By Cynthia Ayala

The war between the elemental aliens continues to grow while strife between the Ildiran kingdom and that of the human empire continues to rise. A deluded imposter Mage-Imperator threatens the kingdom and while Jora’h faces that war, he must, with a heavy heart, send his half-human daughter on a mission to make peace with the hydrogues. While they fight the gas giant aliens, Jess Tamblyn and Beneto work unwittingly alongside one another to raise the water and earth aliens from their sleep to fight the war with the humans. Darkness rises above the horizon as mad men with blind power and rage attack, forcing everyone to face their darkest choices in hopes of survival.

Scattered Suns by the remarkable Kevin J. Anderson was first published on July 18, 2005 by Aspect before being republished on November 1, 2007 by Orbit. This sci-fi space opera takes readers on an adventure through a universe at war.

The Saga of the Seven Suns functions in the same way that the Game of Thrones series functions, separating the novel into chapters around one central point of view. Considering the scope of the novel, writing the novel this way was a brilliant direction. There is so much going on in Scattered Suns that the writer has challenged himself. The goal of any novel is to hook and captivate the audience and when you have a slightly convoluted and long premise, it’s a challenge. However, despite that Anderson has made this such an easy novel to follow. He recaps the important parts of the previous novels so that the reader can grasp on what’s been happing and how that influences what is going to happen in this 600+ page novel. That number of pages can intimidate any reader alongside the tiny script within. However, Anderson has constructed the story with ease, that reading it is no challenge at all.

Continuing the saga, this novel has closed some of the plot twists created from the previous novel while creating some more interesting ones that connect the overall plot points and even connect back to book one. It’s remarkable how well a story as dense and plot driven is able to hold itself together. All the elements and plot twists connect together so well creating a wonderful fast-paced and tension driven story. Needless to say, this novel comes off as more relevant than the previous novel that felt very much like a filler.

With that in mind, anyone who loves Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica are going to love this Space Opera/Sci-Fi novel because it has all those science fiction elements are there in the novel. The imagination and creativity flows throughout the novel taking the reader on a space adventure.

Another great aspect of the novel is the characterization. There are so many characters, each with their own inside plot that influences the outside plot, and each of them is very distinct. Anderson did even forget to make sure that these characters have to have personalities, have to clash with some characters and connect effortlessly with other characters. That’s another reason why shifting between character POV’s was such a good decision on the writers part because it not only paints the scope of the novel but it also allows the character to live and breathe on the pages. They own those pages and they shine on them. And after following the characters throughout the series thus far, they continue to grow. No character is left behind nor forgotten and who they are shines.

Every page is full of incredible detail and magnificent story telling making this novel an electrifying space opera. (★★★★☆ | A)