In the Ocean of Night [Mass Market Paperback]

Gregory Benford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1987

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

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Spectra (June 1, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553265784
• ISBN-13: 978-0553265781
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,691,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Galactic Center Kindof Starts Here, January 17, 2009

By 

Just Anonymous (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: In the Ocean of Night (Galactic Center, Volume 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

In the Ocean of night is the first book in a six book series called the Galactic Center Saga - one of the best known and beloved epic hard science fiction stories out there.

I'm only reviewing two books in the series: In the Ocean of Night and Great Sky River and I've attached a broader review of the series to these two reviews that I hope might be useful to the reader.

In the Ocean of Night presents us a world that is out of balance with humanity crowding earth and having too much of an impact on the world from an ecological standpoint. The book focuses quite a bit on the personal lives of the people in the story and in their development so this book is an unlikely starter for such a fantastic story that is told in the last 4 books of the series but in an interesting way many of the same themes are here. The book In the Ocean of Night was first a novellette published on IF magazine back in 1972 and then it was expanded into a full length book. So interwoven into this whole story of human overpopulation and 1960s style alternative lifestyle parameters (or natural lifestyle parameters depending on your inclination), the author weaves the beginnings of what will be a fantastic story set against the center of the galaxy. In the Ocean of Night though takes place on Earth mostly and you have to plow through the people and ecology and personal life stuff to get to the about 20 or so pages of interesting hard sci fi (for me).

The second book Across the Sea of Suns is truly a fantastic work of science fiction though and a true mystery tale and then there is a hiatus and flashforward 30,000 years to the events of Great Sky River (the first book I read of the series). So to me the first two books were almost prologue material albeit very interesting prologue.

My advice is pick up this book and try to read them in order but if you find yourself bogged down with the personal lives of the scientists, set it aside and pick up Across the Sea of Suns or even better Great Sky River and then come back to In the Ocean of Night after you're hooked and want some precursor material. I ate up In the Ocean of Night back when I first read it but Benford had me nicely hooked (hook like and sinker) with the last 4 books and with Across the Sea of Suns....in the end the series is nicely balanced with the 6 books in terms of theme. I don't know if I'd end the series the way Benford did (I think I had a better ending envisioned) which Dr. Benford did not align with me on. Benford is a great writer that gets you thinking along certain lines and as the books went along from Great Sky River to Tides of Light to Furious Gulf and Sailing Bright Eternity, I kept saying, "I get it! I know where you're going with this! And, wow that's interesting." So he gets you in sync nicely but towards the very end it wasn't that Benford threw a terrible curve ball or anything that yanked the story in another direction, it was more like we fell slightly out of sync (don't get me wrong, his ending is just fine, but it wasn't quite the way I would've put it) -- but hey, I'm just the reader who read this first when he was a kid and he's the author and its a great story.


*** Generic Review of Series ***
Collectively, this series of books written by Gregory Benford are known as the Galactic Center Saga. In order the books are:

1) In the Ocean of Night - Near Future
2) Across the Sea of Suns - Few hundred years from Now Future

--- Big Break in Time

3) Great Sky River - Distant Future
4) Tides of Light - Distant Future
5) Furious Gulf - Distant Future
6) Sailing Bright Eternity - Distant Future

The series is an early monument to epic science fiction on a grand scale across space and time. The prevailing concept of the books is that of how life in all its forms is resilient and how life adapts and evolves in response to different circumstances. The series also tells the story of how sometimes there is intense competition for resources and how sometimes groups seek to protect their resources. And finally, the series talks about how when things go out of balance - like human overexpansion - something happens in nature that brings back balance --- so in a large sense, the series is a cautionary tale although Benford skillfully makes out the Machine empire as the out of balance force that has to be brought back into normality but if you go back to the original book, it is humanity that is out of balance with earth.

Reading the entire series was a voyage of discovery for me. So, I first started reading the series with the third book titled, Great Sky River. The title, as best as I can remember, is a metaphorical label for the arms of the Milky Way galaxy which "flow" to the center of the galaxy. I found Great Sky River to be very entertaining fast paced, hard science fiction telling the story of survival by a few humans set against the backdrop of the wonders of the center of the galaxy in some far distant future. In this far future age, humanity civilization has already peaked and has begun a long decline and the heros struggle to survive in this far future world dominated by a vast machine civilization that dominates the central portion of the galaxy - a machine civilization that considers humans little more than a pest infestation (humans are cockroaches or rats, in this future world)....albeit the machines do consider humans interesting in some respects. So overall, a bit of a bleak world. Mind you, the machines consider interesting for a particular reason that I won't divulge for fear of being a spoiler but overall, the author plays with a whole plethora of concepts in a very intertaining fashion.

