(Every time I read the character name, Basil Wenceslas, I want to sing "looked out"... I know, but my mind must be a little weird.) This is another one of those books where the rating tended to slide between 3 and 4 as I went along. This book does tend to ramble a bit, but then the author has given himself quite a task as he's spun the story out into a half dozen points of view (at least, maybe I should say "major points of view") and possibly a few dozen threads all to keep track of and braid together into a coherent tale. He's doing a fairly credible job.I personally find the book (books) a bit to...detail oriented for my taste. There are huge swaths of this that you could completely miss and still not lose track of the story. the trick of course would be knowing, as our UK readers might say, "which bits you could miss". It reminded me a few times of my wife's complaints about some soap-operas she watched at one time. They would go on and on for weeks at a time and little would change at all. Then she'd get fed up, miss the thing for a week and when she came back the baby that had been new born a week before was off at college and everyone had switched spouses. You can miss a lot, just don't miss the wrong paragraph. Not to give any spoilers here, we are following the humans (divided as we always are, but with those who are totally sure that they can, should and must run things for all humans also) in their struggle to spread through space. And, as seems to happen in a lot of science fiction epics, we've gotten ourselves involved in a war with other alien races that are so powerful the only thing we seem to be able to do mostly is keep our heads down and try not to draw too much attention to ourselves lest survival cease to be an option. There are of course people who refuse to recognize that...but that's okay as we've also managed to split up and various groups of humans at each other's throats. Then there are the various groups of aliens the aforementioned very alien ones some of whom want us gone. The sentient robots...who also want us wiped out...the Ildiran empire, these aliens are very close to human. They are treacherous, conniving, and untrustworthy and their political machinations would make Machiavelli proud.Need I go on? We see a lot happening here and the story is still spinning out. I wasn't aware when i started this that the series would run out to 7 volumes... At least the story does move forward here. It's not one of those books where you get the same event related to you a dozen times from a dozen different characters. Many people will love what I found tedious in this book. They will see it as added background and color. The universe is built well here and I'm glad you'll enjoy this. As for me I only dropped the rating to a 4 as it's a good novel in an interesting series...just too full of fluff for my taste. Too often I found my mind wandering off away from the story at hand. Will I continue the series? Possibly. I have a lot of books already "to read" so i won't be running out right away to get them nor reserving them at the library. If the story stays with me I may go back and get the next volume later.
Though this is only book 3 of 7, things are still disastrous for humanity. That is just the worst for my ego tied to humanity. It would be as an American reading the history of WWII in real time, in the Pacific. Sometime in the middle of 42, when things looked bleak. Pearl Harbor hurt, Wake Island fallen, the Philippines lost.But we know, living so far from the events that things will be turning around. The drama that they aren't, though is painful to watch. Painful to have seen the train wreck of one of the enemies that we know of, revealed and destroyed a very young person's world.it is painful to watch the leader of the majority of humanity be the anti FDR, or Winston Churchill, and the leader we root for still not think of a way to usurp control. To watch this anti leader of mankind make mistakes and be an egomaniac of his own.The book moves the plot along. The timing of scenes again is all over the place. The issues of short chapters are still a detriment to the story. The book would help with a plotted timeline by the author and longer chapters that develop scenes. Less plot lines for some new secondary characters are being fleshed out to have their own sagas.Still a read once. But, an example taken from a true master, I read all the Palliser novel shrunk to a one volume book once. I think this would have been much better if the author followed Trollope's example.
Do You like book Horizon Storms (2005)?
This is Book III of the Saga and Kevin J Anderson continues at a lively pace with the story still unfolding in an interesting manner. A few new characters are introduced where needed, but mostly the main characters continue as the major protagonists. I really like this - that I have travelled through three books with these people and I care about what is happening to them. I am starting to feel as though a few of the loose ends and story plots need to be pulled together now, so I am intrigued to see whether Anderson can continue with the pace and interest for four more books - I feel doubtful about this but would be happy to be pleasantly surprised.My only real criticism of his writing style would be that his descriptions of people are sometimes rather crude and clumsy.
—Nor'dzin Pamo
At first I wasn't sure how I'd like this series. I read another series by Anderson years ago and did not like it. I decided to never read anything by him again even though you can't walk through the science fiction section of a bookstore without seeing his books. A friend at work convinced me to try this series, and I haven't been disappointed with my decision to try them. "Horizon Storm" is the third of seven books. This book continues the story of a fantastic galactic conflict in which the human race is a completely overmatched participant. However, the humans aren't exactly the good guys either. It's a great series and I'm looking forward to book four.
—Brandon Clawson
The story kept me hooked but by the end of it I felt like not a whole lot had happened. There are so many plotlines and point of view characters that although some significant events occurred, overall it feels like this book was just moving the plot along and setting up for bigger things later on.The plot itself is amazing as always. The characters are good, though with some of the minor characters we get information unnecessary to the plot and unnecessary to the character's development. For one character in particular, Anderson regularly revisits his past despite it having little to no relevance to how he behaves and reacts to things - this character is introduced and killed off in this book, making me think the author only included the past and referenced it so often in order to flesh out the chapters (unnecessarily).Even though this book was captivating enough for me to finish in a matter of days, I feel that my interest came from my desire to solve the mysteries of the first two books; on its own merits this book isn't great (not bad by any stretch though!).
—Andrew
