Скоростта на тъмнината

StarCraft #3

by Tracy Hickman, Трейси Хикман (Автор), Симеон Цанев (Преводач)

В далечното бъдеще, на 60000 светлинни години от Земята, нестабилната Конфедерация на хората е въвлечена в битка срещу загадъчните Протоси и безмилостния рояк на Зергите. Всеки от видовете се бори, за да осигури собственото си оцеляване сред звездите в една война, която ще отвори нова велика глава в историята на човечеството… или ще предвещае неговия насилствен и кървав край.

Съкровените мечти на младия Ардо Мелников са съвсем прости — да създаде семейство и да се отдаде на мирен живот сред плодородните поля на колониалния свят Баунтифул. Ала свирепата орда на зергите има съвсем различни планове. Хищният им рояк превзема планетата, избивайки всички, изпречили се на пътя им. Един от малцината оцелели, изгубил своите близки и любимата си, Ардо не вижда друг начин да отмъсти за погубеното си бъдеще, освен да постъпи в редиците на пехотата, предопределена да брани световете на хората от бруталната реалност на една галактика, разкъсвана от война. Но за да изпълни своята мисия, младежът първо трябва се пребори с призраците от миналото и да се изправи лице в лице с ужасяващи разкрития, от които може би зависи цялото му бъдеще.

Скоростта на тъмнината — книга трета от епичната поредица за космически битки, развиваща се във вселената на една от най-популярните компютърни игри за всички времена.
За автора

Трейси Хикман е един от най-продаваните автори в класацията на „Ню Йорк Таймс“. Най-известен е с поредицата книги „Dragonlance“ (преведени у нас като „Хроники на Драконовото копие“), които пише в съавторство с Маргарет Вайс.

Роден е през 1955 година в Солт Лейк Сити. Две години е бил мисионер в Индонезия. Сега живее и пише със своята жена, Лаура, в южна Юта.

Повече подробности можете да научите на официалната му страница: www.trhickman.com

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Video Games, Fantasy, Space Opera, Novels, Games

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

NYT Best-selling fantasy authors Tracy Hickman, with his wife Laura, began their journey across the 'Sea of Possibilities' as the creators of 'Dragonlance' and their voyage continues into new areas with the 'Drakis' trilogy, 'Wayne of Gotham', a Batman novel for DC Comics and his 'Dragon's Bard' collector's series . Tracy has over fifty books currently in print in most languages around the world. A record of both Tracy and Laura's DNA currently orbits on the international space station and he is the writer and editor of the first science-fiction movie actually filmed in space. Follow us on Facebook or, of course, right here!

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars may seem like a ridiculous rating to give a book spawned from a video game franchise - everyone knows that these are commissioned by video game companies to snag those few people who don't play video games but want to be able to engage with people who do. They're designed to be easily read, then discarded by both readers and bookstores. Or, like myself, they're targeted at people who voraciously devour good settings.

But, good God, Speed of Darkness is one of, if not the best video game supplemental books I've ever read (to be fair, it probably wouldn't stand alone without the weight of a huge franchise behind it, but if they slapped different names on things the narrative that makes its skeleton would work, I think). In fact, it was why I created a Goodreads account in the first place - I think more people should read it and the other works of Hickman.

It takes place alongside the first act of the first Starcraft game - but doesn't feature any of the major characters in an attempt to borrow from the already established narrative. Instead it carves itself a spot during the same events and does it with such conviction that I can see why it's considered canon. This absolutely took place in the Starcraft setting.

What really shines here is the writing ability of Hickman. The story itself is pretty basic, nothing particularly special about it. The characters are unique, if hard to identify with, and the dialogue really gave a feel for who they were. But Hickman took the setting, the characters that would fit in it, and the mediocre story (that I'm sure was in some part forced on him) and made it shine. His vocabulary, sense of pacing, and fantastic ability at embellishment of emotion / physical action made it flow through my fingers in a day. Additionally, his command of military language is second to none - he understands that unique little dialect that soldiers share.

I was initially put off because the very first scene seemed to contradict the established timeline of the setting (I know, I'm one of THOSE people, but in my defense I kept reading anyway). I later learned that was deliberate, and brilliantly so. And the first and last scene were connected in such a golden way that it lent the ending even more weight than it would already have had.

