Kevin Anderson Books

It's a good book, but I've come to expect better from Deadlands line of products. Sure, it's a useful setting, but there is something missing - perhaps lack of uniting theme, or not enough of those 'in-universe touches' we all came to love. For example, there are a few great pages of Gommora's newspaper - the Tombstone Dispatch - presenting history of the town; they contrast sharply with the 'just average' list of prominent characters - how better would they be if they had been also done in newpaper style or similar...

All things considered, it's a good rpg book, not outstanding - and thus only average one for the Deadlands series.

PS. Of course, add one star if you are fan of the Doomtown card game :)

This book is created for fans of the Doomtown CCG the Deadlands Card Game. The Doomtown CCG is set in the town of Gomorra California, where 9 (Formerly 10) factions fight for control of the town and the surrounding mines. This book was written before the current storyline in the CCG ended, before almost the entire town was destroyed, so it is a bit out of date. So if you are a fan of the card game, and want to play the RPG, get the book and play in your favorate town. If you just play the RPG and want a heavily detailed town, where all the major players are around, pick up this book. Over all it is a interesting read, and can provide the meta-plot for a long term campaign.

Plaza & Janes presents this Murillo's fairly good translation and economic presentation of "Dune: House Atreides".
This Editorial House presents the whole Dune Saga and its prequel thru this "out of collection" paperback format. This format also shows books written by Clarke, Aldiss and Pratchett amongst other.

Brian Herbert is the son of Frank Herbert creator of Dune Saga and a sci-fi writer himself. Kevin Anderson is also a successful sci-fi writer and Dune's Saga fan.
Brian and Kevin start with this trilogy a difficult mission: revisit Dune's universe describing the events immediately preceding Dune, the first & unforgettable volume of the famous saga.

Did they succeed? Well, yes and... no. Yes because they deliver an interesting first step with all the elements of this fascinating universe; and no because the story is not as gripping as the original Dune.
Nevertheless Dune's fans (as me) should not be too disappointed because even Frank Herbert wasn't at the same height when writing Dune Messiah, Children of Dune and God Emperor of Dune and he will recover allure only with the last two books of the series.
So let us hope the same will happen with Brian & Kevin efforts!

The variety of themes touched by the original series is still present in this book: ecology, political-religious interaction, genetic manipulation, longevity drugs and secret sisterhoods and brotherhoods.

The story is as follows.
The Scenery.
There is a Galactic Empire ruled by the Emperor. There are powerful Noble Houses that rule different planetary systems and confront each other in endless struggle, yet subject to strict rules. There is a Guild of interstellar Pilots. There is the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood following their eugenic plans and playing in backstage as advisors to all powers. Computers & AI are forbidden and replaced by human-computers called Mentat. Arrakis is Desert Planet inhabited by mysterious desert dwellers: the Fremen.

The Argument.
Consist of several threads that will mingle and interact thru the present book and the intended continuations.
A very young Leto heir of Noble House Atreides is being educated by his father Duke Paulus.
The Bene Gesserit Sisterhood following their eugenic plans is approaching their goal: to produce a male specimen that will surpass all their limitations and fulfill their mission.
Execrable Baron Vladimir head of Noble House Harkonnen, Atreides' ancestral enemy, is in command of Arrakis and planning mischievous deeds.
Prince Shaddam, the Emperor's son & heir and his intimate Fenring are getting bored of Emperor Elrood's long life and planning to shorten it.
Noble House Vernius, masters of point technology, had developed a new cruiser that will cut Emperor's income, incurring in his wrath.
All these elements and more, much more are deployed skillfully by the authors, giving way to an interesting narration.

I recommend this book to sci-fi lovers and general public too.
Reviewed by Max Yofre.

Este libro me impresionó, supuse que el internarme nuevamente en el mundo de DUNE sería una gran experiencia, pero "Dune. La Casa Atreides" me llevó de la mano a todo el fantástico mundo de intrigas, aventuras, filosofía, prejuicios, poder y traición creado por Frank Herbert. Para cualquier persona que hubiese leido la saga original de DUNE este libro le encantará, lo sorprenderá en reiteradas oportunidades, no podrá dejar de leerlo, para cuando se de cuenta estará deseando que el siguiente libro "Dune. La Casa Harkonnen" este en sus manos para continuar. Lo recomiendo, sufrirá y se alegrará con las aventuras y desventuras de un joven Leto Atreides, se sorprenderá con un niño Duncan Idaho y reavirá en su imaginanción las imágenes que lo hicieron soñar en la saga original de DUNE.

