The Darkest of Suns Will Rise Book 1 by Brian Sfinas

Book Blurb:

Two hundred years in our future, mankind has made contact with a nigh-omniscient, pacifistic alien race known as The Prognosticate. With the help of these extraterrestrial visitors we have been able to solve the problems of overpopulation and disease. The Earth is recovering from our impact and our civilization is in a state of prosperity, united under the Alliance of Earthly Nations. Peace, however, is not in our nature.

The Darkest of Suns Will Rise tells the story of Aiden DeCaro and Clarissa Blue, the captain of a near-Earth defense ship and his damaged counterpart. The Orphanage, a loose collection of terrorist cells populated with religious zealots, destroys a merchant vessel while it moves through an AEN-protected trade route. Aiden's ship is the closest to the incident when it happens and when it's discovered that the Orphans are using Alliance military codes to nullify observation satellites and intercept civilian ships undetected, eyes turn toward Aiden.

So, let's say all problems regarding overpopulation and human's impact on Earth are solved, super robots were created in tiny, nanite forms to fix all the nasty things we could ever do to ourselves, and war was something we could avoid - would we be happy? The answer is no when information is withheld, even when it's a positive outcome. From the book: Throughout history, mankind has proven that you can keep docile and ultimately destroy entire civilizations simply by withholding knowledge from them. The alien race helping us also hauntingly invades our thoughts, and not everyone is playing nicely with them. The Prog believe only in reason and the Orphanage terrorist cells still believe in religion.

It's a little dark in places, but the extreme actions of the characters are strangely warranted. Humans live in a world where there are no real problems, and Clarissa needs Aiden's violent nature to feel anything in the apathetic life she lives.

The book is written in a series of journal entries by different characters, and every point of view gives another clue as to why the Orphanage terrorist cells exist. Even though the alien race has seemingly saved us from ourselves, the terrorist group IS humanity. But if the Orphanage succeeds it will most likely lead to humanity's eventual downfall. It's in our nature. Which makes for a good twisted read.

It's hard to categorize this book (dystopian, science fiction, mystery), so I won't and will just say it is a refreshing read from the usual cleanly written 'beginning-middle-ending' fiction novels. I have to say that I'm pretty good at figuring out and predicting the ending in mysteries though, (spoiler here) but the ending in this one made me re-read the entire book for clues as to whether Clarissa knew who the captain was from the very beginning.

All in all, a super read. More from this author: The Sexual Adventures of Time and Space.



Book Info:

• The Darkest Of Suns Will Rise by Brian Sfinas 
• 2015; Heartless Press.
• ISBN13: 9780986241956
• Paperbook and ebook versions available.

Disclosure: This book was provided by the author, and any opinions are my own.

+Renee Shelton
Twitter: @121degreesC