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Horizon Storms

(The Saga of Seven Suns #3)

Kevin J. Anderson (Goodreads Author)

3.88 · Rating details · 5,052 ratings · 135 reviews

The third novel in the New York Times bestselling author's sci-fi epic. Crackling with energy and buzzing with action . . . A Nebula Award nominee, Anderson may well win one on the strength of this series.--Publishers Weekly, starred review. ...more

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Paperback, 640 pages

Published June 1st 2005 by Aspect (first published July 1st 2004)

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Nov 10, 2019 D Dyer rated it really liked it

Shelves: owned, 2019-reads, science-fiction

As I have settled more into the authors writing style I’m definitely beginning to enjoy it more, this book features the same incredibly detailed storytelling that the previous entries displayed but also shows the various threads beginning to knit themselves together. This is definitely not a story that you could pick up anywhere but at the beginning but if you are only interested in the action there are quite a few passages and paragraphs you could skim, paying a little attention to the details ...more

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Jul 20, 2017 Gus rated it did not like it · review of another edition

At this point I'm not even sure why I'm still reading. Curiosity is probably the only reason I'm tolerating this painfully sluggish series; I just want to know why the Hydrogues wiped out the Klikiss, I want to know why the Ildirans helped, and I'm also curious about the Saga of Shadows (the sequel to The Saga of The Seven Suns).

I often find myself skimming through large sections of the book and even skipping entire chapters...especially those that involve King Peter, green priests, Celli, Estar ...more

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Aug 16, 2010 Mike (the Paladin) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, space-opera

(Every time I read the character name, Basil Wenceslas, I want to sing "looked out"... I know, but my mind must be a little weird.)

This is another one of those books where the rating tended to slide between 3 and 4 as I went along. This book does tend to ramble a bit, but then the author has given himself quite a task as he's spun the story out into a half dozen points of view (at least, maybe I should say "major points of view") and possibly a few dozen threads all to keep track of and braid t (Every time I read the character name, Basil Wenceslas, I want to sing "looked out"... I know, but my mind must be a little weird.)

This is another one of those books where the rating tended to slide between 3 and 4 as I went along. This book does tend to ramble a bit, but then the author has given himself quite a task as he's spun the story out into a half dozen points of view (at least, maybe I should say "major points of view") and possibly a few dozen threads all to keep track of and braid together into a coherent tale. He's doing a fairly credible job.

I personally find the book (books) a bit to...detail oriented for my taste. There are huge swaths of this that you could completely miss and still not lose track of the story. the trick of course would be knowing, as our UK readers might say, "which bits you could miss". It reminded me a few times of my wife's complaints about some soap-operas she watched at one time. They would go on and on for weeks at a time and little would change at all. Then she'd get fed up, miss the thing for a week and when she came back the baby that had been new born a week before was off at college and everyone had switched spouses. You can miss a lot, just don't miss the wrong paragraph.

Not to give any spoilers here, we are following the humans (divided as we always are, but with those who are totally sure that they can, should and must run things for all humans also) in their struggle to spread through space. And, as seems to happen in a lot of science fiction epics, we've gotten ourselves involved in a war with other alien races that are so powerful the only thing we seem to be able to do mostly is keep our heads down and try not to draw too much attention to ourselves lest survival cease to be an option. There are of course people who refuse to recognize that...but that's okay as we've also managed to split up and various groups of humans at each other's throats. Then there are the various groups of aliens the aforementioned very alien ones some of whom want us gone. The sentient robots...who also want us wiped out...the Ildiran empire, these aliens are very close to human. They are treacherous, conniving, and untrustworthy and their political machinations would make Machiavelli proud.

Need I go on? We see a lot happening here and the story is still spinning out. I wasn't aware when i started this that the series would run out to 7 volumes... At least the story does move forward here. It's not one of those books where you get the same event related to you a dozen times from a dozen different characters.

