59: NIRA
60: REMEMBERER DIO’SH
61: DAVLIN LOTZE
62: DD
63: BASIL WENCESLAS
64: TASIA TAMBLYN
65: JORAX
66: BERNDT OKIAH
67: NIRA
68: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H
69: OX
70: MARGARED COLICOS
71: NIRA
72: ESTARRA
73: RLINDA KETT
74: TASIA TAMBLYN
75: BASIL WENCESLAS
76: JESS TAMBLYN
77: NIRA
78: MAGE-IMPERATOR
79: ADAR KORI’NH
80: TASIA TAMBLYN
81: BENETO
82: PRIME DESIGNATE JORA’H
83: BASIL WENCESLAS
84: MARGARET COLICOS
85: OTEMA
86: NIRA
87: ADAR KORI’NH
88: GENERAL KURT LANYAN
89: JESS TAMBLYN
90: BRANSON ROBERTS
91: ADAR KORI’NH
92: MAGE-IMPERATOR
93: RAYMOND AGUERRA
94: TASIA TAMBLYN
95: MARGARET COLICOS
96: BASIL WENCESLAS
97: KING FREDERICK
98: OTEMA
99: KING FREDERICK
100: MARGARET COLICOS
101: JESS TAMBLYN
102: CESCA PERONI
103: BENETO
104: NIRA
105: MAGE-IMPERATOR
106: BASIL WENCESLAS
107: TASIA TAMBLYN
108: MARGARET COLICOS
109: NIRA
110: CESCA PERONI
111: TASIA TAMBLYN
112: KING PETER
113: MARGARET COLICOS
114: BASIL WENCESLAS
115: LOUIS COLICOS
TIMELINE
GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS AND TERMINOLOGY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Preview of "A FOREST OF STARS"
1 JESS TAMBLYN
2 KING PETER
To IGOR KORDEY,
an imaginative, hardworking, and extremely talented
artist. In the early conceptual stages of The Saga of Seven
Suns, he helped me to visualize and design many of the
key elements of this universe. His questions and ideas
have fleshed out the series to a greater extent than
anything I could have done alone.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
During the creation, writing, and editing of this series, many people have offered their advice and their enthusiasm. In particular, I would like to thank Betsy Mitchell and Jaime Levine at Warner Aspect and John Jarrold at Simon & Schuster UK; Matt Bialer, Robert Gottlieb, Maya Perez, and Cheryl Capitani at the Trident Media Group; Larry Shapiro at Creative Artists Agency; Jeff Mariotte and John Nee at Wildstorm/DC Comics; and artists Stephen Youll and Igor Kordey.
At WordFire, Inc., Catherine Sidor gave her usual 150 percent effort in transcribing all my tapes of the chapters (and keeping up with me), as well as proofreading and offering general comments; Diane Jones also helped out with insightful questions, suggestions, and brainstorming. Gregory Benford helped me design the Klikiss Torch technology. Brian Herbert gave his support and help with the series from its very beginning.
1
MARGARET COLICOS
Safe in orbit high above the gas giant, Margaret looked through the observation port at continent-sized hurricanes and clouds far below. She wondered how long it would take for the entire planet to catch fire, once the experiment began.
Oncier was a pastel globe of hydrogen and mixed gases five times the size of Jupiter. Moons surrounded the gas giant like a litter of pups jostling against their mother. The four of greatest interest were large bodies of ice and rock named Jack, Ben, George, and Christopher, after the first four Great Kings of the Terran Hanseatic League. If today’s test proved a success, those moons could eventually be terraformed into Earthlike colonies.