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Cold as Ice #3
Schwarz wie der Tag
The Solar System is finally recovering from the Great War - a war that devastated the planets and nearly wiped out the human race - and the population of the outer moons, orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, is growing.
On one of those moons, Alex Ligon, scion of a great interplanetary trading family has developed a wonderfully accurate new population model, and cannot wait until the newly reconstituted "Seine," the interlinked network of computers that spans the planets and moons and asteroids, comes back on line. But when it does, and he extends his perfect model a century into the future, it predicts the complete destruction of the human race.
On another moon, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence goes on, undaunted by generations of failure. And to her amazement, Millie Wu, a young genius newly recruited to the project, has found a signal . . . a signal that is coming from outside the solar system.
And in his new retreat on a minor moon of Saturn, the cranky genius Rustam Battacharyia is still collecting weapons from the Great War. He thinks he may have stumbled on an unexpected new one...but he'll need to disarm it before it destroys the Sun.
On one of those moons, Alex Ligon, scion of a great interplanetary trading family has developed a wonderfully accurate new population model, and cannot wait until the newly reconstituted "Seine," the interlinked network of computers that spans the planets and moons and asteroids, comes back on line. But when it does, and he extends his perfect model a century into the future, it predicts the complete destruction of the human race.
On another moon, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence goes on, undaunted by generations of failure. And to her amazement, Millie Wu, a young genius newly recruited to the project, has found a signal . . . a signal that is coming from outside the solar system.
And in his new retreat on a minor moon of Saturn, the cranky genius Rustam Battacharyia is still collecting weapons from the Great War. He thinks he may have stumbled on an unexpected new one...but he'll need to disarm it before it destroys the Sun.
606 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
5 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Charles Sheffield
216 books171 followersCharles A. Sheffield (June 25, 1935 – November 2, 2002), was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction author. He had been a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronomical Society.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.
For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.
He was married to writer Nancy Kress.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.
For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.
He was married to writer Nancy Kress.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 12, 2021
This is the third book of Sheffield's trilogy that began with Cold as Ice, and nicely wraps up the story-lines left unresolved from The Ganymede Club, as well as ably depicting the Belt society that's evolved thirty years after the war. His space sequences are quite convincing, and Bat is one of his most complex and interesting characters. And the SETI bits are fascinating, too... Sheffield was a master of hard-sf, and had the knack of educating the reader while telling the story. Dark as Day is one of his last and best books.
April 13, 2025
⁹2025 Reread
3.4⭐
The final book in Sheffield's 'Cold As Ice" trilogy and another decent mystery. This time Sheffield's reclusive, obese armchair detective ( sound familiar?), nicknamed the Bat, works to discover and disarm a terrible doomsday weapon, left over from the Great War that ravaged the solar system. Not quite as satisfying as the first two books but still a serviceable read, it suffers a bit from a cluttered plot but benefits from a nice Berkey cover. -30-
3.4⭐
The final book in Sheffield's 'Cold As Ice" trilogy and another decent mystery. This time Sheffield's reclusive, obese armchair detective ( sound familiar?), nicknamed the Bat, works to discover and disarm a terrible doomsday weapon, left over from the Great War that ravaged the solar system. Not quite as satisfying as the first two books but still a serviceable read, it suffers a bit from a cluttered plot but benefits from a nice Berkey cover. -30-
December 16, 2015
Not as good as his Heritage Universe series, but still quite satisfying as the wind up to Cold as Ice and The Ganymede Club. A sinister plot to destroy inhabitants of the "Belt" is afoot and not readily perceived by its intended victims. A new and powerful computational entity and the potential discovery of interstellar life provide complicating distractions. Well written with interesting characters. One of Sheffield's last before his untimely death.
January 6, 2014
By far the most interesting and ultimately disappointing part of this book is the detection and attempt at decipherment of a SETI signal. Sheffield made a genuine, if novice attempt at presenting the challenges such a task would require.
But the book ends horribly with a dopey deus ex machina. The feeble plot just falls apart like tissue paper. Both the SETI signal and the other mystery in the book, Alex's troubled computer model, felt totally irrelevant. Sheffield lost 2 stars just for the crap ending.
Somehow, this book made it past the editors with lots of spelling errors, too.
Oh, and there was way too much space sex. That's not why I read your books, man.
But the book ends horribly with a dopey deus ex machina. The feeble plot just falls apart like tissue paper. Both the SETI signal and the other mystery in the book, Alex's troubled computer model, felt totally irrelevant. Sheffield lost 2 stars just for the crap ending.
Somehow, this book made it past the editors with lots of spelling errors, too.
Oh, and there was way too much space sex. That's not why I read your books, man.
