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Out of the Dark
- Narrated by: Charles Keating
- Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins
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Out of the Dark
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Publisher's Summary
The launch of a new science-fiction adventure series - by the New York Times best-selling author of the Safehold series and the Honor Harrington series.
The Galactic Hegemony has been around a long time, and it likes stability - the kind of stability that member species like the aggressive, carnivorous Shongairi tend to disturb. So when the Hegemony Survey Force encountered a world whose so-called "sentients" - "humans", they called themselves - were almost as bad as the Shongairi themselves, it seemed reasonable to use the Shongairi to neutralize them before they could become a second threat to galactic peace. And if the Shongairi took a few knocks in the process, all the better.
Now, Earth is conquered. The Shongairi have arrived in force, and humanity’s cities lie in radioactive ruins. In mere minutes, more than half the human race has died.
Master Sergeant Stephen Buchevsky, who thought he was being rotated home from his latest tour in Afghanistan, finds himself instead prowling the back country of the Balkans, dodging alien patrols and trying to organize scattered survivors without getting killed. And in the Southeastern US, firearms instructor and former Marine Dave Dvorak finds himself at the center of a growing network of resistance - putting his extended family at lethal risk, but what else can you do?
On the face of it, Buchevsky's and Dvorak's chances look bleak, as do prospects for the rest of the surviving human race. But it may well be that Shongairi and the Hegemony alike have underestimated the inhabitants of that strange planet called Earth...in David Weber's Out of the Dark.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- E. A. Curran
- 2021-03-05
Are You Kidding Me? “Out of the Dark,” Indeed!
I cannot believe I actually listened to this entire recording. In my defence, the narrator, Charles Keating, is one of the best I’ve heard on Audible. It was a pleasure to listen to him. But 20 hours of plowing through what might more appropriately have been titled, “Boys and Their Toys,” is more than any fan of Science Fiction should have to endure.
The author is David Weber and he has apparently written a sequel to this as well as another series. He seems fixated on military hardware and particularly enamoured of various handguns and the relative stopping power of their ammunition. At a guess, I would say that at least 30% of the book consists of these descriptions.
Having abandoned any advice to “show, don't tell, ” Weber delivers most of the rest of the book in interminable passages of narrative.
Other reviewers have spoiled the Deus ex machina ending, but it's sufficient to say that it is unjustified and absurd. Any foreshadoeing is virtually nonexistent. I suspect Weber got tired of writing and used the last chapters simply to set up the premise for the sequel.
The advice of this listener? Don't bother.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Josh Lambert
- 2022-12-13
Halloween horror meets sci-fi
If you go into this book with the mind set of a Halloween horror blended with a military sci-fi you’ll enjoy the twists and turns.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rebus E Cat
- 2021-02-14
Not just another military sci if
When I started listening to this it seemed like a well produced more or less standard military science fiction ,well done but not unusual. Then half way in all bets are off as a completely unseen force emerges to triumph and bring the humans along..
Very amusing
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Patricia
- 2021-01-17
Great listen
I originally read this book when it was first released. Now that the sequel has been released I enjoyed it again in audio format. I disagree with other reviewers who call the ending rushed. There were enough hints given earlier to make the twist integral to the story, not just an easy ending. Characters were well developed and the lack of detailed description of the final battles were necessary to preserve the surprise of the “twist”. Looking forward to the next parts!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Barry
- 2010-10-27
Collapses at the finish line
I thought I was reading a Clancy novel at first, the attention to detail and the technical descriptions were first rate. The interplay between politics and social structure of the aliens and how that both helped and hindered their mission was fascinating.
The story was completely believable and I was totally hooked - until the ending completely blew it. It's as if the author was told he had an hour to finish the book and he just threw some nonsense at it.
I'm aggravated I put the time in to read the book now.
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52 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- chris
- 2010-12-01
the last 2 hours was like ???
I liked the concept of aliens attacking Earth and ending up in a situation like the US in Vietnam at first, but the story soon got a bit monotonous, overly descriptive of each and every gun/weapon to the point of nausea, and then the ending was out of left field.
Spoilers ahead, the US in Vietnam analogy was soon lost because part of the reason the Earth was winning during actual fighting was because our technology for war was better than theirs. So at this I thought a real opportunity to comment on war being more than just who has the best toys was lost. Beyond that, so much was made in the beginning of the story of how abhorrently violent the Earthlings were, but then later we find out its common practice for the various creatures of the universe to enslave other sentient species as long as they haven't invented electronics??? Also the idea that they would invade our planet without doing a bit of research first? they took the time to get info, but after traveling millions of miles through space they don't take the time to evaluate the info???
