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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
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.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Getting Better, August 28, 2004
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.
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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
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.
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