Out of the Dark

By: David Weber

Narrated by: Charles Keating

Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

The launch of a new science-fiction adventure series - by the New York Times best-selling author of the Safehold series and the Honor Harrington series.

The Galactic Hegemony has been around a long time, and it likes stability - the kind of stability that member species like the aggressive, carnivorous Shongairi tend to disturb. So when the Hegemony Survey Force encountered a world whose so-called "sentients" - "humans", they called themselves - were almost as bad as the Shongairi themselves, it seemed reasonable to use the Shongairi to neutralize them before they could become a second threat to galactic peace. And if the Shongairi took a few knocks in the process, all the better.

Now, Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity’s cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, more than half the human race has died.

Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize scattered survivors without getting killed. And in the Southeastern US, firearms instructor and former Marine Dave Dvorak finds himself at the center of a growing network of resistance - putting his extended family at lethal risk, but what else can you do?

On the face of it, Buchevsky's and Dvorak's chances look bleak, as do prospects for the rest of the surviving human race. But it may well be that Shongairi and the Hegemony alike have underestimated the inhabitants of that strange planet called Earth...in David Weber's Out of the Dark.

©2010 David Weber (P)2010 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Weber pulls off this conceit in audacious style with a focus on military-powered action that will thrill fans of his Honor Harrington series, and he keeps the pedal to the metal right up to the almost unbelievable conclusion." ( Publishers Weekly)

Not his best, but a decent escape

Anyone who knows the Weber family will recognize the author's self-portrayal in the Dvorak family. I will admit I did not see the ending co.ing, and the aliens were a nicely-developed set of characters.

Not one of Weber's best, but decent nonetheless

Would you consider the audio edition of Out of the Dark to be better than the print version?

I always get more from the print version than I do from the audio. I mainly listen to the audio versions while I am commuting to and from work or while traveling. Because of that I am not able to give the story 100% of my attention.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

Because of the wide range of characters the voice actor chosen did a great job with the various accents. My only real complaint, and this applies to all military Sci Fi is that the actors don't know the proper way of enumerating the military nomenclature. for example, they say 'emm one six aey four' instead of 'emm sixteen aey four' while this may seem to be a small thing as a former infantryman, this sometimes has the tendency to be annoying in the middle of the story.

You'll love the ending, or you'll hate it.

As you can no doubt guess from the other reviews that you will either love or hate the ending, and it does come about 95% out of left field.

I personally loved it, there's an inherent craziness of world-ending invasion that lends itself to an equally crazy ending. I actually had a funny thought very similar to the ending about a funny comedic story to write.

Love or hate it, I personally loved it.

Best way to summarize this book

The shongairi takes a swing at humanity, humanity cracks its neck and tells its buddy to hold its beer.

Out of the Dark

i liked this book some much that i have all ready pre-order book 2 of the series .

With my powers combined

The combined powers are various flavors of attention to detail/autism. Honestly not sure what the more appropriate label would be. The author will go into extreme details about many many things. Also the narrator doesnt change his voice. Like ever. This would be a negative if the rough smokey timbre of his voice wasnt to perfectly evocitive of North American made in the USA rugged individualism. The narrators voice alone will make you want to sing America's national Anthem. All in all this is a pretty interesting twist on an alien invade earth narrative. Curious to see where book 2 goes.

Cop-out ending.

Don't worry, they're aren't any spoilers here. I thought the story was great up until the last couple of chapters. This is a solid story and a really enjoyable read. However, I feel that the ending could have been written in a different way to provide a stronger story conclusion. Give it a Reed It's a good story, when you get to the last couple of chapters I'm sure you'll agree

The ending killed it

If you could sum up Out of the Dark in three words, what would they be?

A good start

Any additional comments?

Look this is a good book. what stops it from being grate Sci-Fi is the ending plot twist. you'll like the book till then.

great ending

What a twist I did not see it coming. Great endinng caught me completely by suprise.

Another good book.

What did you love best about Out of the Dark?

The outcome was unexpected.

What did you like best about this story?

I like the way it was written.

Have you listened to any of Charles Keating’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was the first one I've listen to.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The way they treated the kids the most.