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    The Ashes of Worlds
    The Ashes of Worlds
    The Ashes of Worlds
    Audiobook19 hours

    The Ashes of Worlds

    Written by Kevin J. Anderson

    Narrated by David Colacci

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The culminating volume in The Saga of Seven Suns weaves together the myriad story lines in a spectacular grand finale. Galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and the factions of humanity are pitted against one another. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale eight years in the making. The Saga of Seven Suns is one of the most colorful and spectacular science fiction epics of the past decade.

    Acclaim for The Saga of Seven Suns: “Anderson weaves action, romance, and science with a rousing plot reflecting the classic SF of Clarke and Herbert and the glossy cinematic influence of Lucas and Spielberg.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

    “Kevin Anderson has created a fully independent and richly conceived venue for his personal brand of space opera, a venue that nonetheless raises fruitful resonances with Frank Herbert's classic Dune series.” —scifi.com

    “Everything about Anderson’s latest is BIG—the war, the history, the aliens. These are elemental forces battling here, folks. Yet the characters are always the heart of the story, and their defeats and triumphs give perspective to it all.” —Starlog

    “A soaring epic…a space opera to rival the best the field has ever seen.” —Science Fiction Chronicle

    “Colorful stuff…bursting with incidents, concepts, and a massive cast of characters, matching well-thought-out SF ideas with melodrama and interfamily strife.” —SFX

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 1, 2008
    ISBN9781423357551
    The Ashes of Worlds
    Author

    Kevin J. Anderson

    Kevin J. Anderson has published more than eighty novels, including twenty-nine national bestsellers. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Reader's Choice Award. His critically acclaimed original novels include Captain Nemo, Hopscotch, and Hidden Empire. He has also collaborated on numerous series novels, including Star Wars, The X-Files, and Dune. In his spare time, he also writes comic books. He lives in Wisconsin.

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    Reviews for The Ashes of Worlds

