Review of 'Hidden Empire (The Saga of the Seven Suns, Book 1)' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The ekti must flow...
Short plot description:
Mankind has made it to the stars (with some help from the alien race called "Ildirans"). In the process they have divided into three major fractions, the Terran Hanseatic League and their colonies, the priests of Theroc with their telepathic link to the world forest and the free-living Roamers.
What holds everything together is the fuel "ekti" which allows faster-than-light travel and to a lesser extent the telepathic abilities of the priests which allows instantaneous communication between worlds.
Another alien species, the Klikiss, are long extinct but left some technology behind, including some robots.
The novel starts with the THL converting (for terra-forming purposes) a gas giant into a sun, killing million members of the hitherto unknown alien species "Hydroques" which in turn declare their gas giants off-limits for every one else and enforcing their demands with overwhelming force.
Since the gas-giants in …
The ekti must flow...
Short plot description:
Mankind has made it to the stars (with some help from the alien race called "Ildirans"). In the process they have divided into three major fractions, the Terran Hanseatic League and their colonies, the priests of Theroc with their telepathic link to the world forest and the free-living Roamers.
What holds everything together is the fuel "ekti" which allows faster-than-light travel and to a lesser extent the telepathic abilities of the priests which allows instantaneous communication between worlds.
Another alien species, the Klikiss, are long extinct but left some technology behind, including some robots.
The novel starts with the THL converting (for terra-forming purposes) a gas giant into a sun, killing million members of the hitherto unknown alien species "Hydroques" which in turn declare their gas giants off-limits for every one else and enforcing their demands with overwhelming force.
Since the gas-giants in the galaxy are the source of the fuel "ekti", a conflict on a galactic scale is inevitable...
My thoughts:
This is the first book in the "Saga of the Seven Suns"-series and so by necessity includes lots and lots of info dumps, making the pace rather slow.
I felt the book was more or less all exposition, with some action thrown in now and then to get the plot moving forward.
The events are told from the perspective of various members of the different factions, ranging from faction leaders through mid-level ranks down to ordinary people swept up in the events.
This also helps to keep the novel going but can be overwhelming since lots of different characters are introduced which felt overwhelming at some points.
Nevertheless the setup is quite intriguing and leaves room for lots of good books to follow.
My one major problem with the world-building and the novel in general: I can't think of one part of this universe which I haven't read before in other novels. Space travel depending on one resource, telepathic communications, political tensions between the different factions (human and alien), extinct alien races leaving technology behind, everything here has been done before and feels familiar.
It will be interesting to see how Anderson develops the setup in the consecutive novels.
recommended for: everyone who likes space opera