Dark Nebula: Isolation

In 2278 humans have succeeded in colonising our solar system and have founded a young colony on Liprosus, the only habitable planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani, approximately 10 light years from Earth. Another ship is en route to Tau Ceti, and a third to an unnamed destination. Until now, the human race thought we were alone in the universe, but now, out of nowhere, an alien fleet appears in the solar system. The aliens are here to bring humanity to trial on charges of crimes against the Galactic Alliance, more precisely the theft of Faster Than Light technology, hundreds of years ago. An interesting premise because how can humanity have stolen something from aliens it didn’t even know existed? It is up to Abigail Olivaw, President of the Confederation of Planetary Explorers, to defend our species. If she fails, we will be exterminated. And it doesn’t appear as if the Galactic Alliance will be awaiting the outcome of the trial before taking action.

The book starts with a short prologue in which Abigail Olivaw is introduced briefly. She is an important protagonist in this book, the entire Olivaw family actually is. Readers familiar with Isaac Asimov will recognise this name of course because it highly reminds of R. Daneel Olivaw, a recurring robot in Asimov’s books. Besides this, Willson has also incorporated the three (four) laws of robotics in this book, be it adapted for use with A.I.’s. (By the way, Abigail and her two brothers are named after Willsons own three children.)

After the prologue, there is a data sheet about our solar system, in which readers can find all the details of its colonisation at that moment in time. Handy, it gets you up to speed. After that, we quickly meet a bunch of new people on many different places. Luckily, the auteur has made the excellent choice to name each chapter after the main character in it, and has also included the place of action as a subtitle.

Willson’s writing is swift and smooth and he delivers a nicely balanced mix of dialogue, action and description. It’s sci-fi so there is plenty of technology, but it doesn’t stand in the way of character development and plot. Technology is important, but it doesn’t feel as being overused. Every now and then Willson adds an unexpected twist and manages to surprise his readers, and this trick too isn’t overdone. When you start reading, you have to know that the story isn’t finished at the end of this book. If you want to know how the story continues, you need to continue reading the next parts. It’s actually pretty cool that we don’t have to wait another year for book two. With Dark Nebula: Isolation coming out on December 4 (2020), book two (Discovery) will already become available on January 4 (2021), and book three (Generations) on February 4. Willson worked for five years on these three books and it’s a nice surprise they get published so soon after each other. Also, the author speaks about “the first three books”, so there are more to come.

Willson reuses things from other sci-fi franchises here and there. Asimov was mentioned already, but some things also remind of Star Wars. The Galactic Alliance with some exotic life forms did that for me, for instance, and the Ulixi, a human clan living near Jupiter, use a kind of English that immediately made me think of Yoda. Willson even literally mentions ‘the dark side’ at one point. And that shooting moon on the book cover, well, it should make you think of something… I also had a very brief Battlestar Galactica moment while reading, a brief Stargate flash too, and the Stargate series by James S.A. Corey crossed my mind as well. But to be very clear, Willson didn’t steal anything. If you have read/watched a lot of sci-fi for decades, you inevitably have seen everything already in some or other form. So there are occasional resemblances, but Willson adds novelties as well and succeeds in delivering an original story of his own, which hasn’t stopped fascinating me. I’m eager to get my hands on the second novel of this series.

I loved this action, scifi thriller. I could not put the book down. It's a fast paced novel, Sean Wilson has written a winner! I am looking forward to the sequel of this book.