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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book Two of the best sci fi series to come along in years, April 16, 2004
It has been many years since I have been this excited and emotionally attached to a science fiction series. In A Forest of Stars: The Saga of Seven Suns Book 2, Kevin J. Anderson not only builds upon the galactic epic begun in Hidden Empire, he makes the incredible drama detailed in the first book seem like a warm-up act to the real performance. You have to commit yourself to the story; there is just too much happening to too many characters for you to read this novel in dribs and drabs and expect to keep up, but that should not be a problem because A Forest of Stars is all but impossible to ever put down in the first place. Five years have passed since the Earth-based Terran Hanseatic League used ancient alien technology to turn a gas giant into a brand new star, thereby incurring the wrath of the unknown and seemingly unstoppable race of hydrogues who call the gas giants home. Almost every race and planet in the Spiral Arm has suffered both mentally and physically at the hands of the hydrogues, while the deadly enemy's refusal to allow ekti (the source of stardrive fuel) mining in the atmospheres of their home planets has crippled the galactic economy. Even the impressive Solar Navy of the might Ilderan Empire has been proved embarrassingly inferior to the destructive hydrogues. The ominous events detailed in Hidden Empire barely hint at the things to come in the pages of this second entry in the series. A Forest of Stars will take your breath away again and again. I could never begin to describe all of the momentous and oftentimes shocking things that take place in this novel. The improved military might of the Hansa's Emergency Defense Force remains ineffective against the hydrogues, and the growing scarcity of stardrive fuel has resulted in the breakdown of Hansa control over a number of its colonies. The Roamers, descendants of earth-based pioneers, continue to maintain their independence and nomadic lifestyle among the stars, but the Roamer economy struggles as its very foundation, the mining and selling of ekti for stardrive fuel, collapses. On Theroc, home of the sentient worldforest, life goes on much as normal for some time, but even the Therons will not emerge from this book unscathed. On Earth, young King Peter, a king in name only, matures and begins to assert himself, all but openly rebelling against the true source of Hansa power - Chairman Basil Wenceslas. Across the Spiral Arm, the true intentions and plans of the Mage-Imperator of the Ilderan Empire are made known, invoking great emotional pain among several important characters as well as the reader. Power changes hands on almost every central civilization involved before A Forest of Stars ends. Beloved characters die, incredible new plot elements (as well as unexpected, mysterious forces) are thrown into the mix, the destructive hydrogues still seem unstoppable, and romance in all its forms tears at the heart-strings of the reader. Kevin J. Anderson holds nothing back. Two lengthy books into this saga, the story is amazingly even more refreshing and promising than ever; I get the distinct feeling that "I ain't seen nothin' yet." The very nature of the awful war changes in these pages, as we learn that this is an ancient war between elemental forces never before imagined by the humans and Ilderans who now find themselves dragged into the apocalyptic conflict. Only now do we begin to understand just who the real enemies of the hydrogues are. Only now do we learn of the Ilderans' secret plans for survival and their total subjugation of select humans in barbaric breeding grounds. Only now do we gain insight into the disappearance of the ancient Klikiss race and begin to learn the truth about the incredible robots they left behind. The Saga of Seven Suns is such a fantastic science fiction series that I would almost recommend waiting until the series is complete before reading it. Having just read both of the first two novels, I am dying to learn what happens next - the wait for succeeding entries in this saga will be almost painful. Oftentimes, science fiction characters are rather cold and distant from the reader, but Anderson brings each of his characters to life and, through their triumphs and sorrows, brings the reader intimately into their world. No one (apart from the hydrogues) is starkly good or evil. Best of all, I have no idea how events will play out from this point forward. I may only be two books into this open-ended epic science fiction series, but I can already say that The Saga of Seven Suns is the most impressive, exciting series I have read since Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Get the next one, its worth it., September 26, 2003
"A Forest of Stars", the second of the "Saga of the Seven Suns" series, although exactly how much it is about the Ildirans (the occupants of the planet surrounded by said stars) is debatable, mostly its about human beings, individual human beings such as Jess Tamblyn, the Roamer miner, Cesca Peroni, the Roamer Speaker, King Peter, the puppet king trying not to be so much of a puppet, Tasia Tamblyn, commander of a space cruiser in the Hanseatic navy attempting to get some revenge for the death of her family by the hydrogues, and then come the Ildirans mostly high powered officials such as the Mage-Imperator, a ruthless tyrant who cares only for the survival of the Empire, his son the lover of Nira, the green priest, the Admiral who sacrifices his life to get some revenge. There are other characters although nowhere near as developed e.g. the hydrogues, the Klikiss robots and so on. The war that started in the first book continues in this one getting more intense, in fact all round a better book. The hydrogues start a war of total destruction of other races, attempting to rid the galaxy of the verdani (the worldtrees with sentience), the wentals (space based water intelligence), and eventually the faeroes (fire based entities living inside stars), humans and Ildirans. The Klikiss, with the help of their rebellious robots, are gone, none left and it seems that noone can stop the hydrogues although the faeroes unexpectedly coming to the aid of the verdani and humans suprises the hydrogues who now face them, the humans, the Ildirans, the verdani and unknown to them the last vestiges of the wentals. The book is of course about people but the entire scheme concerns the vast conflict between these other races stretching over the whole galaxy. The book is much better than the first in the series although it leaves gaps and some plot problems e.g. the Mage-Imperator mentioned that the humans killed millions of hydrogues when lighting the Klikiss torch and the Chairman fails to see why the Ildiran Emperor did not warn them that would be the result when he knew this would happen and since he did not warn them the implications thereof such as the attempt by the Ildirans to eliminate the humans by using the hydrogues to do it. This is very obvious and the seemingly intelligent chairman of the Hanseatic League misses it completely. There are many other failures e.g. why not develop weapons which attack the hydrogues via a biological approach, how is the fact that the Klikiss robots are trying to destrot humanity not clear yet etc etc. It is worth it though and the pace of the novel accelerates to a high speed, I read it in two days. It does make it worth getting the next one.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
flaws of the first without quite the fun factor--weak 3, September 17, 2004
Forest of Stars, the second book in Anderson's series, is a chip off the old block with regard to the first. Unfortunately, one would have hoped for a bit more improvement in the second book. All the flaws of the first are here: the too-quick shifts from scene to scene, relatively shallow characterization, implausible (even for space opera) plot events, some weak writing/dialogue, and the still maddening habit (though at least less often) of repeating previous exposition as if the reader can't be trusted to remember a few chapters back. The first book overcame these flaws with its robust ingenuity and simple sense of fun. This book doesn't quite match the verve of the first, however, and so the flaws are magnified, affecting the reading experience more. Too much of what happens here we've seen already in the first, such as King Peter chafing under Basil's restrictions, the inventiveness of the Roamers, etc., which takes away a bit of the spark as well.
There are some good scenes in here, and a few of the characters manage to stand out as more sharply drawn and more compelling than others. Applying the same level of characterization to others would have greatly helped, as would streamlining the book a bit to cut down on repetitive action or dialogue. As it was, I kept reading to see what would happen but I can't call it very compelling. Having read the third book I can say that it too shares the same flaws without the balancing positives. One hopes as a series continues that we're treated to more than an unspinning of the plot--deeper characterization, improved writing style, a sense of a more full story. Unfortunately, Anderson seems stuck a bit in the same gear as book one. The potential is there, but is so far unmet. He hasn't dropped off much, but I'll need more than holding course in book four to continue. Recommended for those who read and liked the first with the warning not to expect much more, but at this point I wouldn't recommend the series to new readers.
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