Kevin J. Anderson has written over 120 books–he’s best known for the Dune series written with Frank Herbert’s son, Brian–and this is the first Kevin J. Anderson novel I’ve read.
Hidden Empire: The Sage of Seven Suns Book 1 was published in 2002 and sets up the action and characters for the six books which appeared yearly after this initial book.
I’m a fan of Space Opera so I’m ready to tackle this series as a cast of characters numbering in the couple dozen struggle with the menace of a hidden alien empire that emerges in a murderous way. My favorite character so far is Margaret Colicos, a xeno-archaeologist. She travels around the galaxy with her husband Louis, exploring the ruins of the insect like Klikiss race, searching for clues to explain what happened to their vanished civilization. So far, only ghost cities and enigmatic giant beetle-like robots remain.
Hidden Empire opens with a major scientific experiment in deep space. Margaret and Louis discovered a way to turn a gas-giant planet into a sun using Klikiss technology. The experiment is a success…but alien objects emerge from the gas-giant planet. That event triggers series of attacks by the mysterious aliens on the benign Ildirans–an ancient, senescent civilization–and humans.
Humans are fragmented into three main groups: the Earth-based Terran Hanseatic League, the telepathic Green Priests of Theroc, and the fiercely rebellious, starship-dwelling Roamers. These divisions need to be resolved as the powerful enemy threatens everyone! GRADE: Too soon to tell but trending towards a B
The Saga of Seven Suns:
Prequel: Veiled Alliances (Graphic novel) (2004)
- Hidden Empire (2002)
- A Forest of Stars (2003)
- Horizon Storms (2004)
- Scattered Suns (2005)
- Of Fire and Night (2006)
- Metal Swarm (2007)
- The Ashes of Worlds (2008)
I don’t think I’ve read any Anderson as yet…though as bad as Herbert’s later DUNE books apparently were, Anderson’s collabs probably weren’t much if any worse…
Todd, it will not surprise you to learn I own all the Kevin J. Anderson collaborations with Frank Herbert’s son…but I haven’t read them yet.
The guy is prolific, but he’s another current SF writer I’ve read almost none of. The only one that comes to mind is NEMO, a Jules Verne pastiche from the early 2000s.
Fred, like you, I’ve seen Kevin J. Anderson’s name on a lot of books. This is the first one I’ve read and despite some problems (a lot of filler), I’ll read a few more.