irgendwo einen grünen Priester küsst oder Cesca Peroni endlich ihre große Liebe wiedersieht - mir war das ziemlich einerlei. Ich lese diese Reihe als Space Opera mit einem wirklich phantastischen Blick auf Raumfahrt anstelle von Hard SciFi sehr gern, weil sie unterhaltsam ist, brauche jetzt aber auch wieder eine Pause.

[Edmund Bloxam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has fewer surprises, fewer shocks. It's more about dealing with the aftermath of the surprises and shocks of the previous book.

The good things are still here from the previous books, so to read my thoughts on them, go to previous books. The characters, the extraordinary organisation of the vast canvas being drawn, the fact that the short chapters help keep on balance the vast number of different perspectives. One thing I noticed this time round, in fact, is a new chapter, that is, a new perspective, can progress from one chapter to the next. So, the narrative is not choppy.

So, this review will come across as negative, because I'm mostly gonna talk about some things I didn't like, even though, in the grand scheme of the book, they are less important.

I think there may be one to many character perspectives. The Voracious Curiosity pair interest me less, there are some randoms that show up.

I wasn't fond of the wentals when they first showed up. They have no relation to science fiction. Magic water people that do weird magic things. At least with the world forest, I could squint my eyes and pretend. Mixing fantasy and sci-fi isn't necessarily a problem. But given the context of most of this book, which is soft sci-fi, but is extremely thorough and thought-out, the wentals just don't sit well, in my opinion. Star Wars makes no bones about being space fantasy. For me, the majority of the book is pretty feasible and based broadly on technological and science principles.

The talking tree golem character openly pisses me off. Primarily because it isn't necessary. He doesn't need to be there for the world forest to do its thing. So, some fantasy BS is just there for no reason.

As I implied, though, there are a lot of different threads and perspectives to this book. So, if the reader isn't fond of one particular element, they don't have to dwell in it for very long.

[Dylan Vargas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good, but it did nothing truly innovative, introduce any novel concepts, or anything unique with the world-building. It simply felt like an extension of plots, themes, and charaters from all previous books. When I am this far into an extensive series, I expect changes, plot twists, new characters or themes, yet almost none of that was present. This is not to say the world and characters are any less interesting, they just feel like they have stagnated and failed to develop or maintain intrigue.

Beyond that, the galactic scale war and already complex charaters continue to be engaging, fleshed out, and unique. There were some major plot points that were introduced, some were even entriely wrapped up within this book, and some were merely teases or just introduced. This may feel contraditory to my above points, but even these new plot or plot progressions were simply in the same vein of already introduced plots from previous book. I feel this book appears to introduce major and engaging plots and then even as they are addressed, it never feels adequate to have a strong payoff. Ultimately, I felt that this book was a filler content, mainly trying to bridge a moment of lull in action and fill space between major moments of high stakes from the first few book into the final few books. Yet it did have a few truly critcal plot developments (Roamer War, Civil War) which was engaging and central to this book. But the rest of the plot felt like it was just holding space. I still feel that the book is again failed due to its the short structure of charaters and almost too many factions, plot points, and characters.

Despite this harsh criticism, I still really love the themes, charaters, and stroies that the sereis has created. I was still quite entertained and engaged throughout reading. The failing of not being new and innovative doesn't take away from the already created interesting plots.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3 Stars)

Easily my favorite of the Seven Suns books so far. The characters' actions (granting the premise of however they got there) more or less made sense. By and large their motivations were clear. We even got some character arcs, even if some of them were a bit silly (looking at you, Basil, Sarein, and little rich boy). We also got some information about the wider universe that was interesting.

I don't want to overstate my enjoyment of this book - it was still pretty silly, with a lot of things that were a bit goofy (ice lady is an extreme but specific example), and the timing of things didn't really seem consistent (months pass in one storyline while a single night passes in another, but they are told in an intertwining fashion); there are a ridiculous amount of coincidences to attempt to tie different plotlines together; the structure showing a piece of the story from one character's point of view at a time really hits limitations here.

