Out of the Dark: Volume 1

David Weber

Sep 2010 · Out of the Dark Book 1 · Sold by Macmillan

About this ebook

The launch of a new science fiction adventure series--by the New York Times-best selling author of the Safehold series and the Honor Harrington series

The Galactic Hegemony has been around a long time, and it likes stability--the kind of stability that member species like the aggressive, carnivorous Shongairi tend to disturb. So when the Hegemony Survey Force encountered a world whose so-called "sentients"--"humans," they called themselves--were almost as bad as the Shongairi themselves, it seemed reasonable to use the Shongairi to neutralize them before they could become a second threat to galactic peace. And if the Shongairi took a few knocks in the process, all the better.

Now, Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity's cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, more than half the human race has died.

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 scattered survivors without getting killed. And in the southeastern US, firearms instructor and former Marine Dave Dvorak finds himself at the center of a growing network of resistance--putting his extended family at lethal risk, but what else can you do?

On the face of it, Buchevsky's and Dvorak's chances look bleak, as do prospects for the rest of the surviving human race. But it may well be that Shongairi and the Hegemony alike have underestimated the inhabitants of that strange planet called Earth... in David Weber's Out of the Dark.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Ratings and reviews

I'm a big fan of the Honor Harrington series and I was pretty excited to see something new by Weber on the stands. The premise sounded like it'd be fabulous in his hands, and the first 50 pages or so are great. Then it sort of just . . . trails off. He follows around a variety of uninteresting people doing uninteresting things. There's some folks who were entirely too prepared for this eventuality, and their preparedness is described in painful detail. Yes, there's quite a bit about guns, but I was a Tom Clancy fan back in the day, and the Honor Harrington series is chock-full of the usual hard SF attention to detail, so that didn't throw me as much. Trouble was, much of the technical bits seemed to be there for their own sake, without adding anything to the story. Disappointingly, very little actually happens in the novel. It seems like Weber started out with the notion that the aliens should reasonably be able to make kinetic strikes cheaply and accurately, and then found over the course of writing the book that left him with essentially no realistic means for the humans to win. SPOILER: Thus, the vampires had to do it instead. Never buying another of his again.

I generally love Weber's books, but not this one. There were too many story lines going, and he never zeroed in on the important one until the last chapters. As a reader, I had no clue about who was saving the world. There was no build up to it-just suddenly Vampires. It made no sense. It could have been the tooth fairy or Harry Potter and the ending would have been just as out of place.

It's OK up to a point, once you get past the extensive cataloging of weaponry. A page turner. But then comes the ending. Tactically, an large unopposed force stationed in orbit has the ultimate recourse on a planet-bound population. Ground warfare is interesting, but really a sideshow. Unfortunately, Weber paints himself into exactly this corner, and then resorts to a massive Deus ex Machina involving a certain charismatic gentleman from Transylvania (and we're not talking Dr Frank-N-Furter, though goodness knows that would have been better). Very disappointing.

About the author

David Weber is a science fiction phenomenon. His popular Honor Harrington and Honorverse novels—including Mission of Honor, At All Costs, and Torch of Freedom—are New York Times bestsellers and can't come out fast enough for his devoted readers. He is also the author of the Safehold series, including Off Armageddon Reef, By Schism Rent Asunder, By Heresies Distressed and A Mighty Fortress. His other top-selling science fiction novels include the Dahak books and the Multiverse books, written with Linda Evans. He has also created an epic SF adventure series in collaboration with John Ringo, including We Few. His novels have regularly been Main Selections of the Science Fiction Book Club. Weber has a bachelor's degree from Warren Wilson College, and attended graduate school in history at Appalachian State University. He lives in South Carolina.