Hidden Empire: The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 1

By: Kevin J. Anderson

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

An explosive new science fiction series by New York Times best-selling author Kevin J. Anderson, Hidden Empire is the first volume in The Saga of the Seven Suns, modeled after the Star Wars and X-Files universes. Anderson has become the foremost science fiction writer of the century, bringing to life vivid characters and worlds that delight his fans across the galaxy.

The Klikiss, a now-extinct alien civilization, left behind vast technological information that has been discovered by two xenoarchaeologists. One discovery, a device that converts gas planets into life-giving suns is quickly put to the test with unimaginable results. Arising out of the test is a new alien species that threatens every human. Mankind is left with the dim reality, either fight the new alien life form or face humiliation, death, and extinction.

This riveting adventure swings you from one wonderous realm to another as the Hidden Empire is sought after and exposed. Anderson has created a gripping beginning to what will surely be his best series yet. George Guidall has returned a stellar performance and brought these characters to life in vivid detail.

Don't miss a minute of the action in Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Seven Suns.

©2002 WorldFire, Inc. (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

"In this stellar launch of a new series, bestseller Anderson...delivers action, engaging characters, and credible fantastic worlds." (Publishers Weekly)
"Full of battles, chases, and hairbreadth escapes...this is also an intelligently conceived and executed nailbiter." (Booklist)
"Anderson's skill in delivering taut action scenes and creating well-rounded human and alien characters adds depth and variety to a series opener that belongs in most sf collections." (Library Journal)

Great Book

excellent book as good as Dune by F Hubert

Slow but picks up in book 2

This is one of Kevin J. Anderson's early works and it shows in the writing. Not that I could do better... But he has to cover so much back story that it make the story slow to start like a history text, but by the end you can not wait for book 2.

NOTE: Take a break between book 3 and 4 as the change Narrators is hard to listen to.

The Series is well worth the credits and time,

So, where do those ladies end up?

Where does Hidden Empire: The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 1 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It ranks to the upper side of middling only because it took me more than half the book to begin to remember who was who and what they were doing and what was important about them. Kind of like War and Peace with Aliens, Russian phone directory and all. The story ended up being quite enjoyable, and piqued my interest in the sequel.

What did you like best about this story?

Although I had a hard time following all the dozens of people and places at the beginning, they did come together and I am amazed at the complexity of the plot and world. Aliens are, well, alien, and human hubris has been humbled. That said, there are only a couple of the characters that I really care about, so it will be interesting to follow them in the sequel and see who dies and who saves the day. (They will save the day, won't they?)

What about George Guidall’s performance did you like?

George is my first love in audio performance. He does different voices well, even women's. His style makes even ordinary sentences a little more interesting, if not suggestive (as in suspenseful). He is easy to follow and to listen to. I want to invite him to dinner.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The very end. I knew part of what was going to happen--it was inevitable, but it didn't play out as I would have preferred. New places to go, new people to meet-- where? who? Can you say, "sequel?" Oh, and Asimov? Not everyone follows your rules!

Pretty good series.

Let me warn you in advance, this is a long, 7-book series, and while the narrator for this and the next two books is great, he's replaced in books 4-7 with someone not as good - who seems to have not listened to the first 3 before getting started - I know this can be a deal-breaker for some...

That said, this is a pretty cool sci-fi series that sorta has the feel of an epic fantasy series. Humans in space, with discovered technology they have no business messing with, inadvertently start a war with a powerful alien race they didn't know existed... There are some cool ideas, interesting aliens, fun space battles, multiple (though not unpredictable) plot lines, and a big universe with a lot of characters. You could argue that maybe 7 books was a bit of a stretch, but it's not like I'm short on time - and the series stayed interesting throughout. One other reviewer hit the nail on the head though when he suggested the Hyperion series by Dan Simmons would be a better choice for someone looking for something similar, but better. But once you're done with that, this one is pretty good too.

Audible really needs to allow us to give half stars. Story would get 3.5 from me.

An Epic Story Herein - You'll Want This Series...

I truly enjoy originality, new concepts, and game changer stories, especially EPIC ones. The Saga Of The Seven Suns is SO original, that you may find yourself listening to it a few times to catch everything. I know I did. Now, that's not to say that the story is hard to follow - Quite the opposite. It's just that the story has such richness of the different civilizations, politics, religions, sciences and races, you'll want to revisit it a couple of times. There are wonderful machiavellian plots and subplots that are a wonderful change in pace from the typical scifi romp.

This first audiobook in the series lays groundwork, but in a very enjoyable way. I consider the sign of a great storyline, is one you won't mind hearing. This is such an audiobook.

This doesn't take place on one world, or one solar system - This reaches literally across the stars, and Anderson provides a well-rounded initial book in this series. I loved this series so much, that I have ALL of the audiobooks therein, and THAT my fellow Audible listener, is the VERY BEST proof that this is a MUST READ series. Enjoy!