Thematically, it was fascinating. It delves into the realm of memory's influence on identity and what effects the forcible changing of it would have on the psyche - as well as the setting that would encourage such changes to be made. All grimdark, but not SO grimdark that it would turn off the average reader.

The little bits of scripture, an inspired addition, only serve to deepen this substance and really couch the whole nature of morality versus reality argument. It evokes a genuine question of heroism before showing an example so selfless that it made me love the characters for their decision.

All in all, this book easily earns a five from me. 10/10 would, and probably will, read again.

[Robert Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Starcraft novel! I loved the way it depicted the human soldiers. The terror involved in warfare. The brainwashing and uniformity that makes a soldier. Brutal action. All come together with a great conclusion, full of self-sacrifice and revelation.

[Jason Ray Carney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun exploration of the Starcraft version of the "space marine" (which are very different when compared to the Warhammer 40k variety). The main character, Ardo Melnikov, is suffering from the Human Confederacy's "re-socialization" techniques even has he tries to figure out his squad's role in an enigmatic mission on a Zerg-infested planet. The novel's scope is like a single mission in the human campaign of the first Starcraft game. Lots of the game lore is explored: the different kinds of Zerg, the different human units (Firebats, SCVs), and the various faction, like the Sons of Korhal. One issue I had with this was it was intense fighting throughout with only an occasional respite for atmosphere and characterization. A lot of the side characters were hard to distinguish. Most of them came off as flat and tropey: gruff, smartmouthed soldiers constantly trash talking eachother in a stereotypical way. Overall, I'm glad I read this. Tracy Hickman is a skilled writer and the Starcraft sci-fi settimg world is fun. Great low stakes sci-fi entertainment.

[ignus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly? The previous one was better.

[Kryptomite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on other people's reviews, I almost didn't read this book, however I am glad I did. I have no idea why people rated it less than a 4. It's a realistic portrayal of a Terran Marine dealing with his mental reprogramming while experiencing the events leading up to mar sara. It does an excellent job of placing you in the boots, on the ground, in the starcraft universe, and includes a lot of interesting observations, interactions, and emotions that aren't present in the video game. Does it further the entire plot of the franchise? No. But much like Rogue One for star wars, it gives you a strong story set at a time that's only briefly covered in Liberty's Crusade. If you don't like a realistic military book about a military unit in the starcraft universe, I'm not entirely sure why you would pick up this book in the first place, but I wholly recommend it to anyone who thinks that sounds good, as it was an excellent piece of writing.

[Tyler · Rating 1 out of 5]

My hunting down this book comes from a childhood memory of going to the bookstore and seeing a whole shelf dedicated to video game books. I never read them--I don't know why--but I now think that the idea of StarCraft and Warcraft literature is potentially awesome, since the worlds are already fleshed out in beautiful detail, but the video games themselves have very thin plots. What if there was a book that happened to be as exciting as Game of Thrones, but it took place in the StarCraft universe?

This book did not live up to that potential, lol, and it commits about every sin you can commit in storytelling, but I will tell you what, the absolute last thing I expected to find in its pages was the story of a good Mormon boy from the city of ~Zarahemla~ on the planet ~Bountiful~, who went to seminary with the patriarchs and doesn't drink coffee, joining the ranks of the troops in the fight of giant extraterrestrial bugs. Why this writer has gone so far as to include Mormon scriptural text as well as theological dogma in this video game book is unclear, but he's setting aside what, as I say, I do think would be a strength of one of these books--the fact that the video games already have interesting places, characters, and lore already created for the using.

[Conan The Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agradable, entretenido y con mucha acción, sobre todo en los últimos capítulos.

Me gusto bastante este libro, de los tres que he leído este sería el numero dos, con Liberty's Crusade en primer lugar a mi gusto.

Es una buena historia Sci-Fi, pero que no tiene mas relación con Starcraft que nombres de unidades y enemigos, de hecho si cambiara eso seria un libro muy genérico en realidad, entretenido pero uno mas del montón, ya que no aparecen personajes conocidos del videojuego.

Pero sin duda lo mejor del libro fue la batalla final.

[Caitlin (Ayashi) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story line. I wasn't a huge fan of the main character and felt that he was overall not particularly easy to identify with (for me at least) and in general not very likable which didn't help. I did however enjoy the story of this marine private and his teammates and what happens to them on the planet of Mar Sara.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably my 2nd favorite of Hickman`s solo novels to date.

