In The Black - my review

In the Black by Patrick S. Tomlinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another fun book by Patrick S. Tomlinson. This time we have the crew of a warship that is part of a corp[orate-sponsored fleet playing tag with a hostile alien ship, the crew of that alien ship, and the CEO of a transstellar corp[oration suddenly having a very bad week. It all moves quickly, the action is well-written, and he explains his universe without long pieces of expository text. The alien Xre, for example, a reintroduced and we learn about them and their culture just be following the story. The leader has just molted and is bothered by having to wait for a new shell to grow. Their society is more collective, with several references to a lost homeworld and the fall of a royal caste.

You care about these characters, even the aliens. Sometimes their motivations feel a little forced, but there are many times when leaders are forced into hard decisions. Tomlinson has a talent for bringing characters to life with very few brushstrokes.

My only real problem here was the number of current references in a book supposedly taking place a few centuries from now. Two characters have lunch at Chili's. A character listens to "Immigrant Song" in the shower. For the latter, you could simply mention that the character had a passion for late 20th-century music. But you can introduce a casual dining restaurant without making us wonder how the chain survived three or four hundred years.

Finally, this is a complete novel that leads into the next book. The CEO's tale, which is the B-polt of the book, is clearly going to be near the fore in the next book. But you can read this one and be happy with a good space opera tale.



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