A great book from the best star wars series. These is a must read.

OK! I have problems with some of the writing here but this trilogy when combined with I, Jedi are important contributions to the SW Universe. We get Kessel, the Maw installation, Kip, adm Daala who reappears then disappears, Qui Xu, the first hint of the aftermath of Dark Empire, and more Wedge (now a critical character). I had some problem with the story like: The spirit of a dead jedi having such tremedous power, the whole idea of the Suncrusher and the studip diversion of the blob race storyline. Unlike some, I feel that some of the darkhorse comics have made important contributions the SW Expanded Universe. Dark Empire was one of them.

Han gets captured and enslaved on kessel. He meets Kip Durron and they help each other escape, but into a Maw of a forming Black Hole. Luke is trying to find Jedi for his academy, but a Dark Force spirit is threatening the students.

For those of you who plan to read the New Jedi Order books, you'll find that Kevin J Anderson has made important contributions to SW including this trilogy and the young jedi books (the YJ books are surprisingly good).

There are many editions of James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" available, but this is easily the best Kindle edition. The text is based on Chester Anderson's 1964 text. There are also a good number of annotations by Seamus Deane--fewer than in Anderson's Viking Critical edition but sometimes more detailed and aimed at a less scholarly audience. best of all, this edition is a very well constructed ebook, with a good table of contents to facilitate navigation to the beginning of chapters and with an excellent implementation of endnotes. Annotated items are marked witha superscripted number that links to the endnotes. The notes are all placed together, so you can read other notes rather than having to go back to the main text to go to other notes.

All in all, this is the best Kindle edition of Joyce's classic. The text is based on a standard version, the notes are helpful, and the implementation highlight the advantages of the Kindle format.

After having just finished reading Ulysses (and loving it) I decided it would be rewarding if I read 'A Portrait' next in order to delve further into Stephen Dedalus' character. (Moreover, I had also just finished reading Ellmann's famous biography of Joyce and felt inspired to read Joyce's own semi-autobiography). Unfortunately I was extremely disappointed with the dry, tedious narrative tone that Joyce adopted in writing his novel, especially within the overdrawn third chapter in which we learn the terrors of hell and damnation. Yes, I know the sermon sequence had great significance in Stephen's development from the primordial muck of biological existence to the more rarefied air of the soul, of human conscience and (above all) of the powers of artistic creativity. Nevertheless I found my thoughts wandering elsewhere when I was reading this book and many times I had to re-read whole pages because I had realized I was just reading the words without absorbing their content. While Ulysses drew me immediately into the consciousness of Bloom and Dedalus, 'A Portrait' was bland, cold and uninviting. I felt by the end of "A Portrait" that I was solely reading the book because it was Joyce and because it was deemed a classic. Perhaps I ruined A Portrait by reading Joyce's masterpiece first. Even if Ulysses can seem (at times) even more glacially abstract and opaque to the reader than A Portrait, Ulysses at least challenges you in such a way that you want to understand more about the text (its various allusions, its satire, its narrative experimentation, ect). I do not feel compelled to read A Portrait again, in fact (in the process of writing this review) I now feel compelled to re-read Ulysses and perhaps even Finnegan's Wake.

I don't know where to start. It's pretty difficult to review a book in which nothing takes place. This book lacks... well, just about everything. It lacks half a sentence of substance. Nothing in the story is connected; I read the book and wondered, "What is this about? What was the story?" Actually, I have a confession to make: I didn't actually read the book in its entirety; I read the first half and was so disgusted by it that I had to read the summaries for the rest of the chapters online. It is that bad.

Normally I listen to other people's opinions but I am making it a fact in my mind that this book is the worst book I have ever read. If you disagree, you are wrong. That is how terrible this book was. It was a complete waste of my money. It was required reading for school. I always read the books regardless of whether I like them or not, only reading summaries after finishing to make sure I understood the whole story. This is the first book I have ever relied on reviews to finish. My teacher worhips this book but there is nothing good about it. If anybody can explain to me what this book is about in a way that makes sense, I will give them ten dollars.

So far, everyone in my school has failed to explain it to me. This book is everything Flowers for Algernon tries to be (that's not a good thing).

As many do, I read this in preparation for tackling Ulysses, in which Stephen Dedalus makes a return appearance. This has been called Joyce's most accessible work, however I found Dubliners faster paced reading personally.

