Kevin's Watch

Th Emberverse series - I think that's what it's called - by S. M. Stirling.
Apparently there are two parts to this series - Dies the Fire, The Protector's War, A Meeting at Corvallis are the first part and then anoer series set 22 years later with The Sunrise Lands, The Scourge of God, The Sword of the Lady, The High King of Montival..
Anyone know if they're any good?

Kevin J Anderson.. The Saga of Seven Suns - is that any good? It looks like a good sci-fi epic, but to be honest I wasn't too keen on him after reading his and Brian Herbert's Dune books.. Also the Terra Incognita series he wrote looks good too, but won't pick 'em up unless you guys tell me they're better than the Dune books!

Marianne de Pierres - Sentinels of Orion.. Dark Space, Chaos Space, Mirror Space and Transformation Space. What about that?

Any feedback would be helpful - cheers!

ninjaboy wrote:Th Emberverse series - I think that's what it's called - by S. M. Stirling.
Apparently there are two parts to this series - Dies the Fire, The Protector's War, A Meeting at Corvallis are the first part and then anoer series set 22 years later with The Sunrise Lands, The Scourge of God, The Sword of the Lady, The High King of Montival..
Anyone know if they're any good?

Kevin J Anderson.. The Saga of Seven Suns - is that any good? It looks like a good sci-fi epic, but to be honest I wasn't too keen on him after reading his and Brian Herbert's Dune books.. Also the Terra Incognita series he wrote looks good too, but won't pick 'em up unless you guys tell me they're better than the Dune books!

Marianne de Pierres - Sentinels of Orion.. Dark Space, Chaos Space, Mirror Space and Transformation Space. What about that?

Any feedback would be helpful - cheers!

I've read some Stirling short stories, and work he did with Pournelle and thought them pretty good.
I've read one of Andersons Star Wars books, and all the Dune prequels he did with Brian Herbert, and thought they blew bile and slimy chunks...won't risk any more of him.

Kevin Anderson should die the death of a thousand cuts for the Dune Prequels.

SerScot wrote:Kevin Anderson should die the death of a thousand cuts for the Dune Prequels.

Maybe so, but he did a good job with Slan Hunters... at least, I thought so.

The thing is, Anderson co-wrote the Dune prequels and the like, is there a chance that it was Brian Herbert who was the cause of their suckiness?

ninjaboy wrote:The thing is, Anderson co-wrote the Dune prequels and the like, is there a chance that it was Brian Herbert who was the cause of their suckiness?

Anderson is essentially a writer for hire. Someone wants something written, so they hire him. I imagine that Anderson, for the most part, has very little to do with planning the story (like in Slan Hunter, the outline was planned, the ending decided upon, and so forth by VanVogt before he died. Anderson was just brought on to write it. It was good because Anderson is a good writer, and the story planned was good.).

Saga of the Seven Suns is purely him, so that's probably the best measure of his creativity... and I can't recall, but either Avatar or Lore liked it.

I liked it. Haven't read them all, only the first 4 or so. but they were good. Very involved and complicated, but a great universe.

--A

Liked the firs tbook of Saga, at the start was thinking, been here b4 done this, but by the end really quite enjoyed it. Good universe.
Also I liked the prequels to Dune, especially the 3 "war" ones.

Hmm, I've never heard of any of them. =(

and then anoer series set 22 years later with The Sunrise Lands, The Scourge of God, The Sword of the Lady, The High King of Montival..
Anyone know if they're any good?

I've read all but the last. They're not bad, though sometimes the writing tempts me to give it up. It's an interesting premise, and there are some interesting characters (though just as many two-dimensional ones and several more who really start to get on your nerves after a while). My biggest problem with it is the way Stirling really chews the scenery. I remember one three-page description of a meadow. It wasn't an important meadow. Even if it had been, the description wouldn't have added any value to it.