Many people will love what I found tedious in this book. They will see it as added background and color. The universe is built well here and I'm glad you'll enjoy this. As for me I only dropped the rating to a 4 as it's a good novel in an interesting series...just too full of fluff for my taste. Too often I found my mind wandering off away from the story at hand. Will I continue the series? Possibly. I have a lot of books already "to read" so i won't be running out right away to get them nor reserving them at the library. If the story stays with me I may go back and get the next volume later. ...more

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Mar 19, 2018 Ben Briles rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This story is really starting to pick up! I still have some issues with KJA's writing, but I think his ability to craft a story that I enjoy ranks up there pretty highly, despite what others may say about his books. ...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Luke Devenish rated it liked it · review of another edition

I have an occasional love affair with the books in this sprawling space yarn. I also have an occasional hate affair with them. By God, but they polarise me! I tackle one of them every year or so, and as was the case with the previous two volumes, I got about a third of the way in and wanted to fling the damn thing across the room because the plot felt so damned somnambulistic. But I persevered because, well, there are lots and lots of robots in it, and I'm a sucker for those. Then I got two thir I have an occasional love affair with the books in this sprawling space yarn. I also have an occasional hate affair with them. By God, but they polarise me! I tackle one of them every year or so, and as was the case with the previous two volumes, I got about a third of the way in and wanted to fling the damn thing across the room because the plot felt so damned somnambulistic. But I persevered because, well, there are lots and lots of robots in it, and I'm a sucker for those. Then I got two thirds in and was totally hooked once more, and would have been even if there weren't robots tearing up the scenery. Kev Anderson's vision for this saga is so gobsmacking, I can't deny it. It's goddamn VAST and I love it for that. I also love that humanity is but a speck in a galactic conflict that transcends time, physics, and yes, sheer comprehension. But this is why I also occasionally hate it: SO MANY PLOT LINES. I hesitate to say 'too many', because it's not as if any of them ultimately fail to deliver, but some of them do feel like they're treading water in places. Especially in the first third of the book when they're all being established once again. Just as something exciting happens, the book invariably shifts to another plot, and too often the exciting thing isn't touched upon again for another fifty pages. This is a tension killer, make no mistake. What this volume lacked: poor, hapless, put-upon Nira, long suffering in green, who broke my heart in Book Two with all her dreadful maltreatment on Dobro. Sure, we find out her fate here, but that's about all. What I loved in this volume: Jora'h's lipstick lezzo daughter with the cats - fantastic addition; Benito coming back as a tree - inspired; the evil Klikkiss robots finally showing their true colours and getting down to some good old fashioned annihilation. Poor little whats-her-name as the sole survivor of the apocalypse on Corobus was WONDERFUL. What I HOPE I will get when I read the remaining four volumes: chapters told from the point of view of both the hydrogues and the faeros. If I reach the end of the saga none the wiser about these ghastly aliens' points of view I shall be very annoyed. My theory as to why Kev has given his saga the same name as the Ildirans' ongoing historical record: we shall eventually learn that the seven books are, in fact, from that self same record and that humanity has united with the Ildirans, their long lost brothers, and won a place in their hearts. Call me an old softy, but I WANT that to happen to make it all seem worthwhile. ...more

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Jun 30, 2010 D.w. rated it liked it

Shelves: reviewed

Though this is only book 3 of 7, things are still disastrous for humanity.

That is just the worst for my ego tied to humanity. It would be as an American reading the history of WWII in real time, in the Pacific. Sometime in the middle of 42, when things looked bleak. Pearl Harbor hurt, Wake Island fallen, the Philippines lost.

But we know, living so far from the events that things will be turning around. The drama that they aren't, though is painful to watch. Painful to have seen the train wreck ...more

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Jan 25, 2015 Kevin rated it did not like it · review of another edition

I'm done with the series. I'm tired of the feeble dialog, the disconnected and obvious plots, the unrealistic characters, and a story that should have been wrapped up in volume 1.

The universe is almost ideal for the type science fiction I enjoy. Humanity is still earth-based with far-flung and independent offshoots. There is interaction between the humans but mostly negative and deceitful.

Let's see - a race of robots you don't trust offers one of their own for dissection so humans can build thei ...more

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Apr 06, 2015 Angus Mcfarlane rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi, reviewed

The saga continues, with the secrets of respective factions becoming exposed, but full scale conflict is yet to come. The inability to resolve grievances seems a bit contrived though. Would the human race really choose petty squabbles instead of some sort of alliance in the face of such an overwhelming opposing force? Indeed, the super-power and complete strangeness of the elemental aliens is an interesting speculation on the deduction of some exobiologists that concludes any aliens out there ar ...more

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Jan 12, 2008 Dave Johnson rated it it was amazing

this was even better than the second. one of the best books in the series, i think. there were a lot of interesting new developments and plot twists introduced.

