Dark Light

Matt Cairns, Gregor Cairns and the rest of the crew of the Bright Star have left Mingulay and visited their nearest star system, right next door. But they all have different reasons for going. Not everybody is doing it for the trade.This second book in a the series is about motivation. What IS Matt after? What are Volkov's plans? What do the saur's want? What are the motivations of the krakens and, more importantly, what do the gods want?And what happens when Matt decides to go and ask the gods themselves?

This book was in many ways superior to Cosmonaut Keep, the first in the trilogy. While the first book had good characters, world building and wild speculation, it used an irritating technique to keep key information from the reader. Of course, it was obvious to most of us that one of the main characters was the ancestor of another, and what might likely happen as a result. I was left waiting around for the two plot lines to converge long after I guessed.Dark Light dispenses with the two-track plotting and the concealment of information. It throws in several new worlds and societies, a great big wodge of fascinating political specualtion, and more good character development. It also ends with enough of a kick to keep you going to the next book. Well worth the time, with 50 per cent less frustration.

Those who have read COSMONAUT KEEP should find this a worthwhile continuation. I liked it better than the first book, myself, because of the increased political and theological speculation. Especially fascinating is MacLeod's concept of the Gods and their relationship with humanity. Not highly recommended to extreme conservative religionists. I did find myself mired down a couple of times in the political dissertations. However, MacLeod basically tells a good story. How good a story it is depends, I suppose, on the concluding book in the series. But these first two are interesting enough and I'm getting to better like the characters, and so I will be reading the final installment.

Oh, those Brits! Having to contend with Banks, Reynolds and Mielville isn't enough. We must have this bloke inflicted on us as well. Surprisingly, unlike his earlier work, I have found 'Cosmosnaut Keep' and this volume, the first two in this series to be 'the real thing'. This is surprising as it is very heavily flavoured with the dead hand of (gasp!) Socialism, the conflict between the classes, the worker's ownership of the means of production and all that. Mind you, the terrain of these two books is so cluttered with all sorts of oddities, a second sphere of worlds seeded by 'ancient Gods', lightspeed travel, dinosaurs, saurs descended from dinosaurs, fun and games with sexuality and relatiosnhips, real live Neandethals. Hang on to your hat and open that volume. Remember 'A female man', 'The dispossessed'? Welcome to the world of immortal cosmonauts and spam in a can. Welcome to the darkness of light.

The most powerful sentient beings known in the universe have been relocating humans, Saurs, and other intelligent species from one star system to another for at last several millennium. In the twenty-third century (local earth time), Gregor Cairns decides to use the interstellar technology invented two centuries ago by his ancestors to open up interstellar trade routes. However, when Matt and crew arrive at planet Croatan, the local Port Authority impounds their ship. It will take a diplomatic warrior to navigate the political land mines in order for Matt to regain the vessel. However, as long as the bureaucrats think this is a trade mission he has a chance though somewhat remote. However, if the ruling officials ever learn about Matt's hidden agenda to confront the Powers Above on why the various races were moved a staggering one-hundred thousand light-years from Earth, they will lock him up and throw away the key. DARK LIGHT, the sequel to COSMONAUT KEEP, is a deep cerebral science fiction tale that contains plenty of action, but leaves the reader pondering about humanity's place in the universe. The complex story line is loaded with adventure and a deep cast of which not all are human, but all are fully developed so that readers appreciate the intelligence of each species. Still, the bottom line of Ken MacLeod's futurist outer space enterprise is the philosophical question of mankind's place in a diverse universe in which God-like beings play puppeteer to humanity the puppets.Harriet Klausner