Out of the Dark

Out of the Dark is a science fiction novel by the American writer David Weber, published by Tor Books on 28 September 2010. It is an expanded version of a short story of the same name that had appeared in the 2010 anthology Warriors, edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin.

The Hegemony is an alliance of species that keeps order in its part of the galaxy, and the Shongairi are its newest member. Reviewing survey footage taken during the Hundred Years' War, the Hegemony's scientists judge humans to be predators of the same kind as the Shongairi, and a Shongairi fleet is fitted out to take charge of Earth in the Hegemony's name. The expedition arrives to find that the technology base below has advanced a great deal since the survey ship passed by, which puts the conquerors in the position of having to fight for a planet they had assumed would be simple to occupy. The Hegemony's own rules also complicate matters, as its constitution does not permit the straightforward conquest the fleet had in mind.

Weber writes military science fiction in which the politics of the attacking power matter as much as the fighting, and this book is no exception: the invaders spend as much energy arguing among themselves as they do engaging the defences, while the people on the ground organise with whatever the decades since Agincourt have given them.