Author:	Gregory Benford
Copyright:	1972
Date Reviewed:	4/6/85
Rating:	4.5

Synopsis: In 1999, astronaut Nigel Walmsley is sent on a mission to the near Earth asteroid Icarus to destroy it. Observations have shown that the asteroid has recently changed course and is now on a collision course with Earth. At Icarus, Nigel discovers that the asteroid is really an ancient spaceship and he delays destroying it for a week to try to find some of its secrets. Eventually he does destroy it and returns home to a world angry at him for the risk he took.

Fifteen years later we find Nigel working at JPL and living with two women. Alexandria, whom Nigel loves very much, contracts a pollution related disease which is usually fatal. To help explain the tragedy, she and Shirly join the New Sons religion. Meanwhile, another starship, triggered by a signal from Icarus, arrives in the solar system and is detected at JPL. Nigel sets up communications with the ship through normal channels and through one abnormal channel, a receiver in his head used to monitor Alexandria's condition.

As the ship approaches Venus, Alexandria dies, but half an hour later she rises from the dead because of actions taken by an intelligent computer aboard the ship. The link comes through Nigel's headpiece. The New Son's see this as an act of God and they take Alexandria away; Nigel never sees her again. Back at JPL, Nigel manages to get himself on a mission to the ship. His small craft carries a nuclear device. Nigel finds out from the computer that it was sent searching through the galaxy by other artificial intelligent machines to look for organic life which is part of the essence. The starship leaves the Solar System when a command from Earth (which Nigel would have of course ignored if he could) sends the bomb after the ship.

Sometime after the ship leaves, the remains of yet another starship is found on the dark side of the moon. Coincident with this find, a nuclear explosion, triggered by the derelict, occurs in California. Once again Nigel manages to get himself an important post, this time on the exploration team of the lunar ship. Meanwhile his friend, M. Ichino goes exploring in the California forest to try and find a reason for the blast. On the moon, Nigel meets and falls in love with Nikka Amajhi. Together with other teams they find out much about the ship and the creatures that brought it from the stars. However, during a fight at the alien controls between Nikki and a New Sons administrator, Nigel is zapped, disappears and reappears a different man. He is calmer with a greater understanding of the nature of things.

Back on Earth, Mr. Ichino discovers a pack of Big Foot that were displaced by the explosion. The Big Foot carry and worship an alien gun. Putting the pieces together, the participants realize that the aliens came to Earth millions of years ago and tampered with evolution. The Big Foot is an example of their failure and Man is an example of their success. They came to prepare us for a band of machines coming from the stars intending to destroy all live (like Berserkers and Cylons).

Review: "In the Ocean of Night" is an incredibly bad science fiction. It ranks way down there. I have many complaints about this book but I almost hate to waste my time describing them. My first complaint is that from the start, the science is bad. Calculations show that Icarus will crash into Earth 1 1/2 years from now and land in India. That kind of precise calculation is not possible. I also didn't appreciate all the coincidences. It just so happens that the man who destroyed the original ship would be the same man to discover and rendezvous with the second and explore the third. For each ship, he disobeyed some crucial order so how was he always able to get the next assignment? I can't accuse the novel of not having a plot but it was so disjointed and convoluted I felt like I was reading a collection of short stories. Items of interest kept popping up (more coincidences) for no apparent reason. One was the third lunar derelict. By the time Big Foot was introduced and I had pretty much given up. If I didn't have a rule to finish the books I start I could have put this one away any time. Needless to say, I have no plans of reading the sequel.