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    • 5/5
      This is the explosive conclusion to a great series. In his usual style, Anderson brings the story to its end and leaves few questions left to answer. The book is a great read and I recommend it to anyone who read the rest of the series. If you like the Dune series and Star Wars, you will like Saga of Seven Suns.
    • 5/5
      A fantastic and gripping conclusion to one of the best Sci-fi saga's of modern times, like the rest of the series, its scope of imagination is inspiring and its attention to detail help paint an intricate and believable complex universe. A Universe well worth exploring, for sci-fi fans, the saga of the seven suns is a must have read, I thoroughly recommend it, and this conclusion is one worthy of the brilliant saga which it concludes.
    • 4/5
      If like me you enjoy operatic Scifi you’ll love this. I’d expect it to be difficult for a newcomer to just jump right in without reading the previous books, as the number of characters and sheer complexity of the plot with all it’s sub-plots and nuances would just make it difficult to pick up, but it’s great. My trouble is that I can burn through a book like this in a couple of days when I’m enjoying it!One frustration that becomes increasingly noticeable is that the author seems to be developing a penchant for very short chapters. Time and time again he seems to write a chapter of only 3-4 pages. The reason for this seems to be the fast moving plot, and the frequent changing of locations (jumping from one planetary location to another), but it does feel like it’s becoming a more frequent occurence as the book goes on.The conclusion doesn't really feel like the end of the story however, and I was left with a feeling that perhaps KJA was trying to tie everything up in a hurry so he could get on with something else.
    • 3/5
      Even though I really enjoyed reading the series Saga of the Seven Suns, this book (the last in the series) was somewhat lackluster compared to the previous six books. By the end of the book it felt like the varying story threads sort of petered out with nowhere to go. A final book in a series, at least for me, is supposed to bring it all to an end. Tying up all loose ends with a neat satisfying bow, not this book, I felt like there should be at least one more. All and all the books in the series Saga of the Seven Suns are very good reads. This one just left me feeling like the series ran out of steam with nowhere to go.
    • 2/5
      This book is a mess. I understand that Anderson needs to wrap things up, but the book suffers for it. The plot lines (too many of them) go back and fro. Most chapters are 3 pages long, so when you get into a nice bit of the story, the chapter ends. The main characters do stupid things that don't make any sense at all. After the disappointing Hunters of Dune, Anderson does it again. If you thought that HoD made no sense, Ashes of Worlds makes even less sense. Thinking back to the first few books in this saga I reminder what I liked about them: hard SF. The book takes place in the 25th (26th?) century, but besides some aliens (who act more like humans, what happened to "the thing about aliens is, theyre alien!"?), some spaceships, it could've been a story taking place in this era. There are very few details about the stuff that is interesting in SF: science. Ships travel thru space, but I have no idea how. The Ildarian ships have sails, but are those solar sails? I'm sure it was told in one of the first book (I'm guessing some sort of FTL), but I can't be hassled looking it up again. Also, travelling very very fast in space only works when it's not necessary for the plot.If I need to summarize it in 1 word:mehOnly read it if you've read the first 6 books.
    • 4/5
      Last of a seven-book series, this is space opera on a grand scale. Galactic empires clash, and elemental beings wipe out entire star systems.The Klikiss are an insectoid, hive-mind race who were thought to have been extinct for the past several thousand years. Well, they're not extinct, and they want their old colony planets back. The Klikiss are the sort of beings who don't take No for an answer. They are also in the middle of a major "civil war" to see which hive, or breedex, will dominate. With a death toll in the tens of thousands, new genetic material is needed to replenish the ranks, like from slaughtered human colonists on one planet .Basil Wenceslas is Chairman of the Terran Hanseatic League (Emperor of Earth). He is increasingly isolated and psychotic. King Peter and Queen Estarra are able to flee Earth for the planet Theroc, where they set up a rival Confederation. Many human colony planets switch their allegiance to the Confederation, so Wenceslas sends the Earth Defense Forces to make an example of several colonies. The Ildiran Empire (another humanoid race) establishes an alliance with the Confederation, reducing the number of the Chairman's allies to near zero. The Chairman kidnaps the Ildiran Mage-Imperator, the Ildiran leader, and takes him to an EDF base on Earth's moon until he reconsiders the alliance. Ildirans have a sort of telepathic connection between all members of the race. If any Ildiran is cut off from that connection for any length of time, permanent insanity is a major concern.Chairman Wenceslas comes up with the idea for an alliance with the Klikiss. He sends one of his senior Generals to negotiate a treaty. The General does not go out of loyalty; he goes because the Chairman does not think twice about holding hostage family members of his senior officers. The general discovers, to his horror, that the Klikiss have no interest in an alliance with anyone. Later, a Klikiss battle group shows up in Earth orbit, with enough firepower to turn Earth into a burned-out cinder. They want to talk to the Chairman, in person, now. He still thinks that he can get whatever he wants, whenever he wants.This is what good space opera is all about. There is a helpful summary of the rest of the series, so the reader does not have to read it all to understand this book. But it's a very good idea, because the writing is that good. Separately or together, this is very much recommended.
    • 4/5
      After the first book of this seven-book saga (The Saga of the Seven Suns), I honestly didn't think I'd stick it out through the second book. But it got better, until eventually I became comfortable with the characters and was able to overlook the unlikelihood that adversaries dormant for 10,000 years would make a sudden, simultaneous comeback to wreak havoc upon the known universe. At some point, nearly every faction: human(oid) Ildirans, the Earth-centered Hansa, and the human outsiders, the Roamer clans, the giant cockroach like Klickliss, the robots they created eons ago, and elemental forces Hydrogues (electric), faeros (fire), wentals (water), and verdani (trees) were all engaged in an epic struggle. The final volume in the story brings us back to peace. Evil is deposed, good wins the day. Fate plays more than an incidental role: at times, mere minutes dictated the fate of the forces of good. Loyalties were tested, some stayed true to the wrong path and paid the ultimate price, some redeemed themselves in the end. The Saga of the Seven Suns is pure, science-fiction brain candy. Don't over think it, it will make your brain hurt. But if you're looking for some fun characters ranging from the incorrigibly corrupt to the supremely incorruptible, you'll enjoy the series well enough.
    • 3/5
      When reading a series if the Thank Goodness its over becomes the predominant thought, then it is clear something has been wrong with the series. That this series suffers from so many things and that the author handled it so poorly makes this a never again. Ever.That others feel the same way shows that these opinions are not wrong. As always. Time scale. Sometimes you can from one spot to another in a few hours, traveling in space. Then later it takes weeks. Further, that pregnancy that lasted for many books, now in relation to other storylines, must have been years again. We have an Alien threat that the entire known galaxy, 2 sentient races that are alive, wants to deal with. Then we discover a second all powerful race, stronger than our 2 sentients. Then a third and then a fourth. The dead race comes back, their robots are more powerful again then are heroes.Throughout, there is one guy who can make new weapons to kill the evil races... Only one. Not a team of scientists. Just one.With all those destructive races, why not have one leader who no one can stop decided that we should have the good guys fight amongst themselves. A government with no checks and balances. Total tyranny that evolved as long as it was benevolent before.Even if you buy into that world view, you know that this meglomaniac would have been killed by another tyrant wanting power.So the final showdown has come. But let us have 2 on the same time and day to make it dramatic. Our 2 sentient races dealing with life threatening ends or salvation and victory. Totally not believable. Let us look to human history for such examples, can't find any.So we finally get resolved. We end. Then every person who was on stage needs their four pages of time in the sun. Wrapping this tale up consumes 100 pages.Lousy Book, Lousy Series, Anderson disappoints.
    • 2/5
      Better than the 6th book. I agree with whoever compared The Chairman to the Dr. Smith character in "Lost in Space." So obnoxious, and I keep asking myself "Why don't they just lose/kill/restrain him?" and I think "Why am I still wasting my time on this?" But I know "Lost in Space" has the Robot and "The Saga of the 7 Suns" has the awesome aliens so I keep at it even though I feel like an idiot.The ending of the book began well, pulling all the diverse plot lines together and making good sense of it all. Like the series, however, it dragged on a bit too long making me wish it would just hurry up and end. A thought: The Chairman was so cartoonish, I began to wonder if this series was meant to be one of those epic Japanese space cartoon serials. He sure fits and the aliens are visually perfect. All the generic character types are there. Even the "adult" themes can work as PG-13. I wonder...
    • 2/5
      Better than the 6th book. I agree with whoever compared The Chairman to the Dr. Smith character in "Lost in Space." So obnoxious, and I keep asking myself "Why don't they just lose/kill/restrain him?" and I think "Why am I still wasting my time on this?" But I know "Lost in Space" has the Robot and "The Saga of the 7 Suns" has the awesome aliens so I keep at it even though I feel like an idiot.The ending of the book began well, pulling all the diverse plot lines together and making good sense of it all. Like the series, however, it dragged on a bit too long making me wish it would just hurry up and end. A thought: The Chairman was so cartoonish, I began to wonder if this series was meant to be one of those epic Japanese space cartoon serials. He sure fits and the aliens are visually perfect. All the generic character types are there. Even the "adult" themes can work as PG-13. I wonder...