Series Review: OUT OF THE DARK and INTO THE LIGHT by Weber/Kennedy
An unconventional idea turns out far better than expected.
This review necessarily contains some spoilers.
In 2010, prolific sci-fi author David Weber released the first book in a series called The Terran Empire. While I’m not the biggest consumer of your average Baen/Del Rey/Tor paperback, I feel confident in saying that Weber took the most unique approach to an alien conquest story that I’ve ever seen.
The Story
There’s a Galactic Hegemony out in space, made of all the advanced and enlightened alien species. Whenever they find a new species they make an assessment as to whether they should be welcomed to the club, or conquered and subjugated.
The Hegemony shows up on Earth during the battle of Agincourt (1415 AD) and decides to put humanity in the “conquer” category. They send their newest group of aliens, the Shongairi, to do the job.
Unfortunately, because of time and space and relativity and all that, by the time the Shongairi roll into high orbit, Earth is in the 21st Century. But the Shongairi are a bunch of jerks and say eh, hell with it, conquer ‘em anyway.
To which Earth replies “Oh ho ho, no sir, #%$@ you, let’s do this.”
What follows is equally hyper-technical and comically hilarious as the Shongairi constantly underestimate human psychology. They don’t understand our altruism towards our loved ones, our deep-seated commitment to avenge the dead, and our “unreasonableness” when it comes to alien rule.
Basically they destroy the coastal cities with space weapons and relegate their ground invasion to the survivors, only to have to face off against red-state Appalachia, and it goes about as well as it sounds. Plus our tech has advanced a hell of a lot farther than they expected in the six centuries since the Hegemony found us.
And I haven’t even gotten to the best parts yet. Because David Weber uses one very simple premise in these books: if an alien invades Earth, they must face everything on this planet. And some things live in the dark, and they are colder than the dark… and hungry.
The Characters
Weber’s main cast have a few key things in common: military veteran status, prepper mindsets, and lots of guns. Stephen Buchevsky is a Marine stationed in Afghanistan when the Shongairi arrive, Dan Torino (callsign Longbow) is a USAF pilot in an F-22, and Rob Wilson (USMC Sgt., ret.) has a bug-out complex in the hills where he takes his family after the initial attacks.
The survivors in a situation like this would need a certain combination of skills, from military coordination to resource gathering, and Weber knows how to convincingly write the kind of men who would thrive here. He’s also very good at writing cool and mysterious rogues, like a Romanian named Mircea Basarab, who has a WICKED reveal in the final bit of the book.
Here comes the aforementioned spoiler. Ready?
After the Shongairi have harassed Earth for a while, and have set up numerous bases and outposts on the planet, they suddenly start getting killed off in brutal, untraceable ways. It all leads back to Basarab…
…who, as it turns out, is actually Count Dracula. He’s been hiding for 500 years and now it’s time to come out of the dark and push back against the aliens.
Yeah. I had to pause the book and sit down for a minute, as I was listening to the audio edition at work.
It was an absolute bat-crap-crazy thing to do, and it shouldn’t have worked, but man…Weber pulled it off.
The World
Our world, with roughly the same geopolitics and the same tech-level.
From there, Weber has a little fun with integrating alien technology into human creations. For example: when the Shongairi need to access the Internet and upload a virus to all the world’s computers, they know human intelligence agencies will trace the virus back to its point of origin, so the Shongairi decide to upload it from a nation nobody likes. As a result, the virus piggybacks onto the Internet when a dissident youth downloads a Lady Gaga song from a cyber cafe in Iran.
Later, when the Shongairi start their ground occupation of Earth, they are short on vehicles and decide to use human semi-trucks for their logistics. This turns around to bite them when none of them can figure out how to drive stick.
It just goes on from there. And it’s hilarious.
The Politics
It’s “right-wing” in the sense that it’s pro-military and pro-survivalist, but these are just practical matters. Nothing from modern politics plays an overt or inappropriate role here.
The Content
R-rated for violence and language.
First Versus Sequel
Weber published OUT OF THE DARK in 2010 as a solo operation, and then published INTO THE LIGHT in 2021 as a collaboration with Chris Kennedy. The time between volumes, the addition of another writer, and the natural changes in the story—Earth gets invaded, versus Earth post-invasion—make for two somewhat different reading experiences.
Book 1 was heavy on action and felt more grounded, since it was closer to our world to begin with, while book 2 spends time running around in outer space as diplomats from Earth go out to make contact with other alien races. The sequel was 50% longer than its predecessor and at times you felt it, but it’s still good.
Plus there is a very inventive explanation for Dracula and the vampires being in the story, and I found it satisfying.
Who’s it for?
Sci-fi fans, military veterans, and preppers who like to stress-test their plans in the safe space that is the printed page.
Why read it?
It’s a well-crafted blend of imagination and real information when it comes to surviving a devastating attack on society. I laughed at plenty of parts and I kept wanting to pick it back up. This is a good series.