Darkness

Gripping book! Could not put it down. It's a fast paced engrossing tale about our first contact at edge of solar system. Richmond kept me riveted to his story. Can't wait for sequel.

First, I need to thank the publisher and Net Galley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
It doesn't take long for this book to get moving. It starts with terrorists killing a huge part of the earth's population. Then Earth sets up a station near Pluto, but things keep going wrong.... Seems like asteroids and debris constantly breaking the satellite link with Earth. Then someone notices a 'dark area' past the station, where nothing can be seen. Welcome to the Oortian Wars!
Science fiction loaded with science - gotta love it! The characters and their opponents are great and the action kept twisting right up to the end - at least until the next installment!

Richmond has created a fast-paced, well-founded novel. Encapsulating the novel in the world of science fiction, and building a conceptual world where anything is possible, Richmond ticks all the boxes. Terrorists destroy the majority of earth's population, including the protagonists family. So through a series of very well-written impactful events, he finds himself on an Earth station set-up near Pluto. But, everything is going wrong (from debris, and asteroids and beyond). But, then someone notices a dark spot, where nothing can be seen - enter the Oortian Wars.

But the novel doesn't stop there. Richmond continues to build a world, and characters which develop in the most intricate ways, intertwining and wrapping around each other with a great deal of deliberate and delicacy.

There's a lot to talk about with this book--starting with the fact that there's physically a lot to read. This book is a whopping 90 chapters (and not tiny ones either). So be prepared to dig in for a long haul.

This is a space opera, yes. But, in my opinion, it's not a particularly character-driven one. The book has a fairly brief set up where you get to know Captain Jack Falco (in an earlier war) and his crew (during their trip to Pluto). However, after they all arrive at the Pluto space station, we're treated to pretty much non-stop action/battle scenes with The Oortian alien race for the remainder of the book.

The first words that spring to mind when describing this book are "meticulous" and "tactical." I think anyone who reads this book would give the author props for the detailed world-building (both the Pluto space station and the alien world) and the tactical information that sets up each of these battle scenes (later in the book they all come together and we toggle between multiple fronts in an epic space battle.) These details leave us with some indelible images and gives a view of the action that's so descriptive it's almost cinematic.

Basically this author knows space battles and describes them to the reader in a level of detail that makes you think he'd fought them his whole life. If that's what you like, you'll love this book.

However, the problem for me was that's not entirely what I like. I like characters. For me personally, knowing about the people IN the battle is what makes the battle interesting and emotionally engaging. Unfortunately, although I liked all of the characters in this book (particularly Captain Yu Fei and his crew's story) I didn't think they were very thoroughly or deeply drawn. Ultimately, they're more archetypes (jokey Scotsman, Buddha-like Tibetan, etc) than actual people with hopes and dreams and back stories.

As a woman, I have to say I was particularly annoyed with the character of "Ensign Holts" who is basically the stereotypical "lone babe in the room" for much of this book. Every scene she's in basically consists of the Captain remarking on her stunning beauty, her brilliance, her fortitude, but he never really makes an effort to get to know her in any way (nor does the author explore her backstory, or that of anyone else on Jack's crew for that matter). We don't know what Holts likes, why she's there, why she might like the Captain, if she scared. She's just "stunning babe the Captain can't get out of his head" for the entire book whom we all know the the Captain will eventually bang. That was disappointing.

I guess I was surprised that the human characters were so wooden considering the author had no such problems with the ALIEN character development. Again, he does a Herculean job in this book of creating an entire alien world and describing its history and culture, its warning clans and their hierarchy. He also shines a spotlight on a number of key alien characters--mainly female--and we learn a lot about their feelings, hopes and fears. I found that to be a weird dichotomy.

Ultimately, those are small quibbles and matters of personal preference. Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

When a suicidal military space captain finds redemption in a new mission to Pluto, he ends up facing a threat that has the potential to take over our solar system and wipe out all of humanity. How can he defend the homeworld against this unstoppable force with superior numbers whose members are willing to sacrifice themselves with total disregard?

This is the dilemma that the book’s story is wrapped around. It’s an exciting story from a new author who has adopted a military space opera formulary that works. “Darkness” is the first in this series. While the book is summarized sufficiently to be a complete read, it does leave a hint as to the beginning to the next book in the series.

“Darkness” is a good read for any military space opera fan.