A Darkling Sea in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Dec 12, 2015 Bradley rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, worldbuilding-sf

"... the closest we can come to Star Trek without paying royalties."

Indeed.

So we've got a three way that includes intelligent fish, six-legged cultural purists, and... yeah, you got it... upstart humans. No conflict to start with, mostly just a fact-finding mission trying to get to know the locals without interfering, just like the Prime Directive says, and then we've got COMPLICATIONS.

You know. A bit of curious murder by a people who don't know it's murder. They're just curious. No biggie. I c "... the closest we can come to Star Trek without paying royalties."

Indeed.

So we've got a three way that includes intelligent fish, six-legged cultural purists, and... yeah, you got it... upstart humans. No conflict to start with, mostly just a fact-finding mission trying to get to know the locals without interfering, just like the Prime Directive says, and then we've got COMPLICATIONS.

You know. A bit of curious murder by a people who don't know it's murder. They're just curious. No biggie. I can barely hear the screams. After all, he's just a cameraman. Decent start. Reminds me of a blast-from the past homage to old SF. To me, it seemed like a direct homage to Brin's Startide Rising, although, to be perfectly honest, I preferred Brin's Dolphins. There was a lot going on under the surface, there, unlike the wide, but less deep, look at the locals. Cool worldbuilding, for all that. I like the attempt to bring a world to life from under so much ice, but I do complain that it still seems like a direct analogue of "regular people". Really? Just a society of shopkeepers and cultural mores closer to the Greeks or Arabs, in that guests under one's roof is considered inviolate?

Because of that, I want to read this novel like an indictment of our culture, but no, it tries too hard to be a deep and complex society meeting and interacting with two alien species and navigating through THEIR conflict. Damn the humans and their meddling. They never know when to butt the hell out, do they?

It's not a bad novel, but it feels like it ought to belong in the 60's or 70's set of SF novels, and NOT the New Wave set.

It's really, ultimately, only a First Contact novel, and it's fairly entertaining. Not extremely original or surprising, though. I kept expecting the glorious "Gun" to show up and prove that the yokel locals "have the power" to resist the invaders. *sigh*

Well, I can give props to the author for being a long-respected group of GURPs authors known for some really excellent worldbuilding props. I can't say they're fantastic at actual STORYTELLING, but this attempt wasn't exactly bad. Perhaps it was a bit old-hat, but it certainly wasn't bad. I felt like I was taking a dip in an old-style pool.

Perhaps I would have liked this more had I figured I was actually reading a Past Master's Old Script. I just wanted to see a higher dedication to originality and excitement. You know, not just a repelling of invaders and a subtext that right must always pursue might.

...more

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Feb 28, 2015 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-read

An interesting first contact novel with excellent world-building and featuring no less than three competing cultures (one human and two alien) engaged in an increasingly tense situation where everyone seems to be trying to one up each other, with predictably violent results. Its a case of science versus politics with everyone having their own idea of what the "right thing to do" is. That is, very unfortunately business as usual, but in a richly imagined setting.

An excellent debut novel that has ...more

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Sep 24, 2017 Cathy rated it it was ok

Shelves: underwater

It took me about two weeks to read roughly 100 pages of this. Or rather, I spent two weeks NOT picking up this book. Not sure if it was the book or my reading slump. I guess the book caused the reading slump... It took me another two weeks to skim through the rest.

The plot idea was not bad. And I liked the early chapters. Good world building. The depiction and character development of the Ilmatarans was good. Their otherness was visualized well. I especially got a kick out of their inability to ...more

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Dec 07, 2017 Veronique rated it really liked it

Shelves: read2017

3.5

First contact stories always seem to grab my attention, and this one involving three ‘alien’ cultures definitely so. Here we have three main perspectives of what is ‘the right thing’ to do, which of course leads to miscommunication and in turn degenerates into violence... Sad but realistic.

The world building was compelling although I think I would have liked more depth. I rather disliked the Sholen but was fascinated by the Illmatarans, especially BroadTail, and how these sentient creatures e ...more

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Nov 12, 2014 Liam || Books 'n Beards rated it liked it

Shelves: 2015, specfic-buddy-reads, science-fiction

This was underwhelming for me, probably more of a 2.5 stars rather than 3.

The aliens in the book, the 'ilmatarians' (simply called 'Adults' by the aliens themselves) and the Sholen were definitely the high point of the book. The world building was interesting, and the aliens weird enough and similar-but-different enough to be believable. Pretty much all intelligent sentient life is likely to have some commonality, and the book portrayed that well. The ilmatarian number-language was a neat idea, ...more

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Nov 26, 2015 Lata rated it liked it

Shelves: sf-f-h

Really enjoyed the opening, then had my doubts whether I'd finish this book, as I found myself a little irritated by the main character, Rob. But I persisted, because I found the Ilmatar interesting. Glad I did. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review