Once I figured out the premise of this book, It was a very enjoyable book. Unfortunately, this is the second in the series, and it picks up exactly where the first left off, and it ends quite abruptly. It feels more like the middle part of a 3 part novel, rather than 3 books in a series.

The premise is quite intriguing - Intelligence is quite common in the universe, but lives in a from that is almost God-like. Planet based intelligence is quite rare, and is at the mercy of the "Gods" I didn't read the first book so am not sure how the humans from Earth got to the Second Plane, that is, worlds planted by different groups of humanity in different historical ages. Also, there are a number of different species that originated from Earth but evolved on a different planet forming new intelligence. Travel between planets is possible, but it still is constrained to the speed of light. As a result, big trader ships go from world to world, where decades or centuries pass since the last visit.

This is the story of the crew of the Brightstar, The original ship from earth and the first ship created by humanity and not sanctioned by the Gods. In an attempt to recreate spacesuits that have crumbled in the eons since the Earthmen came to the Second Sphere, they meet a culture that does not use metal, but have knowledge to create an important resin.

The world building is quite amazing, with each culture described vividly and believably. The characters are also well written, although without knowing them from the first book, once in awhile blended together.

I highly recommend this book, but only if you read the first book first. This book ends quite abruptly, so you might want to pick up all three books before starting this series. If I had read the first story, my rating would have been higher. The first third of the book was a bit confusing. ( )

I've not read the prequel to this (and didn't know there was one til partway into the book), which judging from the other reviews was a good thing. I adored his exploration of gender construction and fluidity, and that he had queer and trans characters included in an organic way. & I'm interested in his ideas about deity. I loved the idea that a guy from Russia was still a die-hard socialist hundreds of years later, and similarly the anarchist, but the political machinations drug on too much for me. I am skeptical that 2 guys could wreak as much havoc as they did so quickly, but I suppose that it's feasible that they'd both become really good organizers in all that time, and I was engrossed enough in the story that I could handwave that away. I was also interested in the ethical questions in living much, much longer than other folks and in space travel meaning some folks drop in on a planet every hundred years, but more in the questions raised than the answers in the book. Gail and the Heathens were the best part of the book for me, so I'm not sure what I'll think about the other books in the trilogy, but I do plan to check them out. ( )

Significantly weaker than Cosmonaut Keep: Matt and Gregor Cairns, with Elizabeth in tow, use their new light drive to travel to the planet Croatan (as in "gone to...") where they get embroiled in the local political scene, along with fellow Cosmonaut Grigor Volkov. They manage to communicate with two "gods," the alien intelligences that live in asteroids and comet nuclei, and discover that all the sentient species (i.e., saurs, krakens, and hominidae) are involved in some Great Game being played between the gods. Upon learning this, Volkov and Cairns return to Croatan to play a Great Game of their own by trying to influence the political future of the various peoples there, ostensibly in preparation for a coming alien war.

All in all, Dark Light makes a pretty disappointing follow-up to Cosmonaut Keep. MacLeod tells the story as a straight-forward narrative, instead of by interweaving multiple plot/timelines. While I appreciate his desire to try something different here, this story simply lacks juice. The new characters, including Stone and Slow-Leg from Croatan's prehistoric ("heathen") sky people and some "Christians" from Rawliston, are nowhere near as compelling as those sketched in Cosmonaut Keep (or in other works by MacLeod). Finally, the plot is simply not that interesting; instead of being a stand-alone work, it seems that Dark Light is merely a transitional novel between books 1 and 3 of the trilogy.

The book is not completely without merit, though. MacLeod's prose is still finely crafted, with many puns and double-entendres scattered throughout. As well, the machinations of Volkov and Matt Cairns are absolutely fascinating to those interested in libertarian, anarchist, socialist, and/or communist politics.

On its own, this is a so-so novel, but after reading the first few pages of its sequel, Engine City, I think that sticking with the trilogy as a whole will be worth it.

Dark Light is the second of a trilogy, and this book is where you see more of the point of having the two different threads in the first book.

The characters in the first novel have a type of immortality treatment, so a few of them are hanging out on a planet that Matt takes the Bright Star ship to, and their destinies becomed intertwined.

Along with the local political manipulation that said long lived guys have been up to in the meantime.

Not as interesting as the first novel.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/02/dark-light-ken-macleod.html ( )

In Cosmonaut Keep, MacLeod gave us some pretty good characters in an interesting setting. In the second book, they've mostly devolved into ideas, their personalities lost behind their driving ideals. Less satisfying. ( )