[David Langlois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best novel of the starcraft series. The ending is nice, but brutal ! Worth the time to read it .

[Jonas · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better Starcraft novels. There's actually a solid idea/thread tying the whole story together. The book begins with the main character lying in a field with hid girlfriend - but then the zerg attack. Marines drag him into a dropship, narrowly escaping while his girlfriend is torn to bits. Later, it's revealed that this memory isn't actually authentic - rather, it's a memory manufactored/edited by the military to suit their purposes. Ardo (the protagonist) never enlisted. He was abducted. His girlfriend and family could still be alive.
Also, his training is neurally implanted, so no need for years of boot camp.

Pretty interesting, and a bit more depth than I expected from this book.

As a side note, the author is definitely Mormon. He named multiple locations ("Helaman," "Zarahemla," "Bountiful"...) after locations from the Book of Mormon. The main character is actually canonically Mormon - although not mentioned explicitly, if you're familiar with mormonism, you know. A big part of this book is Ardo's internal war between his resocialization (memory/brain alterations) and his upbringing. One of the big turning points for him in this book consists of him remembering various scripture quotations, from the bible and book of mormon. It is done fairly well, only made me roll my eyes a little. It ties well into the central thread of the book.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is what I’m talking about. This right here is everything I wanted in a StarCraft book. The story follows Ardo Melnikov, a young man who becomes a marine in the Terran Confederacy. Through Ardo, the reader is shown a first hand look at the psychological effects of the “resocialization” marines go through. Some bits with the plot are a little cliched like the beginning chapter, but that is just to set the stage for what comes later.

The main story takes place during the Zerg invasion of Mar Sara. Ardo is assigned to a team for his first mission to extract a vague box. During the team’s expedition they face off against the growing swarm of Zerg and slowly unravel the clandestine workings of the Terran Confederacy. There is plenty of action and the imagery is wonderfully described.

I can’t gush enough about this book without massive spoilers. It is hands down one of my favorite books and absolutely my favorite StarCraft book thus far. It encapsulates everything I love about the franchise and it beautifully expands on some finer points of the lore. 5 out of 5, a mandatory read for all StarCraft fans and highly recommended for anyone who just generally likes action packed sci-fi.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit, I always assumed Tracy Hickman was the half of Weis/Hickman who brought them down & was kind of the schlockier of the two, I guess just because Weis' output as an editor and author with others and alone was so prolific? In any case, this book at least is LEAGUES better than anything I've read by Weis and Hickman together, which has made me intrigued to read more solo Hickman stuff.

This brisk little tale is incredibly impressive not only because the writing stays crisp throughout, including plenty of mindfucks that COULD get annoying in the wrong hands, but mostly because the story itself is INCREDIBLY basic. 'Marines land, grab an object, then it becomes a siege story w/zerg attacking.' In a nutshell, that's it. There's not a lot of meat on that. But Hickman finds a way to make - I'll say it - the BEST Aliens novel I've read so far, and it's not even a friggin Aliens book!

Highly recommended.

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty inconsequential, yet entertaining, Starcraft novel, this follows a Space Marine, Ardo, as he is deployed to Mar Sara during the events of the first game.

Here we learn how marines get processed, how they get messed with psychologically and how desperate their situation really is. The novel is really a character study more than anything else and our character finds himself stuck between the Confederacy that he belongs to, the Zerg and the Sons of Korhal, all of which are pretty untrustworthy factions.

As I said, not much new happens here. None of the big game characters is affected or even mentioned as it is happening so near the beginning of the story of the game, but this doesn't mean that it isn't a fun story to read, just don't expect it to be impactful or to really matter for the wider Starcraft lore

[Danial · Rating 2 out of 5]

My name is Danial Feliciano and i am a student at Army and Navy Academy. My book is speed of darkness by Tracy Hickman. “ That was his word it, that rare perfect day” (Pg 1). “All Ardo Melnikov ever dreamed of was to live in peace on the verdant colony world of Bountiful. This quote means that Ardo Melinkov wishes for a better world but he lives in a awful world. I give this book a 2.5/5. I gave this book that rating because it has mediocre quotes and it becomes boring throughout the story. I gave this book that rating because it has mediocre quotes and it becomes boring throughout the story.This book doesn't really remind me of any other books i've read in the past.

[Ekaterina Staneva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am retreading the SC books that I red in my teenage hood with huge amount of nostalgia.

