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    A Darkling Sea: A Novel
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    A Darkling Sea: A Novel
    Unavailable
    A Darkling Sea: A Novel
    Ebook386 pages6 hours

    A Darkling Sea: A Novel

    By James L. Cambias

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    On the planet Ilmatar, under a roof of ice a kilometer thick, a team of deep-sea diving scientists investigates the blind alien race that lives below. The Terran explorers have made an uneasy truce with the Sholen, their first extraterrestrial contact: so long as they don't disturb the Ilmataran habitat, they're free to conduct their missions in peace.

    But when Henri Kerlerec, media personality and reckless adventurer, ends up sliced open by curious Ilmatarans, tensions between Terran and Sholen erupt, leading to a diplomatic disaster that threatens to escalate to war.

    Against the backdrop of deep-sea guerrilla conflict, a new age of human exploration begins as alien cultures collide. Both sides seek the aid of the newly enlightened Ilmatarans. But what this struggle means for the natives—and the future of human exploration—is anything but certain, in A Darkling Sea by James Cambias.


    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateJan 28, 2014
    ISBN9781466827561
    Unavailable
    A Darkling Sea: A Novel

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    Reviews for A Darkling Sea

    4/5

    124 ratings10 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Loved the insight into a truly alien society and world. There were a few too many miraculous escapes and some questionable underwater physics. The characters were engaging and the world was fascinating.
    • 4/5
      Very fun contact novel that reminds me of Vernor Vinge's work. Tone of the novel is quite light and engaging, and the aliens are delightful.
    • 4/5
      A very enjoyable read that I quickly passed on to my daughter. The author successfully blended the story from different points of view without being confusing. The alien characters were very likable and easy to imagine, in spite of being so different from the humans. They live underwater in a completely dark environment, farming by the hot water vents on the ocean floor. I really liked this one!
    • 4/5
      I keep reading references to this book as "hard science fiction," which makes me think that I don't actually know what hard sci-fi is. I assumed it was sci-fi with a strong technology focus- but this book uses technology really only to support the social and moral questions that are the heart of the book.This was a quick read for me, which is also a surprise. Every time I read "hard sci-fi" I expect to have to pull my way through the novel, wade through thousands of words of technical mumbo-jumbo (I respect others' enjoyment of this kind of storytelling, but I have a low tolerance threshold for technicality), and force myself to read enough pages a day to have this done before Book Group.Instead, the pages just flew by. I enjoyed the story a lot, and was intrigued by the misunderstandings that perspectives that form the triangle of this novel. Humans are pretty much like humans now; as a near-future novel, people were pretty much people, for all their goods and bads. The Sholen are an interesting species, though I admit it seemed to me that there was a horrible lack of understanding about how the two cultures think for there to be anything resembling inter-stellar cooperation between the two. Arguably, there wasn't actually cooperation - but even so, it seems like two societies would have a little better understanding of how each other thinks.... this glitch bugged me a big, but I suppose it was necessary since this misunderstanding forms the major impasse of the novel.The Ilmaterans are very interesting, and I enjoyed discovering them. I think aliens must be terribly hard to create (at least somewhat believably....), and I enjoyed these. They managed to be just different enough from humans to be intriguing, but not so different that they aren't relatable. Yup, I enjoyed this novel quite a bit.
    • 5/5
      Some flaws, but despite that, enjoyable. Reminds me of Asimov in parts. The last line is worth the rest (but it won't make sense until you've absorbed the whole story).
    • 4/5
      A rating of 4.85. Excellent novel of first contact.
    • 3/5
      A nice debut with decent plotting and interesting characters.
    • 5/5
