THE LIGHT WITHIN DARKNESS

The interstellar craft Sun Wolf pursues a villain intent on sterilizing habitable planets in Jeffrey’s SF novel.

The author continues his Space Unbound series with this installment, following Sun Wolf (2020). It is the year 2218, in the aftermath of the discovery of “voidoids,” mysterious structures akin to black holes that permit starships to jump light years in an instant and travel to numerous once-inaccessible star systems. It is through a newly opened “astrocell” that a supremely evil and ambitious Earth man, Cardew Seth Amon, escapes from regulated Bound Space with stolen technology and plans for his own galactic empire. Hunting him is the cutting-edge “zero-point drive” spacecraft Sun Wolf, headed by intrepid commander (and old Cardew nemesis) Aiden Macallan, who is abetted by a multi-talented crew adept at navigating the new mysteries and perils of these spaceways. After an attempt on Macallan’s life, the heroes determine that Cardew has a growing army of zombie-like, self-replicating, virtually immortal “cloneborgs” (“an amalgamation of human clones and synthetic augmentation. The clone part had been derived from Cardew’s own genetic material”) intended to populate habitable worlds and replace humanity entirely. Ecological concerns are a side theme in the Space Unbound series, and while the sermons are not so prevalent this time around, there is still the acknowledgment that humanity has been a lousy steward for nature. People still fall for Cardew’s long-distance online deepfakes and anti-vaccine propaganda, spurning the sustainability wisdom of good guys like Macallan (who, thanks to a previous adventure, is intimately attuned into the rhythms of life throughout the cosmos). Readers should appreciate that the author does not depend on aliens who are mere Spock and Worf knockoffs (thinly disguised earthling types in minor makeup), though a cozy Starfleet milieu prevails aboard the courageous Sun Wolf, and the cloneborgs make for a serviceable parallel to Star Trek's menacing Borg Collective.

Eco-tinged SF marked by deep-space chases, invigorating combat thrills, and endearingly fanciful physics.