The Dark Ascent

Dark Wing #3

by Walter H. Hunt

Walter Hunt's debut novel The Dark Wing was favorably compared to Ender's Game , Babylon 5, Honor Harrington, and C.S. Forester. The publication of the second volume The Dark Path was heralded by Analog as "a quest that may well prove science fiction's version of The Lord of the Rings."

The Dark Ascent

The war with the zor is long over, and Admiral Marais, the legendary "Dark Wing" is long dead, though some of his companions on that campaign of xenocide still remain, and in the alien philosophies of the past their might exist man's hope for salvation in the very near future.

The Dark Path introduced a new alien force into the delicate balance of power ... one that was the actual puppetmaster of the human-zor war and now wishes to bring both worlds under its madness inducing shadow.

But the same ancient philosophy of the zor race that prophesized "the Dark Wing" has also foreseen a hero that will meet the new menace --a hero now mystically embodied in a rebellious space commodore by the name of Jackie Lappierre.

As armadas clash and outposts fall, the overly confident alien menace is forced to confront a zor human alliance that has been warned, their covert and insidious plans of infiltration now exposed. ... though victory is hardly ascertained for either side in The Dark Ascent .

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Science Fiction, Fiction

464 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 2 out of 5]

The series of books are not stand alone books, if you have not read the previous books do not start this one. A reaader starting the series with this book will completely be lost.

It would have been intersting to explore the interaction of the Zor and Human societies more.

[Per Gunnar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would say this is another book in the series which deserves more than 3 stars but doesn’t quite cut it for 4 stars. As you probably understand from this, I liked the book. The absence of the awful politics from the first book in the series is, luckily, still gone. It has, to some extent, been replaced by these scheming, mysterious aliens that constantly lurk in the background though.

This book is really not a pure science fiction book but rather a science fiction/supernatural/fantasy hybrid. It continues the path that the second book took and dives even further into the mythology of the Zor. However, it appears like it’s not just myths and the story constantly flips between real life and living through the legends and talking to dead heroes. The “dreams scenes” appears to not really be dream scenes and it’s a quite interesting read although the way it’s told has some drawbacks. The Lost Tales of Power series does the science fiction/fantasy/magic hybrid variant better.

There are some space battles in this book but again, they are quite superficial which is a shame. The constant flipping between real life and dream(?) scenes as well as the many references to the old Zor legends, which now seems to exist in multiple versions, can be a bit tiring. The constantly repeated “he/she put her wings in this and that position” is also starting to become a bit repetitive.

In all, it’s a good read though and it would have gotten 3 ½ stars if it would have been possible in Goodreads.

[Otto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of this series: Hard military sci-fi meets psychic warfare, with a bit of epic history thrown in... But I don't think the author is up to the task. The first book, The Dark Wing, was a good combination of these elements, but as the series goes on it has become weighed down by its own gravitas. I just can't care about ancient Zor legends as much as the story wants me to. And then there is the alien agent Stone, who now feels more like a carrot on a stick plot conveyance device than a devious manipulator of interstellar governments.
I don't regret reading it... But I can't recommend it to anyone.