Out of the Dark (Weber novel)


Out of the Dark is an alien invasion science fiction novel by David Weber released by Tor Books on September 28, 2010. This novel is an extended version of the short story of the same name in the 2010 anthology Warriors.

Plot

The Galactic Hegemony, an alliance of assorted alien races, sent a research and survey group to Earth for assessment. The ship arrived in Earth's orbit in the 15th century, during the Hundred Years' War. The survey group observed the Battle of Agincourt between the English and French, and were horrified of humanity's ferocity and cruelty—being that war and violence rarely happened among the Hegemony.
By the 2010s, the Hegemony has reviewed the survey on Earth and is instantly repulsed. Seeing the humans as similar to the carnivorous, wolf-like Shongairi, a species recently and reluctantly admitted to their alliance, the pacifist Hegemony decides to send the Shongairi to take control of humanity while they are still a manageable threat. This is considered the "lesser of two evils", preventing a second Shongair Empire. An implicit intent is that, if the human race can't be properly subjugated, they be eliminated.
The Shongairi are the most violent species in the Hegemony, and have veiled plans to seize control of the others. Toward this end, they see value in the human race as slave soldiers and decide to conquer Earth and make humans their subjects. Once their expedition reaches Earth, they are surprised at humanity's advancement in only six hundred years, at six times the galactic norm. Fleet Commander Thikair orders his fleet to continue the conquest, despite Hegemony prohibitions against assaulting planets of a certain technological level. By hacking into human military computer systems and laying a series of kinetic strikes on nearly every military installation, naval fleet, and major city on the planet with kinetic energy weapons, the initial attack wipes out half of the human population. Expecting this attack to have crippled the humans, the Shongairi land their forces, concentrating on Europe and North America. They expect humans to surrender immediately, since the Shongairi and other alien races have a natural "submission mechanism". However, the surviving remnants of humanity begin a massive guerrilla war against the Shongairi, who have never before fought an advanced race. For every successful human attack, the Shongairi retaliate with an orbital strike on the attackers or any nearby survivors to inflict submission.
The conflict lasts over two months, during which nearly half the expedition's landing forces are killed; leading Shongairi xenoanthropologist Shairez discovers the reason the humans do not submit: they lacked the "submission mechanism", and their mindset evolved differently from any other known Hegemony species. Attempting to subjugate them would be the height of folly, as humanity—completely unable to forgive the Shongairi for what they had done to Earth—would either fight to the very end or rebel against them every few generations. As a result, Thikair decides to carry out the Hegemony's covert desire to exterminate the humans by developing a bioweapon specifically designed to target human biology. Efforts to create the bioweapon require the capturing of human test subjects. These prisoners are transported to "Ground Base Seven", located west of the Black Sea, and "Ground Base Two" in North Carolina, where the weapon is to be released in a false flag attack. Yet, in the following weeks, the research program is repeatedly disrupted, and several bases in Europe and North America are wiped out by unknown attackers who leave no sign except for their handiwork.
Earlier research had shown that the aliens' advanced quick-education computers were effective for teaching humans. In the final raids, all of these machines were found to have been taken by the attackers, and the head researcher had been subjected to extensive interrogation before her death; the humans now had access to all of the information possessed by the invaders, including detailed information on the Empire, the Hegemony, and the Shongairi military equipment.
With nearly every Shongairi base on Earth destroyed, Thikair orders his remaining forces off the planet, while planning to outright destroy Earth from orbit. However, as the last fleeing units reach their ships, the Shongairi dreadnoughts suddenly destroy the rest of the warships, all but one. Thikair is confronted on his own ship by same enemy that had destroyed the bases and smashed his fleet: vampires, who need no air to breathe, and can travel as mist.
Their leader, Mircea Basarab, is actually the immortal Vlad the Impaler, whom humans remember as Dracula. He and his kind have been hibernating, and kept hidden before the Shongairi's arrival forced them to "protect" the people of Earth by creating more vampires and build an army to eliminate the Shongairi. Thikair is told that the hijacked dreadnoughts are being sent to each of the Shongairi worlds to destroy their Empire. Thikair is slain by one of the vampires, Stephen Buchevsky, whose human family was killed by the initial bombardment. Humanity now possesses Shongairi and Hegemony technology from the Shongairi industrial ships, and is fully united under the newly established Terran Empire, becoming a mighty adversary to the Hegemony which had so casually sent the invaders against and innocent and unsuspecting world.

Main characters

Humans and vampires

Like other novels by David Weber, Out of the Dark features an appearance of the 1957 children's novel David and the Phoenix by Edward Ormondroyd. Weber is an admitted fan of the book.

Reception

Publishers Weekly gives a somewhat positive review and stating, "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." However, Booklist unfavorably criticized the action scenes as "redundant and overburdened with long lists of munitions model numbers", the difficulty of distinguishing between most characters, and the introduction of vampires late into the story.