Customer Reviews

Those Who Walk in Darkness

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Leaving aside the plot holes and the lack of anything but the most cursory character development, the book is just badly written and in dire need of an editor. Long chapters of synopsis are combined with sentence fragments to create something that reads like a quickly dashed-off screenplay treatment. I'm sure the destruction of San Francisco and the various metahuman/cop battles will look great on screen, but as a book, this makes comic books look deep.

I haven't seen this much pent up anger in a book since Order of the Pheonix. Soledad is an angry, two demensional, bigot who's a Mary Sue to top off the nastiness that exudes from her. Her coworkers are angry. The boyfriend is a nonentity. The Mutants (whom we get so little background about) seem to be the only faction in this story that have a right to be angry since they're being hunted down regardless of their personal histories.

Anger about Los Angeles. It's so plainly obvious that the author hates LA with a passion that makes his blood boil. Why, oh why, did he set it there? He even hates the nice days in town. I went to college in LA and know first hand that it's not like what appears on tv, but holy cats, this guy really doesn't like it. The pure venom in the narration makes it that much more difficult to put up with such borederline protagonists.

Also, is this a book or a script? The use of colons instead of verbs was simply poor form. I understand that Mr. Ridley is a tv writer, which is great, but he needs to understand that prose and scripts are different beasts, or his editor should be fired.

I picked up this book because it had a great title, which is the only thing that was any good about it.

Soledad O'Roarke is a BAMF LA cop who specializes in killing supernaturals. When the supernaturals first came, they were heroes. An unfortunate accident changed that and now it seems they're rogues.

This is a dark and disturbing book. Seems like the whole class of supernaturals is branded here by one's failings. It's worth a read, but the hate for a whole class of people is just too darn close to Nazi Germany to make this more than a one-book affair for me.

What began as an interesting novel and journeyed into an interesting form of describing humanity and some of our worst shortcomings, ended without any of the characters transforming into something new and preferably better. I felt cheated by how this story ended and refuse to believe that all of humanity is as hopeless, narrow-minded and self destructive as what was represented by the main character, Soledad.

It is rare for me to put a book down and simply stop reading it. I did with SM Stirling's "Draka" books ... there's something seriously wrong with a book that leaves you wanting to root for the *Nazis*, for example ... and this book leaves the same sort of bad taste in my mouth. The main character is, frankly, sick - and the society she is "protecting" is not much better the way the book is written.

She has no redeeming features at all. She is a bigoted fanatic of the worst sort ... and she wallows in it ... and so does the author. Well, to be fair, Stirling claims not to love his fascist Draka (I've never been sure I believe that claim), so its possible that Ridley is trying to make a point about bigoted fanatics ... but it doesn't come across that way.

Then there's the believability factor of the background. I can't quite come to grips with this ... its supposed to be a gritty realistic police thriller. But with superheroes who wear their underpants on the ouitside. There's something that just doesn't gel ... it just seems inherently ... silly? unbelievable? strange? It just doesn't work for me, anyway.

Apart from the above, the book is reasonably well written. Won't win the Nobel Prize for Literature, or the Hugos or the Nebulas. But it isn't awful and amateurish. Its just there are other problems. As noted.

Boy, was this book a serious letdown. I rushed out to get it based on my love for comics and fictional futures. The premise is excellent, and Ridley's dialogue is like nothing I've ever read. It's true to life and unique. The only thing that let me down was the main character that we're (I think) supposed to be rooting for (or maybe not...maybe this is Ridley's intention). Soledad comes off as a hateful, bigoted, murderous, merciless human being. And it's not even for an understandable reason. Sure, the disaster visited upon San Francisco is horrific...but Soledad's family never made it to the city. They were all spared. This is the one thing that kept me from thoroughly enjoying the book.

I bought this book with anticipation, because the book blurb intrigued me. Boy, was I disappointed!