The style of the book changes as the title character matures from a young child to a young man. The part that affected me most was the episode at school where, after he has fallen to immoral ways, a speech is given on Hell that is as riveting and detailed as Dante's Inferno. The fiery pits are described as an abomination across all the senses, where not just pain from sensory touch is there but in smell, sight, taste, hearing - and quite effectively described.

Stephen's subsequent change after confession and struggle to achieve harmony with God is inspiring even given the eventual outcome of that attempt.

The latter part of the book bogs down considerably as it falls into philosophical debates on questions that many a young (and old) person ponders. The ending is hopeful but uncertain.

"marooned"--an utterly wrenching and boundlessly suggestive term to describe the situation of the young artist.

Maybe it's my distracted state of mind but I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as Frankenstein Prodigal Son . I didn't find it very interesting and found my mind drifting away throughout most of it. I think the thing I liked best about the first book in the series was learning more about the monster but in this book he's more of a secondary character in a cast full of secondary characters. Actually, when I think about it, the action seemed to be more of the main focus of the book than any of the characters and thus was the source of many of my issues with the book. I'm not a big all action/all the time type of reader and like a little more character development than I got here.

The basis premise of these novels is fresh and current. I liked this series very much but according to Koontz he had a hard time collaborating on a series. I can't see this series concluding. I'm actually rather ticked off at Mr. Koontz for not finishing this series. He's had time to write Odd Thomas and the others.

How is it possible that Koontz can write dozens of books about Odd Thomas (lamer by the minute) dogs (please, there's one in every story now and it's getting old) but can't find the time to finish his best work to date???
The Frankenstein story he tells is engaging and fresh yet he keeps postponing release of book three to the benefit of that lame brained Thomas and whatever religious claptrap he seems to love so much these days (the "taking" anyone?) That too, what's up with the sudden religiosity? does it sell more? seriously get back to your roots, I'll take Strangers over anything he has written in the past 5 years (except for Franky of course)

Read Christopher Moore "practical demon keeping" instead

Disappointed

Really loved the premise for this trilogy. Book one (Prodigal) is definitely a five star, and the review on this one would have gotten four stars, but we've been waiting quite a while now for the third installment.

I can understand how the movie version of Prodigal might have put the author off. (Totally miscast.) Still, I hate to be left hanging on a good story.

And I'm sure other loyal readers feel the same way.

I strongly recommend reading 'Frankenstein: Prodigal Son' first, since the first books ends in a cliffhanger leading to 'Frankenstein: City Of Night'.

As we left the first book in the series, detectives Carson O'Conner and Michael Maddison were hot on the tail of Victor Helios, aka Dr. Frankenstein. Still alive after two hundred and forty years, Victor continues his practice of creating life, but now using new technology to "grow" his creations rather than piece them together from graveyard corpses. Leaving the last book, Carson's younger, autistic brother was in grave danger from Randal Six, a Helios creation who has unexpectedly thwarted his internal programming.

Dr. Frankenstein's original "monster", naturally immortal from his birth during lightning, has come from the mountains of Tibet to assist in ridding the world of his creator, though through his programming he cannot do it himself. Now calling himself Deucalion, he has joined forces with O'Conner and Maddison, feeding them information on Helios with the hopes that the two detectives can help him.

Two new characters are introduced, Benny and Cindi Lovewell. Members of Helios's New Race, they are but Gammas in his hierarchy and programmed to kill O'Conner and Maddison. But something has gone wrong with Cindi. While she still enjoys the thrill of the kill, Cindi has become obsessed with having a baby, something the New Race is incapable of. She yearns for a baby with unnatural desire, and Benny is reluctant to report her for fear of being terminated himself.

Erika Five has replaced Erika Four as Victor's wife, but is she going to be the perfect wife he keeps hoping for? Will her idiosyncrasies be more or less annoying than Erika Four? And as for Victor, it seems some of his creations are making mistakes, errors that point to their direct-to-brain downloads going wrong. How many mistakes can Victor tolerate?

While in this second installment I felt that too much time was spent rehashing what already happened in Book One, but the additions of new characters and thrilling confrontations keep this second installation alive and well. Deucalion's understanding of the quantum universe is skimmed over, adding more intrigue and dimension to the gigantic and ugly monster. The plot moves slower but is no less intense in anticipation of what's to come. And like the first book, 'City Of Night' also ends in a cliffhanger. I can't wait for Book Three of the series to come out. Highly recommended. Enjoy!