December 23, 2024
Review:
Dark as Day closes Sheffield’s Cold As Ice trilogy. This time is set after Cold As Ice the Great Bat returns, alongside a few others, a young SETI signal researcher, an heir to a corporate empire, and a pair of friends from Earth orphaned by The Great War. Again, Sheffield ties these characters together in a gratifying way. The characters confront a solar system still haunted by The Great War and its relics but also on the cusp of a future with unknown potential. Changes are happening. The re-establishment of the Seine (basically space internet) dramatically reconnects the solar system and provides increased computational power for projecting the system's future. New signals from outside the solar system suggest intelligent extraterrestrial life. The weapons thought lost at the end of the great war might remain. (4.5)
Discussion:
Sheffield is great. I enjoyed reading his books. As I’ve said before, they are pure fun. Unfortunately, I am afraid I have not done him justice in these reviews. He weaves his threads intricately, so capturing everything I think about in these books is difficult. I would like to say more. But it's a bit too much effort. These books were a great comfort and escape. I read them at a moment when I especially needed those qualities. I’m grateful for that. I’m also thankful for his little connections between the books. None is so crazy that the reader loses much by not reading an earlier book in the series, but they do reward the reader who has.
His world-building between the three is stellar; you clearly understand the solar system and what it has been through. None of his science is too outlandish. I think he does a good job with the series, and should I chance upon another Sheffield title at a used book store, I can pick it up knowing I won’t be disappointed.
Dark as Day closes Sheffield’s Cold As Ice trilogy. This time is set after Cold As Ice the Great Bat returns, alongside a few others, a young SETI signal researcher, an heir to a corporate empire, and a pair of friends from Earth orphaned by The Great War. Again, Sheffield ties these characters together in a gratifying way. The characters confront a solar system still haunted by The Great War and its relics but also on the cusp of a future with unknown potential. Changes are happening. The re-establishment of the Seine (basically space internet) dramatically reconnects the solar system and provides increased computational power for projecting the system's future. New signals from outside the solar system suggest intelligent extraterrestrial life. The weapons thought lost at the end of the great war might remain. (4.5)
Discussion:
Sheffield is great. I enjoyed reading his books. As I’ve said before, they are pure fun. Unfortunately, I am afraid I have not done him justice in these reviews. He weaves his threads intricately, so capturing everything I think about in these books is difficult. I would like to say more. But it's a bit too much effort. These books were a great comfort and escape. I read them at a moment when I especially needed those qualities. I’m grateful for that. I’m also thankful for his little connections between the books. None is so crazy that the reader loses much by not reading an earlier book in the series, but they do reward the reader who has.
His world-building between the three is stellar; you clearly understand the solar system and what it has been through. None of his science is too outlandish. I think he does a good job with the series, and should I chance upon another Sheffield title at a used book store, I can pick it up knowing I won’t be disappointed.
December 8, 2019
Ah, I missed scifi so much.
I missed Charles Sheffield so much.
I missed the Cold as Ice universe so much.
This book is really good (though the ending is a little... anticlimatic? But yeah, still good), with many wonderfully round characters (including several women, all very different from each other), fascinating story arcs and, well, Bat. But you can't describe Bat, so please go read the books :)
I missed Charles Sheffield so much.
I missed the Cold as Ice universe so much.
This book is really good (though the ending is a little... anticlimatic? But yeah, still good), with many wonderfully round characters (including several women, all very different from each other), fascinating story arcs and, well, Bat. But you can't describe Bat, so please go read the books :)
March 2, 2024
7 stars out of 5 - Sebastian Birch paints his dreams of Titan's clouds 10 days before they form the pattern. Valnia Bloom on Ganymede recruits him and his friend Jan from Earth to find out how his brain works. Alex Login's computer model predicts the end of human life in about 40 years when all the pieces of the Seine internet are connected. Designer babies, eternally youthful bodies and longevity. His powerful wealthy family on Ganymede wants to base their helium 3 collecting point on Pandora so he has to visit Rustum Batachariya to negotiate permission to build a spaceport. Bat doesn't work for Magrit Knudsen anymore but she contacts him with a problem. Bat bought a tiny moon of Saturn, Pandora, where he moved the Bat Cave and uses it as a self-contained database free of the Seine. His best friend is Mord, an AI version of Mordecai Perlman who had his memories and mind scanned before he died. Mord loves exploring the Seine and brings news of possible alien contact. Ghost in the machine. SETI employee Milly Wu rejoins the Puzzle Network on Ganymede to figure out an interstellar message. Torquemada is Cyrus Mobarak, scion of controlled fusion power. Collaboration helps the puzzle pieces fall into place. - In real life: Huge blizzard in California's Sierra Mountains while northern Texas burns up. Demented Trump might be President again (DT vs. Biden Nov. 2024). Israel is eradicating Gaza. The only show worth watching on TV was NHK, on drying fish with volcanic ash.