Even though the story had it's share of lapses in common sense it was still a reasonably enjoyable story that I listened too on a long drive, and then... (big spoiler here) in the last two hours of the story, from out of nowhere, DRACULA himself makes an appearance to personally do his part to save humanity from alien enslavement...??? WTHeck...??? way to totally ruin it IMO. Before that the author seemed to do his best to make this a logical and pretty realistic portrayal of contact with an aggressive alien race, and oh buy the way Vampires are real too... :)
I liked the Prince Roger books, and this story started out pretty decent, but you don't just introduce a whole new belief system at the end of the book. I was waiting in the final minutes to hear that Jesus came down from heaven and brought everybody back to life too!
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40 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Ash D Cornelius
- 2010-10-08
A strong start, a WTF ending.
The book is fairly strong throughout the majority, with plenty of interesting tactics on both parts. However within the last hour of the book it goes steadily down hill. I've never said WTF out loud at an audio book, but this definitely caused it. I'd say if you go into it with full knowledge of the ending being screwy, it's not a bad purchase.
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29 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Douglas E. Noll
- 2010-10-17
Solid, with a contrived ending
First, Charles Keating is a great reader and was excellent in rendering this story. Second, Weber's premise was an interesting variation on the theme of aliens invade Earth and eventually get their asses kicked. The problem is that Weber contrived an ending that made no sense from the rest of the story. He could have developed many more plausible endings that would have flowed logically from the various story lines. So, it looks to me like he wanted to finish off the story, was tired of it, and just came up with a whacky way to do it. You will hear the usual Weberian internal musings, digressions, and ocassional political polemics that characterize his later work. He sounds a lot like Tom Clancy in his love of weapons of violence and their many models, attributes, and killing capacities.In summary, this is a decent piece of commercial work for Weber, but not anywhere close to his best.
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- David
- 2010-11-28
Why Weber, why that ending?!?
It was all good; a little heavy on details about weapons, but that's to be expected from David Weber, but the ending. It was like a Star Trek ending where they make up some technobabble to get them out of the fix they were in during the last 5 minutes of the episode.
I have to wonder if he didn't intend this to be the 1st book in a trilogy and then decided it was just going to be a single book so had to be able to wrap it up after writing a good portion of the book.
Disappointing.
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19 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- David
- 2010-10-12
16 hours about muzzle velocities and dumb aliens
This was my first Weber novel, and it will probably be my last, unless someone convinces me that his other books don't ramble on and on about the hardware every single character uses. The story is very "high concept," action-packed, full of Americans saving the day, and ends improbably. Really, really improbably. You wouldn't believe the "twist" except that it's pretty obvious if you read the book's description (or other reviews).
This would have been a great graphic novel; cynically, I suspect Weber is hoping to lure interest from Hollywood. If you like military SF, I guess Out of the Dark has the requisite amount of blowing stuff up, but the characters were cardboard (including the aliens) and the writing was full of tedious infodumps.
Charles Keating is a good narrator but... he sounds like a crusty old Englishman. I kind of got used to imagining the Shongairi all sounding like British colonial officers talking about how to put down these nasty primitives. His accent doesn't work so well with the mostly American human cast, though.
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Brian Epps
- 2010-11-10
Not all there...
This story is far too incomplete. I expected a better, more detailed story from David Weber, but this one has a pivotal character in the tale coming in late with almost no background information or personality. I am very disappointed.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- David Kunes
- 2010-10-12
No Kidding, Really Bad Ending
Started well, mediocre story, unbelievable ending. Read as if author had to meet a dead-line. One star because it is a book, one star because it has a story.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- graham
- 2018-01-20
Great build up, rushed ending :|
Really enjoyed the book overall, and it had a great build up. However, the ending almost felt like it came out of nowhere, and was very rushed. It felt like they were trying to fit 10 - 15 hours of content into the last 2 hours. Even if this had been split into two books, with a more fleshed out ending, it would have been better.
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8 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Matthew
- 2010-11-30
A great tale that's spoilt by a weird ending.
I loved this book right up until the last couple of chapters when the author lost the plot and introduced a truly strange twist to the plot. It's almost as if he ran out of ideas and so he came up with the most implausible ending he could find.
Disappointed :(
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7 people found this helpful