Saga Of The Seven Suns
by Kevin J. Anderson, 2002-08
Review is copyright © 2010, 2011 by Wil C. Fry.
Published: 2011.11.01
Home > Book Reviews > Kevin J. Anderson > Saga Of The Seven Suns (series)
★★★★ (of 5)
(Note: Originally, the following was two separate reviews, one for the first book, Hidden Empire, and one for the rest of the series. I have reworked the text to make it work as a single review for the entire series.)
In late 2010, tiring of my old sci-fi classics from Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov, I went hunting for something new and exciting. I found Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Anderson and bought the paperback (not the same book as Orson Scott Card’s Hidden Empire, which I’ve never read). I’d heard good things online about Anderson from other known sci-fi writers, and Publishers Weekly gave the book an excellent review. I enjoyed it well enough that I eventually read the rest of the septology, finishing late in 2011. I enjoyed the entire series, minus a handful of minor complaints listed below.
Here’s the complete list of books:
The series was enjoyable throughout, once I got past a few nagging irritations. For one, none of the books (except the last) has a conclusion. I understand this is popular now, but I still think each book in a series ought to have its own climax and conclusion rather than leaving everything hanging like an installment of a serial TV show. Secondly, especially in the first book but tapering off near the end of the series, Anderson repeatedly reintroduces characters and redescribes planets and societies as if I hadn’t just read that description a few chapters before. So much so that I wondered if the chapters had originally been written as separate short stories. This works if you’re a slow reader; it helps to remind you of things, but if you make it through the novel in a few days it starts to get tedious.
My third complaint about the entire series was less irritating, but will likely be the only thing I remember years from now: the word “shudder”. The word “shudder” is common enough that most people are aware of its meaning and spelling. But it’s not common enough that we use it every day. I’m willing to bet that most people don’t use the word “shudder” as often as once a month. But Anderson uses it almost constantly. “The ship shuddered from the impact.” “Tasia shuddered when she thought of it.” There were stretches where the word was used in every chapter (and Anderson’s chapters are relatively short). I started looking for instances of synonyms and couldn’t find them. If the following synonyms were used, they were rare: bounce, bobble, convulse, flutter, jitter, quake, quiver, shake, shiver, spasm, tremble, twitch, and vibrate. And each of those would have been appropriate in several places where “shudder” was used. (2020 note: After this experience, I began to notice a similar phenomenon with other authors, where a certain word would get overused in a book to the point that it was distracting.)
The series follows several intertwined story lines set in the 25th Century, as humanity and another sentient species come to grips with a serious outside threat. In Hidden Empire, the story starts with an epic event: humanity is using newly-discovered ancient alien technology to turn a gas giant world into a mini-star. It also happens to be the event that ignites interstellar war. As it turns out, previously unknown aliens lived in the depths of the gas giant planets...
Each book had its own series of climaxes, all part of the same overarching storyline. The opening epic event was followed by larger and larger and more mind-blowing incidents. The story is truly epic in scope, following several sentient races through their good and bad contact with each other, including changing alliances, rescuing entire species, destroying entire planets, and even melding species on more than one occasion.
Though I usually prefer a story with one main character (or just a few), it didn’t bug me that Anderson used a dozen main characters, none getting preferential treatment over the others. The story also deals with several societies, including the Terran Hanseatic League, the Roamers, the Green Priests, the alien Ildiran race, the long-dead Klikiss people and their still-surviving robots, and the alien hydrogues. Anderson does well with giving each society a believable history and culture, without boring the reader to tears over details. He also creates believable, interesting characters, each with a different agenda.
Of the seven titles, I thought only the first and last were representative of the books’ contents; the other five could have gone without titles and it would have been fine.
The series’ climax came late in Book 7 (as expected), but earlier than expected. Instead of the book ending abruptly after the climax, as so many books and shows do, leaving you to wonder what happened afterward, Anderson spent quite a few short chapters after the story’s climax tying up loose ends and letting the reader have closure with each character. For some readers, it might seem like overkill, but I liked it.
Note: I’ve published a much shorter version of this review on Goodreads.