Dark Universe

Rating:
Summary: lesser-known, but brilliant
Review: After nearly a decade writing action-oriented stories for a variety of pulp science fiction magazines, in 1961 Daniel Galouye published Dark Universe, the first and best of his six novels. For his remarkable effort, he was rewarded with a Hugo nomination for best novel, losing by a slim margin to Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land.

The glory of Dark Universe is not simply Galouye's creation of an alien world, but his success in describing an alien way of *perceiving* that world. The characters of the novel are humans who live underground in total darkness and have finely tuned their other senses -- particularly their hearing -- to compensate for the lack of sight, as a blind person might. That whole communities exist in this state and navigate their world accordingly hightens the novel's sensory effect, challenging the reader to perceive as the characters do. Initial disorientation leads slowly to an understanding of the internal "language" these characters use to interact with each other and their environment, an achievement similar to Burgess's in A Clockwork Orange, where the narrarator's slang-dominated prose gradually begins to make sense by way of context. As a display of technique that engages the reader and demands thoughtful attention, Dark Universe is a masterpiece.

Perhaps predictably, Galouye's history in the pulps results in a run-of-the-mill plot with thin characterizations -- lots of SF writers admittedly have these problems -- but despite these flaws, and an abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying ending, Dark Universe is still an impressive book. It's also a quick read, considerably shorter -- and arguably more enjoyable -- than Heinlein's more famous work of that same year. Galouye's other books are also worth searching for, especially Simulacron-3 (1964), an early exploration of what would eventually come to be known as "virtual reality."

Rating:
Summary: lesser-known, but brilliant
Review: After nearly a decade writing action-oriented stories for a variety of pulp science fiction magazines, in 1961 Daniel Galouye published Dark Universe, the first and best of his six novels. For his remarkable effort, he was rewarded with a Hugo nomination for best novel, losing by a slim margin to Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land.

The glory of Dark Universe is not simply Galouye's creation of an alien world, but his success in describing an alien way of *perceiving* that world. The characters of the novel are humans who live underground in total darkness and have finely tuned their other senses -- particularly their hearing -- to compensate for the lack of sight, as a blind person might. That whole communities exist in this state and navigate their world accordingly hightens the novel's sensory effect, challenging the reader to perceive as the characters do. Initial disorientation leads slowly to an understanding of the internal "language" these characters use to interact with each other and their environment, an achievement similar to Burgess's in A Clockwork Orange, where the narrarator's slang-dominated prose gradually begins to make sense by way of context. As a display of technique that engages the reader and demands thoughtful attention, Dark Universe is a masterpiece.

Perhaps predictably, Galouye's history in the pulps results in a run-of-the-mill plot with thin characterizations -- lots of SF writers admittedly have these problems -- but despite these flaws, and an abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying ending, Dark Universe is still an impressive book. It's also a quick read, considerably shorter -- and arguably more enjoyable -- than Heinlein's more famous work of that same year. Galouye's other books are also worth searching for, especially Simulacron-3 (1964), an early exploration of what would eventually come to be known as "virtual reality."

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: Hi there. I studied SciFi at University and this was one of the books we were meant to read. I never did. Nevertheless 3 years on I have finally read the Dark Universe and very impressed I am too. Galouye does not go into deep characterisation but that seems inevitable with a lot of SCI-FI writers - instead the author works with another interesting idea - "What if after a nuclear holocaust people are forced to live underground to get away. And a few generations later - what then". Immediate connection might be made with the future in Time Machine (HG Wells)- but this is different - these people have not evolved considerably because of their lives underground like the Morlocks. Instead the people have learnt to use their hearing and touch to discover things. Similarity may also be found in Terry Brooks when in his explaination of the Dwarves and how they became like they are - they were the peoples forced to live underground after a holocaust and thus have great hearing but not good eyesite. Clearly Galouye has influenced. But what really got me is the fact that the author goes with an idea - "What if?" and writes a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Dark Universe is amazing!
Review: This book opened my eyes to sci-fi classics. If you like Asimov, you'll like this.

Rating:
Summary: Huge influence
Review: This book, along with Childhoods End, A Canticle for Leibowitz and a few others, were the seminal books that continue to influence me to this day. I read it over 35 years ago but the images and adaptations of the people underground, the treatment of fantasy, telepathy and adaptation became part of my major life metaphors.