In the Ocean of Night

I read this book "in preparation" for ACROSS THE SEA OF SUNS, which I had been planning to read. I quit halfway through, re-read DUNE instead, and only finished this out of obligation. I won't be reading further. I was engrossed by the description in Part One of a spaceship attempting to nuke an asteroid to prevent it hitting Earth, only to discover alien artefacts on the asteroid. Alas, this discovery is literally dismissed by the plot as meaning almost nothing, and the reader must suffer several hundred pages of dull "literary" writing. When Bigfoots make an appearance in the conclusion, it's both laughable and intriguing, and rather little is concluded.

this was a good book, though it got slow in sections. some of the terms used seemed archaic, or fabricated, which is cool, as i just take it as a divergent universe, not our own.

In the Ocean of night is the first book in a six book series called the Galactic Center Saga - one of the best known and beloved epic hard science fiction stories out there. I'm only reviewing two books in the series: In the Ocean of Night and Great Sky River and I've attached a broader review of the series to these two reviews that I hope might be useful to the reader. In the Ocean of Night presents us a world that is out of balance with humanity crowding earth and having too much of an impact on the world from an ecological standpoint. The book focuses quite a bit on the personal lives of the people in the story and in their development so this book is an unlikely starter for such a fantastic story that is told in the last 4 books of the series but in an interesting way many of the same themes are here. The book In the Ocean of Night was first a novellette published on IF magazine back in 1972 and then it was expanded into a full length book. So interwoven into this whole story of human overpopulation and 1960s style alternative lifestyle parameters (or natural lifestyle parameters depending on your inclination), the author weaves the beginnings of what will be a fantastic story set against the center of the galaxy. In the Ocean of Night though takes place on Earth mostly and you have to plow through the people and ecology and personal life stuff to get to the about 20 or so pages of interesting hard sci fi (for me). The second book Across the Sea of Suns is truly a fantastic work of science fiction though and a true mystery tale and then there is a hiatus and flashforward 30,000 years to the events of Great Sky River (the first book I read of the series). So to me the first two books were almost prologue material albeit very interesting prologue. My advice is pick up this book and try to read them in order but if you find yourself bogged down with the personal lives of the scientists, set it aside and pick up Across the Sea of Suns or even better Great Sky River and then come back to In the Ocean of Night after you're hooked and want some precursor material. I ate up In the Ocean of Night back when I first read it but Benford had me nicely hooked (hook like and sinker) with the last 4 books and with Across the Sea of Suns....in the end the series is nicely balanced with the 6 books in terms of theme. I don't know if I'd end the series the way Benford did (I think I had a better ending envisioned) which Dr. Benford did not align with me on. Benford is a great writer that gets you thinking along certain lines and as the books went along from Great Sky River to Tides of Light to Furious Gulf and Sailing Bright Eternity, I kept saying, "I get it! I know where you're going with this! And, wow that's interesting." So he gets you in sync nicely but towards the very end it wasn't that Benford threw a terrible curve ball or anything that yanked the story in another direction, it was more like we fell slightly out of sync (don't get me

i just bumped into this book by accident, it was on sale with other old SCI FI books that i bought. i think that the writing is briliant, the story is fascinating. gregory benford is always an un-orthodox SCI-FI writer what makes it's stories much reacher and more dimentional then others. a briliant book and full with inspiration.

Though this book turns out to the be the opening shot in a six-novel series, it stands remarkably well by itself as a peak in Benford's writing style, and a monumental achievement in the Sci Fi genre. The series spans a significant period of Benford's career, and major changes in his writing style are quite noticable over its timeframe.Walmsley, the main character, is an aging astronaut with an interesting homelife. (He shares a flat with two women - this could fill a book all by itself!) The interactions with alien intelligence, the primary focus of the story, seems almost secondary to the personal changes that Walmsley goes through. And when an alien computer "re-arranges" his mind, one of the more interesting ideas comes to the fore: what happens to our interpretations of reality simply by modifying our carefully build sets of observations? Reality isn't as clear-cut as it appears to be.If you are prepared for Benford's subtle style, you will love this book. (And if you can find it, of course.)

In the Ocean of Night dramatically opens the Galactic Centre series. It does so gradually and originally, involving one of the most imaginatively written alien encounter scenes ever. While this book lacks the frenetic pace of some of its sequels, it is nonetheless a worthwhile member of the series.