The last 3 books continue with the setting of Great Sky River (the center of the galaxy) and characters from Great Sky River. The books explore the human condition, the grandness of our universe, life, and a whole slew of other things. The last three books, particularly the last two, begin to tie in the first two books from the series and gives you the sense of the vastness of the galactic saga with the final book buttoning up everything in a rather interesting fashion.

After reading the last four series of the books and wanting more, I read that there were two precursor books. I read Across the Sea of Suns next which I found tremendously enjoyable. Across the Sea of Suns is the book which starts to set things in motion from a galactic center saga standpoint with an explanation of some core tenets for the following final four books in the series. Across the Sea of Suns is a mystery story first and foremost - which is kindof fun to read although a bit depressing because it is here that you first come to see the invisible machine empire and how powerless humanity is to do anything against them. Imagine, if some unseen alien force started sending meteors to pommel earth or send diseases our way etc - what could we do? Think of the movie Cloverfield, we would be virtually defenseless as a race against an attack like that.

Back to the first two books. In my mind, In the Ocean of Night, has a near future setting and gives me the impression of humanity being all alone in the Universe and entirely engrossed in our own petty little lives and there is talk of how we are ravaging our environment and how we are out of balance. The book plays out against the backdrop of the 1960s alternative lifestyles all embued with some of the behavior that has helped us survive as a species. I don't want to give away the story in the review so just bear in mind that this first installment of the series is very focused on the peoples, the cultures, and the society of the planet, including the interpersonal relationships of many characters. Intertwined into the book, you get the science fiction backdrop that we are not alone and you get some glimpses of a broader world.

So the prevaling theme is that of balance, the persistence of life, competition - all set against the backdrop of hard science fiction that becomes harder as you delve deeper into the series. Never as hard as Stephen Baxter who I think is phenomenal but hard science fiction nontheless.


If you don't like slow social science fiction, you might want to skip In the Ocean of Night and go straight to Across the Sea of Suns. If you want the precursor material to Great Sky River without the interhuman drama, you can read the short story on the 1972 issue of "IF" magazine - if you can find it. If you just want the fun and excitement of a fast paced hard sci fi series, start with Great Sky River and take it from there.

Overall, In the Ocean of Night is required reading but just bear in mind that its richer from a character development standpoint and not true hard sci fi like most of the rest of the series.

Hope this helps you navigate the Galactic Center Saga - I really enjoyed the entire series when I was growing up.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ambition that exceeds the writer's ability, February 18, 2007

By 

Mitchell Glodek (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Ocean of Night (Galactic Center, Volume 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Entombed in this 420 page novel is a decent hard sf short story about Earth's first contact with robotic aliens. Unfortunately, Benford takes on the ambitious task of marrying his traditional space alien story with a literary story about human relationships and the meaning of life, a worthy project he is not equipped to bring to a successful conclusion. So, the interesting alien encounter plot is buried under hundreds of pages of tedious domestic drama (the main character, a British-born astronaut, has a menage a trois marriage, and one of the women is terminally ill) and political infighting (the astronaut is a Bob Dylan- and John Lennon-loving rebel who refuses to play the dishonest games of the warmongering bureaucrats and religious fanatics in the U.S. government.) Benford gets an "A" for effort as he unleashes literary allusions, unconventional prose techniques, and scads of metaphors and similies, and piles on chapter after chapter about the sex lives, religious beliefs, cocktail parties, drug use, day trips to the beach and vacations of the astronaut and his circle, but the characters are uninteresting and the only parts of the book that really work are those two or three dozen pages in which a character is in the cockpit of a space ship or Lunar craft. Too bad.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The beginning of a machine-intelligence horror tale., February 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In the Ocean of Night (Mass Market Paperback)

I found this first volume of a six volume story to be the most interesting. It immediately hooks you and leaves you wondering just where you're headed. Walmsley is a character you soon root for and have confidence in. This volume becomes integral and significant to the final one, which is a grand and awe-inspiring finish to a dark, fascinating and addicting series. You may have trouble locating names of all six novels in the order they were released, as follows: In the ocean of night, Across the sea of suns, Great sky river, Tides of light, Furious gulf, and Sailing bright eternity.