• The Dark Between the Stars

  • The Saga of Shadows, Book One
  • By: Kevin J. Anderson
  • Narrated by: Mark Boyett
  • Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (1,930 ratings)

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The Dark Between the Stars  By  cover art

The Dark Between the Stars

By: Kevin J. Anderson
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
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Publisher's summary

Twenty years after the elemental conflict that nearly tore apart the cosmos in The Saga of Seven Suns, a new threat emerges from the darkness. The human race must set aside its own inner conflicts to rebuild their alliance with the Ildiran Empire for the survival of the galaxy.

In Kevin J. Anderson's The Dark Between the Stars, galactic empires clash, elemental beings devastate whole planetary systems, and factions of humanity are pitted against one another. Heroes rise and enemies make their last stands in the climax of an epic tale seven years in the making.

©2014 WordFire, Inc. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about The Dark Between the Stars

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TASTE LIKE EYEBALLS BOILED IN URINE

Show me, Don't tell me.
It is a little amusing, not long ago I read the last book in The Saga of The Seven Suns and at that time, I wondered, what if Anderson would work a little on character development? Maybe that is what he was trying to do in this book, I don't know. With real characters and no silly Elementals this might be good? Like John C of Dakota, I could only make it a little over two hours. This is the seventeenth book of Anderson's that I have read, so I knew what to expect. I did not need to waste 20 more hours of my life. Usually Anderson does not have time to develop characters, as he is in a rush to add more elements to the story. So, when he writes a book in which nothing happens for two hours, it is almost criminal. I feel he stole from me. Anderson talks too much, explains too much, does not show. Of those books only three could I recommend to others, that is a high percentage of failures.

I am not sure what keeps me buying these failures, but I will show more restraint in the future.

Good bye Mr. Anderson

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35 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Crank It Up Again!

My wife and I both liked the Original "Saga Of The Seven Suns" Series, so I grabbed this book the moment it became available... It picks up about 20-25 years after the last book in the Original Series.

MANY of the same Characters, same villains and threats, with new threats and plot twists thrown in... That may sound like "more of the same", and while I guess it is, it's not really... If you wanted MORE after the original series (which WE DID!), here it is, Cranking it all up again!

I like that there's not a LOT of "Set Up" since the Author seems to assume readers have read the Original Series... He just gets right into "The Continuing Saga". The threats from the Original Series that were just hinted at, turn into REAL nightmares, even as old nightmares return to Haunt Humanity (and every other Race) AGAIN!

Anderson is GREAT at juggling a LOT of Characters and Events, all at the same time, while "Keeping Things Moving Along At A Good Clip". Every time I think "NO WAY is he going to be able to keep on throwing in NEW problems, and NEW threats, and be able to control the whole story", but he DOES!

Narration was VERY good!

I just REALLY wish the "Compi-Companions" had a slot to plug in extra memory capacity, and a way to back-up their older memories and such so they don't have to delete their Memories if they need to load up instructions to learn to operate a new space craft, etc... Kinda breaks my heart for them to have to delete their Memories of an Owner's Childhood to make room for loading up a new skill-set.

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30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Space opera of galactic proportions

Andersen's The Dark Between the Stars begins 20 years after the finale of the Seven Suns Saga. Many of the major characters from the last saga are back with a whole host of new participants. This saga is done in the same style as the previous with each chapter focused on a specific major character (which totals to several dozen at least). While the intervening 20 years has been somewhat peaceful and idyllic, dark forces are gathering with the Illdyran boogeyman, the ShanaRa appearing as a manifestation of fundamental physics, but fearful of an even greater, more powerful, but unknown threat along with a new mysterious alien race.

The sci-fi elements are pretty much in line with the last saga, although the new variations of intelligent lifeforms are even more exotic than the prior earth, air, fire, and water manifestations. Andersen is a master of the space opera, but of a more workingman's / blue collar variety. His characters are both endearing and quite engaging. Prior familiarity with the last saga is most useful for adequate background for the carry-overs. While there is a tremendous degree of plot development, book 1 ends abruptly with multiple irons in the fire.

The last saga used two different narrators (both excellent), but this time out, a 3rd narrator is utilized. The narration is well done with a great range of voices, both male and female. The mood and pacing are expertly rendered which provides a steady even flow to an above average audiobook length.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

The Dark Between My Snores

What would have made The Dark Between the Stars better?

The first chapter was passable and then it meandered into uninteresting characters doing uninteresting things for uninteresting reasons. Most of the time, the author is just telling you uninteresting things, which is less interesting than if the characters were simply doing or discovering the bland on their own.

