The Dark Between the Stars - Saga of Shadows (Volume 1 of 3)

The Dark Between the Stars
Saga of Shadows (Volume 1 of 3)
Kevin J. Anderson
Tor Books - June, 2014

Idgie Says:
This book tortured me. The reason it was torturous was that I began to panic as I hit page 500 and realized that I was fully invested in the story and that as it's a trilogy, I was going to be left hanging waiting for the next installment!  I only had 150 pages left before I had to start tapping my fingers impatiently and wait for the next book.  You don't often hear that about a 650 page book!

This is a very well written and character driven Space Sci-Fi book, along the lines of Jack McDevitt. There are a LOT of characters in the novel - at first I thought almost too many - but that changed as I began to get to know them all.  Most of them are very well developed by the first third of the novel.  It starts off with a giant, busy plot line and segues into smaller ones that do, for the most part, become part of the big picture eventually. It creates variety in the book as you learn about the characters and what drives them.  There's even a "bad" guy that you have to admire for his overwhelming commitment to another person. Heck, the bad robot is an interesting character!  

This is the type of Sci-Fi that I grew up on and would like to see a lot more of.  Novels that create people and worlds you can almost envision that you could perhaps see one day.  I found that this is the sequel to an earlier set of books by Kevin and I fully intend to visit them.  

Meanwhile, I CANNOT wait for the next book in this series to land in my lap. 


Click HERE for an excerpt.  Book Trailer below.

Book Description:

This June, Tor Books presents THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS: THE SAGA OF SHADOWS (A Tor Hardcover; $26.99; On Sale: June 3, 2014) by national and international bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson. The Saga of Shadows is an hyper-powered space opera that will satisfy fans of the original Seven Suns series, as well as readers of the Star Wars and Dune novels, and introduces readers to a compounding new series.

The human race has expanded out among the stars, establishing colonies on numerous planets while a group of independent gypsy clans, the Roamers, operate giant floating skymines in the clouds of gas-giants. On the planet Theroc, the capital of the human Confederation, humans live inside a gigantic world-forest with towering trees and green priests who are able to telepathically link with the forest.

The Ildirans are a grand and ancient race connected by a mental network called thism. As part of the expanding cooperation between the Idiran Empire and the human Confederation, a large expeditionary ship goes off to explore beyond the Spiral Arm. The ship encounters a mysterious and ominous dark nebula in space, a huge black cloud so opaque even starlight cannot penetrate it. The explorers are horrified when the dark nebula begins to grow and expand.

THE DARK BETWEEN THE STARS: THE SAGA OF SHADOWS leads this dynamic series, brimming with explorative power and masterful craftsmanship and is sure to illuminate even the darkest corners of space and mind.