The Speed Of Darkness was easily the best of them (so far). Instead of following the grand narrative, it has small stakes focusing on one day of the life of a single marine.

The book has packed everything a good read needs in a small amount of pages - character arch, plot twist, moral dilemma, loads of action, loads of emotions and a strong ending that ties up with a main storyline.

It is what Rogue One was to Star Wars really - a back story of a big event through the lense of the nameless sacrifice of unknown characters fighting the war, but also their own demons.

[Gizbilimci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this nice book was not particularly deep on Starcraft lore or character development. Rather it read like a light military science fiction novel with some cool alien vs terran action. What made it nice was that it was weirdly realistic as the events that might occur in a typical Starcraft match. Marines are produced quickly, they are very handy and in the end calculation, totally expendable. The resocialization tanks in the barracks was an idea that stayed with me. This idea provided an interesting and fun angle on how one can see the marines in the game. I liked this book as a light read in the Starcraft universe, which is enjoyable to dive in if you like science fiction.

[Sierra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. This was epic. It explored the way resoc soldiers think and work. Going in the depth of their minds and how the over laying and control works. Which I was interested from the first book with the character, Lieutenant Swallow.
But what I love was the strength that developed from Ardo. He goes from a scary little kid to a beast of a warrior.
And that in the end it didn't matter what was the truth, only who he was, a good person that thinks about everyone else.
Amazing book, worth the read, and would recommend it to anyone.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick fun read I picked up while on vacation at a library book sale. You'll need to have played through the Mar Sara portion of the original StarCraft Terran campaign to be familiar with the context in which the story is set. None of the characters really tie directly into that story, but it fits really well as a self-contained story with some interesting character development that runs parallel to it. Hickman also does a nice job exploring the concept of freedom and self-determination in the midst of an oppressive government that is less than transparent.

[Jorge L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impresionante, realmente me sorprendió, esto demuestra que el universo starcraft es enorme y en cada mision se ocultan historias tan cautivantes, tragicas y reflexivas como esta.
La obra permite entender el proceso de "entrenamiento de marines" bañada en altas dosis de accion ochentera pero siempre bajo el matiz filosofico del yo, el ego, los valores y la verdad..una serie de sc con historias como esta que complementen el canon ufff tendria años.. gran historia, me dan ganas de machacar zergs😤

[Filip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the small-scale, slice-of-life type of plot here, almost (but not entirely) irrelevant in the larger picture. I also liked the return to the times of the Confederacy - with all that happened in StarCraft universe with Brood War and so on, it is easy to forget the beginning of the plot.

The characters are rather bare-bones, but I liked how the neural-resocialization angle was played. All in all a nice, easy read.

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Hickman's books as a teenager and thought I would try reading some of his books again. I have not read any of the other StarCraft books, so I cannot compare it against those, but I thought it was a wonderfully well written sci-fi/game book. It reads fast, has enough twists to keep it interesting, and personally, I loved the build up and the ending. It even made me want to read more about the StarCraft Universe.

[Johann Mahinay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favourite story so far in the StarCraft archive. It covers so much unexplored lore in the StarCraft universe like neural resocialization, boots on the ground infantry combat and the absolute desperation of people left to the effects of the Psi Emitters. I love it.

Ardo ain't that bad of a main character himself. Him actually finding his actual origins is such a nice break from the action in the story.

[Spikkee R Djinn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una misión en Mar Sara donde todo sale mal, así podría resumir el libro. Si bien la idea de ver la guerra entre Zerg y Terrans desde la perceptiva de un soldado puede ser interesante en este libro se ejecuta mal, con momentos sosos, frases repetitivas y -sobretodo- con un protagonista sin mayor carisma.

[Micha Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read it a thousand times. This book is a poem.
I read it back when I was like 12, and I still read it in my 20s.
I still think about this book sometimes.

[Michael Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Writer didn't understand the source material he was pulling from. Also had some rather nonsensical purple prose book ending the story

[Unknown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like it when I can’t predict the ending. It’s so dark and gloomy .. and golden ;)

[IONUT · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book

[Brian Shaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

While short, Speed of Darkness is a gritty and exciting sci-fi that successfully brings the world of Starcraft to life through the novel medium.

[Loren Dillon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is real? Arno may never know. What he does know is that the Zerg are being called upon him and he must fight for his and others’ survival.