Excellent

At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the # of characters and the "one chapter, one character" approach which means the book shifts plot lines a lot. However, once I became familiar with the different characters and started to see how the plot lines were moving in parallel (as well as crossing places) I was hooked. This is a really interesting and great book.

This is where to start

I was just looking for a place to use my book credits and I picked up this book and the follow-on book in this series. While the first book is good it really sets up the series and after listening to the second book I can more fully appreciate the first book and its key role in the series. If you are interested in great sweeping adventure and want to really enjoy the series start with this book. After book three I plan to go back an listen to book one again. It has hidden depths... Very well read and an exciting story.

Slow start, powerful finish

I kept trying to get into the characters and their worlds, but had some dissonance with the beginning. Things started picking up and making more sense in the middle, and the last 10 chapters had me riveted. I just downloaded the 2nd book and am looking forward to learning more about the fate of the beings in the spiral arm.

Long on Fiction, Short on Science

Since I've read Kevin Anderson before, I was prepared to blow off the science issues and just enjoy a good plot and great characters when I picked up Hidden Empire, but the problems in the science bothered me more than expected. I don't remember enough of my college physics/chemistry to know if the star drives or Klikiss torch will work right; I'll take more informed reviewers word for the fact that there may be flaws. However, science covers a lot more ground than just physics. A good science fiction writer ought to be able to incorporate some decent projections into the future based on current knowledge about many sciences like political science, sociology, biology, archaeology, agricultural science, information technology, etc., Kevin Anderson's plotting incorporates many of those scientific fields and fails on most counts.

Note: I will give a few examples to avoid just making wild claims and if you have read the Prequel to The Saga, Veiled Alliances, these will not be spoilers. If you haven't read the prequel, you may want to avoid reading this section.
1. Political - There are no democratic or representative governments in spite of 500 years of human history trending toward self governance.
2. Societal/Communications - We already live in a world where it is nigh impossible for the government to keep massive secrets (hard as they all try), there is NO WAY that in 400 years people would be fooled (for more than 100 years) into believing in a puppet monarchy and no one who knew about the machinations would ever tell. What happened to WikiLeaks, Twitter, Facebook, and The Enquirer (or their descendants)?
3. Animal Husbandry - While I can accept that immoral or amoral people could actually develop a forced breeding program for humans, I cannot accept that people that are logical and intelligent enough for star travel would be so stupid as to treat prized breeding stock badly. Breeding animals subjected to rape, torture and manhandling, bad food, and hard labor will be stressed in the extreme - very bad for fertility rates and healthy pregnancies. In fact, most larger animals aren't even bred through intercourse, but through artificial insemination to protect both breeding partners from injury and increase the number of matings possible. If we can harvest eggs and sperm now surely they would be able to 400 years from now.

To be fair, I will give credit to Anderson for some creative use of biological science. Since we already have a species of animal (the green sea slug) that has chloroplasts and many more examples of symbiotic combinations of animals and plants and successful gene splicing of animal genes into plants and vice versa, the Theron green priests might be a scientific possibility.

Ultimately, Kevin Anderson uses whatever devices serve his plot even if it is really bad science. So, I can't really recommend The Saga of the Seven Suns as good science fiction to anyone. To be totally honest, however, I have personally already heard the second in the series and I have the third in My Library. What can I say? As a critical reader this just isn't good sci-fi, but as someone who likes a good story, it's very entertaining. If I were reading it, I probably would have stopped at Hidden Empire, but George Guidall makes the audiobooks a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Guidall isn't the narrator for the whole series so even I may not finish this thing. Science rating = 1 Star, Entertainment Rating = 4 Stars.

A Snowball that Rolls Downhill

I picked up this book because the author is up for the Hugo Award for a new series that follows this series. I was curious. Ultimately, I was very happy with experience and if there is proof in actions, I added books 2-7 to my wish list.

I was really glad I read many of the other reviews that caution the reader to give this book some time, it is a slow starter. My experience is consistent. I noted that at the 1/3 mark the first real action occurs, before that it is stage setting and some very repetitive explanation of the world forest. Be patient, good listener, if you make it that far, the snowball does roll down hill.

In the second third of the book the action picks up. The character intrigue becomes interesting and there is a nice balance of plot and character.

In the last third the book roars as betrayal, schemes and conflicts errupt everywhere and the plot twists and pace really pick up. I listened to the last four hours straight while on a flight and even the flight attendent was wondering what I was doing.

In some ways this book has a parallel structure to the wildly popular Game of Thrones series by Geroge RR Martin. There are many characters on a vast sweeping stage, each chapter is told from the point of view of one character and there are several tribes/clans/federations scheming for power that are similar to the warring families of the GOT. So if you like that style, think of this as sort of a sci fi version.

The narration was good quality. The voices are distinct without being too far out of the range of the reader. The tone is deep and rich and the quality is clear. No issues with the profesional reader.

And with that, dear listener, enjoy!