Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5981 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

Synopsis
HIDDEN EMPIRE begins a dazzling space opera fit to stand with the classics of the genre, combining the politics of Frank Herbert's DUNE, the scope of Peter F. Hamilton's NIGHT'S DAWN trilogy, and the pageantry and romance of STAR WARS In the far future, humanity began to search the stars, sending out vast spaceships that would take generations to reach their goals. In the depths of space they encountered the Ildiran empire - apparently the galaxy's only other intelligent civilisation. The Ildirans came to Earth and passed on the knowledge of their stardrive, allowing humanity to expand to the stars. Almost two hundred years after that first contact, there are human colonies proliferating through the galaxy. As Mankind seizes the future, danger comes from the past, for two human archaeologists glean forbidden knowledge from the ruins of a dead world. Once, the insect-like Klikiss ruled the stars. Now, only their robot servants remain, guardians of a terrible technology - the Klikiss Torch, which has the power to create suns.

Now, Humanity prepares to flex its new found muscle and activate the Torch for the first time in millennia, but there are reasons the Klikiss empire fell, and a train of events is about to be set in motion, that will change the universe...

Customer Reviews

A Great Saga
It's one of the best original Sci-fi Sagas I've read. At some points it moves a bit slowly, but over all it's enjoyable, and really inspires. But imagination is required! I've read 5 of the 6 available books and i'm ordering book 6, To see the "big picture" in Kevin J. Anderson detailed Universe you have to read most of the available books, thing's begin to make sense in a Sci-fi way as you read on. Things recommended roughly along those lines would be X3 (pc game), SGA (TV series. google them).

Very good start to the series
I felt that the story was absorbing and interesting and I especially liked the chapter layout, in that it flits between the stories of certain characters throughout the tale, I feel that it helped keep a continuity to what is an epansive and wide reaching book with many different parties and I feel it helps to keep interest up in what some may consider to be 'slower' chapters.

I belived that it was all in all very good, and i cant wait to read the others in the series

Can I give it no stars?
I'm a big fan of space operas but I like a certain level of sophistication in the writing, the characterisation and the science. Unfortunately, this book is lacking in all three.

There is endless repetition in the description of the characters and their environments and no real insight into why anyone does what they do in the book. And the plot holes are glaring. Why anyone in the book can't work out why they are being attacked by gas giant dwellers when they've just blown up a gas giant is beyond me. And that's just one of them. Listing them here would be too much like reading the book again.

And the science is woeful. Humans breathing the atmosphere of gas giants? Not likely. And the description of how the star drives work was simply baffling as it contained no science just some contradictory babble about relativity.

I've never written a review before but I really feel you must be warned. Stay well away.