As others have stated, the background of the story is that there is an emerging presence of "mutant" humans, ones who seem to have superhuman powers. As in all comic book stories, the "good" mutants fight the "bad" mutants and try to protect human society. All that comes crashing to an end in the USA when one of the baddies manages to wipe out most of San Francisco. Immediately, it seems, the normal humans turn against all the mutated humans, an Executive Order is issued by the President abolishing their civil rights and giving them 30 days to leave the country or else be subject to "termination" without due cause. Special MTAC squads are set up in all major cities to handle the extermination of the mutants

Is there any real exploration into whether or not the mutants are just the further evolution of humanity?
No.

Is there any real explanation as to why the entire population of the USA seemingly allows civil rights to be trampled without demur?
No.

Is it ever even explained why the mutated humans who acted as superheroes and supervillians adopted corny names and wore costumes?
No.

Instead we get the character of Soledad O'Roark, a bigoted and essentially nasty female cop. One who apparently was so traumatized by what happened in San Francisco (she and her family were supposed to take a trip there that day but didn't because she was ill) that she has dedicated her entire life to becoming the scourge of the mutants. Never mind that they were obviously childhood heroes to her, never mind that outside of her police duties she never comes into contact with them, never mind that the majority of the mutated humans follow a "harm none" policy, never mind that no one she knew was killed in San Francisco. She is a WOMAN WITH A MISSION. She has no close friends, she keeps her family at arm's distance, she has no social life - her life is her job and her goal is to become the baddest bad-ass in the special MTAC squad and kill the mutants. She is single-minded in her hatred. She doesn't seem to care if the people she kills help humanity or hurts them; she resents that they have god-like abilities and that's enough for her.

There is a rather lame romantic tangent in the story - frankly I could not see why on earth the character of Ian would have been attracted to her in the first place, much less put up with all of her bigotry when he didn't seem to share her POV.

THE FOLLOWING IS A SPOILER: When they are involved in a traffic accident on their way to taking a vacation after having finally admitting that they love each other, Soledad begs Ian to help her save a woman trapped in a burning car, Ian does so but has to reveal that he too is a mutated human. The woman's life is saved solely due to his intervention, but does that even penetrate Soledad's mind and cause her to rethink her bigotry? No, she takes out her gun then and there at the accident site and empties it into him - the man she professes to love.

Soledad is a one-note cartoon character who exhibits no true emotional or intellectual growth throughout the book. And as a black woman, she shows a complete lack of understanding of the historical incongruity of her mindset and bigotry.

Since this is the first book in the series, I suppose there is always the chance that Soledad will evolve into a more, not compassionate - that would be stretching things too far, but perhaps a more thoughtful person, but frankly I'm not going to devote the time or money to try to find that out.

Think X-Men, only without the interesting characters or any of the humanity of the story. Also, the "hero" of the book wants to exterminate all mutants. Others have explained the plot, so I'll just get to what I think works and mostly doesn't work about this book.

For a book about super-humans, there sure aren't a lot of them in this thing. The glimpses we do get to see of "metahumans" usually end with them getting shot by the main "protagonist" Soledad O'Roark, who is perhaps the most unlikable character ever put to paper. She embodies the underlying theme in the story, which is that everybody on the planet is bigoted and racist, even minorities, and sometimes human rights have to be stripped away in order for "normal" people to feel safe.

I found it odd that the author would write a book with superheroes in it, then chalk the main character so full of hatred and racism it's impossible to like her. Presumably most of the people who would read a book with super-humans in it like superheroes, and the story here is pretty alienating in that respect.

We never really get to know any of the characters, much less care about them, save the fact that I found myself getting progressively angrier and angrier at Soledad's "only good mutie is a dead mutie" attitude. Even at the end of the book she has no redeeming characteristics, and the later chapters actually make her more vicious and nasty, if that's possible.

At one point Soledad says, "I don't have friends." Well no kidding; she's wholly unlikable and has no redeeming characteristics. I found it impossible to understand why on earth the love interest in the story would be able to put up with her nastiness for more than three minutes without setting her on fire.

