The Ashes of Worlds (Saga of Seven Suns)
by Kevin J. Anderson
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kevin J. AndersonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-01
ISBN: 0316007587
Number of pages: 720
Publisher: Orbit
Book Reviews of The Ashes of Worlds (Saga of Seven Suns)
Book Review: Ambitious Failure
Summary: 2 Stars
I am writing this review after reading all seven books in a row. I waited until all 7 books were available in paperback till I read it so I would not have continuity issues. The main "elemental" antagonists were poorly described on a sadly consistent basis. These "ancient" battlers , Hydrogues, Faeros, Wentals, Verdani really had very little motivation for any of the actions. They exhibited mutual hatred or fear and not much else. The Wentals desire for order had little foundation. The dialogue for most of the 7 novels was trite at best. I felt some empathy for some of the characters, but overall it just felt poor, and badly connected. The human "bad guys", were just bad, with little balance. I will give the author some credit for undertaking a saga of this scope, but the societies were contrived and flimsy in their description, it was sad. I wanted to read this saga after suffering through his Dune pre-quels and sequels. In those books the author butchered the science and never created the atmosphere of wonder. In this saga, all of Anderson's own, he failed to go deep in so many areas, yet he had 600+ pages per book. I could not believe how poor the dialogue was throughout. The final pages of the last book, where King Peter is addressing his compatriots who just went through years of horror and grief was so poor, so trite, I was appalled.
This fails the test of great space opera, it was a big disaster movie put to print.
some specifics:
The explanation for known science is sadly idiotic. I understand that describing science is often a problem for speculative scifi, as it puts speculative science and engineering at risk during the story, so I will not criticize that. A few of many horrible mis-statements
From of Fire and Night
1- Admiral Stromo asking about emergency signals from Qronha. The Response from communication officer "We're still very far away sir, the transmitters on the pods are not very powerful". Power has to do with the strength of the signal, more power cannot overcome limitations of the speed of light.
2- A scene with Jora'h and the hydrouge emissary
" The emissary's voice manifested as a throbbing hum as if it were manipulating air molecules to transmit sound waves rather than using a simple speaker system." are you kidding me.
3- on Forrey's Folly- explanation for the lack of planets. "while coalescing, the sun had lost its grip on most of the material in the primordial cloud and hadn't had enough mass left over to create any planets worth counting. .... But the metal asteroid Forell's Folly was there for the taking." This explanation was poor
Emotions- you get to feel for some characters pain due to loss, and it was effective. There are other examples where this fell short
* DD the companion computer - Consistently wrong characterizations of emotions expressed throughout. There were supposed to be clear limitations to what it could feel, by its own admission, but complex emotions kept coming out including fear.
* All elementals- no attempt to describe the emotional wars inside all of them, potential conflict among their society. Some attempt with the Wentals. No attempt to use their POV. This is a total abdication for a work of this length and scope. They are four caricatures of fantasy creatures with great powers. Another way to consider them is (boogeymen [drogues], fairies[ wentals] , imps [faeros], and damsels in distress [verdani], It makes them cheap
Descriptions
* Ildirans- there are so many kiths, but descriptions were poor, the contrast between humans and Ildirians was also poor, and this is significant as there was cross breeding.
* The physical description detail was wildly inconsistent in terms of beings and landscapes
* A poor job of describing hydrougue cities, etc. Through the eyes of DD, Osira'h, Brindle, etc.
* Great opportunity missed- on so many levels, compare this to Iain Banks, China Mieville, Peter Hamilton
Dialogue
* down right poor overall, terse, never an extended conversation about views of any kind. Most concepts are delivered in expository form, which provides little excuse for ignoring the viewpoints of the elementals.
* The chapters are arranged in tiny components which really does not lend itself to getting into vital scenes.
Summary of The Ashes of Worlds (Saga of Seven Suns)
Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against each other. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making.Acclaim for The Saga of Seven Suns
"
"Kevin Anderson has created a fully independent and richly conceived venue for his personal brand of space opera, a venue that nonetheless raises fruitful resonances with Frank Herbert's classic Dune series." --- Scifi.com
"Everything about
"A soaring epic . . . a space opera to rival the best the field has ever seen." --- Science Fiction Chronicle
"Colorful stuff . . . bursting with incidents, concepts, and a massive cast of characters, matching well-thought-out SF ideas with melodrama and interfamily strife." --- SFX
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