Of Fire and Night

The Saga of Seven Suns, Book 5

By: Kevin J. Anderson

Narrated by: David Colacci

The extermination of Earth is at hand. With his increasingly irrational leadership, Basil Wenceslas, chairman of the Hansa, has driven humanity into a corner. His punitive treatment of the Hansa colonies and the Roamers, as well as his refusal to aid an embattled Theroc, have made enemies for the people of Earth. Enemies that the Hansa cannot afford - not when Wenceslas is struggling against revolt by soldier compies, who decimate the military by stealing ships and slaughtering soldiers; and betrayal by the Ildirans, led by Jora'h the Mage-Imperator, who is secretly scheming with the hydrogues to annihilate Earth.

Now disparate factions of humanity must plan for their own salvation. Worldtrees allied with humans on Theroc have rallied hulking, thorny tree battleships. Roamers work with powerful water entities, the wentals, to seed planets everywhere with a growing force to challenge the hydrogues.

But when the final battle with the hydrogues is joined, who will aid the people of Earth?

The saga continues: listen to more of Kevin J. Anderson's Seven Suns series.©2006 WordFire, Inc. (P)2006 Brilliance Audio

Saga of Great Reads

The Saga of Seven Suns, much to my surprise, produced equal to better books throughout the series. Usually, the 2nd, 3rd and beyond books don't measure up to the original. This series is an exception. Unexpectedly, the Saga of Seven Suns has become my favorite book series, one of my favorite science fiction stories. I really enjoy the narrator. He is consistent and doesn't over-act. Regarding this particular book... just another great read equal or better to the previous book in series.

Probably the best yet in the series.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story and was happy to see several plot threads come together as well as a couple new ones emerging. The narration was great except for the irritating way he tried to pronounce the robot names instead of stating the letters for some of them.

narrator don't pronounce names as first narrator

narrator does not pronounce the names as narrator in the first book in the series

The story's do not just continue...they develop!

King Peter and Queen Estara, figurehead rulers of Earth and the Hanziatic League, have quite the problem. His name is Basil Wensaslaus, the Chairman of the Hanziatic League. He thinks everything is his to manage, decide and dispense with. He can't imagine that anyone else can do anything without his leave to do so. Great problem to be saddled with while at least one set of aliens plans to wipe humanity out of existence.
The Roamers, space gypsies, have a problem too. Hydrogues, Earth Defense Forces (EDF) and Ilderans all want to abuse or destroy them. Their main source of income used to be mining the atmospheres of gas giants for Ecty, starship fuel. Now they have to find other ways to stay in food. They might have to...ring some doorbells.
The Ilderans have partially recovered from the Mad designate but are yet to face the music for their treatment of the Burton survivors. Osirah, the half-breed daughter of the Mage Imperator and Neara the Green Priest, has been inserted as the communications bridge between the Imperator and the Hydrogues. A lot of centuries in the making she delivers unforeseen results.
Prince Daniel, a simpering sod of a put-up job, gets brought out of his induced coma and dropped in Amish world. You got it, right on a steaming pile of goodness.
These and many other story lines are enriched in this, the fifth book in the series. I have nothing detracting to say about this work, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Four out of five entertainment points for this installment.

Lots of seemingly different story lines

Seems like a bunch of novellas but then. POW. It was SPECTACULAR. you need to read this book.

Narratively speaking: The Brits and the Confeds.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

A better narrator who has a character range greater than England and the Condederates.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Of Fire and Night?

When the Ildirins showed some backbone and stood up to the Hydrouges at grid zero.

What didn’t you like about David Colacci’s performance?

This is a space novel, not a book about the war between the north and the south. There needs to be greater character vocal diversity and I REALLY get tired of hearing that Southern drawl all freakin book long.

Do you think Of Fire and Night needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

Of course. At the end, they release a whole new type of evil and it has to be dealt with.

Any additional comments?

Fantastic series. Really great character arcs and you never know when the next bit of excitement is going to happen.

Wow Finally!

the first four were good but i kept waiting for some things to happen ( i dont want to be a spoiler) and wow did they happen. i do like the new narrator we got in the last book i think he ads a bit more drama to books and makes them more enjoyable to listen to. i get to start the next one in the series tonight and i am looking forward to it!!

Great series!

I love this series.

I thought I would've been used to the new narrator by the end of this book but.... nah, It's not merely the pronunciations but the accents as well.

It's bad enough to speak the Compi names in such a screwy manner, it's far worse to make seemingly random decisions about the dialect and therefore the origins of several characters. This narrator Colacci decided, for some reason, that people with names like Nikko Chan Tylar and Kotto Okiah should sound like U.S. southerners and the older roamer men should all sound like grisly characters in a western shoot-em-up. Even the "Alien with British Accent" clich'e finally becomes less than outrageous but really, rednecks in space? Not even genteel southern gentlemen but crusty old gosh-darn dusty pantsed cowpokes? Perhaps a listen through of the earlier books for continuity would've been informative.

Perhaps they should've started from book 1 with the new narrator thus buffering us from the shock of being forced to leave the marvelous George Guidall for this hideous treatment.

sigh.

Back on Track

Very much better than book #4. The narrator has toned it down a bit from the previous extravagant performance.

The plot is growing ever wider. There could be 100's or even 1000's of sequels.

Recaptured My Interest

This is a long series and I've wanted to make sure and finish it - but I was getting a bit bored by end of 4th book. So it's been about a year and now listening to this book I am much more excited about the series and will jump directly to next book. Tons of action - good flow, narrator is great.