title: The Dark Between the Stars: The Saga of Shadows, Book One
author:  Kevin J. Anderson 
description: *Starred Review* Heres the backstory: Andersons Saga of Seven Suns is a seven-part series (published in the early and mid-2000s) in which humanity, with the assistance of a much older alien race, the Ildirans, had moved into the stars, colonizing various worlds around the galaxyand accidentally triggering a war that threatened to destroy both races. The series delivers space opera in the grand tradition, and Andersons new trilogy, set in the same universe, promises to be similarly epic in scope. As the first installment of this new saga begins, humans and Ildirans are working to repair their relationship (which was strained to its limits over the course of the previous series). A joint exploratory mission to the edge of the galaxy is meant to represent a first step in the long process, but when an alien presence is discovered, one so powerful that it could conceivably wipe out all life in the galaxy, the two races must come together a lot quicker than planned. Anderson hits it out of the galaxy again: space opera doesnt get much more exciting, or much more richly populated with alien races, technologies, and cultures, than it does in this sprawling, engrossing epic. --David Pitt
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  Shadow Realm
  
  
    
  Book Three of the Dark Matter Series  
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
  Randall Pine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Chapter 1
  
  
  Simon woke up in a strange and terrifying place.
  
  
  He had gone to sleep in his own bed—he was certain of that. He had fallen
  asleep under his own covers, in his own room, in the two-bedroom apartment he
  shared with Virgil, in the leaky old building on Wayward Street, where
  everything was nice and normal and familiar.
  
  
  But he woke up somewhere altogether different.
  
  
  The world in which he found himself was so wholly alien to his normal
  environment that he had trouble even comprehending what his eyes were showing
  him. He appeared to be sitting on a black, rubbery surface with a pebble-like
  texture, not too dissimilar from the spongy surface that was used for
  playgrounds now instead of gravel and dirt. The sky above was dark, a pitch
  black night sky with no stars, but it was also layered with flashes and swirls
  of color and light. It was like the video