 |
The Dark Ascent | Rating | |
| C | |||
| Walter H. Hunt | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | The Dark Wing, The Dark Path, The Dark Ascent | ||
The war with the vuhl is no longer a secret. But the buglike aliens are powerful foes indeed. Technologically advanced, powerful Sensitives, and a knowledge of human and zor thinking gives them a tremendous advantage. The only hope for victory may rest with Jackie Laperriere, who is alone, deep in enemy territory in an attempt to recreate a quest out of zor mythology. But she is a human, not zor, and lacks the intimate knowledge and faith that she may require to see it through. And there are distressing signs that there is yet another party that is making pawns of them all.
The first half of The Dark Ascent is... well, not bad, exactly, and I had no trouble reading it as I would if it outright rubbed me the wrong way. The problem was that the main character, for all of two hundred pages and more, is either following a legend she doesn't fully comprehend, or being led by the nost by a mysterious fourth party for reasons unknown. Meanwhile, back in the Solar Empire, there's a lot of worrying and a lot of discussion nover these invincible aliens, but not much moves forward. The first half isn't really a waste, but it would have been nice if something clear and definite happened without any mysterious overtones.
But once again Hunt lets the second half rescue the first from total obvlivion. Here Jackie, the Empire, and the zor are realizing more is going on than just an invasion by powerful aliens. Who is being manipulated? To do what, and why? There is another zor legend at play, but who is in what role for this one? And this legend is not at all as well known even to the zor. Everyone, not just Jackie, is forging ahead into the unknown on this one. They are still pawns, but they are at least knowledgable about the fact and trying to figure things out instead of letting themselves be used at another's whim. It's an important distinction. It's the difference between being a passenger on a bus and trying to wrest the steering wheel away from the driver who kidnapped you.
Still, I must disagree with the testimonials printed on the front and back covers. Robert J. Sawyer alledges, "Walter H. Hunt is the new master of military SF," and Booklist claims the book, "considers issues of genocide and emnity in surprising depth." Both claims are appropriate for the first book of the series, The Dark Wing. But not for this one. There are few actual battles to be found in The Dark Ascent's pages, and what is there is described much too vaguely to be considered adequate military fiction. That subgenre requires specificity so readers can follow along with the battle. This fight barely even qualifies as space operal As for issues of genocide and emnity, this does come up. They can hardly be avoided when an enemy is only an enemy because they were convinced they should be, and their goal is the eradication of all who are not they. It is the "surprising depth" that is woefully correct.
The Dark Ascent thankfully doesn't end on a cliffhanger like the last book did. There's more to the story, it's clear, but it could pick up the plot again three days or thirty years down the line. It's reached a good place to pause. I only hope when things start up again Hunt doesn't spend the first half of the book confusing me, as he did in The Dark Path, or giving his protagonists no choices and no control, as he did here. The second half made up for a lot of the problems in the first, but I'd rather not have to count on that in the future.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |