All the Colors of Darkness

I finished the scifi book, All the Colours of Darkness, by Lloyd Biggle Jr. It was a strange but worthwhile read. The first half was about the struggles of scientists and businessmen to set up a matter transportation business. Then the second half became a rescue mission with a nice overlay of human/alien connection, going from fear to trust. Lloyd did a good job of making us see the strangeness of his aliens, not just the way they look but also the way they think. The book’s title came into play here as the aliens see us ‘primitive’ Earthlings as bound in darkness. By the end of the book a little lightness, and hope, is suggested for the future of us puny Earthlings. All due to the heroic and selfless actions of one man, one show more hu-man. But the really strange thing about this book was the cover of this edition, which has no relation whatsoever to the content. None. Nada. It is nice though (by the excellent Bruce Pennington, whose Dune covers were iconic). show less

Lloyd Biggle Jnr. is not a name that jumps to mind nowadays amongst science fictions fans but he was a fairly prolific writer of science fiction and mystery stories from the 1950s to the 1960s. He was perhaps best known for his Jan Darzen series which mixed the tropes of the two genres.

'All the Colors of Darkness' (1963) is the first of the Jan Darzen novels and is a little disappointing, not because it is 'bad' (it isn't by any means) but because the central idea is so interesting and initially well handled that reducing it to an off-planet 'mystery' tale flattens early expectations.

That central idea is the invention of a technology which allows instant and safe transmission of people and eventually freight from one place to another. show more The early chapters explore the idea as a social and business phenomenon. The mystery seems to be one of organised sabotage.

This is very well written with interesting characters interacting in realistic ways to solve a practical problem but then the story suddenly flips into something very different - a more jocular science fiction pulp with aliens (more should not be said because of spoilers).

Biggle went for fun-pulp at this point and abandoned the more serious side of science fiction. The disappointment is only that he seemed perfectly capable of giving us something that could explore the effects of a new technology on us and then abandoned that mission.

The bulk of the book is entertaining and even sensitive. His aliens are as 'real' and rounded as his humans, while still being alien, and the interactions show us how cultural lack of understanding can be worked around with good will. We may be frustrated by the aliens but we tend to 'like' them.

However, some of the events become a little incoherent (let us call them 'the rescue mission') to the casual reader. The liking of mystery writers for complicated puzzles takes over before narrative order can be restored. I could not be bothered to make sense of it all at that point.

Biggle sets up his series to be entertainments relying on the technology of matter transmission but one senses an opportunity lost and an under-use of his talents, a sudden loss of imagination as more than just complicated story lines and aliens.

Still, it was (mostly) entertaining and (mostly) well written and I would certainly not baulk at reading others in the series in good time. show less

A slightly dated but enjoyable lightweight SF novel, the first in the Jan Darzek series. Interestingly, Jan is introduced in the second chapter. The first chapter and nearly half of this short novel features an engineer named Ted Arnold. Ted is fairly colorless, so it's not surprising that Darzek returned for future stories, despite knowing no science. Instead, he is a classic detective -- observant, unflappable, and occasionally slightly annoying. The initial setup is more like a locked room mystery -- how are people disappearing in transit in a new teleportation system when there's only here and there? The book has dated when it comes to portraying women, business, and aliens. The feeling is more 1940s than the book's 1963 publication show more date, with a whiff of Heinlein.

Recommended for lovers of classic SF. show less

This might not be one of my all-time favourite books but it's still right up there. Written in the early 60s (it's older than me!), it's set in the then future of the 1980s.

When a tech start up determines that there has been sabotage of their technology demonstrators their CTO calls in his best friend and private investigator Jan Darzek to look into it. What Jan finds out is that the saboteurs are in fact aliens rather than Earthbound miscreants. It appears that there is a galactic federation that has a watch station in the Solar System making sure that Earth doesn't develop transmitter technology, along with a number of other things. When Universal Transmitting goes operational, an inexperienced team leader panics and authorises the show more acts of sabotage and disappearances that had attracted Darzek's attention. Following a suspect through one of UT's transmitters he finds himself on the moon and in a fit of panic he destroys much of the alien base, leaving the observers and himself stuck in a cargo bay with limited life support. As they all prepare to meet death in their own fashion Darzek gains a deeper understanding of the aliens (not that he really understands it - they are alien after all!). All this is brought to a head when a Transmitter equipped moon base is established in the crater where the alien base had been and Darzek has to persuade the aliens that they can all get out of their situation without revealing themselves to the humans.

Inevitably bits of the book now sound dated but we're more than 30 years after the proposed date of the action, not to mention over 50 from when it was written! Unfortunately, many of the attitudes it goes in to are still problems these days show less

Pretty good as these things go, and it hits the sci-fi spot if you're jonesin'. The cover bears no relation to the contents. Also, I love how they thought everything would be the same and they'd be all keepin' women in their place and wearing fedoras and junk, and only science would change, because they had developed the perfect society. But yeah, good read and you don't have to pay attention that much and it's mildly inventive the way he splices "technology changes the world" story with "ultrafuturistic alien civilization comes to Earth, guides, meddles, judges, is judged, and ultimately learns a things or two" tale.

The Universal Transmitting Company's breakthrough stands to make its directors' fortunes. Step into a booth in Manhattan, and instantaneously you arrive at your destination, anywhere in the world. While hinting at the consequences for the freight, railroad, and airline industries,

On the first day of operation, several passengers go missing, but these persons have no public records, no relatives, and no one, but the teleport operators, notices their passing. Detective Jan Darzek is assigned to find them.

There is one thing that is different about this novel - the Galactic Civilization that is judging man isn't perfect, and doesn't expect to be so. It just wants to make sure that man is "the right color of darkness" to fit in.
I read this book when I was a teenager, and that concept worked well for me - I no longer asked if people were perfect, just if their evil was compatible with mine or not.
This is one of the few books in my SF collection that exists to teach something, instead of as a way sign.