Dark Planet
Charles W. Sasser
Medallion, April 2005, $6.99, 368 pages, ISBN: 1932815139
reviewed by Harriet Klausner

In the far distant future while earth is a wasteland populated by mutants, humanity colonized countless planets becoming the dominant power in the galaxy after they crushed the Indowy technology that made humans and Zentadons little more than slaves. Now under the Galaxia Republic, humans are the species with the most power and the Zentadon and the Indowy races have evolved into pacifists.

There is a new alien species that is moving into Federation territory known as the Blobs and it is believed they are building a base on the Dark Planet Aldenia. Deep Reconnaissance Team 2113 is sent there undercover and one of the members is Kadar San, a half-breed human Zentadon with telepathic powers. They discover an old Indowy weapon that could decimate the galaxy and Kadar San wants it destroyed. However another member, of the team Blade who is influenced by the evil Presence wants to take the weapon off planet so it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction. There is a benign Presence who sides with Kadar San in his battle with Blade and the evil Presence and the stake of their encounter is the survival or destruction of the galaxy.

Readers who like military science fiction within a space opera will love DARK PLANET. The aliens seem very real as if the author traveled through time to the future and recorded the cultures of different sentient species. There is a lot of action in this novel but that doesn't mean the characters are stereotypes. The protagonists are well developed sometimes make mistakes but always fight to destroy evil. The romance between Kadar San and one of his teammates adds another dimension to a satisfying reading experience.