Out Of The Dark

This post's title has a double meaning. For one it's about this blog finally coming out hibernation and me getting back to writing and blogging. But it's also the title of the book by David Weber that I'm currently reading.

I'm at a loss to explain exactly how David Weber's books have been completely off my radar up until recently. The first book of his I read was “In Fury Born” when a buddy of mine recently recommended it to me. This is military sci-fi at it's best! Set in mankind's far future, the book expands on Weber's earlier novel “Path of Fury”. The story follows the career of Alicia DeVries as she progressively moves higher in the ranks and more into more elite combat units. Then things get really interesting. After a particularity brutal combat mission DeVries becomes disillusioned with the military and quits to live a peaceful life on the frontier planet called Mathison's World. But this peaceful respite is not to last, and a short time after a pirate raid leaves DeVries family dead and her seething with the desire for revenge. Theres more, and I don't really want to spoil anything if you haven’t read this book yet. What I will say is that the book is packed with great action scenes, full of intrigue, and a bunch of interesting twists on typical science fiction literature. This is a dense well written book and it left me hungry for more.

That was when I picked up “Out of the Dark”. Based on a short story of the same name this book takes the old idea of aliens invading Earth and puts an interesting spin on it. The story begins with a race of aliens from the Galactic Hegemony observing Earth during the 15^th century. Horrified with just how savage Humanity is and fearing that one day we might reach the stars, a plan is put into motion. The Shongairi, another war like alien race are manipulated into attacking Earth. However, the Hegemony underestimated how quickly we are able to advance technologically and by the time the Shongairi arrive Earth is well into the 21^st century.

Weber is a prolific writer with over 40 novels or collaborations to his name. He has quickly become one of my favourite author's. In particular I can't wait to read his signature Honor Harrington Series, and his newest Safehold series. It's times like these that I wish I could read a lot faster! If your looking for some awesome science fiction to read trust me when I say you could do a lot worse than reading anything by David Weber.