Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns) [Mass Market Paperback]

Kevin J. Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Saga of Seven Suns | Publication Date: November 1, 2007

Caught in the middle of a titanic struggle between two alien superpowers, the factions of humanity and their allies, the Ildirans, are under siege. Can they resolve their differences to fight a common threat?

For the leader of the Roamers, survival means extending a helping hand to others, while the chairman of the Terran Hansa plans to use a new, untested alien weapon regardless of the consequences. And for the new Ildiran Mage-Imperator, survival involves throwing off the choking traditions of the Empire - even if it might trigger a civil war.

As old intrigues and dark secrets come to light, a man who is believed to be long dead returns with an ally who may save mankind. But this new fragile hope will be threatened by a fresh betrayal - the most bitter and brutal of them all...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The interstellar conflict between hydrogues (aliens that live at the core of gas-giant planets) and faeros (fire entities that dwell within stars) and its impact on a dazzling array of alien and human species propel bestseller Anderson's third thrilling installment in his Seven Suns saga (after 2003's Hidden Empire and 2002's A Forest of Stars). In the third wave of this SF tsunami, an important Earth Defense Force asset, ekti star fuel, is compromised when rebels refuse to donate all ekti to the defense effort, leading Terran Hanseatic League Chairman Basil Wenceslas (the power behind semi-puppet monarchs King Peter and Queen Estarra) to declare war on the rebels. Adding to the fireworks are human-hating Klikiss robots who break an old Ildiran peace pact, a brewing Ildiran civil war and Ildiran secret experiments that impinge on Mage-Imperator Jora'h's relationship with green priest Nira Khali. Crackling with energy and buzzing with action, this hot summer read bodes well for future nail-biting episodes.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson has written 41 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Orbit (November 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316003476
• ISBN-13: 978-0316003476
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson has written 46 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars barely keeping me in, needs to improve, September 17, 2004

By 

B. Capossere (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 3) (Hardcover)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting Better, August 28, 2004

By 

Avid Reader (Willow Springs, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 3) (Hardcover)

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting space opera but serious 'middle book' problems, October 5, 2004

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booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 3) (Hardcover)

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.