The Dark Edge
Review by James R.Cain
In the vein of Peter F.Hamilton's Night's Dawn Trilogy, The Dark Edge deals with the struggles of an emerging colony world against a planet-wide assault of madness.
The writing is smooth and easy to read. I found the first sixty pages a tad slow, but the book soon accelerates into a riveting intergalactic thriller involving the investigations of Eddon Brac and his parapsych assistant Val ev Vessintor. The pair struggle to find out why ordinary citizens of this colony world are turning into homicidal maniacs.
And worse, they're becoming organized and the citizens of P-19 are soon swept up in a war of survival.
Harland was a delightful surprise. The dull cover of the Pan Australia edition of 'The Dark Edge' really does the book discredit as it masks a fine read. If it's any recommendation, the story is 563 pages long, and once I got past the initial stage-setting I could not put it down and completed reading it in a single day. And I'm not a fast reader! That' saying something of Harland's storytelling abilities, and I'll certainly be on the lookout for more of his books.
So, if you're a fan of "pulp" SF, I'd highly recommend 'The Dark Edge'. If you like your techno-babble think and fast, this may not be the book for you as the techno-babble is kept to a minimum. Harland focuses on the story and keeps it pumping along. The book is all about suspense and madmen and a race against time to save a colony world.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Ltd.
ISBN: 0-330-36007-8