Customer Reviews

The Dark Path (Dark Wing)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The war between the birdlike Zor and humanity is over with the two species now at peace. Still not everything is idyllic in the galaxy. Known for their psychic ability, the Zor panic when the High Lord dreams of a nightmarish assault from the feral species residing in the racial memory of his people as demons. Also two human vessels have vanished and a rescue effort to save the missing crew fails.

On the Cicero Naval Base, Commodore Jacqueline Laperriere and her XO Ch'K'te the Zor learn that the "demons"(aliens) have used their powers to change shapes to infiltrate the outpost. The Vulh with their mind control abilities and their talent to phsyically mimic anyone including a commander and an XO have arrived. The only hope for mankind is Jacqueline, but her superior thinks otherwise, while the Zor believes she is the reincarnation of the legendary Zor hero Qu'u, here to defeat the Vulh if she can find the ancient weapon that succeeded once before.

THE DARK WING was an exciting war of the worlds that showcases a new talent in the military science fiction category. THE DARK PATH is a better tale as Walter H. Hunt provides incredible depth to the interspecies relationships yet never loses sight of the action expected by sub-genre readers. The story line is superb because the audience obtains a stronger understanding of the Zor, better insight into how humans relate to this species, and introduces in flaming red terror the Vulh. Obviously the military crowd will enjoy this thriller, but outer space sci fi fans will appreciate the novel too,

Harriet Klausner

Set in the universe that Hunt introduced in "The Dark Wing", "The Dark Path" is the first book in a larger story (that will take at least a couple more books to complete, I guess), and Hunt has me hooked!

Like "Dark Wing", this is classic space-opera sci-fi of the highest order. The plot is complex and compelling, the characters are well-drawn and sympathetic, and the story is finely crafted and well-paced, combining mystery and action in a way that will keep you in its grip until the final page, and leave you wanting more.

I can't wait to read the next installment!

These 4 books - The Dark Wing, The Dark Path, The Dark Ascent, and The Dark Crusade - exhibit many of the standard space opera devices. There are the winged and in many ways admirable aliens, the remorseless insectoid alien adversaries, the hidden powers attempting to manipulate human fates, and the sprawling and somewhat corrupt space empire. There is also more than a touch of mysticism with events mirroring myths of the winged alien species. Nor can it be said that Hunt has done anything particularly novel with these devices.
Nonetheless, Hunt is a more than competent practictioner and these books are a decent read. Hunt does quite well with reasonably tight plotting and characterization. His integration of the mythic elements is better than average. These books are better, for example, than David Weber's very popular books.

For the first 95% of this book, I would have to say it is one of the most entertaining sci-fi books I have ever read, and very well-crafted. The end, however, was a total disappointment. It was as if the author suddenly got tired of writing and had to tie up some loose ends in the last 25 or so pages (King's "The Stand" comes to mind in this regard). Even assuming that this was not the real ending (i.e. there will be a sequel) it wasn't a customary pre-sequel ending, keeping the reader in suspense on what might happen next -- it just kind of fizzles out. I just found it odd in such an otherwise wonderful piece of writing.

The war between the birdlike Zor and humanity is over with the two species now at peace. Still not everything is idyllic in the galaxy. Known for their psychic ability, the Zor panic when the High Lord dreams of a nightmarish assault from the feral species residing in the racial memory of his people as demons. Also two human vessels have vanished and a rescue effort to save the missing crew fails.

On the Cicero Naval Base, Commodore Jacqueline Laperriere and her XO Ch'K'te the Zor learn that the "demons"(aliens) have used their powers to change shapes to infiltrate the outpost. The Vulh with their mind control abilities and their talent to phsyically mimic anyone including a commander and an XO have arrived. The only hope for mankind is Jacqueline, but her superior thinks otherwise, while the Zor believes she is the reincarnation of the legendary Zor hero Qu'u, here to defeat the Vulh if she can find the ancient weapon that succeeded once before.

THE DARK WING was an exciting war of the worlds that showcases a new talent in the military science fiction category. THE DARK PATH is a better tale as Walter H. Hunt provides incredible depth to the interspecies relationships yet never loses sight of the action expected by sub-genre readers. The story line is superb because the audience obtains a stronger understanding of the Zor, better insight into how humans relate to this species, and introduces in flaming red terror the Vulh. Obviously the military crowd will enjoy this thriller, but outer space sci fi fans will appreciate the novel too,

Harriet Klausner

I won't try to rehash what others here have said so well. My observations are limited to the following: First, the build up and characterization are stunning, but the finish leaves you somewhat unfulfilled. It deserved better. Second, I absolutely, thouroughly enjoyed the way Hunt's alien culture and psychology were driven so convincingly by their physiology. This was opera I could believe, consistant and convincing within it's own universe. Perhaps Hunt will write a 5th book to finish the story in the way it deserves. If he does, I will plunk down my cash without hesitation.