While this is the best of the "Tales" books, it suffers from the same problems that plague other stories in the SW Universe...canon. What stories are "true", recognized tales of these characters and what is out-of-continuity schlock? Take them for what they are (stories) and have fun learning about characters that existed for mere seconds on film. It is a funny note, that for years when Empire was only available for view on TV (HBO etc) and shown in "full screen" mode that IG-88 isn't even in the film. He is cut out since he is standing at the end of the line. It is also amusing that his tale is one of the best.

This is such a good book. Takes me back to my childhood when I first read it. My favorite story is "The Last One Standing". Also, Tales From Jabba's Palace and Tales from Mos Eisley are both equally superb.

Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Full Screen) In/famous scene on the bridge where Lord Darth Vader is interviewing the bounty hunters. Book is about the bounty hunters Darth Vader enlisted in The Empire Strikes back. There are stories about IG-88, Dengar, Bossk, Zuckuss and 4-LOM (who share a single story), and Boba Fett. Explains why Vader says "and NO disintegrations!"

I bought this book as a break from continuity books, and that was my first mistake. This book is completely inconsistent with facts from the Star Wars Saga.
I'm not going to go into detail of all the errors in the books, but I will name off a few.
-How can Bespin have mountains when it is a gas giant? Woops
-Boba Fett was retreived by Jawas, not Dengar.
Dengar's story is just bad writing period. IG-88's story about hacking into the Death Star's super computer is completely inconsistent with the Star Wars saga. If I had to choose which was best, I'd choose Dave Wolverton's story about Dengar--Not because it made the most sense, but because it was good writing. I was dissapointed in the lack of writing some authors displayed in this book.
Overal opinion--BAD

Tales of the Bounty Hunters is a collection of five stories by different authors concerning bounty hunters who captured our attention in Star Wars - IG-88, Dengar, Bossk. Zuckuss and 4-LOM, and, last but certainly not least, Boba Fett. The stories are well written and generally very entertaining. The common ground for the tales is that all of the bounty hunters have been given the opportunity by Lord Vader to find Han Solo and bring him in. Their approaches vary widely. Of course, we know already which of the hunters actually gets Solo and what happens after that, but that advance knowledge does not spoil the stories.

The first story is about IG-88 and his plan to claim the galaxy as his own domain. As a sideline to his more important goals, he also participates in the search for Han Solo under the orders of Darth Vader. I found the story to be completely absorbing. It shows a side to IG-88 that I had never expected. He is designed and built as an assassin droid and appears to be virtually unstoppable, especially when he develops three exact clones of himself. Basically, his plan is to deal no longer with the frailties of biological beings and simply to have droids take over the entire universe. He even snickers to himself at some of the efforts of Emperor Palpatine. (Question to readers: Can droids snicker?) Eventually he runs into serious problems when trying to deal with Boba Fett and even more serious problems when he inserts his intelligence into the second Death Star shortly before the Rebels take care of it. Never underestimate the power of the Rebel Alliance.

The second story stars Dengar and was the weakest tale in the book to me. Dengar is a cybernetically enhanced Imperial assassin who has been surgically stripped of all superfluous emotion. This makes him a highly effective bounty hunter, but also means that he experiences almost none of the normal emotions that humans take for granted. So the main plotline for the story is Dengar's reacquisition of emotions and his surprising realization that he can fall in love. A bounty hunter's love story was just not what I was expecting with these tales.

Bossk is the main character in Tale #3. He is a lizardlike Trandoshan hunter who has been slaughtering Wookies for their pelts. He agrees to a joint venture with two competitors in the search for Solo. His unlikely companions are Chenlambec, a silvertip Wookie, and Tinian L'att, a small human female. The partnership does not go smoothly as double crosses are frequent, plus Chenlambec's sole motive in joining forces was to stop Boskk's career and obtain a measure of revenge for the Wookie slaughtering that had happened in the past. Things do not go well for Bossk.

The fourth tale is that of Zuckuss and 4-LOM, a Gand intuitive and his logic-driven droid partner. Their hopes for being the ones to nab Solo are based primarily on the intuitive powers of Zuckuss who always seems to be able to discern whatever they need to know. 4-LOM is great fun to listen to as he has a quick statistical analysis for any question that arises.

The last tale in the book lets us travel through the years with Boba Fett. As we all know, he is the one who succeeds in grabbing Han Solo, albeit with a major assist from Darth Vader and the Imperial forces. As many of us did not know, he survived his fall into the Great Pit of Carkoon and the digestive system of the Sarlacc. This tale focuses on Fett in his later years as he is hampered by injuries suffered from years of bounty hunting and as he comes to grips with the realization that his best days are behind him. He does manage to collect a huge bounty offered for the capture of the Butcher of Montellian Serat. That is followed by a chance that he never expected to have again, i.e., another shot at killing Han Solo. This chance is primarily the result of Han's boredom at living on Coruscant and not being involved in smuggling and fighting bad guys any more. He takes off in the Millennium Falcon in search of adventure and finds it the form of a face-to-face encounter with Boba Fett at the end of the tale. Good stuff.

