Gregory Benford

A classic novel of man's future and fate, written by the eminent American physicist and award-winning author of "Timescape."

In the Ocean of Night

Bryan Alexander

I first read In The Ocean of Night when I was around 10 years old. Or tried to read it. I found it haunting and moving, plus having space action that I loved, but it was also over my head. Since then I read and enjoyed the other books that follow it in the Galactic Center sequence.

On a whim I dug up a copy and reread it. It's an ambitious book. There's a first contact story at the center, along with a very 1970s view of a fouled-up world, sexual exploration, institutional politics, meditations on the difference between humans and machines, a sketch of human evolution, body horror, and cybernetics. No wonder it was tough going for a ten year old.

Our main character is an astronaut with the insanely British name of Nigel Walmsley, and he spends the novel seeking personal or metaphysical transformation through alien contact. Unfortunately the world is a largely rotten place. NASA is run by idiots, pollution is killing people, standards of living are falling, international wars rage, and an apparently bad religion is taking off. The aliens aren't going to save us; in fact, we might drive them off by our heinousness. Yet Nigel and his allies keep plugging away through signals, spacecraft, and scheming.

Benford's prose focuses on Walmsley, increasingly shifting into a mix of sparse lyricism and modernism language play. This works well until part of the end, which get a bit too much.

Speaking of the end, it does tie up enough to satisfy as a novel. And yet the stage is certainly set for epic sequels, once we learn that (view spoiler)[there are two competing alien races or groups, one an anti-organic machine civilization that might want to exterminate humanity. Plus there's Bigfoot. I know that makes some reviewers toss the book aside, but in this case it works for themes and, well, because yetis are awesome. (hide spoiler)]

In The Ocean of Night dates in some ways. It's very male-centric, and the underplay of two women in the first half disappoints a reader in 2021. The timeline is obviously out of date and some prognostications misfired. On the other hand, maybe 1970s grimness is coming back for a younger generation born after 9-11, reared in the Great Recession, and steeped in climate change dread. And a fight brewing between machines and organics might be just the ticket today.

In the Ocean of Night

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