What do you think?
Rate this book
Dark Wing #2
The Dark Path
Walter Hunt's debut novel, The Dark Wing was favorably compared to Ender's Game, Babylon 5, Honor Harrington, and C. S. Forester . . . and the story isn't over yet!
Man and zor, once sworn enemies engaged in a mutual campaign of xenocide, now live side by side.
The war is over, and Admiral Marais, the legendary "Dark Wing"--both Angel of Death and Species Savior--is long dead, though some of his companions and participants in that great war still survive and have even chosen to live among the zor.
Now a mystery from the past has become a threat to the present when an unholy menace jeopardizes both humans and zor alike.
Whole space fleets have disappeared, with survivors stricken mad.
And now man and zor alike must join forces to meet this adversary head on. . . .
Man and zor, once sworn enemies engaged in a mutual campaign of xenocide, now live side by side.
The war is over, and Admiral Marais, the legendary "Dark Wing"--both Angel of Death and Species Savior--is long dead, though some of his companions and participants in that great war still survive and have even chosen to live among the zor.
Now a mystery from the past has become a threat to the present when an unholy menace jeopardizes both humans and zor alike.
Whole space fleets have disappeared, with survivors stricken mad.
And now man and zor alike must join forces to meet this adversary head on. . . .
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
2 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2011
The Dark Path follows Hunt's previous book, The Dark Wing, almost a century later. For those (including myself) who haven't read that book, the essential background facts are these: The humans and the bird-like zor encountered each other and fought a long, bloody war, which ended when Admiral Marais overwhelmed the zor and horrified his fellow humans by wiping out all zor life on several of their colony worlds. The zor concluded that Marais was a great warrior, the humans concluded that Marais was a great war criminal, and Marais and some of his friends, subordinates, and followers were welcomed into the zor polity (empire isn't quite right) and honored with high positions.
It's now almost a century later, and humans and zor have been allies since the end of the war. Their territories interpenetrate, since the species prefer slightly different kinds of planets. There's lots of trade, and there are zor serving in the human Imperial Navy, and humans serving in the navy of the zor High Nest. Admiral Marais is long dead, but the last survivor of his closest friends, Sergei Torrijos, is still the Gyaryu'har, the holder of the gyaryu, the Sacred Talon, the official sword of state of the High Nest. The High Nest has, apparently, sent this very old man of very high rank to accompany an inspection tour by Admiral Horace Tolliver of an Imperial Navy border post, Cicero, on the outer edge of human and zor space, where two Imperial Navy ships have recently vanished in unexplained circumstances. It's on Cicero that we meet the real protagonist of the story, Commodore Jackie Laperriere, and her zor friend and second in command, Commander Ch'k'te.
Bit by bit, we learn that the zor believe there is a demonic force in the universe that seeks to act directly in this plane of existence to conquer or subvert the zor and others on the side of, basically, good. They began the disastrous war with the humans because they had mistaken them for servants of this dark force. For reasons that aren't clear until later in the book, Marais' actions proved to them that they were wrong. However, they still believe that force is out there, and that the disappearance of the two ships signals a return of its interest in humans and zor. When Tolliver, dissatisfied with Laperriere's handling of the problem of the vanished ships, takes several ships out to investigate the system where they were last known to be and returns without most of the ships and apparently without his own sanity or that of most of the survivors, evidence for the zor belief starts to mount up. Jackie Laperriere and Ch'k'te find themselves battling mind-controlling aliens who can make themselves appear to be anyone, including Jackie and Ch'k'te. Taking back Cicero Base is only the beginning of their troubles; after that , their lives get complicated and exciting. Jackie Laperriere, who has always found human Sensitives rather repellent, finds herself forced to develop her own Sensitive skills in a zor context that seems irrational and pointlessly confusing to her, while getting a crash course in little-known aspects of zor culture, as a necessary part of a suicide mission to recover the gyaryu, the zor sacred sword that was captured by the aliens when they captured Cicero Base and the Gyaryu'har.
This is fast-paced, exciting military sf, with a reasonably intelligent, if sometimes pig-headed, hero. I particularly like the fact that the humans and the zor find each other about equally confusing, in both major and minor ways. The human attitude towards the psionically talented seems immature compared to the zor attitude; on the other hand, I shudder to think of being so "mature" that we could shrug off mass murder, as the zor do with Admiral Marais. On a more ordinary level, the zor representative to the imperial court complies with, without understanding, the human preference that the emperor not be addressed by his name (as their own High Lord is) or touched (as is zor courtesy with everyone.) After an emotionally stressful incident, Ch'k'te attempts to comfort Jackie, and then they have a mutually confusing exchange in which Ch'k'te is worrying that he might have inadvertantly violated human custom. It's all fairly neatly done, and neither species comes off looking smarter, wiser, or more sensible, overall, than the other.
