The Eclipsing of Sirus C

The Eclipsing of Sirus C by Daniel B. Hunt takes place in what the author calls the Dryden Universe. Not much time is spent in building or explaining the cosmos; the reader is immediately thrown into a military operation which leads inexorably to the gathering of a disparate crew of humans who have to work together to save the universe from a rapacious foe. The characters include two military people—one male and one female—both ambitious and drawn to each other when duty does not get in the way, two brilliant computer scientists, and an evil villain who is almost worth hissing at whenever he shows up; fostered on the crew by an unfathomable government agency. Then the delightful twist, two aliens, one destructive and one helpful. There are, of course, deeds of daring-do, battles with futuristic weapons, characters at the edge of endurance and clever solutions to problems. This is, after all, a space opera.

The characters are likeable, it is easy to believe their reactions based on their training and careers. There are not bursts of emotional madness, which is refreshing. The crew does not do things that would have gotten them fired from normal jobs, let alone from occupations in deep space. The romance is touched upon, but not too heavily as duty seems to come first—as it should to professional people in a difficult situation. The science has a nice balance of explaining things needed for plot development, but not getting bogged down trying to explain every single thing. The writing is well done, the story moves quickly and the book is very readable. This is a self-contained story, not the beginning of a trilogy, the author does not spend time setting up plot devices for sequels. The aliens are never truly known, although we get to know one of them, we never get all the answers about him, and the enigmatic ending makes some of his motives all the more ponderable. All in all, a fun book to read, with good balance between the various elements needed for science, plot and story. I recommend it.