I just finished the second installment of the Jedi Academy trilogy and I cannot wait to read the final installment. I was wary at first due to some of the reviews I read about this trilogy but I have to disagree with the majority. I have been a Star Wars fan since birth practically and decided to explore the expanded universe novels. Up until this trilogy I have to say it has been hit and miss some were just lame and yes Timothy Zahn's trilogy was good but this one has more action, more plot and great character development I only hope the last book lives up to the first two.

Good story, terrible writing.

Anderson's prose is trite, unimaginative, and, far too often, simply laughable. Which is a shame because the story is compelling.

This is a key part of the Star Wars extended universe, however. So, read it if you must. But you've been warned.

Ok so this is book 2 of the academy trilogy and it is better then jedi search however at times it tends to drag going into detail... so any way the sun crusher is now in the hands of the new republic and the government is trying to figure out what to do with it some say it should be used against the empire others say no.
While this is going on Kyp Durron is now at the Jedi academy preforming briliantly he has surpassed all the other students the problem is he feels like he's being held back.
Admiral Daala has been harasing the New republic with gorilla tactics and is launching an attack against the world of Mon Calamire home world of admiral ackbar.
at the very end of the book the worst thing possible at this time happens and it spells doom for all that stands in its way.

the reading level is around teen and up

I thought that this was a very good book. Not really one of my favorites, but still a good one.

I also want to say to all of those that try to sniff out all of the little details about the book... Shut Up! Nobody cares if Han Solo was right handed but Kevin J Anderson made him left handed. Nobody cares if Luke wears one glove or two gloves. I mean SHUT UP! It is so annoying. Just enjoy the damn book! It was good and I thought it was very great.

p.s. Kyp Durron is awsome. He was and is my favorite Star Wars character. That is also why I liked this book.

First off I'd like to tell you that this is only the second Star Wars book I've ever read, 'Jedi Search' being the first. I actually liked the first book, it drew upon the Star Wars lore well and was a decent read. However, this book made me groan in so many places that I felt almost compelled to create an account here to have a little rant about it (BE WARNED, THIS MAY CONTAIN A FEW SPOILERS). Thusly:

How much of the book was wasted with overly long descriptions? It reminds me of a 'Little Britain' sketch where a woman author is dictating her new book and starts reading the Bible out to make up the space! I don't mind the story being 20-odd pages shorter if it comes to the point!

For some bizarre reason the author seems to have taken every opportunity to 'ground' the story by CONSTANTLY relating to the Star Wars films. For example, when Wedge and the scientist go to that forest-resort planet and meet the alien ambassador there, he says something along the lines of: I was actually in the cantina in Mos Eisley when Luke met Han and Chewbacca, little did I know the brush I had with history there.... GAHHHHHHH!!! WHY!? HOW DID HE KNOW!? it didn't need it!! *bangs head on desk*

He does this throughout the two books I've read so far!! how about the will to stick your own neck out and come up with something new without 'proving' that it's true by telling the readers that it was from a certain scene in one of the films?

Then there's Admiral Daala. Made an Admiral because of her brilliant military skills and quick thinking.... so what is she doing in this? she's reviewing recordings of speeches given by Tarkin over military tactics and following them to the letter and losing! It's only the end of the second book and she's down to 1 star destroyer! She should live up to her reputation and at least have a few successful campaigns before the inevitable happens. (i.e. the rebellion win)

He then goes on to waste an absolutely brilliant idea, that of having a Jedi Academy (the point of the trilogy!). There's so much that could have been done here - new and original training for the Jedi, but no - he has the Jedi go two-by-two into the forest (holding hands?) to *sense* things... it's meant to be a sci-fi series! something could have been done to make this SO much better!

I was incensed to find that Luke was actually made 'boring' in this book. Part of my motivation for starting to read the series in the first place was to see how Luke had grown. It all started very promisingly in the first book, having learnt that Luke had turned to the dark side and come through it all with the love of his friends and was now more powerful than ever! (cool! I thought). It got to the stage where I'd dread coming back to the Jedi parts of the story because he was so dull.