      When Robert Sawyer, Gregory Benford and Vernor Vinge give a book rave reviews you bet I'm going to pay attention. Sawyer says "Alien races to rival Larry Niven, world-building to rival Hal Clement and lots of rip-roaring adventure." Vinge says Cambias is in the same league as Hal Clement. Benford calls it "Fast-paced, pure-quill hard science fiction..."Humans are studying the intelligent inhabitants who live underwater on the plantet Ilmatar. Except they are restricted to studying them from afar because the other intelligent race in the universe, the Sholen, would only allow the mission if humans did not disturb the Ilmataran habitat or let the Ilmatarans know they existed. This irks all of the human scientists but none more so than Henri Kerlerec who has a devoted fan base that are used to much more adventure from Henri. So Henri acquires a suit that does not reflect sonar pulses which is how the Ilmatarans "see". He gets right in the middle of a group of Ilmatarans with Rob Freeman shooting video. Unfortunately the Ilmatarans are also scientists and they detect Kerlerec and take him home to dissect him. The Sholen intercept the message sent to Earth about this fiasco and come to investigate. They are not amused.I thought this was an excellently written book and could see it working as a movie. There haven't been many good underwater movies; maybe this could break the curse. If you like hard sf combined with a philosophical interstellar conundrum, then this book is for you.
    • 5/5
      Pros: great world-building, fascinating alien species, diverse characters, interesting plot, stand-alone novelCons: An accident occurs among the humans observing the native intelligent life forms deep in the oceans under the ice of the distant planet Ilmatar. An alien race older than humans, the Sholen, have decreed that no contact be made with the natives for fear of human colonization. They send a ship to the planet to verify that no rules have been broken, but their inner politics dictate that the humans’ mission be shut down, regardless. Meanwhile, Broadtail 38 Sandyslope, along with a group of likeminded Ilmataran scientists, makes a strange discovery that changes the course of his life.I love it when the first paragraph of a book sucks you in and doesn't let you go. And this book has an awesome one: By the end of his second month at Hitode Station, Rob Freeman had already come up with 85 ways to murder Henry Kerlerec. That put him third in the station’s rankings — Joseph Palashnik was first with 143, followed by Nadia Kyle with 97. In general, the number and sheer viciousness of the suggested methods was in proportion to the amount of time each one spent with Henri.Rob Freeman is the research station’s underwater photographer and drone operator and the first, and only human, viewpoint character. Through him we see how the humans get along and how they react when the Sholen show up.Our Showlen point of view comes from one of their two scientists, Tizhos, the subordinate in a race that focuses on consensus and achieves it via sexual contact. Through her we see signs of how their society works, using pheromones to calm and attract, as well as trying to subdue natural reactions, like anger and frustration, to maintain peace.We’re given two Ilmataran points of view, one through Broadtail, a scientist and landowner, and the other through Strongpincer, a bandit. This, and Broadtail’s adventures, allows the reader to get a wider idea of the Ilmataran society.The alien societies are quite fascinating, and distinct. Ironically, many of the problems that occur in the book are because each group expects that the aliens think and act the way they do - even when the person making this assumption knows better. So, for example, the humans’ passive aggressive screaming and handcuffing tactic isn’t understood by the Sholen, despite the humans thinking it’s a universal form of protest. While I didn’t like all of the characters, I’m looking at you Richard Graves, there was a good variety of personalities and temperaments represented. Every character had their own motivations for what they did, and reacted differently to the various crises that occur.The story was very interesting, with a lot going on all the time. And it's a stand-alone novel.This is a fantastic debut.
    • 4/5
      A Darkling Sea is a hard science-fiction novel that unfolds on a distant planet in the utter darkness of a sea covered by a kilometer thick sheet of ice. After a human scientist studying the local inhabitants gets too close and is killed, the Sholen, who insist on no contact with other species, arrive sooner than should have been possible stating they are there to investigate. Three cultures converge as scientists of all three species as well as military personnel in two find themselves in the midst of a small conflict in the darkness of the sea with implications that will spread across the galaxy, determining the future of Earth and of the Sholen. In the midst of this, the lobster-like inhabitants of Ilmatar make their first contact with humans who, in the middle of a guerilla battle against their station’s invaders, are finally close enough to begin to speak to the locals, to work together to begin communicating, and to make the strides the scientists had previously only dreamed about. The novel follows three scientists, a human, a Ilmataran, and a Sholen, shifting between their perspectives and purposes as well as providing a view of the two other races through alien eyes.