I do have a few complaints. One thing that bothers me is that both the humans and the zor are ruled by hereditary aristocracies headed by royal houses. If there are any democratic elements at all, there's no mention of them in this book. In a work that otherwise lacks lazy use of ill-fitting standard elements, this is a disappointment. David Weber may populate Honor Harrington's universe with cardboard cutouts whose thought processes and behavior are stereotypical to the point of idiocy, but he has thought about why Manticore and Grayson are monarchies, and how that would work with educated, mobile, and technically adept populations. I shouldn't be too hard on Mr. Hunt about this; star empires with hereditary power structures of various kinds are distressingly common in sf, and I nearly overlooked the lack of justification for it here, interpolating in my own explanation relying on information not being able to move faster than ships. In fact, this explanation is nowhere on the pages of the book, though it may well be in Mr. Hunt's mind.
And I have to say, good characters in a setting with some lazy elements have to rank at least has high as cardboard characters in a better thought-out setting.
My second complaint about the story itself is that it ends in mid-story. There's no warning that this is the case in the cover matter, although someone who went through book reading all the included pieces of the zor epic poem tha t figures so prominently, and then reading all the section titles, could work it out. Based on the amount of story left to tell, there's at least one more volume of at least this length to come. Blame for this should probably go more to Tor than to Walter Hunt; he wrote it, but they packaged it, and they could have warned the reader.
My final complaint falls entirely on whoever at Tor decided on the decorative typeface used for both the title header on the right-hand pages, and the first few words of new sections. It's an acceptable, though not wonderful, typeface when used as a title header in all caps. In mixed case at the starts of sections, it becomes harder to read. And on page 238, the combination of the decorative typeface and a zor name produces something that's completely unreadable. The use of this typeface this way is a mistake that should not be repeated.
Now that I'm finished with my complaints, I want to say again that this is a fun book, entertaining military sf with some good characters and an interesting alien culture. Good light entertainment.
It's now almost a century later, and humans and zor have been allies since the end of the war. Their territories interpenetrate, since the species prefer slightly different kinds of planets. There's lots of trade, and there are zor serving in the human Imperial Navy, and humans serving in the navy of the zor High Nest. Admiral Marais is long dead, but the last survivor of his closest friends, Sergei Torrijos, is still the Gyaryu'har, the holder of the gyaryu, the Sacred Talon, the official sword of state of the High Nest. The High Nest has, apparently, sent this very old man of very high rank to accompany an inspection tour by Admiral Horace Tolliver of an Imperial Navy border post, Cicero, on the outer edge of human and zor space, where two Imperial Navy ships have recently vanished in unexplained circumstances. It's on Cicero that we meet the real protagonist of the story, Commodore Jackie Laperriere, and her zor friend and second in command, Commander Ch'k'te.
Bit by bit, we learn that the zor believe there is a demonic force in the universe that seeks to act directly in this plane of existence to conquer or subvert the zor and others on the side of, basically, good. They began the disastrous war with the humans because they had mistaken them for servants of this dark force. For reasons that aren't clear until later in the book, Marais' actions proved to them that they were wrong. However, they still believe that force is out there, and that the disappearance of the two ships signals a return of its interest in humans and zor. When Tolliver, dissatisfied with Laperriere's handling of the problem of the vanished ships, takes several ships out to investigate the system where they were last known to be and returns without most of the ships and apparently without his own sanity or that of most of the survivors, evidence for the zor belief starts to mount up. Jackie Laperriere and Ch'k'te find themselves battling mind-controlling aliens who can make themselves appear to be anyone, including Jackie and Ch'k'te. Taking back Cicero Base is only the beginning of their troubles; after that , their lives get complicated and exciting. Jackie Laperriere, who has always found human Sensitives rather repellent, finds herself forced to develop her own Sensitive skills in a zor context that seems irrational and pointlessly confusing to her, while getting a crash course in little-known aspects of zor culture, as a necessary part of a suicide mission to recover the gyaryu, the zor sacred sword that was captured by the aliens when they captured Cicero Base and the Gyaryu'har.
This is fast-paced, exciting military sf, with a reasonably intelligent, if sometimes pig-headed, hero. I particularly like the fact that the humans and the zor find each other about equally confusing, in both major and minor ways. The human attitude towards the psionically talented seems immature compared to the zor attitude; on the other hand, I shudder to think of being so "mature" that we could shrug off mass murder, as the zor do with Admiral Marais. On a more ordinary level, the zor representative to the imperial court complies with, without understanding, the human preference that the emperor not be addressed by his name (as their own High Lord is) or touched (as is zor courtesy with everyone.) After an emotionally stressful incident, Ch'k'te attempts to comfort Jackie, and then they have a mutually confusing exchange in which Ch'k'te is worrying that he might have inadvertantly violated human custom. It's all fairly neatly done, and neither species comes off looking smarter, wiser, or more sensible, overall, than the other.