The other trainee Jedi needed serious character development (they were 1 dimensional!) - entering every scene with Luke surveying them noting how well they were progressing just wasn't good enough.

As other reviewers have said - one of his students goes rogue, somehow gains the knowledge of building a super-lightsabre (great idea btw!! we need more of that!) then is discovered burnt to death in his quarters... and Luke just meditates about it!? *grr*

Okay all that being said it was 'okay' and on the strength of the first book I will be reading the next book (it's like a car accident - you've just got to look!).

Various tales of the minions of Jabba's Palace from Star Wars Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (Full Screen). Good read & ties into the Star Wars saga.

I like this book - a lot. It's a quick read and I tore through it, interested in every story, which is something I can't say for the other Tales books. The stories of the various characters really interconnect, more so than in other SW anthologies, and that lent a nice continuity to the book. There was even a recurring mystery that popped up in several stories.

I thought the writing was excellent through out and some great authors pop up in the pages. I'm a particular fan of Jennifer Roberson. The only story I was somewhat disappointed in was Timothy Zahn's tale of Mara Jade - and that is mostly because I wish they would have made it longer with more depth.

But otherwise, this book does a great job of fleshing out the stories of the various beings in Jabba's place during the beginning of RotJ - I recommend it to any Star Wars fan.

I like these Tales books. They seem to play off each other rather well, and to expand the main SW tale a bit without going over the top. The stories are exciting and at times insightful. This book deals with the Mos Eisely Cantina scene from Episode5 where the camera pans around the room and you see all the aliens inside the bar. It tells a back story for nearly every being in the shot. My favriotes were the Devron's Tale, The Bartender's Tale (Greedo's demise is nastier than you think) the Hammerhead's Tale, and the Spacer's Tale, which has quite a bit of humor in it- you almost feel sorry for those poor Force-controlled Stormtroopers manning the roadblock. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the origional movies and is interested in exploring the Expanded Universe. I would also suggest watching the Cantina scene from A New Hope again after finishing the book. It will look even better.

Tales from Jabba's Palace is a collection of 19 stories by a number of different authors with the common ground being the presence of the main characters in Jabba's palace at the time of the rescue of Han Solo from his carbonite slab. As is true with the other Tales collections in the Extended Universe, the concept is sound. Take a particular place at a particular point in time and interweave stories of the characters involved, no matter how insignificant. Previously we have been through Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina and Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and we still have a couple more books to go.

The authors developing these tales for Jabba's characters had mixed results. The first tale is "A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale" by Kevin Anderson, and it gets the book off to a good start, particularly for those of us in the Rancors Love to Read program. A good rancor story is hard to beat. The book also finishes well with "Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale" by A. C. Crispin. The tales in between deal with such characters as Salacious Crumb, Ephant Mon, Ree-Yees, Bib Fortuna, EV-9D9, and Boba Fett. Most of the stories are interesting, and I admire the editing that enables the stories to fit together. It is somewhat like putting together a literary Jabba's palace jigsaw puzzle.

Of course, all of the stories can't be good. For example, as was true in Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina, we have another tale about Dannik Jerriko and his addiction to soup - not vegetable or chicken noodle, but the fluid he withdraws from unwilling victims. The story from Mos Eisley was bad. This one ("Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale") is worse. It can be skimmed or just skipped entirely. Another bad one is "And Then There Were Some: The Gamorrean Guard's Tale". Apparently, one of the guards is so stupid that he carries two dead bodies around with him for days or weeks until he can decide what to do with them. Entirely preposterous.

Tales from Jabba's Palace is worth reading, but some judicious tale selection can be worthwhile.

One of the most memorable scenes from the first Star Wars film is inarguably the Mos Eisley Cantina. It features a vast array of strange alien creatures and several key character moments, including the introduction of Han Solo and Chewbacca. The Empire Strikes Back stayed away from alien background characters as eye-candy, instead keeping a tight focus on our main heroes and villains. For Return of the Jedi, George Lucas introduced a locale absolutely dripping with fascinatingly bizarre critters and new species. This was Jabba's Palace, a dank and dangerous place indeed. Of course, the most memorable character introduced here (besides the RANCOR!!!) was Jabba the Hutt himself, but many of his unsavory crew of toadies, supplicants, and bodyguards left a sufficient visual impact to make fans thirsty for more information.

