I am going to go out on a limb here because it seems that the majority of reviewers did not like The Tears of the Sun. I did.

This is a transitional book and obviously the set-up for finishing the Emberverse series. Stirling uses flashbacks to describe the goings on while Rudi and gang are crossing the post-change US on their way to the Atlantic.

Rudi (Artos) is not ignored completely in this novel as he is establishing plans for the upcoming battle with the Church Universal and Triumphant. Part of the overall strategy is to send an undercover mission to Boise to capture Fred Thurston's family and establish Fred's rightful place as the leader of the United States of Boise in the minds of Boise's citizens.

Stirling also describes Tiphaine d'Ath's role in capturing and eventually killing the traitorous Mary Liu whose mind has been taken over by the CUT.

I liked the book for the backstory. The reader learns more about Tiphaine d'Ath and the PPA and fills in the gaps of what was happening back in what was to become Montival while Artos and the rest were gone.

It is a slower book than the previous seven but it is also a more character-driven, thoughtful book and much less action driven. I admit that I got about halfway through and put down the book for a while but was happy that I picked it back up again and read until the end. ( )

A lot of the same action--with picturesque flamboyance. This book requires more attention to the date/location information at the head of each section, since the action takes place at more than one location and at different times. In fact, a lot of this story takes place in the re-telling of what happened to get someone where he/she is now. Tiph loses her athiestic virginity and is forced to accept that there are higher forces and she has to choose the most compatible of them to be her protector. And the CUT is still sneak attacking in several new attempts to decapitate the various good-guy armies. But the big battle is not in this book.

And I have to admit that I'm probably giving these stories 5-star ratings because, after ~4,000 pages, I've become pretty sympathetic to the individual characters and find myself emotionally attatched to them. ( )

Not impressed. Little plot advancement, it seemed like setup for he next book. ( )

The Tears of the Sun has to be the worst book in the Emberverse series if not the worst book S.M. Stirling has written to date. Dies the Fire and the next 2 books were fantastic, but starting with book 4 (The Sunrise Lands) this dystopian story has gone down hill. The Emberverse series has turned into a fantasy book series that spends a great deal of time describing the smell and color of things in the environment instead of producing any story. This over-description of everything along with the flashbacks in The Tears of the Sun I found this book a complete waste of my time. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless you simply feel you need to read the entire series. ( )

More of the same. ( )