Scattered Suns

The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 4

By: Kevin J. Anderson

Narrated by: David Colacci

Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

The war between the alien hydrogues and the faeros rages, reducing suns to blackened shells - including one of the fabled seven suns of the Ildiran Empire. Instead of protecting themselves, the Ildirans engage in bloody civil war and the many factions of humanity are bitterly divided. Can mankind and Ildirans overcome their own internal fighting to face a deadly new enemy that is ready to annihilate them?

Newly ascended to the Ildiran throne, Mage-Imperator Jora'h must quash the rebellion launched by his mad brother before the hydrogues destroy what is left of the empire. Assailed from all sides, Jora'h turns to his beloved half-human daughter, dispatching her on a desperate mission to make peace with the hydrogues.

Hope for humanity now rests with Jess Tamblyn, who continues to seed worlds with the watery wentals, the mortal enemies of the hydrogues. And on the ravaged planet of Theroc, home to a telepathic worldforest, a dead man is resurrected to prepare for the arrival of mysterious new allies in the fight.

But Chairman Basil Wenceslas's vendetta against the free-spirited Roamers has blinded him to danger closer to home - the soldier machines that make up the backbone of the Hansa fighting force. King Peter has long suspected that the compies, built with the help of the ancient Klikiss robots, cannot be trusted. Now the shocking proof comes when the Klikiss launch their long-planned extermination of all things flesh and blood. And in the ensuing battle, humans and Ildirans alike will face their darkest choices yet.

The saga continues: listen to more of Kevin J. Anderson's Seven Suns series.

©2005 WordFire, Inc. (P)2005 Brilliance Audio

Critic reviews

"More on-the-edge-of-your-seat SF thrills....Anderson handles a huge cast and complicated plot with élan." ( Publishers Weekly)
"David Colacci's youthful, mildly expressive voice is a plus....Lots of action here, and a fully realized universe." ( AudioFile)

Glad to see the next 3 books on Audible

I listened to the first 3 books in this series last fall and was a bit disappointed to find that those were the only ones available on Audible. I was very glad to see the next three available now. I have just started this volume and am disappointed to hear that the original narrator (George Guidall) has been replaced with another (David Colacci), usually not a big deal but the new guy pronounces most of the main characters names differently. What is the deal here, didn't they give the guy a copy of the previous work so he could at least keep some continuity in the series. Otherwise I am very excited to continue the series.

Fantastic Series

This is a fantastic series -- one that draws you in and you want to enjoy every minute of the 18+ hour listens. Very much worth the 1 credit. Highly recommend -- I'm definitely getting every book in the series.

Loved the book, but the narrator

What did you like best about Scattered Suns? What did you like least?

The Narrator. He was awful and made a five star book into a three star book by his performance alone.

Would you be willing to try another one of David Colacci’s performances?

No. It does not seem as though this narrator even bothered to read or listen to the previous books. He butchers the characters names (based on how the previous narrator pronounced them), reads the book like he obviously has NO connection to the story, and reads in a boring monotone. If you can't sleep, forget Ambien, listen to this guy and take care of that problem. The voice overs were OK, but did not make up for all of his mispronunciations. For example, the compies. It was clearly stated in the earlier books that their names were two letters (E.A., NOT E-ah, G.U., NOT Goo). Not to mention all of the other butchered names (Tassia is pronounced Tah-sia, NOT Tay-sia). I certainly hope they get rid of this guy in future volumes. If the story was not so epic and good, I would have bagged this book.

Did Scattered Suns inspire you to do anything?

Yes. It inspired me to write this review because the narrator was SOOOO awful.

Any additional comments?

PLEASE BRING BACK THE FIRST NARRATOR.

Narrator change throws you off.

I have listened to the previous 3 books in the series and look forward the remaining 3. I was a little disappointed that the narrator was different for this book. His pronunciation of some of the names is so different from the first 3 books, that I thought that new characters had been introduced. I will continue the series because I am so far into it. I will however in future purchases verify that the series narrator stays the same. In spite of the change in narrator, this book is still worth the listen.

Calm down, the narration is fine!

Any additional comments?

Kevin J. Anderson's "Saga of the Seven Suns" is an ambitious series with a large but engaging cast of characters that keep you invested in the story. There probably aren’t any original SciFi ideas left these days, but Anderson does a good job keeping his universe unique while sticking to an accessible storyline and setting.