June 25, 2025
The Great War between the Outer Solar System and the Inner planets has been over for thirty years but Puzzle Network genius Rustum Battachariya (the Bat) has developed an interest in acquiring old artifacts from the war and has heard rumours of a doomsday device developed just as the war ended which would turn the whole system ’dark as day’. At the same time a signal of confirmed extrasolar source, alien if you like, has been received by one of two brothers obsessed with SETI. Jack Beston’s rivalry with his brother Philip is legendary and their competition to be first to solve the signal may actually imperil its success. Milly Wu, the discoverer of the signal and ex-Puzzle Networker, has joined Jack to help decode the signal. The third story strand concerns Janeed Jannex and Sebastian Birch, both rescued as children from the ruins of the Earth’s northern hemisphere post-war. Sebastian is almost autistic in his interest in cloud patterns of Jupiter and Saturn and Jan has put most of her life on hold to care for him. Gradually the three threads start to coalesce when Sebastian is found to have small inert objects through all his cells and the Bat finds that the doomsday weapon does indeed exist. One more surprise exists with the solar system-wide superinternet known as The Seine. This is a wonderful conclusion to the three books that Charles Sheffield penned around these characters and I urge you to read all three.
June 10, 2025
Charles Sheffield (1935-2003) deserves to be as famous as Arthur C. Clarke, but the publishing game ain’t always fair. He was the chief scientist at EarthSat and published a story about a space elevator around the same time as Clarke. But he got a late start in science fiction (1977) and never had a story made into a film by Stanley Kubrick.
Set in the same postwar universe as Cold as Ice and The Ganymede Club, Dark as Day has three main plotlines with intersecting characters. A reclusive genius thinks he has discovered a weapon developed during the Interplanetary War that could destroy entire planets. The scion of an interplanetary trading company has developed a sophisticated population model that predicts the extinction of humanity within a few decades. A young girl working for Seti finds a signal and joins a team of eccentric puzzle-solving geniuses to interpret it.
The characters are fully individualized, the plot zips along, and the science is fun. This one deserves more love than it has gotten so far.
Set in the same postwar universe as Cold as Ice and The Ganymede Club, Dark as Day has three main plotlines with intersecting characters. A reclusive genius thinks he has discovered a weapon developed during the Interplanetary War that could destroy entire planets. The scion of an interplanetary trading company has developed a sophisticated population model that predicts the extinction of humanity within a few decades. A young girl working for Seti finds a signal and joins a team of eccentric puzzle-solving geniuses to interpret it.
The characters are fully individualized, the plot zips along, and the science is fun. This one deserves more love than it has gotten so far.
January 3, 2018
30 years after the Great War between Earth and the inhabitants of the Belt, there are still mysteries surrounding participants and the weapons they developed. The solar system is recovering from the destruction of the systems the war caused. Pockets of humanity are looking for evidence of life outside the solar systems. The economists are concerned with the long term economic existence of humanity and are trying to predict the future, This book takes all of the themes and connects into a fantastic mystery.
October 26, 2020
Dark as Day concludes the series with a whisper. It's a slow-burn with three to four story arcs that aren't very engaging and the narrative relies more on mindless character interaction than on the strength of an evolving plot. While we are able to learn more about Bat following the events of Cold As Ice , we don't see character development for any other person really. I would say that Dark as Day is the loosest of the three books.
April 17, 2023
Sheffield has a lot of stuff going on here. Some of which doesn't get resolved. But the main story is pretty good, with interesting and quirky characters.
September 5, 2008
Why I read this book: Fictionwise/eReader released their software as a free download for iPhones, and I was pleased to be able to read books I hadn't look at in years. Dark as Day seemed particularly interesting, so I checked it out from the MCPL as well.
Charles Sheffield was my favorite American Hard SF author from the late 1990s until his death in 2002. (The only other likely candidate is Ted Chiang, but he's a lot less prolific.) Like Stephen Baxter, he packed his books with interesting ideas; unlike Baxter, he did a good job of creating likable characters, and he portrayed politics that make sense outside of fever dreams.
My only real complaint about Sheffield is that in one book (which I won't name for fear of spoilage), he set up some fascinating problems and then cheated on the solutions. This is particularly anathema to me in Hard SF. I think it put me off him a little.
