Saga of Seven Suns

Infobox Book
name = The Saga of Seven Suns


author = Kevin J. Anderson
country = United States
language = English
genre = Sci-fi, Space Opera
publisher = flagicon|UK Simon & Schuster
flagicon|USA Orbit Books
release_date = July 2002 – July 2008
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback) The Saga of Seven Suns is a series of seven space opera novels written by Kevin J. Anderson and published between 2002 and 2008. The series is set in a not-too-distant future where mysterious alien benefactors, the Ildirans, have helped humanity to spread out among the stars, colonizing a number of planets in the Orion Spiral Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Much of the human race is ruled by the powerful Terran Hanseatic League (Hansa), which intends, by force or by subterfuge, to extend its control to every corner of human space while the Ildirans simply look on.

The series details the outcome of an ancient war rekindled by human folly when scientists experimenting with alien technology create a new star from a gas giant and thereby awaken the fury of a hidden empire of elemental aliens known as the Hydrogues, who dwell within such planets. Later in the series, other ancient elemental races such as the Wentals, Verdani, and Faeros join the fray. Also, the almost-extinct insect race known as the Klikiss return to seek vengence on their rebellious former servants, the black robots.

Synopses of each book are provided below.

Prequel: Veiled Alliances (Graphic Novel) (2004)

Centuries ago, the human race began searching the Milky Way for hospitable planets, hoping to alleviate crowded conditions on Earth. Eleven generation ships filled with self-sufficient explorers set out for the stars, knowing that, at best, their grandchildren might someday find a new home. And now the Caillié, a generation ship on the verge of despair, has discovered something FAR more interesting - an advanced race capable of faster-than-light travel.

The Ildirans not only help the people of the Caillié settle the planet Theroc, they seek out survivors of the other ships launched so long ago. Once they've located most of the remaining human pioneers, the Ildirans send an envoy to the much-changed planet Earth seeking an alliance between the two races. The Earth is now governed by the wizened King Ben, with the shadowy figure of Chairman Malcolm Stannis pulling the strings for the Terran Hanseatic League behind the scenes.

Book 1: Hidden Empire (2002)

Having colonized the worlds of the Spiral Arm, the three branches of humanity -- the Earth-based Terran Hanseatic League, the telepathic Theron green priests of Theroc, and the fiercely rebellious, starship-dwelling Roamers -- consider themselves lords of creation. After all, humans share the galaxy with only two alien species, one harmless and one extinct. The benign Ildirans are an ancient, senescent civilization, while the Klikiss vanished ages before, leaving behind vast ruins filled with technological wonders, but no clues to their mysterious disappearance.

So ambitious humans see the galaxy as wide open for the taking. And when two xenoarchaeologists, Louis Colicos and Margaret Colicos discover a Klikiss device that can convert gas giant planets into new, life-giving suns, the humans promptly put their new technology to the test. The result is hideous beyond imagination. For the supposedly uninhabitable gas giants are the homeworlds of another alien species - the Hydrogues. Infinitely more advanced than the Ildirans, supremely more powerful than the Klikiss, and now the victims of accidental genocide, the Hydrogues don't seek explanations, apologies, or reparations. Instead, armadas of invincible, city-sized warships emerge from their gaseous worlds with a single purpose: to annihilate anyone harvesting their gaseous planets for space fuel or 'ekti' - whether Hansa, Ildiran, Theron, or Roamers.

Suddenly, humans need allies, but the Klikiss can't help them and the Ildirans won't. In their pride, the upstart worlds of Man have misunderstood the brutal realities of the galaxy and now face their own impending doom.

Book 2: A Forest of Stars (2003)

Five years after attacking human-colonized worlds of the Spiral Arm, the enigmatic Hydrogues maintain absolute control over the galaxy's gas giant planets. On Earth, the government is tightening its iron grip on rebellious colonies while seeking to dominate the other humans throughout the galaxy. Reeling from renewed attacks by the hydrogues, the Terran rulers don't realise the other dangers they face. Earth's alien "friends", the seemingly gentle Ildirans, are secretly abducting and breeding humans in enforced breeding camps. Whilst the Terran Hanseatic League begins to build military robots (Soldier Compies) to create cybernetic legions to fight the war, robots that were created using ancient technology found in Klikiss Robots which have exterminated their own makers and may turn on mankind.

Five years ago, humans thought they ruled the cosmos. Today they're the galaxy's most jeopardized species. But when an incredible new race of elemental entities are rediscovered, they are found to desire the destruction of their former enemy. For these beings have suffered genocide for millions at the hands of the Hydrogues.

Now for the humans and the myriad alien factions in the universe, the real war is about to begin.

Book 3: Horizon Storms (2004)

The titanic war between Hydrogues - powerful aliens that live within gas giant planets - and Faeros, fiery creatures inhabiting suns, continues to sweep across the Spiral Arm, extinguishing suns and destroying planets. It is a time when Chairman Basil Wenceslas of the Terran Hanseatic League and his figurehead King Peter must unify all branches of the human race to stand together against the threat even if they must resort to deception and oppression to do so.

But the freedom-loving Roamer clans and the forest-dwelling people of Theroc, whose "green priests" can communicate across vast distances through a network of sentient worldtrees, will not give up their independence so easily.

The iron-fist policies of Chairman Wenceslas force the disparate civilizations to forge alliances of their own, creating turmoil that may break human civilization apart, as surely as the destructive Hydrogues will.