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Jun 30, 2008 Ed rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Any Sci-Fi lover

It is an interesting study into the insignificance of man in the universe.

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Jan 27, 2017 A~ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physical

For this review most of it will be contained in the list of characters, once you see the list you will see why. Also part of my review is copied from my review of the previous installment. If the author can do it then I can as well.

Notes:
Humanity has split into three separate groups. The three groups have trade agreements and other connections to each other but the peace between them is tenuous.

Terran Hanseatic League: Centered on earth this government represents most of the humans. Think of Rom ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Colin rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-sf, series-complete, read-before-2015

(Extracted from 2005 blog post)

A mere continuation of Kevin J Anderson’s style and plot development. Roamers are marginalized. Hansa is demonized. Peter is glorified. Theron is rasterized. Jess Tamblyn is transformed into a motif of Wental power. Klikiss robots continue to lug DD around everywhere. Robb Brindle is not dead! Beneto (in a move of dubious wisdom and tact) is resurrected. As a golem. Kevin, why? Why?

As always, Anderson continues in his distinctive writing style, which is rather irri (Extracted from 2005 blog post)

A mere continuation of Kevin J Anderson’s style and plot development. Roamers are marginalized. Hansa is demonized. Peter is glorified. Theron is rasterized. Jess Tamblyn is transformed into a motif of Wental power. Klikiss robots continue to lug DD around everywhere. Robb Brindle is not dead! Beneto (in a move of dubious wisdom and tact) is resurrected. As a golem. Kevin, why? Why?

As always, Anderson continues in his distinctive writing style, which is rather irritating in the way that each sentence always ends of with an unnecessary expansion, or interjected by extraneous outgrowths. Transmuted to a tape recorder, Anderson can be said to ramble. The sheer superfluidity of his prose and the resulting awkwardness in his structuring cause a sort of empty feeling in the reader.

Maybe a small part of the issue can be explained by the fact that that’s exactly what Anderson does. He goes off on treks in the mountains, alone, carrying a tape recorder, and rambles storylines into it while he walks.

The phenomenon becomes doubly bad when it comes to passages describing tragedy. The rambling profuseness of his dialogue and the painful lengths that the prose goes in stating tragic events again and again, without any attempt at masking it with poetic window-dressing, coupled with the insufficient graphicity of the said tragedies, turns the tragedy so-called into an unwitting farce that has no emotional impact on the reader. Anderson would have done well with clipped, brusque statements and broken, incomplete sentences, arranged in artfully exquisite fashion to compound agony for agony, graphic detail for graphic detail, instead of the superfluous and precariously arranged prose with not a dose of poetic drapery.

Anderson also likes separating sentences with commas, bringing out their meaning, thinking that this gives a surreal atmosphere, a veritable life, to his sentences, and ending them by trailing off…

Because of this writing style, characters like Celli, Nira, and many Therocs come across as naive and innocent. And the corresponding dialogue is embarrassingly stilted (because it, too, contains elements of extraneity).

“Embarrassed by their gratitide, her newly green skin flushed dark. Nira said, “I’m glad I could do one last thing to help my family before I embark on my great adventure.” Or, “His shoulders slumped. “That is who we are, though sometimes it is a difficult thing.””

Those two were extracts from Hidden Empire, where the effects of this style were most pronounced. Thankfully, its less apparent in the following novels.

Anderson’s plotting, world-creation and sheer ambition overcome this predilection. Three books already and Anderson’s saga spans epic proportions and has a sense of primal scale. The aliens, modelled after the Elements, are purveyors of an ancient conflict which has destroyed worlds. For a space opera, Anderson has been successful in portraying the historical depth of the Saga of Seven Suns world. This world is carefully crafted, and conceived as a very plausible future scenario with realistic enough economic and political undercurrents. Anderson has a proclivity for making Deus Ex Machinas that work. Faeros at Theroc, for example. And he is not afraid to let his characters die, even if some of them do come back afterward. Like they do in Horizon Storms, much to my chagrin. His plot is a complex tapestry of survival, betrayal, love, and danger, set in a brilliantly realized universe that seethes with new concepts.

