Amph The Ildarian Empire: Saga of Seven Suns discussion

What does everyone think of this series? There are currently four books in the series so far:

Hidden Empire
A Forrest of Stars
Horizon Storms
Scattered Suns

Book five is comming out in July, titled Of Fire and Night.

I love this series. It is fast paced, and has wonderful cliff-hanger endings. The characters are developed well, to the point you actually care about them. I like the story of King Peter and Estarra. Who are your favorite characters? What do you think will happen in the next book? Discuss!

I really like Saga Of The Seven Suns. I strongly reminds me of Babylon 5. And that's a very excellent thing. I miss B5 and SOTSS contains some strong parallels to some of B5's sub-plots. Here's a list...

1. Ildarian Empire is like both the Mimbari and Centauri.
2. The ancient Hydrogues, Wentals, Faeroes, etc. are like the Shadows, Vorlons, etc.
3. The policies and actions of the EDF are like those of the Earth Alliance and IXP.
4. The Green Priests are like the Telepaths.
5. The Roamers are like the Narn and the Rangers.
6. The Klikiss robots are like the Drahk and other Shadow Servants.
7. Tamblyn Cesca (I think that's her name?) reminds me of Ivanova.

I have a signed copy of the first one, and haven't been able to get into it at all.

I have never really got in B5, not that I wouldn't like it. I just never watched it from the beginning, and don't want to spend the money to get it on dvd.

The saga series really picks up after the firt book. I think the first book still has enough twists and turns to keep people interested though.

What turns you off JediTrilobite ? Just curious

I think mainly the writing style, but it just seemed to be very boring, from the first couple chapters. Maybe I'll get back to it someday.

That's funny, the writing style is one of the things I like most. I like the switch in character perspective, and the fast pace.

For anyone who is interested, I found an interesting article/interview with the author (Kevin J, Anderson) about this series. He mentions why he writes the books in the style he uses, and how certain characters got their names. Here is the site:

www.sfsite.com/01a/ka215.htm

Or you can go to his website at wordfire.com.

Thanks, Nat!

Hey, I've heard of this series but I've just recently did some researching. It's looks promising, and I'm savvy enough to know how you write Star Wars isn't how you write your own relatively maturer novels. So I'm sure it was a conscious decision to write every book, comic and short SW story for teens, not as reflection of Kevin's specific writing.

So I'm interested in knowing, as a potential Seven Suns recruit, why I should I get Hidden Empire. What's the intrigue, action, book finales, foresight and prose like? Is it every bit as good as it's said to be?

Another night of exploration, and in contrast to the hyped Amazon reviews I've found an increasing amount of negative feedback from independent sites. Issues like unoriginality, 15 new povs in half a book, generic characterisation . . .

Hmmm.

due to a new baby I've not had chance to respond in detail here.



I'll do so when I'm back at work next week



a lot of people judge KJA on his SW books though which does him a bit of an injustice

I think that KJA ties together the different plot lines and POV's nicely. The series is very fast paced, with some chapters being half a page long, always switching POV.

The switching in POV is usually from different places, not from the same event. I think the series is very interesting.

As far as originality....Who is completely original? The only thing I have heard people say is that the Klikkis (Sp?) race has been done before. ( Killiks, SW, Card has a race of insects, etc..)

I'm not worried about originality. That's really only an issue if you're widely read. If Forgotten Realms books are generic repetitiveness, that will not factor for a new entrant. I have seen a few mentions of one-page chapters. Rogue Planet did that; found it needless and annoying.

Does the fast pace affect the depth of the book, you reckon? I've never judged an author basd just on a Star Wars work. I'll probably get Hidden Empire, I'm just wondering how the series measures up in continual quality.

I don't think the pace affects depth at all. One thing I can say is that in this series, KJA captures the emotional aspect of each scene really well. You don't get many pages of "filler". There are no chapters that run on and on about what a tree looks like in the distance, or meaningless descriptions of things just to prove he can write metaphore like some authors do.

I think that the series has progressed rather nicely. Each book builds on the last. I haven't read a bad book in the series yet, but that is my opinion.

I've completed my research. A high number of reviewers keeping saying the prose is too "talked-down", as though he's writing for kids, and the simple sentences reflect it. I've perused a bit of pages, and I have to admit I can find no difference to his Star Wars "kid" material. Narration and thoughts are told right out . . .

I had hope of finding new sci fi. I guess soap opera really is a dying and decayed genre.

I must find out why. To the Sithmobile!