As I read this, I kept trying to figure out which series the reviewers had not read - this one or the Harrington books. The protagonists are female space navy officers: end of similarity.

Harrington is a retelling of Horatio Hornblower / Admiral Nelson in a science fiction background - complete to loosing an eye and an arm. She commands ships and fleets in battle.

In this book, the heroine is on a quest to repeat the accomplishments of a legendary alien hero - complete with ghosts and mystical visions.

If someone really wants to quibble: Harrington has a symbiotic partner (Nimitz can hardly be called a pet) who is empathic, but stops far short the mysticism found here.

The first book, The Dark Wing was much better, it concentrated more on the space navy side of things and whether or not we commit genocide to save both species. This one is just totally bizarre throughout much of it.

Walter Hunt's second book on humanity's Solar Empire and the Zor is a gripping, tantalizing examination of interspecies relationships and Zor psychology. "The Dark Path" is set eighty five years after the last of the human-Zor wars chronicled in "The Dark Wing". Now at peace, humans and Zor are staunch allies, with each serving in the other's military forces. At remote Cicero Naval Base Commodore Jacqueline "Jackie" Laperriere and her exec, Commander Ch'k'te HeYen, are forced to confront mindshifting and shapeshifting aliens, the insectoid Vuhl, whose coming was foretold by the Zor High Lord of the Nest in "The Dark Path". Together they must reenact an ancient Zor myth to win back from the vuhl a sacred sword seized by the Vuhl from its human owner, the aged Serge Torrijos, an envoy of the Zor government.

Walter Hunt approaches Ursula LeGuin in his captivating examination of Zor psychology and religious mythology. And he evokes Orson Scott Card's Ender Wiggin saga in his depiction of the insectoid Vuhl. Much to his credit, Hunt does a fine job creating believable, likeable characters, most notably those of Jackie and Ch'K'Te. Alas he ends the story a bit too neatly at the end, but with enough hints suggesting yet another further installment in the humans-Zor saga.

If I didn't know Walter Hunt personally, I would wonder what kind of deranged mind could conjure up not just one, but at least two entirely alien races, complete with their own unique mythologies and philosophies. But I do know Mr. Hunt, and I know that these aliens have inhabited his imagination for many, many years, perhaps since his high school days.

Drawing on his expert writing techniques -- he has been writing at least that long -- he draws these aliens for us readers with such meticulous care that we experience them exactly as he sees them, full of foreign emotion and consistent motivation. He has not taken leave of his senses. Rather, he employs them with art and skill. His human characters inhabit a world that rings as true as any that a hard-core science fiction reader can find published today. The depth of detail, the intensity of emotion, and complexity of his plots involve the reader so completely that comparison seems ludicrous. While he might have many influences, the prose that Walter Hunt writes is inimitably his own.

The Zor are winged bipeds whose culture blends hard science with a spirituality as real to them as their daily meals. They communicate not just by words, but by gestures whose very meaning is lost on most humans. Over eighty standard years have passed since the Zor Wars (see Mr. Hunt's first novel THE DARK WING), and they are now staunch allies of the human empire. But even as the two species remain at peace, prejudice and distrust lurk among the human population, while confusion and misunderstanding dwell among the zor. Yet this merely serves as the backdrop for THE DARK PATH. The action comes fast and furious, involving a new, perhaps unbeatable threat. And Mr. Hunt leads us on a journey with a female protagonist who redefines the role women should play in our own future.

This is not just an adventure story; it is a saga, an epic. Mr. Hunt captures the essence of Homer's THE ODYSSEY and places it in the distant future, where Faster-Than-Light travel is possible and humans reach out to explore an unknown (and perhaps unknowable) universe. Like THE ODYSSEY, this is a book fraught with implications for today's very real world of political and military turmoil. That makes THE DARK PATH, in my humble opinion, a classic that will endure.

A superbly written book, THE DARK PATH engages our senses with an undeniable, yet totally foreign mysticism. This is not last we'll hear of Walter Hunt. Quite the contrary. This is only the beginning, and I for one wait helplessly hooked for the next installment.