If only he could improve that writing style of his, that has plagued all his works, he would truly shine. ...more

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Jan 13, 2020 Gregg Buford rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I read the first two in the series years ago and now I am reading the rest of the series now. I was not disappointed or anything but there are some characters or parts of the story that I just don't like. There are also some characters that I like to read about. The Hansa government seems more like the government of China at times. The Roamers I like though they are so tied up with their way of life that it gets a little annoying. The people of Theroc are a little to easy going. Why do some auth ...more

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May 31, 2020 Cliff rated it it was ok

At last I've finished this, only another four to go. My criticisms of previous books stand. The Ildirans have become a space faring race, despite living on a world in perpetual daylight. How did they become aware of the cosmos? The author uses old European descriptions like Hansa, hanseatic, Manila, imperative etc. Very lazy. The Wentals and the Trees managed to build space vessels, despite apparently having no limbs - and the same goes for the Hydrogues and the Faeros. As the books are taking u ...more

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Feb 28, 2019 Stephen Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 24, 2019 Marc Diepstraten rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Part 3 in the series. It picks up the stories seemlessly from part 2, so I was glad that there was a recap at the start to familiarize again with all chatarcters. It is a lot of people to keep track of. I quite like the series, very large in scope but it deels like a set up of things to come. The momentum picks up drastically two thirds in, with lots of action all over the place. Of course nothing is concluded and certain stories are not continued in this book. Wait for the next to further every ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Chris rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, audio, epic

Still think audio is a better format for this series. This is the last print one in the series that I have read previously (as far as I remember). It had less action than previous installments and more bad dialogue. 4 stars might be generous, but I'm at least invested and it's still interesting enough. My older review probably suffices. ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 batya7 rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

This third book of the Saga of Seven Suns has me definitely hooked. I was somewhat less than warm on the first book and warmed up to the second. The third book cemented my relationship with this series. The story grows and blossoms. The bad guys are badder, the good guys are more complex.

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Jun 12, 2019 Paca Sad rated it really liked it

The Saga continues, The Hansa and the Roamers are battling each other, the Idrians are emerging into a new entity after laying dormant and the robots, well they too are evolving, interesting times ahead

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Jul 13, 2020 Chris rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, space, space-opera

Maybe just the times, but this depressed me more than the first time I read it. I knew what was coming (Hyrillka's treachery, the Klikiss robots, etc.) and it just bummed me out. I am hoping to get to some positives quickly as we move to the next book. ...more

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Jul 10, 2017 Philip Chaston rated it liked it

Updated pulp, but not bad enough to be pulped!

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Aug 04, 2017 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: scifi-fantasy

Another good segment in the series, some interesting things happened in this installment.

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Feb 17, 2018 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, 2018-reads

To be honest, this one felt a little bit like a filler novel. It does set up a lot of things for Book 4 and is still very interesting on it's own, but doesn't seem to grab you like the others. ...more

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May 30, 2018 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Horizon Storms

Another excellent book by Kevin J Anderson in the Saga of the Seven Suns. You won't be able to put these books down. ...more

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Feb 27, 2019 Yun Ting rated it it was amazing

This is too good, there's no time to leave review. I need to move on to the next book ...more

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Oct 21, 2019 Philip Blunden rated it really liked it

I so much prefer The Saga series over Anderson's Terra Incognita series. Better written with a lot of surprises. ...more

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Jan 15, 2020 An Odd1 rated it it was ok

Too many people doing too much.
Typo: c40 p12 recognize is recognizing

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Feb 02, 2020 Nicholas rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, science-fiction

Poor dialogue, unrealistic character motivation and bad science, but the plot is still interesting as are some of the ideas.

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Feb 13, 2020 Keith Christoffers marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, audiobooks

New

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Jan 30, 2021 Brenda Haddock rated it it was amazing

Another great book in the series. Can't wait to read the next now! ...more

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About Kevin J. Anderson

Kevin J. Anderson

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Yes, I have a lot of books, and if this is your first visit to my amazon author page, it can be a little overwhelming. If you are new to my work, let me recommend a few titles as good places to start. I love my Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series, humorous horror/mysteries, which begin with DEATH WARMED OVER. My steampunk fantasy adventures, CLOCKWORK ANGELS and CLOCKWORK LIVES, written with Neil Pear ...more

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Quotes from Horizon Storms

“On second glance, though, the activities didn’t seem regimented or organized enough to have been put together by the Earth military. The EDF tended to lay out everything in straight lines and perfect grids. Conversely, this work seemed energetic and independent, as if each unit was following only a general master plan.” — 3 likes

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