I suppose I just don't understand why one would write a book from exclusively this point of view, especially being an African American. The moral of the story seems to be "oppress whoever makes you feel safer." The hope of someone's redemption and the "what's going to happen next" kept me reading this book, but when it was all said and done I was definitely sorry I had. I like stories with characters who have both good and evil in their character, and moral gray areas of plot, but this one is all evil and grim and none of the positive of humanity. Whenever you make Phillip K. Dick look cheery by comparison, something has gone bad wrong.

Ridley must really, really hate comic books.

I read this book in one sitting, but I didn't really like it. I could have liked it a lot more, even without a word being changed, if there was a message that this was just the first part of a trilogy. Sadly, I saw no such note.

The world setting is much like DC's apocalyptic Kingdom Come. Humans have given birth to metahumans. The reasons for this are never explored. At first some of the mutants live out their superhero fantasies, dress up in garish costumes and - like Peter Pan - think good thoughts and do good works. But
superpowers don't equate with the Freudian "superego"... in other words, metahumans do not have any greater sense of social responsibility than do normal people. Some are "good" and law-abiding, and others get their thrills any way they can.

Public perception changes and hardens when San Francisco is destroyed in a firestorm by a pyromaniac metahuman. As in the novel Watchmen, all "mask"s are outlawed, all metahumans ordered to leave the United States within 30 days or face extermination. No exceptions made.... Not even for an angel...

The main character in this story is a young woman with a genius for weapon making and a homicidal urge to kill metahumans. Unfortunately she's a cop in an elite unit so her kills are sanctioned at the highest levels. She is the weakest plot point in the entire book. We never learn her "backstory", we don't understand her total black and white view of metahumans.
I found it almost incomprehensible that a young black female cop should not see that she is dehumanizing those who have special attributes and abilities in just the same manner that earlier oppressors had treated women, Jews, and Blacks. She is blind to herself... and it makes it hard to care for her in any way, because she is barely human herself.

If the author writes another book about the cop and develops her character and history a bit, I'll gladly read it, but as a stand alone novel THOSE WHO WALK IN DARKNESS" left me in the dark in too many important areas!

Paul Memoli

John Ridley's Those Who Walk In Darkness is a futuristic, sci-fi thriller filled with superheroes and super cops in a battle between good and evil. Soledad O'Roark is a tough, no-nonsense rookie on an elite team of police officers whose sole mission is to capture and deport metanormals. Metanormals are humans who have altered genetic traits which enable them to perform extraordinary feats, like fly, manipulate elements (metal, fire, water), become intangible (move through solid objects), etc. However, the most feared and deadly of the metanormals is the telepath who can enter the mind and take total control of one's actions, emotions, and thoughts with little to no warning. If you are picking up a strong "X-Men" vibe, then you are right on point.

In this novel, San Francisco and its half million "normal" humans were obliterated from the face of the earth when the good superheroes failed to stop an evil superhero's doomsday device. Thus in a knee-jerk decision, the President issues an Executive Order to deport the metanormals. Europe openly accepts those who are deported, while others hide their capabilities and try to live peacefully incognito in the U.S. However, the "normal" humans (especially the cops) spew so much malice toward any metanormal whether good/helpful or destructive/evil that there is usually conflict in every meeting that ends in a lot of cops dead when trying to capture one metanormal.

Most of the story centers on the heroine Soledad; her life and motivation. We learn that she is the typical hard-nosed, loner, idealist cop who believes in "the system" until a series of events leads her to love, threatens her career, and changes her life. The plot's formula is familiar and so are the supporting characters - there is a "lover boy," a dedicated family man, and a "Rambo" type to round out Soledad's four-person crew. At times, I felt like I was reading a screenplay for a new cop show - there were plenty of "shoot `em up" action passages, characters with misguided anger, and the resonating "woe is me" lament of misunderstood policemen. The story works reasonably well because I kept reading to find out what was going to happen next.

True to Ridley fashion, this novel has plenty of comedic scenes and a darker side. It raises issues of human rights and challenges the reader to examine social injustices of the past and potentially the future. I enjoyed all aspects of the book and I am looking forward to his next release.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
July 9, 2003