In the Ocean of Night
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Cover of first edition (hardcover)
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| Author | Gregory Benford |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Larry Kresek |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Galactic Center Saga |
| Genre | Hard science fiction |
| Published | Oct 1977 (Dial Press/Quantum) |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 276 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 3311898 |
| 813/.5/4 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.B4587 In PS3552.E542 |
| Followed by | Across the Sea of Suns |
In the Ocean of Night is a 1977 Fix-up hard science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford. It is the first novel in his Galactic Center Saga. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1977, and for the Locus Award the following year.
In the Ocean of Night was first published as a series of novellas and novelette in the magazine Worlds of If Science Fiction (1972/1977).
The beginning of the novel, set in 1999 (2019 in the second edition), finds Nigel Walmsley, a British scientist and astronaut for NASA, sent to attach a thermonuclear bomb to an asteroid or comet named Icarus which is on a direct collision course for India - only if it is a rocky asteroid and not a slush ice core style comet.
Icarus turns out to be large, solid, and made of a nickel-iron composite. Nigel is instructed to plant the 50 megaton weapon and leave (so it can be detonated). He persuades Mission Control to let him put it in a large fissure he discovered, so it would be even more effective. They let him.
In the fissure, Nigel discovers strips of metal worked in obviously artificial patterns. Awestruck at this evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life, Nigel begins exploring. Icarus is made up of a number of hollow shells, making the asteroid's mass far less than predicted. Presumably this makes Icarus less dangerous, allowing Nigel to spend time exploring this historic artifact. However, NASA claims that the demolition has to go forward, that Icarus would somehow skip off the atmosphere and land in the Indian Ocean and cause even more damage through the resultant tsunami. This of course is an obvious lie, and Nigel convinces his partner of that. They hide the nuke and spend the next week retrieving artifacts and materials before they finally set the nuclear bomb off and turn Icarus into rubble.
15 years after their discovery the Icarus artifacts have yielded little, and Nigel's delayed detonation of Icarus has distanced him from NASA and other people. Nigel's partner, Alexandria, has developed systemic lupus erythematosus, an oft-fatal disease caused by pollution. An anomaly over by Jupiter distracts Nigel: something, nicknamed 'the Snark', is repeating radio broadcasts. Alexandria is distracted by the mechanics of selling American Airlines to some Brazilians.
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Wikipedia