The format of this novel is quite similar to Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina in that all the stories contained within revolve around the events we are familiar with from the film. In this case, everything from C-3PO and R2-D2 arriving at Jabba's Palace to the fight at the Sarlacc pit is used as source material to build upon for tales for many of Jabba's goons. The stories range from the darkly serious to the excessively comical, and I found the tone of the book to vary a bit much to make for a consistent read. In terms of story, Kevin J. Anderson does a good job of editing the disparate threads in the many stories into a fairly coherent whole.

One of the standout stories of this collection is Anderson's "A Boy and His Monster: The Rancor Keeper's Tale." This story is a good kickoff and certainly manages to make the rancor's keeper, Malakili (the bane of my childhood toy box), a more interesting figure. From there we are presented with eighteen more tales, plus an epilogue that does some wrap-up on various loose ends left throughout the stories.

A few of the best stories in the collection are Timothy Zahn's "Sleight of Hand: The Tale of Mara Jade," "Old Friends: Ephant Mon's Tale" by Kenneth C. Flint, and A. C. Crispin's "Skin Deep: The Fat Dancer's Tale." Zahn uses his short story to add to the mythology of Mara Jade, telling us of her first attempt to assassinate Luke Skywalker. Flint's first-person story of Ephant Mon, Jabba's only true friend, is a nice change of pace from the parade of tales dealing with courtiers seeking to double-cross Jabba. Crispin's story of Yarna d'al' Gargan concludes the book and manages to wring some real emotion out of a character who gets about three seconds of screentime in Return of the Jedi. Like Ephant Mon's story, it's good to have a few characters who are not shallowly and stereotypically evil living in Jabba's Palace.

The majority of the other tales are entertaining and decently well-written, but there are a few that did nothing for me: "That's Entertainment: The Tale of Salacious Crumb" by Esther M. Friesner, George Alec Effinger's "The Great God Quay: The Tale of Barada and the Weequays," and "Out of the Closet: The Assassin's Tale" by Jennifer Roberson. The Salacious Crumb story is written in a lightly farcical manner and features a foolhardy academic who dreams of interviewing Jabba the Hutt. This one stretches my credulity too far, even in a novel populated by elements such as mechanical spiders controlled by monks' brains in jars, a Gamorrean guard becoming best friends with two corpses, and the "frog-dog" on the stairs to the throne room being part of an assassination plot. My concern with Effinger's story about the Weequay guards also centers around its almost goofy tone. The Great God Quay is literally a magic eight-ball which answers supplicants' questions with silliness such as "Very doubtful" and "Concentrate and ask again." Roberson's story is a continuation of the annoying Anzati Dannik Jerriko from Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina; like its predecessor, the goal here seems to be able to use the word "soup" as many times as humanly possible.

Overall, this collection is more of a mixed bag than the Mos Eisley book, but still well worth a read for anyone looking for a break from the main film characters or anyone who would like more background information on the wild menagerie of characters that lurk in Jabba's Palace.

Kevin J Anderson is a top notch sci-fi author. I got hooked onto this series while waiting for the latest of the Kevin J and Brian Herbert Dune books to be released. If you liked the Dune Machine Crusades and the other books around it, you will probably like this book. Like the Machine crusades books, humanity is challenged by a powerful enemy. The story continues through several books (unlike some of the earlier original series Dune books where the end of the book seemed like it could be the end of the story). It leaves you on the edge of your seat, foaming at the mouth for the next book, but i have no problems with that ;) .

The characters are always well written and compeling, the plots complex but easy to follow (imo you could pickup in the middle of a series because they do give background and remind you of what's going on, though i would suggest starting from the beginning as it's most entertaining that way), and the great thing is it's so difficult to predict the next step in these books unlike most movies which are so predictable to me. Great battles, and intrigues, love plots, the peril of humanity... It's like everything that's cool about an action flick, but with more depth and better plotlines. It's got that classic insight to humanity of all Sci-Fi stories, and it has the tenderness of love and friendship, you have great noble leaders, and seemingly impossible foes.

I get so wrapped up in these i feel like i'm in the story myself. You know the characters so well and follow them from book to book, you really care about them. I cry, i cheer along with the characters of these books.

IMO these saga of the seven suns books are much better than Frank Herbert's stand alone books like the Hellstroms Hive, and though GodMakers was good this was infinitely better. You just can't top Dune though.. you just can't. But this is the next best thing to having new Dune books.

I LOVE the saga of the seven suns series. If you're the impatient type like the negative rater before me, rent a movie, and leave these series books for the rest of us to devour.

I just finished Book 4 of the Saga (Scattered Suns) and am as addicted to this series as I am to those of David Drake, Eric Flint, L.E. Modesitt, George R.R. Martin and others of the same ilk.

