The Radiant Dark

A Novel

De: Alexandra Oliva

Narrado por: Barrie Kreinik

Arrival meets Wild Dark Shore in this captivating novel that follows a family over fifty years—a bold and compassionate exploration of the universe around us and what it truly means to be human.

“The Radiant Dark is incandescent.” —Sarah Jessica Parker

It’s March 1980, and Carol Girard and her husband are living an ordinary life in a small town in the Adirondacks. They have just had their first child, and though Carol is struggling with the challenges of new motherhood, her future seems clear. Until something extraordinary happens: an inexplicable flickering of light in the sky, which is ultimately determined to be communication from intelligent life on another planet. But these beings are eleven light-years away, and nothing is known about them other than the fact that they seem to know we exist too. And so begins a decades-long exchange of messages with this mysterious, faraway civilization.

As humanity reels from a shifting understanding of its place in the universe, we follow the stories of the Girard family: Carol, whose fascination with this other life sparks a desperate search for spiritual meaning; Michael, her loyal son, who finds solace not in the stars above his head but in the ground beneath his feet; and Ro, Carol’s bright and ambitious daughter, whose childhood goal to work in interstellar communication will evolve into something far grander.

Tracing five decades of love, loss, ambition, and self-discovery, The Radiant Dark is a stunning examination of a family navigating their lives with the knowledge that we are not alone.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Like the stars it centers around, The Radiant Dark is incandescent. A captivating family saga with a delicately speculative edge, this one’s a masterpiece.” —Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit

Somewhat unlikeable characters

The main character, Carol was very self-absorbed and not very likeable. Perhaps it was the time frame during which the story was set, but the family overall was not a likeable group. Not actively despicable, just unlikeable. I finished it because of the sci-fi setting, but definitely not a story I enjoyed very much though it was well written.

Engaging story of a family impacted by First Contact

The story is about the changes in a family (mostly) in the 60 years from the moment of confirmed first contact. I enjoyed seeing how the family members were impacted, or not, by what was happening on the global scale. By the end, I wondered if the importance is in what is carried forward between generations.

Like her other books, I’ll be thinking about this one for years to come.

Intriguing Idea

The concept of extraterrestrials mirroring the ongoing journey of a family fascinated me. I was underwhelmed by how it developed, and the cause of the schism that occurs between the mother and daughter was incomplete and seemed thin. The government reaction to the phenomenon was completely unbelievable - just ignore and outlaw any attempts at contact? The cult of the Universals seems like a cliched trope. But my biggest problem was the narrator. She has a good voice, but her enunciation and emphasis on certain words in almost every sentence made everything sound like an imminent threat; irritating when almost nothing ever happens.

Brings the ordinary to extraordinary!

Skillfully woven through many decades, author, A. O. brings the ordinary to extraordinary. The characters are the people that we all know with the challenges we face. Yet these everyday souls are the link from pre contact with aliens to those whom daily contact with aliens is well established into the society. Well done!

This novel is trying to do too much.

I have like this narrator before but this time her voice sounded really robotic. The sci-fi portion of this book is really boring. This is actually a story about an abusive mother and it’s really depressing. There is never any resolution in the story. Do not recommend.