Saga of the Seven Suns Book Series: Hidden Empire & Forest of Stars by Kevin Anderson

I have been struggling with finding a good book series to read, while waiting for the conclusions to two of my favorite fantasy series, the Song of Fire & Ice Saga and the Wheel of Time series.  These series are so involved and detailed, that I have become spoiled with the indepth character development, intriguing worlds and story lines that the authors created.  Each book in both series are an average of 700-900 pages.  Each series has over 6 books.  I finally found a new space series that I thought would fill my needs called the Saga of the Seven Suns series, which has 7 books.  The story line for the series is pretty cool.  The humans have come across an alien race called the Ildirans who have given them technology to travel amongst the stars.  During the humans journey across the stars, they colonize a planet which has trees that allow them to communicate almost instantaneously anywhere in the galaxy.  All you need is a specially trained person to touch the tree and people and communicate their thoughts.  The humans also come across a dead civilization of an insectoid race called the Klikiss.  They discover an ancient device called the Klikiss torch, which allows them to turn gas planets like Jupiter into suns.  The adventure begins when the humans ignite a gas planet, which is orbited by four moons they want to colonize.  Unfortunately for the humans, when they turn the gas giant into a sun, they didn’t know that the gas planet was inhabited by an ancient alien race  called the Hydrogues.  When they ignited the planet, tens of millions of the Hydrogueswere killed.  After this event the Hydrogues boil out of gas planets around the galaxy attacking all “rock dwellers”, which are beings that live on regular planets with the intent of wiping them all out.  So the saga revolves around humanity’s attempts to survive this tragedy, while also trying to maintain its iron grip on the colonies it dominates around the galaxy.

Although I love the storyline and the universe the author Kevin Anderson created, his writing style is very juvenile.  He doesn’t do a very good job of describing interaction between his characters, and he has this habit starting each chapter with a different character and describing their story.  This in itself isn’t bad, because George R. Martin does this in the Song of Fire and Ice series, but there are so many characters in the Saga of the Seven Suns that it gets confusing.  The author also has a very slow writing pace, and there are pages and pages of filler that don’t move the story forward whatsoever.  His description of the action scenes are average at best, and in the beginning didn’t fill me with much excitement.  He also doesn’t even bother to give descriptions and details about the way the ships look or anything of that nature.  Despite these drawbacks, I am still drawn to his overall story and want to finish it, even though I am not all impressed with what I read so far.  I have read two of the seven books, but I haven’t been able to justify buying the rest.  I may have to see if the library has these to finish up, what started off being a very promising series.

Grade so far C-

The Shack by William P. Young

The Shack is an interesting Christian themed story of a man Mackenzie Allen Philips who suffers a great loss, which he titles the “Great Sadness”, which leads to him beginning to question his faith.  One day during a snow storm, he checks his mail and recieves at letter that just says “Meet Me at the Shack” with the signature God at the bottom.  This then begins Mack’s journey to rediscover his relationship with God, and deal with the “Great Sadness”.

This is such a powerful book, that I was fighting back tears throughout.  By the time I was done reading, I felt like I had read not just a book of fiction, but the ultimate book on the philopshophy of mans’ life with God.  This is a touching tale!  The book was so good, that I burned through all 248 pgs in less than 24 hours! The book didn’t seem like my cup of tea at first, but once I sat down yesterday and started to read, I was hooked. 

Grade: A

What am I reading? Tony Dungy’s Autobiography: Quiet Strength

I have always rooted for Tony Dungy because he was a successful African American assistant coach in the NFL who wasn’t getting any opportunities to be a head coach. I think a part of that was his seemingly quiet and reserved persona, which goes against the stereotypes of a NFL head coach, but some of it probably had to do with the good ol’ boys network. Once his opportunity came in the form of being hired to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he showed the world what he was capable of.  Now as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, he has finally reached the apex of the NFL dream by winning a super bowl.

Now I knew Dungy seemed to be a good guy and coach, but I didn’t realize how steeped in Christianity he was until I read his autobiography.  I was awestruck on how his entire coaching philosophy centered around Christ and ministering to others.  Despite his quiet demeanor and low voice, a passion burns inside of him that makes it easy to see how these titans of manhood follow him into battle on the football field.  With his words and philosophy, Dungy can inspire and motivate players and non players alike to excel and strive to become better than what they were.  In his book he gives great insight about his faith, family and experiences both positive and negative that have led him on his journey to become a follower of Christ and a witness to others by using his position as coach as his platform.

I truly respect and admire this man. His book his a good read, and the pages will just fly by.  I openly admit that I am not a fan of biographies, but Dungy’s book had me eagerly looking forward to upcoming and coming chapters to see what he was going to say or experience next.  I hated to put the book down, and even now as I near the end of the book, I feel as if I am leaving a friend.

If you want to read a powerful book, that focuses on faith, family and the NFL life, then pick up Tony Dungy’s autobiography Quiet Strength!

Grade: A+

What I am I reading now? Elantris

Elantris is a stand alone novel by Brandon Sanderson, that is a tale about the city of Elantris, a home for god like humans with extraordinary powers.  These humans rule the world, but then an event occurs, which turns the super humans into a weak and decaying people. They suffer from severe illnesses, and even the slightest bump is a pain that lasts for eternity. They go from being the beacon of the world, to being the shunned civilization of the world.  One of the residents of Elantris attempts to discover the reasons for these events, and correct the wrong that has afflicted him and his people.

I just started the book yesterday, but so far so good.

Mistborn: The Final Empire

Imagine a fantasy story in which the hero loses to the villain and the villain rules the world for over a thousand years.  A thousand plus years later a group of thieves rise up to not destroy the villain, but to rob him of his wealth, which may lead to the villain’s financal collapse and lead his empire to ruin. 

 This is the story of Mistborn and so far it is a fascinating idea. Instead of typical magic, people born of the Mists have special powers called Allomancy, which allows them to ingest metals and “burn” them to accomplish a number of super human feats.  Mix in your fantasy elements along with a banking heist theme and you have an interesting book.  At first I was a little wary of the premise, but it is proven to be a good ride so far.

Biblical Reading: Esther

I just started reading Esther, about a jewish woman who becomes a queen, to king Ahasuerus.  Roshawn is currently reading Revelation.  Roshawn has read more of the bible than I ever have.  He has read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Proverbs, Job, Matthew and Revelation.

I am currently reading the Jackal of Nar by John Marco

 

The Jackal of Nar is a fantasy book by John Marco.  This is his first book, and so far I can tell he is a rookie.  Much of his writing seems like it was written by a young adolescent.  The story is okay.  The book is about a newly raised king who is forced by the Emperor of Nar to invade a country whose leader can wield magic.  The king, Richius, seems whiney and weak.  He doesn’t really fit the profile of a king to me.  The jury is still out on this book.

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan

 

This is a fascinating tale of adventure and magic, which follows the story of a young male farmer, who discovers that he is the prophesied Dragon Reborn who has magical powers, that are more similar to the Force in Star Wars rather than magic.  The 11 novels in the series follows his quest to unite his lands, through diplomacy and war, so that the land will be ready to face the evil Shaitain at the final battle of Tarmon Gaidon. 

 Although the stories themselves are fascinating due to the fact that this series mixes fantasy with science, Jordan does a poor job of writing his female characters, which spend much of their time bickering and arguing over dumb things.  Each book in the 11 book series is over 700 hundred pages long, so be prepared for a reading marathon!  I have currently read all 11, and I am now waiting for the 12th book.