The Burning Dark (Spider Wars #1) by Adam Christopher is the first book in a new series from the author. Venturing into full-on sci-fi, The Burning Dark marks a departure from his previous –and well received – urban fantasy/superhero novels. While I have yet to read any of Christopher’s previous works, The Burning Dark does raise a very prominent question for me about the author: why the praise?
Sent out of the way to the Shadow star system and the U-Star Coast City space station to oversee its decommissioning, Captain Abraham Idaho ‘Ida’ Cleveland finds he is treated as an outcast by those aboard, while the serving Commandant has apparently left and in charge is King, the provost marshal. With a strong resentment towards him and disbelief in his achievements, of which there is no official record, Ida finds himself growing distant from the crew. While tinkering with electronics he stumbles across a mysterious transmission from the past on the banned subspace channels, and that is only the beginning of his troubles…
It’s clear to see that the ideas Adam Christopher explores in The Burning Dark are multi-layered, with nothing ever being quite what it seems. However, this is also its downfall. While the early parts of the novel are a fairly straight-forward introduction to the U-Star Coast City, Ida, and all aboard, there is always an underlying and unsettling feeling seeping through the words. While part of this is very much to do with the story Christopher is telling, other parts can be attributed to the seemingly endless exposition, internal monologuing, and general clunkiness of the prose.
The parts that work, while few and far between, really do work. There was more than one occasion where I felt a chill down my spine, goose bumps on my skin, and a very real sense of uneasiness washing over me. The tried and tested formula of an almost deserted space station and strange occurrences really do pay dividends when done right. Unfortunately, these were perhaps the only parts of the novel that stood out as memorable and a step above the ordinary.
The setting Christopher has created is an interesting one. With humanity under attack by the strange Spider species, a seemingly artificial entity that attack and devours whole worlds at a time, there is plenty to get excited about. However, this part of the novel is very much relegated to Ida’s history of a battle against the Spiders, with few other in-depth examinations of this war. It’s always made known, but never really explored, which is a shame as some more detail on this aspect would have gone a long way to improve the world-building.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of The Burning Dark, as strange as it sounds, is the way everything seems to slot into place towards the end. While what happens is interesting in itself, but because there is little foreshadowing of events it all seems to come out of nowhere. One minute we’re wondering what the explanation for everything is, the next we’ve been told everything we need to know and, to be honest, it’s not something I could have put together from the plot up to that point.
In summary, The Burning Dark was a disappointment. There is potential within the pages for a great novel, but the execution is below par. Based on this novel alone I can’t see myself reading any future novels in this series, or anything else the author has to offer.
Tor: http://us.macmillan.com/
Adam Christopher: http://www.adamchristopher.co.uk/
March 2014, 336 pages
Hardcover, ISBN: 9780765335081
Review copy received from the publisher
© 2014 Mark Chitty
I felt the exact same way about Mr. Christopher’s other works. I think his stories either hit your sweet spot, or not.
I think that’s very much the case here for me, which is a shame. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.