Partly as a distraction from their peril, partly as a desperate hope, the Hanseatic League launches an ambitious new colonization program using the new network of alien transportals, instantaneous gateways that take hardy pioneers to settle new worlds once abandoned by the ancient insectlike Klikiss race. But the new territory comes with its own dangers and deeply buried mysteries.

In the ancient Ildiran Empire, Jora'h - the newly crowned Mage-Imperator - must face the awful responsibilities and sinister secrets his predecessors have imposed upon him: from the extensive breeding program forced upon a colony of hopeless human captives, to a surprising and uneasy pact with the beetle-like Klikiss robots that could result in the total extinction of the human race. But Jora'h must also survive a threat no other Mage-Imperator has faced in ten thousand years - open rebellion among the Ildirans, an astonishing civil war and a challenge to his rule that could break apart the entire Empire.

Book 4: Scattered Suns (2005)

The destructive Hydrogues continue their war against humans and the fiery entities, the Faeros -a struggle that kills planets and extinguishes whole stars. Newly crowned Mage-Imperator Jora'h, the leader of the ancient and vast Ildiran Empire, struggles with the knowledge that the Hydrogues are only willing to give them peace if they help destroy the humans. But Jora'h's empire is destroying itself from within, when his mad brother launches a bloody rebellion across the Ildiran planets, appointing Jora'h's own first-born son as its leader.

In the Terran Hanseatic League, Chairman Basil Wenceslas continues his red-herring war against the Roamer clans, eager to achieve a decisive victory, even if he has to invent an enemy out of the Roamer clans. Their homes destroyed, the wandering Roamers scatter into hiding, trying to keep their culture and government intact, even when faced with enemies from all sides. Cesca Peroni, leader of the Roamers, finds herself stranded on a small icy outpost where miners have uncovered a hibernating army of alien Klikiss robots. These robots, along with other, already active ones, trigger another dark and ancient plot, one that could lead to a massacre across all human-inhabited planets. In a galaxy torn by war, treachery, and shifting alliances, it is clear that many of the races are untrustworthy, and that they are likely to turn on each other.

Book 5: Of Fire And Night (2006)

The extermination of mankind is at hand. In a war against alien races, killer robots, and elemental beings, Earth slips deeper into desperation. The Terran government always knew the Hydrogues were a vicious enemy bent on humanity’s destruction, but they didn’t predict how many other factions would turn against them.

With his increasingly irrational leadership, Chairman Basil Wenceslas has driven humanity into a corner. The Chairman’s punitive treatment of Hansa colonies and free-spirited Roamers, as well as his refusal to aid the burned forest world of Theroc, has made enemies all around. Enemies that Earth cannot afford. Earth’s own Soldier compies have rebelled, taking over much of the military, stealing ships and slaughtering crews across the galaxy. Even the Hansa's staunch allies the Ildirans, led by Mage-Imperator Jora’h, are secretly scheming with the Hydrogues to exterminate the human race.

As the war continues to go badly for Earth, the remaining factions of humanity plan for their own salvation. Worldtrees allied with “green priests” on Theroc have rallied hulking, thorny tree battleships, while Roamers work with powerful water entities, the Wentals, to seed scattered planets with a growing force to challenge the Hydrogues.

After Chairman Wenceslas has alienated and cut off so many potential allies, it seems clear that Earth is not well defended, and that it may be destroyed.

Book 6: Metal Swarm (2007)

The alien hydrogues have been defeated, driven back into the cores of their gas-giant planets by an alliance of the Earth Defence Forces, the ancient Ildiran Empire, the gypsy-like Roamer clans and fantastic water elemental beings as well as the gigantic living Verdani 'tree ships'. But as the various factions try to pick up the pieces and recover, the deep-seated wounds may be fatal. The Hansa's brutal Chairman Basil Wenceslas struggles to crush any resistance even as King Peter breaks away to form his own new Confederation among the green priests on Theroc, the Roamer clans and an ever-growing number of breakaway colonies who have declared their independence.

Like jackals smelling wounded prey, swarms of ancient black robots built by the lost insectoid Klikiss race continue their depredations on helpless worlds with stolen and heavily armed Earth battleships. A race of capricious and terrifying fiery elementals, the faeros, has joined with an Ildiran madman to declare war against all life. And the original, voracious Klikiss race - long thought to be extinct - have returned, intent on conquering their former worlds and willing to annihilate anyone who happens to be in the way.

Book 7: The Ashes of Worlds (2008)

The culminating volume in the Saga of Seven Suns weaves together the myriad story lines in a spectacular grand finale. Where Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against one another. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale eight years in the making.

ee also

* Races and Species
* Characters: Ildirans, Humans
* Planets
* Ships
* Technology

External links

* [http://www.wordfire.com Kevin J. Anderson's web site]
*isfdb name|id=Kevin_J._Anderson|name=Kevin J. Anderson
* [http://freesfonline.de/authors/andersonkj.html Kevin J. Anderson's online fiction] at "Free Speculative Fiction Online"
* [http://boards.theforce.net/Authors_&_Artists/b10347/5816881/?112 Kevin J. Anderson discussion at theforce.net Message Boards]
* [http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/literature/authors_a-c/kevin_j_anderson.html Saga of Seven Suns quizzes at Funtrivia.com]