The Black Sun

The Black Sun by Jack Williamson reads like a classic sci-fi story. It has the bland characters, stolid prose, plodding pace that are the hallmarks of the golden age of science fiction. The Black Sun was actually written in 1997 though. I think we can excuse the datedness of book since Jack Williamson is in fact one of those golden age writers. He's still going after seventy years of writing!  I was confused by the praise for The Black Sun inside the cover. But how could reviewers slam a Jack Williamson book? Jack Williamson created the term "genetic engineering"! What have you done with your life!? Nothing!

So anyways, The Black Sun is not very good. As I implied above, it's characters are simple constructs: generic good guys, cartoonish bad guys, adorable moppet children/creepy possessed children.  I'll give Williamson credit where its due, he creates tragic pseudo-literature style backstories for everyone. The problem is these poignant flashbacks are delivered in an artless expository style that failed to connect emotionally with me. One gets the sense that the author is really trying to create interesting complicated characters, but something tells me this isn't a Williamson strength. But The Black Sun's problems go beyond the flat characters.


The plot has issues too. The main one being that Black Sun's story is one that has been told many times in science fiction- and with more verve. Tell me if this sounds familiar: a group of space explorers, trapped on a mysterious dead alien world, within the cyclopean catacombs comes the stirrings of something deadly.  The most recent example of this story comes in the form of the movie Prometheus. As in Prometheus, sometimes the characters react in bewildering ways. Prometheus had a xenobiologist run away upon discovering a dead alien as opposed to wanting to study it. The brave space pioneers of The Black Sun immediately assume a rainbow beacon from aliens is some sort of warning and attempt to avoid contact at all costs (their idea of exploring alien ruins is to drive up to buildings and then freak out and run away like eight year olds daring each other to go into an abandoned house).

The setting of The Black Sun.

So no, I cannot say I enjoyed The Black Sun too much. It has its moments, and towards the end it starts being straight up compelling. But it was too little, too late.  If you are a fan of golden age style sci-fi then The Black Sun may be for you. But for the rest, you guys can safely give this a miss. The Black Sun receives 4 out of 7 strange black beads.

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Spoilers for the end of the book follow.
The end of The Black Sun presents an interesting scenario. The surviving colonists form a sort of alliance with the psychic spirits that haunt the planet. The author presents this partnership as a happy ending. But it is in no way an equal relationship. The alien spirits seem to feel free to possess humans whenever they like. The spirits don't tend to have much regard for their host bodies either. An alternate reading of the ending, one that goes against the authors intent I'm sure, is that colonists are/will be slaves of the alien spirits- convenient bodies for them to inhabit. There are some details in the text to support this reading as well.