A Darkling Sea by James Cambias
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Wow, what a fantastic SF novel this is: some of the best world-building and credible aliens I have encountered in ages, all wrapped up in an an intense thriller-type plot that will hook you until the last page.
The set-up is ingenious: humanity has established an exploratory base on the ice-world Ilmatar, to explore the lobster-like aliens who live in its ocean depths. However, when a member of the team is killed by the aliens (dissected, actually), it sets off an interstellar alarm bell, and the Sholen arrive on the scene to investigate whether or not the humans have violated First-Contact protocol.
The Sholen are quite unlike the benevolent wise old caretaker aliens that writers like Clifford D. Simak are so fond of though. These are inward-looking and timid, due to having survived previous extinction events, and yet riven by factions who contend that they should not let upstart species like humanity run rampant all over the galaxy.
The Ilmatarans use a numbers-based form of communication, and are excellent scientists and engineers, while the Sholen are highly sociable and use sex and pheromones as a main form of bonding and communication. Throw a bunch of crazy humans into the equation, and the possibility for conflict and misunderstanding is quite funny and tragic at turns.
Yep, here you get two alien species for the price of one novel … both are ingeniously differentiated however. The story takes a lot of unexpected turns, and is quite action-packed and detailed, with tons of fascinating speculation, intrigue and humour.
This is modern SF at its very best. It reminded me of Vernor Vinge and Iain M. Banks, especially the carefully delineated alien societies and the running commentary on the ethics of First Contact.
My only caveat is a slightly puzzling ending, the significance of which is not open-ended enough to indicate if Cambias has a sequel up his sleeve. I sincerely hope he has.
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