A Forest of Stars: Bk.2 (Saga of Seven Suns) - Softcover

Anderson, Kevin J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743461215 ISBN 13: 9780743461214

Publisher: Earthlight, 2003

Synopsis

Return to the galaxy-wide canvas of THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS in the second of the acclaimed series It has been five years since humanity's heady expansion among the stars came to an abrupt, and violent, halt. The emergence of the Hydrogues, an immensely powerful alien race dwelling within gas-giant planets, has placed the scattered colonies of the Terran Hanseatic League in jeopardy. With space travel heavily curtailed, and supplies of fuel dwindling, young King Peter and Chairman Basil Wenceslas, the harsh power behind the throne, have no choice but to impose strict rationing. But the Hydrogues are not the only enemies of humanity. The scheming Mage-Imperator, leader of the ancient Ildiran Empire, attempts to forge tangled alliances among all combatants in order to protect his failing civilization. The mysterious Klikiss robots, only remnants of an extinct race, continue to work their sinister plans while pretending to be friends and advisors to the Hanseatic League. And archaeologists Margaret and Louis Colicos -- whose discovery of an ancient alien weapon accidentally triggered the Hydrogue conflict -- have vanished on the abandoned world of Rheindic Co. Rlinda Kett and Davlin Lotze, sent to investigate the disappearance, soon realise that the Colicos' discoveries may lead to an incredible new way to travel between worlds...or to the awakening of enemies even more fearsome than the Hydrogues. Something of inestimable power must have been required to destroy the Klikiss race. Will humanity be next?

About this title

Product Description:

A Forest of Stars: the Saga of the Seven Suns, Book 2

Review:

A Forest of Stars is book two of Kevin J Anderson's widescreen space opera "The Saga of Seven Suns", which began with Hidden Empire. The story so far is given in some detail for new readers. Briefly, unwise human tampering has roused the wrath of the near-invincible alien "hydrogues" who live within gas-giant planets, to the delight of the more humanlike Ildiran Empire who would love to see those bumptious Terrans taken down a peg. But soon the hydrogue clampdown on mining starship fuel from those gas giants threatens to bring ruin to the whole galactic economy, not just to humanity's corporate "Hanseatic League" and its breakaway factions.

Now it emerges that the hydrogue problem is a very old one, and that humans and Ildirans are minor players--"like field mice on a giant battleground"--in an ancient war of elementals. The awakened hydrogues (Air) are determined to finish the job of wiping out the helpless-seeming forest group-mind (Earth) already introduced in book one, and in this volume the representatives of Fire and Water begin to stir...

The slam-bang action follows many characters in many story strands. Independent human Roamers, mining fuel at frightful risk, come into conflict with the desperate League, which also feels forced into brutal oppression of its own colonies. A cruel, illicit Ildiran/human breeding experiment continues in secret. Sinister robots created by a vanished race plot their own enormities, while a matter-transmitter network built by that same race could be the answer to the fuel shortage. Dirty politics and unwilling marriages of convenience abound. Space fleets face impossible odds, whole planets are wrecked, and even suns are now at risk of oblivion.

It's all rip-roaring interstellar adventure with megadeaths aplenty, lashings of pyrotechnics, the occasional touch of romance and doom-laden forebodings of worse to come. Stay tuned for more of "The Saga of Seven Suns". --David Langford

About this edition

• Publisher: Earthlight
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743461215
• ISBN 13: 9780743461214
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 736