This book is pretty much the most anticipated book in my reading year ? I know for a lot of folks, the sixth Harry Potter book has brought a near ecstasy, but not me. I like space opera. My favourite book of all time is space opera (Dune - Frank Herbert), and this series so far has been excellent space opera. So you can imagine my feelings when I received this fourth and latest instalment in The Saga of the Seven Suns.

And the one thing I can say to anyone about this series is that it is getting better and better as every book comes out.

The battle has now been joined once and for all. Since Mankind launched the Klikiss Torch turning a gas giant into a new star and destroying the Hydrogue colony living within the planet, the Hydrogues have been attacking the ekti (fuel for space ships) harvester mankind has placed around the gas giants of many systems. And so far all efforts by Earth's military have failed to have any effect on the Hydrogues.

Mankind's ally, the Ildiran Empire has at least scored a victory although at a very great cost, with only a suicide attack being successful.

And in recent times the Hydrogues have been becoming more belligerent, and have started attacking planets, wiping out both Ildiran and Human worlds, as well as attacking Theron, the home of the sentient World Forest ? one of their ancient enemies.

Worried by the lack of success to report, Earth authorities have launched a campaign against the Roamers, a loose-knit group of human clans who live n the fringes of the main human empire (the groups have until now been on at least a tolerable relationship). This course of action at least giving the authorities the victories they need so desperate to report to the people.

And all this is not mentioning the Faeros (beings living within stars - enemies of the Hydrogues), Wentals (elemental water beings, also enemies of the Hydrogues), the Klikiss robots (insect-like robots made by a long dead race of insect-like beings), an Ildiran breeding program designed to produce a telepath capable of communicating with the Hydrogues, and a Civil War occuring within the Ildiran Empire.

This book is immense, both in terms of size (700 plus pages) and in scope ? there is just so much going on. But it also manages to include all of these divergent plot strands without seeming overwhelming. It helps that the chapters are short (this would be so much harder to read with lengthy chapters) and the constant scene changes help drag you through the book.

The action here is simply incredible, this is a totally absorbing book. The scale of this book is so huge, and yet as the action is told from the perspectives of individuals on the various sides of this conflict, the scale of it actually seems comfortable.

This series has everything, we have a first contact situation (or three), plus a major war between space faring species, political intrigue and betrayal, human settlers trying to make their way on new planets in good old frontier tradition, and even a love story or two going on in the middle. What more could you want? This is excellent.

Kevin J. Anderson is one of the top sf writers around today, and this book is further proof of his talent.

Synopsis
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 new knowledge he has learned: an ancient bargain and long-standing treachery that may finally bring peace with the hydrogues ...though it could mean the extermination of the human race. 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 against a supposed enemy that poses no threat. 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. Once released, these robots 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, no one can know the truth about their friends or enemies.