I do have a few complaints. One thing that bothers me is that both the humans and the zor are ruled by hereditary aristocracies headed by royal houses. If there are any democratic elements at all, there's no mention of them in this book. In a work that otherwise lacks lazy use of ill-fitting standard elements, this is a disappointment. David Weber may populate Honor Harrington's universe with cardboard cutouts whose thought processes and behavior are stereotypical to the point of idiocy, but he has thought about why Manticore and Grayson are monarchies, and how that would work with educated, mobile, and technically adept populations. I shouldn't be too hard on Mr. Hunt about this; star empires with hereditary power structures of various kinds are distressingly common in sf, and I nearly overlooked the lack of justification for it here, interpolating in my own explanation relying on information not being able to move faster than ships. In fact, this explanation is nowhere on the pages of the book, though it may well be in Mr. Hunt's mind.
And I have to say, good characters in a setting with some lazy elements have to rank at least has high as cardboard characters in a better thought-out setting.
My second complaint about the story itself is that it ends in mid-story. There's no warning that this is the case in the cover matter, although someone who went through book reading all the included pieces of the zor epic poem tha t figures so prominently, and then reading all the section titles, could work it out. Based on the amount of story left to tell, there's at least one more volume of at least this length to come. Blame for this should probably go more to Tor than to Walter Hunt; he wrote it, but they packaged it, and they could have warned the reader.
My final complaint falls entirely on whoever at Tor decided on the decorative typeface used for both the title header on the right-hand pages, and the first few words of new sections. It's an acceptable, though not wonderful, typeface when used as a title header in all caps. In mixed case at the starts of sections, it becomes harder to read. And on page 238, the combination of the decorative typeface and a zor name produces something that's completely unreadable. The use of this typeface this way is a mistake that should not be repeated.
Now that I'm finished with my complaints, I want to say again that this is a fun book, entertaining military sf with some good characters and an interesting alien culture. Good light entertainment.
July 1, 2012
In my opinion this book is a very different one from the first one. It’s certainly a sequel to the first book (luckily, I don’t really like prequels). The book is set 85 years after the first one so there’s a big change of characters but it still ties in very well with the first book. It’s obviously the overture for a new war but it’s much slower going than in the first one and the aliens are much more subtle, subversive and staying in the shadows.
The book is almost devoid of fleet actions. Instead it focuses on Zor mytology and psychics, or sensitives, as they are called in the book. There’s a lot of human-Zor interaction between the heroine and her Zor second in command and friend by which we get to learn Zor history and mythology the latter which, surprise surprise, ties nicely into explaining and predicting this new threat to both the Zor and humanity.
A good chunk of the book is spent dirtside with the heroine trying to get back and recapture her command. Normally I’m more of a fleet action guy but I think this book still worked for me. It’s of course helping that there’s a lot less pea-brained politicians running around and screwing things up than in the first book. It’s certainly an interesting build up for the rest of the story and I’m quite interested to see where the author goes with this lurking enemy and the role Zor mythology will be playing.
I’d say the book almost merits a fourth star but not quite. That’s probably more due to my personal reading preferences than a fault of the book though. It’s a shame you cannot give half stars. Then it would have gotten a 3 ½.
The book is almost devoid of fleet actions. Instead it focuses on Zor mytology and psychics, or sensitives, as they are called in the book. There’s a lot of human-Zor interaction between the heroine and her Zor second in command and friend by which we get to learn Zor history and mythology the latter which, surprise surprise, ties nicely into explaining and predicting this new threat to both the Zor and humanity.
A good chunk of the book is spent dirtside with the heroine trying to get back and recapture her command. Normally I’m more of a fleet action guy but I think this book still worked for me. It’s of course helping that there’s a lot less pea-brained politicians running around and screwing things up than in the first book. It’s certainly an interesting build up for the rest of the story and I’m quite interested to see where the author goes with this lurking enemy and the role Zor mythology will be playing.
I’d say the book almost merits a fourth star but not quite. That’s probably more due to my personal reading preferences than a fault of the book though. It’s a shame you cannot give half stars. Then it would have gotten a 3 ½.
February 8, 2012
This book continues from Dark Wing and is a good extension of the story. some interesting plots and insights.
April 17, 2017
3.5 stars
Humans and Zor had been at war, and now find themselves allied. The Zor are a mystical race, taking their guide from the dreams of their ruler.
A human naval officer finds herself drawn into events as a Zor prophecy comes to pass, but is there free will or is she just following a script laid down centuries ago?
This is the second book of a trilogy, I haven't read the first one but the plot can be worked out without knowledge of that. The characters are well written and the menace is done in a suspenseful way.
The Zor mindset is shown without overpowering the whole story.
Ends at an in-between point, otherwise would have been 4 stars.
Humans and Zor had been at war, and now find themselves allied. The Zor are a mystical race, taking their guide from the dreams of their ruler.
A human naval officer finds herself drawn into events as a Zor prophecy comes to pass, but is there free will or is she just following a script laid down centuries ago?
This is the second book of a trilogy, I haven't read the first one but the plot can be worked out without knowledge of that. The characters are well written and the menace is done in a suspenseful way.
The Zor mindset is shown without overpowering the whole story.
Ends at an in-between point, otherwise would have been 4 stars.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews