Return to the galaxy-wide canvas of The Saga of Seven Suns in the
second book of the acclaimed series.
It has been five years since humanity's
heady expansion among the stars came to an abrupt, and violent, halt.
The emergence of the Hydrogues, an immensely powerful alien race
dwelling within gas-giant planets, has placed the scattered colonies of
the Terran Hanseatic League in jeopardy.
With space travel heavily
curtailed, and supplies of fuel dwindling, young King Peter and
Chairman Basil Wenceslas, the harsh power behind the throne, have no
choice but to impose strict rationing. But the Hydrogues are not the
only enemies of humanity. The scheming Mage-Imperator, leader of the
ancient Ildiran Empire, attempts to forge tangled alliances among all
combatants in order to protect his failing civilization.
The mysterious
Klikiss robots, only remnants of an extinct race, continue to work
their sinister plans while pretending to be friends and advisors to the
Hanseatic League. And archaeologists Margaret and Louis Colicos – whose discovery of an ancient alien weapon accidentally triggered the
Hydrogue conflict – have vanished on the abandoned world of Rheindic
Co. Rlinda Kett and Davlin Lotze, sent to investigate the
disappearance, soon realise that the Colicos' discoveries may lead to
an incredible new way to travel between worlds... or to the awakening
of enemies even more fearsome than the Hydrogues.
Something of
inestimable power must have been required to destroy the Klikiss race.
Will humanity be next?
