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)

best in series, so far!

Would you consider the audio edition of Scattered Suns to be better than the print version?

No, many will enjoy the book just as well. I like to be able to wash dishes or drive and enjoy a book. I feel lazy if I just sit and read.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I liked Jess Tamblin until he went all alien weird. He is dashing, heroic and responsible. King Peter is turning out to be a worthy hero; let's see if he makes it.

What about David Colacci’s performance did you like?

His reading is good, his voices are good. his accents are good. All EXCEPT FOR THE ROAMERS (or is it Romers, as in the Romani?) The Roamers' names are all Scots-Irish or Sino-Japanese, so WHY does he give them a Kentucky-cowboy-Southern (US) accent? WHY? Why?

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

Yes, definitely. I had to make myself turn it off to sleep. It does get old that every chapter is a cliff-hanger, and every book as well, but I do want to know what happens.

Any additional comments?

I cannot imagine dreaming up the plots and characters of so many disparate worlds and beings. There is so very much going on in these books--at least 7 distinct beings and species, more worlds than that, and so many personal hidden agendas that it was hard to grasp it all at first, but after half of the first book, they become well-known and cared about.

Narrator is just unbelievable

Would you try another book from Kevin J. Anderson and/or David Colacci?

Kevin J. Anderson yes he is a great sci fi writer in my book. I have read several of his stories on hard copy and listened to this series up to this book.David Colacci no, this experience has ruined this narrator for me.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This narrator took over mid series. I can understand not wanting to read a book exactly as the previous narrator did, yet this guy is just plain bad. The way to pronounce the of names of the Compies are explained as "the first two letters of the serial number", David Colacci pronounce "EA" as "ee uh" and "GU" as "goo". The narrator butchers several other names, and took no effort in pronouncing the main character's names even close to right. Anderson worked closely with the first narrator, and this guy did not have the benefit of such close interaction, yet how can you not at least try to continue the theme of a book series with the word SAGA in the title? Just a HORRIBLE performance all around. The highly intelligent Roamers are turned into hicks. While the frontier colony worlds pronounce words without any accent. The Ildiran race is given a strong British accent to the point of being comically tragic. The performance is made even harder to listen to because the first narrator did so well weaving the story together without resorting to cheezy accents and artistic license.

Any additional comments?

Listening to this guy makes it hard to continue the AMAZINGLY written series. Just a shame.

New Narrator, Still Good

The first few hours of the story needed a little getting used to, to get over the fact that the Ildirans have become British and the Roamers have become Texans.

However, I do think the new background static delivery for radio transmissions and robotic characters is an improvement.

As for the story itself, it gets to the point where I wonder why some key characters seem to lack the backbone to get rid of despicable characters who need to be put down hard. I am sure that's going to happen before the series ends, but some actions taken by the more villainous characters are crossing the line between being evil and being disgustingly evil.

Even with that, there are a few "Heck Yes" moments scattered (see what I did there?) across the book. It doesn't live up to the quality of its predecessor, but it's still decent.

Awesome new worlds

... and universe. I enjoyed this book. There are many character lines going at the same time, which play into each other eventually. I really enjoyed the different races.

Different production?

Sorry, but I have to pile on...The first three books in the series were produced by Recorded Books and the last few by Brilliance Audio. Perhaps this is the reason for the glaring and startling differences. I do wonder what happened that the series was started by one company and finished by another. Regardless, I do wish they had been finished by the great George Guidell. I've heard other stories narrated by David Colacci and he is a really good reader but the difference here is jarring.

The pronunciations and accents are unsettling, especially when you consider that Brilliance Audio didn't start from book one, which to me means they meant these to follow the first three from Recorded Books. Too bad the producers and/or Colacci didn't make an effort at continuity. Especially nauseating is the Ildirians accents and pronunciations; I was like " dude, really?" ZonNnNn? The series and riviting but the change in narrators is almost as upsetting as the narrator in the Honor Harrington series who is horrid.

Annoying narrator

Narrator uses nice electronic effects, but they are over done. He also uses name pronunciations he can't comfortably pronounce, which is distracting and annoying.

Feeling more like a forced story then ever

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, but I would also warn them of certain story threads that I feel are forced. With one plot in particular, but a smattering of other bits throughout the book, I couldn't help but feel like several aspects of this book's story were written in a way to force the story in a certain direction, but without having earned the story. Both individuals and groups of people were acting in ways I couldn't feel were in character with how they had been developed so far.

Would you be willing to try another book from Kevin J. Anderson? Why or why not?

Kevin certainly has an expansive and detailed imagination, and I would read more books by him. I plan to finish this series, which is three more books, and may read more. However, I worry that the forced-plot nature that I started feeling in book 3 of this series, and REALLY felt during this book (4) is a part of his writing as he gets deep into a story. I hope not, but hat is my fear.

Which character – as performed by David Colacci – was your favorite?

I cannot say that any of the character performances by David Colacci were particularly noteworthy. There are some basic voice inflections used for a few characters, but most of them sound the same, or are synthesized in some way to have a different, radio-show type feel to them.

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

There needs to be another book because it was written as an incomplete story. Many plots are left with something just dangling there by the end of the book. There's one in particular which has been left dangling each book, with no new information that says anything beyond "remember this? More is coming!"

Any additional comments?

Scattered Suns, Book 4 of this saga, is my least favorite of this series so far. I loved Book 1 and Book 2, and my biggest problem with Book 3 was that there seemed to be a large number of useless, filler chapters. Maybe they were there for flavor, maybe for word count inflation, I don't know. What I do know is that there were several chapters in Book 3 which I feel were completely unnecessary, and their exclusion would have actually made the book better.

Scattered Suns has actually disappointed me greatly in a few ways. Firstly, several things happening in the story feel forced. That's unfortunate, and gives the impression that things are happening because the author wanted them to happen, not because they fit the universe and the story as it has developed so far.

The other thing about this story that I found very disappointing, and actually frustrating, is that with the way the author treats energy usage and physics, I can no longer take this as a "hard sci-fi story." Too many things just don't work, when compared to other things that happen in the universe. As one example, without really going into spoiler territory (I feel) - I'm sorry, but ships that are easily able to completely obliterate several moons would have no trouble at all ripping through some thicker armor put onto a ship.

While I do enjoy the story, I'm also somewhat saddened that many of the space entities are just "elemental magic, in space." It's not that it's bad, just that I hoped for something more unique.

Narrator change is Confusing

This review is specifically for the Audible version. After listening to the first 3 books in the saga the 4th book has a new narrator. This would have been ok if he pronounced the main characters names the same as the previous narrator. Instead it took me a few chapters to figure out who was who. Since the characters were the same from the previous books it would have been helpful if the narrator had listened to the previous book so he didn’t confuse the reader and left me wondering who the characters were.

A tale of two narrators

I am returning this book and will be searching for the Recorded Books version.

Horrible

Great Book Bad Narrator

I agree with the other reviewers that the narration is poor. In particular, I found the accents poorly chosen and jarring. For example, the Roamers all sound like Southerners (with really artificial accents) and several characters have exaggerated English accents. This narrator is terrible and ruined the book. In contrast,the first three books were well done. Read the book and skip the audiobook--or you will be disappointed. I have listened to almost a hundred audiobooks of all genres and with many different narrators. I often find myself disagreeing with reviews of the sort I have just written. This is the first time I have felt compelled to share my thoughts about a narrator.