However, I thought this book was much more internally consistent than the previous ones, and the plot and characters moved in sensible ways. Those are both big plusses.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

It says I read this one before, and I saw I have the hardback, but I don't remember much of this one, which is odd since it would have been read more recently than the previous three, of which I do remember. I guess that tells you how this one is really not great. 2.5 stars rounded up. The repetitiveness gets worse. This book could be half the length without that. Some of the character actions don't make a whole lot of sense, just feels like the whole thing is going off the rails a bit.
New narrator as well, which was too bad. Actually, the narrator wasn't bad, but he's no George Guidall. Throws you off a bit too, in the middle of a series when all of a sudden all the characters speak differently. This guy throws some southern/Texas style accents on some and other things that seem odd.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe due to it being Corona, but this book, for most of it, depressed me. I had read the series before, knew what was coming, and it just depressed me. All the things came to a head. The Ildiran mutiny, the Hydrogues, the Klikiss Robots. Just got me down. I was hoping things would change by the end, and thankfully they did. I guess I was not as affected in the past, but it got to me this time. Luckily there was the beginning of some positive news. The king and queen make a good story, until the very end. Then the Roamers FINALLY finding a way to attack the warglobes. And Jona'h getting his kingdom back.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I'm still enjoying the series overall, I felt some of the storylines for this particular book were odd.

The drug rebellion really stuck out as a bit of a plot loophole. I could see why they wanted Jor'ah to grow, harden a bit and be less naive. And perhaps explain why he would consider the 'hard choices' with the coming war.

But - this complete personality change from the rebellion's thism, yet Jor'ah seems completely unable to control, read, or even influence anyone within his own network? It just doesn't make sense.

Hoping to see a bit more grounded characterisation in the next book

[Linda (The Arizona Bookstagrammer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like it more than I did. He creates an enormous sci FYI universe filled with multiple species, and populates it with dozens of significant characters. How he kept all of them straight while writing the saga is beyond me. Luckily for readers, he includes a list of characters at the end of the book. Read it first. It’s. Just. Too. Long. This is the 4th book in the series. Not sure if I will read any more. Trivia Note: As a former Northern Californian, I was tickled by planets and settlements named Yreka, Plumas, and Alturas.

[Marc Diepstraten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series, but since I'm not reading them back to back it takes a while getting back into the flow. The series is written as one book divided into seven, so certain plot lines are concluded whilst others are starting or continuing throughout the book. Kevin has gotten a lot of flak for this or that over this series, though I can't see why. If you don't like it, don't read it. It's grand scale and am looking forward to the next, finding out where this will end up.

[Kevin Pimbblet · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series overall is good. But there are parts, chapters, and sometimes book worth's of problematic passages and plot issues. This part in the series was one that I started to become really irritated with the constant recaps. I did not need them at all. The twists and turns were generally telegraphed well, but as a result they were not that impactful. Worth reading and moving on fast, as well as skipping over the recaps if you feel confident to do so.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part, this is more of the Saga of Seven Suns goodstuff.
Audiobook listeners beware though, the narrator changes. I was almost annoyed enough to stop reading, but my curiousity got the better of me, and I eventually got used to it. I do think they would probably do better re-record it with the original narrator, or if that's not possible, re-record the first three books with the later narrator to make it feel consistent.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The shizz has started to hit the fan. Scattered Suns capitalises on all that set up Horizon Storms sets up, and I'm slightly concerned about the fate of some of the characters. I don't seem to have that much trouble identifying the characters anymore - possibly because they have remained fairly consistent over the last few books with only a few additions. An enjoyable read.

[Brent Moffitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author almost ruined the story with the confusing, inconsistent and irrational subplot of the corrupt "thism". And the idea of a culture that valued it's connection to the "Lightsource" above all else would indulge in a drug that disconnected them from thism and the Lightsource is just ridiculous. Fortunately, most of the other subplots are still entertaining.

[Garrett Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth book in the Saga of Seven Suns series. I am enjoying the series more and more as I get deeper into the world building of this series. This book is focused on the relationship between the humans and the alien races and how outmatched the humans are in a war against the elements themselves. Will continue with this series.

[Jennifer Leistikow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one took a while. The pace is pretty slow, but once you've read The Wheel of Time series, pace is relative!
Put this down and read several other books before I finished it. I will definitely finish the series, mostly because I have already invested so much time in it.

[Paca Sad · Rating 4 out of 5]

This really is an epic, although I have been thinking that the different Kith are very similar to the Kinden of Adrian Tchaikovsky, but that's all good, it is an epic and as such it is getting a little difficult to keep up with all the characters

[Stephen Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

You wonder where he gets the story lines from. They just seem to increase in size and scope, bringing in larger entities, which instantly increases the range of possibilities to come. When will Peter become his own destiny....in the last book I guess, you just know it will happen at some point.

[Stian Rosvald · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing is exciting enough to make it hard putting it down. Some events are excruciating to witness, but that is because I have information the characters do not, and it angers me some of the actions they take. The Story is engaging.