As on a Darkling Plain

By Ben Bova

As on a Darkling Plain is the chronological first book in The Others Saga by SF master and six-time Hugo Award winner Ben Bova.

The discovery of huge alien machines operating on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is just the beginning of a nightmare for Dr. Sidney Lee. He is convinced that, without the intervention of his crew, these machines will destroy mankind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ReAnimus Press
• Release date: Dec 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310766022

Ben Bova

Dr. Ben Bova has not only helped to write about the future, he helped create it. The author of more than one hundred futuristic novels and nonfiction books, he has been involved in science and advanced technology since the very beginnings of the space program. President Emeritus of the National Space Society, Dr. Bova is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and a widely popular lecturer. He has also been an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry.

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Reviews for As on a Darkling Plain

[nickhowes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Part of a loose series about the presence of a long-standing threat to Earth, this is a fast-moving, three-act story about the mysterious, colossal machinery found on Titan. Scientists seek the answers to why they are there, knowing that the future of the human race could be at stake. Set against it is a love triangle and the effects on it of relativistic travel. Especially liked the midsection story. Excellent story, nice ending, excellent pacing. Works well as a standalone novel.

[cataloger623 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the prequel to Bova's debut novel the Star Conquerors. It answers the question what is the purpose of the Great Machines on Titan. These machines get a brief mention in Star Conquerors yet the implications of their presence is the motivation behind the entire trilogy. The story revolves around three central characters involved in a love triangle, scientists Syndey Lee and Marlene Ettinger, and soldier/astronaut Bob O'Banion as they try to uncover the secrets of the Great Machines. The book is a series of vignettes. Each chapter is a separate story highlighting the lives of each of the principle characters. It also functions as a fairly good first contact story. This aspect of the story is by far the best part of the book. The overall feel of the novel is that Bova is experimenting. In some of the chapters all of the plot points come together nicely. In others the reader is left wondering if there should be more than is presented. Its like Bova wanted the reader to fill in the empty spaces on their own. This is particularly true of the ending. This novel serves as a good look at Bova's early writing style, given that was the 10th fiction book of 84 he would write, plus another 34 non fiction books on a wide variety of science topics. The book is a good short novel and worth reading.

[petroglyph_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

TL;DR: some nice ideas, but pretty badly written. I can’t recommend this in good conscience.This book reads like three linked stories clumsily-stitched together -- a fixup, in other words, though it isn’t one. In the first story a manned mission is sent to Jupiter to find out more about strange Alien machines on Saturn’s moon Titan; the second story deals with a set of explorers investigating an Earthlike planet around Sirius; and the third deals squarely with the ancient but still functioning machines on Titan. The frame story is a ridiculous “love triangle”. There’s a few good story-ideas in there: an ancient human space-faring civilization that arose between the Ice Ages is a thrilling what-if prompt (Graham Hancock-style pseudo-science works best as SF), and I also liked the concept of a hunter-gatherer tribe of Neanderthals in space, all that is left of a colony of the aforementioned Ice Age Space Society. Both of these are prominent in the second story, which I thought most amusing. But whatever enjoyable story ideas this fix-up offers is more than offset by the poor writing: Bova’s style is turgidly perfunctory; his characterization is non-existent; and his imagination concerning Alien motives just isn’t, well, imaginative. The love triangle that Bova tries to tie these stories together with simply doesn’t work: he cannot get his non-characters to act in a manner that would make their troubled relationship believable.

[ikeman100 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have read a few Bova books and enjoyed most of them. This one was not so good. It was like he joined/edited a few decent short stories together to get a quick novel. The final premise of this short novel is that we would like to know the real purpose of the fully functioning monolith/machines found on a Saturn moon. This type of story was done much better and by James P. Hogan in his "Inherit the Stars". Hogan went on to write two more novels to complete the adventure.I'll try other Bova books but this one was poor.