What was most disappointing about Kevin J. Anderson’s story?

The words.

Which scene was your favorite?

Presumptuous.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Dark Between the Stars?

While I stopped listening after about 2 hours, I imagine if the 22 hours were distilled down to ~8 hours, it might seem like something happened.

Any additional comments?

I normally don't pan books to this degree even if they aren't my cup of tea, but unless you you are already a huge Kevin J. Anderson fan, this tea is hemlock infused. Apparently he has written over a 100 books. I like the Hellhole series, although the first book has an unforgivable cliffhanger ending. Brian Herbert co-wrote that series so perhaps he made a huge difference.

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18 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful, even if you've never been introduced.

Having never read the Element Wars novels, this serves as a great series primer. Cheers.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Sucker for space sci-fi

I am so happy to be back in this universe! Saga was an amazing series. To have some of the same loved characters here and then be introduced to new ones is awesome. The threat they now face is inventive. KJA is just fantastic at development. I can listen to his books over and over. Definitely pick this up!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good Start

A very good start to what I imagine will be a fine new series of books in the sequel to the saga of seven suns. I wanted to rate this as a five star work, but found portions of the work, in some chapters, too repititious or redundant regarding some of the histories of certain characters, mildly annoyying, as if the listener/reader is unable to retain information.

There are many new and interesting developments in the storyline and a few predictable plot manipulations, so all in all this was a good listen and worth the purchase.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

I love the way Mark Boyett takes a great story and brings it to life. He's definitely one of my favorite Narrators.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

The return of the Saga.

Kevin J Anderson has returned with an extension to the Saga Of The Seven Suns. This book, which takes place about 20 years after the end of the previous Saga, involves many of the same people, adds new characters and picks up in the worlds left at the end of the previous book sequence. The known worlds have settled back into normalcy. King Peter is head of the confederation, the Hanza is gone and things are pretty much at peace.

As with the previous Saga this book’s main thrust is on character development and things happen slowly. The story introduces both the previous and the new characters with events that seem both familiar (to those who read the Saga Of The Seven Suns) and a bit mundane - a father kidnapping his son to keep him safe from great danger, a hate-filled wife out to destroy her husband, Roamer clans seeking independence in a life “on the edge” and other major and minor characters. The story builds from the mundane to the serious to the critical in an expected fashion with a sudden new and terrible enemy showing up and threatening the existing peace and, of course, ends in a decent cliff-hanger. It is worth mentioning to those who have not read the previous set of books that the story will make good sense even if someone has not read The Saga Of The Seven Suns. Mr Anderson gives enough background so that the reader will not feel at a loss in understanding what is happening and why.

I was a bit reluctant to buy this book since it took Audible three years to make the remaining books of the previous Saga available even though the books had been written and published in print form. I started reading the previous Saga expecting that it would be a trilogy and that the books would be available and was a bit put off finding that only the first 3 books were actually available on Audible. After waiting 3 years for the remaining books to be made available I told myself (after finally finishing the remaining books) that I would not buy into another sequence until and unless all of the books were actually published and available on Audible, but relented because I did enjoy most of Mr Anderson’s previous books and was intrigued by a continuation of the story.

There is much to recommend this book - the familiar characters, the continuing universe of the previous story and the appearance of a great new danger, but there are also some drawbacks for me. I have no wish to wait another 3 or 4 or 5 years after print publication of these books to be able to buy the rest of this series, much of the time in the book is taken up with not much happening and there is always the fear that the resolution, when it comes, will be a bit unbelievable as it was for me in The Sage Of The Seven Suns.

The narration is done quite well although Mark Boyett has a tendency to pronounce some things slightly differently than the previous narrator David Colacci who, in turn, pronounced some things slightly differently than the previous narrator, George Guidall. Still, the book is interestingly done and, if you enjoyed The Sage Of The Seven Suns, you will probably enjoy this book as well.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

The never ending story

I liked the way Anderson introduced the characters, then circled back around and kept bringing us up to date. The cycle of characters repeats throughout the book. This adds a lot of continuity to the story. My problem was that the story never seemed to end, and even when it was supposed to be terribly tragic, the story just felt melodramatic. I do not know if that was the story (suspect this was the case) or the narrator. Actually, I felt the narrator did an adequate job, but you could not tell from his voice if someone was about to die or go swimming. This story had the epic feel of a James Michener novel, and it felt like it would never end, but then it finally did end, leaving everybody in limbo until the sequel. I do not like books that do that, so it is unlikely I will buy the sequel.

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