Dark as Day

But don't read it until you've also gotten Cold as Ice, and read it. The two are among the very best hard SF books anyone has written. As a bonus, they both also have a mystery for the main characters to solve.I already miss Charles Sheffield, just because the prospects of more novels featuring the unique "Bat" are remote. Sheffield wrote the very hardest SF (as appropriate for a Ph.D. in physics), but he usually managed to tell a good story as well - something that most of the other physicists who have written SF haven't managed to do. I wish he could have lived and written for another 20 years.I wish to defend the instantaneous communication system a previous reviewer has maligned. Sheffield quite explicitly states that it works because of quantum entanglement, a perfectly respectable theory which was discussed in Scientific American's special edition last year on cosmology and cosmogony.If you want to find some good reading, and are willing to accept his (very) rare failures, pick up some of his older novels, many of which were published in Analog before coming into the bookstores.

This is one of the better science fiction novels I've read lately, and one of the better novels, period. The science and the big SF ideas are well done, of course, but the excellent characterization is what sets this novel apart from most SF. Sheffield has crafted characters that range from the naive and delicate, to the most powerful and repulsive.(There are a few nitpicks. There's some hand-waving done with quantum mechanics to get faster-than-light communication, for example. But, overall, it's such a pleasure to read that I forgave it these slight shortcomings.)

The sequel to Cold as Ice, Sheffield brings back one who is becoming one of the great characters of science fiction, Rustum "Bat" Battachariya, along with a whole host of new characters. (He likely drew Bat's Puzzle Network handle, "Megachirops," from "chiropter", a noun meaning any mammal of the order Chiroptera, comprising the bats. Weighing in at 300 kilos or thereabouts, he definitely is "mega.") Two of the new characters, Janeed Jannex, an orphan who has looked after her self-adopted "brother" (also an orphan) for almost her entire life, and Paul Marr, First Mate on the Outer System Line (OSL) Achilles, come together in a manner distinctly reminiscent of Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and First Mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) of the original, 1933 version of the movie King Kong. While not without blemishes (such as putting the action a mere 95 years from now, much too soon for the technology and colonization described in the book to take place -- why, oh why, do sci fi authors insist on doing this?), the book is nonetheless brilliant in scope and effectively weaves together several plots lines and even a couple of subplots. The gist of the story is how events slowly, but inexorably bring together a handful of people (well, maybe a couple of handfuls) from disparate walks of life and different corners of the Solar System to confront a danger from the past that threatens all life in the Solar System, human and otherwise. Along the way Sheffield plays out storylines that held my interest completely, never wanting to put the book down. Heck, anyone who can weave in the use of statistical mechanics as part of analytical prediction theory and keep my interest in the process...well, Sheffield is a master storyteller! He even throws in some "SETI Cryptanalysis 101" for good measure. He is fast carving out his place in the Sci Fi Hall of Fame. A resounding 5 stars, along with a wish that a third sequel, to include the Bat, is in the offing. (And with the Seine, a Solar System-wide computer super network being introduced here, there definitely is hope for a sequel!)

Thirty years ago, the Belt Wars destroyed much of humanity. Now, humanity is digging its way out of the rubble, building new bases, reclaiming Mars and Earth from the destruction of war, and creating new and promising innovations in science and technology. Researcher Alex Ligon expects the power of the new computer will allow his predictive models to show where humanity is heading. When they tell him that humanity will be eliminated in less than a hundred years, he is shocked. Puzzle master Rustum (Bat) Battachariya thinks that a hundred years is optimistic. The rumored doomsday weapon from the war has never been found. Unless it is, Bat fears that humanity's destruction can come at any moment. The arrival of a signal from non-human space sends the protagonists together. For Alex, alien intelligence may be the way out of the destruction his models show. For Bat, the alien message is an irresistable puzzle. Yet there are other intelligences at work--both living, dead, and computer. Humanity must survive the coming weeks if it is to have a chance to learn what secrets the alien message holds. Author Charles Sheffield brings a realistic touch to the science in this science fiction novel. The SETI sequences, in particular, ring true while still being entertaining. His descriptions of the quirky characters who make up the plot is also enjoyable. I would have liked to see the salvation of the human species come from something other than blind luck but otherwise, DARK AS DAY is a powerful and enjoyable page turner.

Three decades have passed since the Great War left mankind on the brink of extinction. The devastating twenty-first century is a period of initial greatness throughout the solar system that turned deadly with weapons of mass destruction seemingly in use everywhere especially the biological ones on earth. Now that the century nears its end, humanity seems to have begun recovering especially in the Jupiter-Saturn region, but much more gradually on Earth where the Southern Hemisphere is starting to recuperate. In 2097 on the moon Ganymede, Alex Ligon, son of a family of trading giants, has rebuilt the "seine" computer network. However, his program predicts humanity will become extinct in less than a hundred years. On the asteroids near Jupiter, SETI researcher Milly Wu believes she has received an alien communication. Rustum "Bat" Battachariya, who collects weapons from the Great War, follows rumors of a doomsday weapon. He consults with Milly and her SETI peers on her findings even as Alex tries to meet with him on a family matter. When Bat learns that earthling Sebastian contains strange nodules inside his head, he wonders what they are and what damage they can cause. DARK AS DAY, the sequel to COLD AS ICE, is incredibly complex yet brilliantly entertaining as the deep story line traverses the solar system. The plot contains cleverly inspired enigmas and even smarter solutions that work at hyperspeed due to the believable ensemble. Though quite dark, humor eases the tale from going too deep into the abyss. Even with a powerful vivid story line, the authentic feel to characters make Charles Sheffield's cerebral dark futuristic tale a triumph for genre fans.Harriet Klausner