Hidden Empire: The Saga Of The Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson

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Hidden Empire: The Saga Of The Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson

Pub: Earthlight/Simon and Schuster. 679 page enlarged paperback. Price: Ł10.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-7342-2045-5. Price: Ł17.99. ISBN: 0-7432 20447 (hardback).

Check out website: www.earthlight.co.uk

In 2100, humans sent colony spaceships out from Earth to search the stars and find habitable planets, taking many generations to reach there goals.

Hidden Empire: The Saga Of The Seven Suns by Kevin J. Anderson These ships are intercepted on their long journeys by the Ildiran race, the only other known intelligent life-form still in existence. The Ildirans come to Earth and share their knowledge of stardrives allowing humans to travel faster than the speed of light.

Two hundred years later, humans have colonised many planets through the spiral arm and two archaeologists reveal the secrets of a dead world.

The only things remaining from the insect-like Klikiss race is their ruined cities and robot servants which were reawakened by the Ildirans and the humans who discovered them on wide-spread planets throughout the spiral arm.

The archaeologists piece together Klikiss technology and discover the Klikiss torch. The humans, in an attempt to show superiority against the Ildirans, activate the Klikiss torch. It allows gas giants to be turned into a short-lived sun.

This starts a chain of events, reawakening the past and the reason why the Klikiss Empire fell.

A lot of people are going to see Kevin J. Anderson and immediately think of the books he has written for ‘Star Wars’, prequels to ‘Dune’, ‘X-Files’, etc and think he is jumping on the bandwagon. This is an original space saga.

OK, you could compare events in this book to the universes created in the books I've just mentioned but I think you could apply that to any large space saga if you try hard enough. There are a few problems, the characters are a little under-developed but this could be put down to the sheer speed of the chapters and perhaps the plotlines are developed a little too slowly at times.

This is not to say I didn't enjoy the book. There are some very enjoyable passages: the description of the Klikiss torch experiment has film like qualities, as does the description of the Ildiran home world.

There are also some wonderfully original ideas such as the world-forest, a living organic sentient intelligence that seeks knowledge but also allows communication across any distance by green priests by touching the leaves of a tree. Also the skymines - huge structures that inhabit in upper atmospheres of gas giants collecting ekti, the fuel needed for stardrives, all add to a very believable universe.

The down-right dirty politics make this book shine as do the dark underlying themes which I only wish had been developed and utilised more. There are a few nice surprises but a few more wouldn't have gone a miss.

This book may be a little lightweight for some, especially those who enjoy the heavyweights of space sagas but it's an easy and enjoyable read.

I just hope the stops are pulled out for book two as this could prove to be a very interesting universe Kevin J. Anderson has set in motion.

Phil Jones

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