Like most reviewers, I enjoyed George Guidall's narration of the first three novels in the series, and naturally became used to his pronunciations, accents, and dramatization. But, as sometimes happens in these audiobook series, the narrator was changed to David Colacci beginning with Book 4, “Scattered Suns” (when the audiobook publisher changed from Recorded Books to Brilliance Audio). Colacci pronounces some character and planet names differently than his predecessor. He uses a standard American accent for the Hansa, a southern US accent for the Roamers, and a UK accent for the Ildirans.

Attention complainers: DIFFERENT isn't necessarily WRONG or BAD.

Yes, I get that it's jarring if you're used to one way, but giving the narration itself a bad review/rating because of aesthetic and relatively minor production choices is childish. We don't know what changes Colacci himself came up with, but the bottom line is that there are producers and production company execs who are making the real decisions and approving the work (not to mention the author's possible involvement). On its own merits, Colacci’s narration is lively and gets the job done, though maybe a little more stiffly than Guidall’s.did. It does not, however, negatively impact the novel, especially to the extreme of “1 star” or other ludicrous ratings given by some disgruntled listeners who rated the first three books much higher.

If the narrators were reversed, I think many of the naysayers would be complaining anyway, only this time that Guidall wasn't doing the British accent where required! And for all the nerds obsessed with Colacci’s “mispronunciation” of EA as “Eee-yuh” (as opposed to Guidall’s “Eee-ay”)… Guidall pronounced OX as “Ox” and not “Oh-ex” and no one seemed to have a problem with it. Surely you realize you’re just looking for things to complain about?

Yeah, it's the narrators fault, riiiight

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

If you go into this series thinking of it as a space SOAP OPERA it is well worth your time. Just imagine ominous stings playing anytime a character makes a stupid decision and you'll be laughing. You will be doing that VERY often so get used to it.

Has Scattered Suns turned you off from other books in this genre?

No I have embraced the writers plan of keeping people reading by frustrating them to a point beyond reason. You keep reading just to figure out if the stupidity that gets them out of a given situation is worse than the stupidity that got them into it in the first place.

What does David Colacci bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I actually just liked the different filters they used on his voice to make it sound like a robot or as if it was coming in over a communications system.

Do you think Scattered Suns needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

The cheese must go on.

Any additional comments?

Why are people complaining about the narrator when there are sooo many other things that don't make sense. The only government that makes sense are the Roamers and that just barely. The military aspect is laughable as they seem to have no discipline and everyone just says anything that comes into their mind over open channels during operations. The Illdirans have a Navy that has never fought anyone, never REMEMBERED an enemy, yet they claim they are the best? Sisters selling out other sisters to be a puppet queen yet..dun dun DUUUUN she still loves her sister. Come on, this stuff is cheesy and no narrator could make it otherwise, but it IS entertaining once you get past the frustration level.

new narrator

I wish that they wouldn't change the narrator halfway through a series. great book though

This Narrator Drives Me Up the Wall

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He pronounced things vastly differently from the previous narrator, even though the books tell you how to pronounce things. Such as the friendly Compies, they are pronounced as TWO LETTERS, so UR is You Are. Not URRRRR.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Terrible change in narrators mats a good story

I don’t know why these audiobook publishers allow new narrators and sound editors to come in who clearly did not pay any attention to the performance of the previous narrator of the series. This new narrator not only mispronounces names of characters that were given correctly in the first three books by the previous narrator, he also completely changes the accents and ethnicity of several characters! He even alters the voice so that the age of at least one character is significantly changed as well. Lazy narration and poor audio editing.

Turning point for series, but it's a wrong turn

I really enjoyed the first three books of this series. However, in Scattered Suns, many of the key character actions suddenly become illogical and against established norms. The only reason appears to be continuing the complicated plot, as logical, in-character actions would cut out much of the conflict. Some of the chapters are drawn out for no apparant reason, while others skim over important events in almost a summary. If I read any more of the series, I will probably jump to the last book. The narrator does a good job, though the change from the original narrator was a bit jarrnig at first. There was no attempt to match any of the previous narrator's pronunciations or characterizations, and rather curiously, this younger narrator makes the characters sound older than they did with the orignal narrator.