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Dark Sky Legion
Maaron Denthurion, a Televox with the mission to preserve the Human Metastable Order, journeys to Olam, where amid turmoil, enslavement, religious cults, and superstition he must determine the fate of the planet and its inhabitants.
416 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
William Barton
126 books17 followersWilliam Renald Barton III (born September 28, 1950) is an American science fiction writer. In addition to his standalone novels, he is also known for collaborations with Michael Capobianco. Many of their novels deal with themes such as the Cold War, space travel, and space opera.
Barton also has written short stories that put an emphasis on sexuality and human morality in otherwise traditional science fiction. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's and Sci Fiction, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the Sidewise Award, and the HOMer Award, and three of his novels (The Transmigration of Souls, Acts of Conscience, and When We Were Real) have been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Barton also has written short stories that put an emphasis on sexuality and human morality in otherwise traditional science fiction. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's and Sci Fiction, and has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Award, the Sidewise Award, and the HOMer Award, and three of his novels (The Transmigration of Souls, Acts of Conscience, and When We Were Real) have been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.
Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 9, 2020
Interesting concept of a future when Earth with a form of government called the Metastable Order has an empire of planets covering 50k light years or so to mange and control. Planetary Governors are assigned and rotated to oversee each planet and keep it following the rules and laws of the Metastable Order.
But of course, planets fall out of compliance and Governors become corrupted, so there is a force of traveling Televox's that have ultimate authority over the Governors and planets. A Televox is originally an Earth person who creates a double of himself to go off into the empire acting as policeman. That double is reduced to being stored in "black ice" during the slower than light travel between planets and then reembodied on arrival in human form.
Each Televox appears to visit worlds in the empire randomly, often with thousands of years between visits and has ultimate power to bring the planet back into the desired Metastable order, if they have wandered off of it or even completely destroy the planet (and alien races) if they so choose.
It's not especially well written and the characters are fairly flat. The author also seems to have a bit of a fetish with excessively describing the female anatomy.
The ending wasn't exactly what I thought would occur, which was a positive.
But of course, planets fall out of compliance and Governors become corrupted, so there is a force of traveling Televox's that have ultimate authority over the Governors and planets. A Televox is originally an Earth person who creates a double of himself to go off into the empire acting as policeman. That double is reduced to being stored in "black ice" during the slower than light travel between planets and then reembodied on arrival in human form.
Each Televox appears to visit worlds in the empire randomly, often with thousands of years between visits and has ultimate power to bring the planet back into the desired Metastable order, if they have wandered off of it or even completely destroy the planet (and alien races) if they so choose.
It's not especially well written and the characters are fairly flat. The author also seems to have a bit of a fetish with excessively describing the female anatomy.
The ending wasn't exactly what I thought would occur, which was a positive.
April 12, 2025
Recent Rereads: Dark Sky Legion. William Barton approaches the Fermi Paradox from a different direction: what if we were the Dark Forest? Tasked with maintaining a STL civilisation a man looks back on his lives while deciding how to regulate divergence from a precarious balance. We are the baddies.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews