Publishing infomation: Kindle; 1166kb also available in hardcover 384 pages
Publisher: Tor; 28 September 2010
ASIN: B003P8Q5LM
ISBN 10: 0765324121
ISBN 13: 978-0765324122
Book 1 in a planned trilogy
Copy: out of pocket
Reviewer: Tyson
Description "In the stunning launch of a new military-SF series, DAVID WEBER tells the tale of humanity’s near extinction by hostile aliens and of the surprising alliance that fights back.
Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanitys cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, over half the human race has died.
Now Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize the scattered survivors without getting killed.
His chances look bleak. The aliens have definitely underestimated human tenacity—but no amount of heroism can endlessly hold off overwhelming force.
Then, emerging from the mountains and forests of Eastern Europe, new allies present themselves to the ragtag human resistance. Predators, creatures of the night, human in form but inhumanly strong. Long Enemies of humanity…until now. Because now is the time to defend Earth."
Out of the Dark grew from a short story that was featured in the George RR Martin and Gardner Dozio's Warriors anthology. While I never got around to reading the anthology, the book itself sounded appealing. I have read a previous Weber novel but for the life of me cannot recall the title or what occurred in it, it was just too long ago. I only remember that it had a fair amount of military action. So, to a certain extent I expected more of the same. If you enjoy a fair amount of military acronyms and terminology you will not be disappointed. Out of the Dark starts out at the battle of Agincourt where the aliens first encounter humanity and take their negative report back to their superiors. After that encounter the rest of the novel takes place a few years into the future. Tensions are still high between the west and Iran. There is a fair amount of world building in the beginning of the novel as we play catch up on world events and we gain a better prospective on how the Shongairi think and how their caste system works. We also learn their true motivations for arriving on earth.
There are quite a few characters to juggle in Out of the Dark. Each chapter jumped from one continent and character to another as action spans the globe. While none of the characters ever became a favorite, they all had a part to play and sometimes their luck was a little too lucky where it bordered on divine intervention. It was not too bothersome but it did seem to make for an easier time than one should have encountered considering every major city and military installation just got blown to smithereens.
In Out of the Dark we have both the various human prospective and the Shongairi's, While the humans seemed normal, or as normal as they could be considering the situation they faced, the Shogairi were a little too human. They did have problems understanding human psychology and human motivations. At times this was humorous but I could not understand why Weber had them seem so much like humans. Aside from the fact that they are described as "puppies," meaning they look like dogs that walk upright, I would have liked to have seen something completely different from us. Aside from their pack like instinct and appearance they were far too similar to humans and that was a disappointment albeit a small one. However, that said, I did enjoy their military staff meetings and they way they analyzed the human's actions. They were humorous and insightful.
When the Shogairi arrive they find three super powers with vast and powerful militaries: The United States of America, Russia, and China. The Shogairi then act swiftly to nullify the three powers. However, throughout Out of the Dark we only get to hear about the US and Russia. After the build up from the first portion of the novel we never hear about China again. As I read the beginning, I was all set to read about those three regions and was disappointed to read about two of them for the duration of the book. The book also takes place in Romania but I felt that that was like a booby prize and I know that Romania was only to set things up for humanity's great undead hope.
I knew that Out of the Dark featured vampires and to be honest it was one of the reasons I picked the book up as I wanted to see how Weber went about blending science fiction with horror. However, that being said it would have been nice if Weber kept the vampires a secret, if he somehow kept it as the twist in the plot. But it is stated on the blurb on the inside of the book. While the vampires slowly reveal themselves and don't outright show up, they were not treated very well in Out of the Dark. They were the Deus ex Machina. They only show up near the end and when they do they are unmatched at killing. They turn the tide of war so far over to the human's advantage that you have to wonder why Weber made them so powerful, while the story was a lot of fun the addition of vampires took the wind out of the sails of the book. They are just too powerful for the aliens to overcome.
I really enjoyed the idea of aliens coming to conquer earth only to find we are a lot stronger then their earlier (600 years ago) estimates. The battles at the beginning of the book were a lot of fun and it was interesting to read how humanity continued to wage war even when the chips were down. The vampires were interesting but the way the book set itself up in the beginning it could have been a bunch of highly trained military special forces or intelligence operatives that survived and began conducted the strikes towards the end of novel in place of the vampires. It would have made it a more interesting book and it would left the strong possibility that humanity could still fail and the Shongairi could still conquer Earth.
Out of the Dark has an interesting ending which was a little too warm and mushy for me, but there are still a lot of loose ends and issues to be resolved. I am sure that they will all be solved in the remaining two novels in the planned trilogy. While Out of the Dark was not one of my top reads it certainly was a fun book to escape to after a long day of work. It does exactly what I had in mind for it to do, entertain me.
Plot 8
Characters 7
Style 7
Overall 7/10
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