Horizon Storms (The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 3) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Though blackened by flames, the surviving worldtrees on Theroc remained defiant in the aftermath of the nightmare that had befallen them..." (more)
Key Phrases: chrysalis chair, lens kithmen, hydrogue attack, Hurricane Depot, Prime Designate, Chairman Wenceslas (more...)

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.
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Review

Third in Anderson's sprawling space-opera series (A Forest of Stars, 2003, etc.). Humans share the galaxy with a number of intelligent races: the ancient, quasi-magical Ildrians, the hydrogues, who live on gas giant planets, and the faeros, fiery creatures who live in the atmosphere of suns. The human race now faces annihilation as the faeros and hydrogues pursue a war that leaves entire solar systems snuffed out in its wake. Even so, independent factions of humanity resist the pleas of their leaders to close ranks against the alien enemies. Anderson deploys a huge cast of characters in a plot that piles complication upon complication. Behind-the-scenes political maneuvers, treachery and interstellar gunboat diplomacy are opposed by idealism, magical ancient philosophies, and sentient worldtrees. While the series has been compared to Robert Jordan's apparently endless Wheel of Time, the Star Wars movies (which Anderson has novelized) are equally plausible models. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Aspect (July 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446528722
• ISBN-13: 978-0446528726
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #627,067 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 3 in The Saga of the Seven Suns Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	booksforabuck "BooksForABuck.com" (Dallas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Desperation Measures, October 19, 2006

By	Arthur W. Jordin (Smyrna, GA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Horizon Storms (2004) is the third SF novel in The Saga of the Seven Suns, following A Forest of Stars. In the previous volume, Theroc is rescued from a devastating hydrogue attack by the faeros, but the Worldforest and population losses are severe. On Ildira, Prime Designate Jora'h became the Mage-Imperator.

At Rendezvous, Cesca Peroni learned that Jess Tamblyn has disappeared. On an uncharted water world, Jess found himself stranded amidst a new colony of wentals. In the Whisper Palace, Chairman Basil Wenceslas decided to colonize other planets through the Klikiss gates. In Maratha Prime, Anton Colicos and Rememberer Vao'sh settled in to enjoy the peace and quiet by studying the Saga of the Seven Suns. From her Manta, Tasia Tamblyn witnessed the snuffing of the Oncier sun by the hydrogues.

In this novel, from Whisper Palace King Peter announces a new campaign against the hydrogues using the Klikiss torch. After the ignition of the torch, he shows the broken remains of hydrogue ships to celebrating crowds on Earth. Then he lights a much smaller torch on the Royal Bridge to symbolize the victory.

On Mars, Tasia Tamblyn receives orders to use the Klikiss torch on Ptoro, an obscure planet on the fringes of human space. Her battle group sets up the wormhole generators and prepares to send a neutron star into Ptoro. Then they fire their torpedoes.

On Ptoro, DD meets human prisoners held by the hydrogues. Among them is Robb Brindle, the long lost friend of Tasia. The prisoners ask DD for help in escaping the hydrogues, but they really have little chance of leaving their quarters alive. Then the neutron star arrives and the planet becomes a star.

On Ildira, the Mage-Imperator Jora'h gathers the Designates together for the ceremony giving his father back to the light, leaving only his skeleton. After the ceremony, Jora'h is contemplating the misdeeds of his father, but his son Thor'h, the Prime Designate, interrupts his thoughts by bullying his way past the guards. When Jora'h rebukes him for using shiing, Thor'h defends his addiction.

On the water world, Jess Tamblyn learns that the wentals can construct another ship for him. After the new ship is completed, Jess returns to Rendezvous. There his return causes quite a sensation.

In Rendezvous, Cesca Peroni learns how Raven Kamarov's ship disappeared. Nikko Chan Tylar has brought back the ship remains with jazer streaked hull plates. The Roamers decide to cut off the Hansa's supply of ekti.

On Theroc, Celli discovers a mostly intact hydrogue warglobe for the EDF technicians to analyse. The damage to the trees, however, stretches further than she can see, even from Solimar's gliderbike. Later, Celli and Solimar learn that the Worldforest still enjoys their treedancing.

This novel still reads like something out of the Victorian era. Not only are the polities imperial, but the plot and dialogue are old-fashioned, like something by Rider Haggard. Maybe it goes with the territory.

Recommended for Anderson fans and for anyone else who enjoys grand adventures and wars between empires.

-Arthur W. Jordin