This series is a must read. Get them all.

Kevin J Anderson brings the same suspense and classic Sci-Fi wonder he brought to the Dune Series. Ignore the negative review, and read these books!

This series is great. I listened to the first three volumes (Hidden Empire, Forest of Stars, Horizon Storms) on Audio Books (audible). It takes a while to get used to the fast switching of character's point of view (short chapters 4-6 pages, each jumping between characters) but that actually provides a tapestry that couldn't be woven otherwise. And while one likes some characters more than others, the chapters are short enough that the "uninteresting" characters don't take too much effort to go through. The amount of redundant material, necessary to connect all the distinct strands together in the weave, is absolutely bearable. I can't understand those who complain about it. There is an initial chapter recalling the previous book, and a short paragraph reintroducing the character and its motivations each time a new character reappears. Characters have their own psychology and in my opinion they stand on their own. The writing is straightforward, effective, not as well done as, say, McMaster Bujold, but highly readable. A bit on the heavy side, perhaps. That's for the form.

As for the substance, the story is superb. There are at least four different galactic plots threatening the universe and its several sentient races. Alliances shift, treasons, love stories (interspecies, the fecundity of which I found somewhat unbelievable but serves the plot...), wars aplenty, superhuman beings thanks to alliances with elemental entities, it's all very creative and rewarding and fun. The setup at the end of this book had me check audible every month to see if number four came out in audio, but alas when they finally did they changed the reader and he change the pronunciations (a big no-no in audio). So I reverted to paper. I distinctly remembered the main characters and the overall plot, despite the two-year gap between listening to this book and reading numbers four (and five, six, I just couldn't stop myself once I bought the paper series - didn't even wait for the vacations for which I was planning them). That's how well the characters stick with you.

I feel compelled to put in a small word of caution for young readers: Some parts may disturb some sensibilities, as they say "for mature audiences only" (some humans are sequestered in a breeding camp by alien species, for purposes of genetically enhancing the race - the survival of that species is thought to depend on it).

Overall, I highly recommend this series. I'd compare it to the great sagas in SF. And best of all, I've read up to volume six (final volume will come out in June 2008) and it just keeps getting better and better, or at least maintains consistent quality thoughout. This is not going to be left unfinished or water down undefinitely.

Gods below! I can't imagine this series is still going on! Hasn't anyone written to try to stop it?

The plot goes round and round, suddenly there's another hidden old intrigue and dark secret that we all don't know about that pops out completely unrelated, which becomes relevant to the plot.

I highly recommend that you DO NOT BUY this novel if you value your time. I think there are 7 books (7 suns) coming out and all of them have failed to deliver any thing beyond what the fathers of sci-fi out there have already written.

A complete waste of time!

The Road to Dune is intended to give the reader an appreciation of the evolution of thought that resulted in the classic novel Dune by Frank Herbert. Only a small portion of the book actually addresses this, that namely being the letters back and forth between Herbert and the editor. The novel 'Spice Planet' is interesting as it is based on the original outline for Dune that Frank Herbert had created, but the story is only of middling quality. It would've been more meaningful to simply include the original outline then to try to create a new (and rather confusing) tale that falls very short of the final novel. The outtakes from Dune and Dune Messiah are interesting, if only to see what wound up getting pulled by the editor. The short stories again are interesting, but not all that great. I think this book is really intended for the hardcore fan, but even then I think it's only so-so and definitely not necessary to the readers appreciation of Dune and the Dune series.

Interesting book to see the process of the creation of a masterpiece of a book such as Dune. Well written

The introduction and excerpts from Dune and Dune Messiah were
fascinating, as was the process of the first book actually being
published, but only serially to start with! Again, the younger
generation's works I can take or leave. However, they do explain how
they were working from a ton of material that Frank left, and how they
went through it, scanned it so they could search it, etc. If you don't
like any of the other 'new' sequels, this one is certainly worth
checking out.

It also includes a 'proto' Dune novel, much shorter, that Herbert shelved and turned into his masterpiece.

Certainly worth a look.

I must admit that I'm not even CLOSE to finishing this fine book but what I have read of it I do like. Brian has taken up the mantle of his famous father and been able to cope with the inevitable comparisons between the two styles of writing. Both are fine authors in their own right, I recommend any of these books in the continuing Dune universe.

If I weren't such a Dune fanatic, I wouldn't have read this book. Although Brian and Kevin's writing has gotten better over the years, this book is still nothing but a disappointing continuation of a stellar legacy.