Like most modern SF books, the story is told in multiple threads. In this case, there are three threads, two of them centered around women. I don't recall women having such a high profile in Sheffield before (except for Jeanie Roker, the narrator of the McAndrew stories), and was amused by a quote on page 330: "It would seem that all the major actions in your life are entirely dictated by women."
Dark as Day was particularly interesting to me because it deals with attempts to predict the future of civilization with computer models; a very good friend of mine is working on a nonfiction book on similar themes, and reading my friend's book has changed my view of such efforts. Indeed, I found it hard to suspend my disbelief until I reached the end of the book.
The book ends well; I found it more and more difficult to put down, to the point that I was afraid to pick it up at night because I might stay up too late. (I was right; I was incredibly tired last night but couldn't stop.) There are some nitpicky problems, and it can be argued that Sheffield cheated a little, but I didn't mind.
(Finished 2008-09-05 0:28EDT.)
Charles Sheffield was my favorite American Hard SF author from the late 1990s until his death in 2002. (The only other likely candidate is Ted Chiang, but he's a lot less prolific.) Like Stephen Baxter, he packed his books with interesting ideas; unlike Baxter, he did a good job of creating likable characters, and he portrayed politics that make sense outside of fever dreams.
My only real complaint about Sheffield is that in one book (which I won't name for fear of spoilage), he set up some fascinating problems and then cheated on the solutions. This is particularly anathema to me in Hard SF. I think it put me off him a little.
Like most modern SF books, the story is told in multiple threads. In this case, there are three threads, two of them centered around women. I don't recall women having such a high profile in Sheffield before (except for Jeanie Roker, the narrator of the McAndrew stories), and was amused by a quote on page 330: "It would seem that all the major actions in your life are entirely dictated by women."
Dark as Day was particularly interesting to me because it deals with attempts to predict the future of civilization with computer models; a very good friend of mine is working on a nonfiction book on similar themes, and reading my friend's book has changed my view of such efforts. Indeed, I found it hard to suspend my disbelief until I reached the end of the book.
The book ends well; I found it more and more difficult to put down, to the point that I was afraid to pick it up at night because I might stay up too late. (I was right; I was incredibly tired last night but couldn't stop.) There are some nitpicky problems, and it can be argued that Sheffield cheated a little, but I didn't mind.
(Finished 2008-09-05 0:28EDT.)
September 12, 2009
This is a sci-fi novel sequel to Cold as Ice (or maybe it's the third in the series -- goodreads says 3, amazon calls it #2).
This book can stand alone, without reading it as a sequel, but it definitely would suffer as a result. This book includes new characters, but old characters are not fully fleshed out. That's not so bad if you've read the first one, but with a little bit more development, I think the author could have struck a balance that would fill them out a little more in this book, and wouldn't have left familiar readers bored.
The biggest problem with this book isn't the characters, though -- it's the multiple storylines that the author attempts to connect. Some authors (say, I don't know, Tom Clancy or someone) do a great job of bouncing between characters doing different things, always leaving you wanting just a little more from one story before shifting into a different story that you're happy to get back to. In this book, though, the intertwined plots don't work so well together. Some of the characters aren't really that believable, don't seem that compelling, and are part of a storyline that doesn't really make a lot of sense.
The overall story involves people trying to decode an alien message, a search for a superweapon left over from the pan-solar-system wars that threatens to destroy everyone, and technological geniuses (who happen to be trying to escape the binds of their capitalistic-dynastic family) that use a mysterious new supercomputer to simulate all of humanity and have to travel back in time for some reason. (OK, just kidding -- but only about the time travel part.)
Overall, this book was an fun read, especially after having read the first novel (a while back) and really enjoying it.
This book can stand alone, without reading it as a sequel, but it definitely would suffer as a result. This book includes new characters, but old characters are not fully fleshed out. That's not so bad if you've read the first one, but with a little bit more development, I think the author could have struck a balance that would fill them out a little more in this book, and wouldn't have left familiar readers bored.
The biggest problem with this book isn't the characters, though -- it's the multiple storylines that the author attempts to connect. Some authors (say, I don't know, Tom Clancy or someone) do a great job of bouncing between characters doing different things, always leaving you wanting just a little more from one story before shifting into a different story that you're happy to get back to. In this book, though, the intertwined plots don't work so well together. Some of the characters aren't really that believable, don't seem that compelling, and are part of a storyline that doesn't really make a lot of sense.
The overall story involves people trying to decode an alien message, a search for a superweapon left over from the pan-solar-system wars that threatens to destroy everyone, and technological geniuses (who happen to be trying to escape the binds of their capitalistic-dynastic family) that use a mysterious new supercomputer to simulate all of humanity and have to travel back in time for some reason. (OK, just kidding -- but only about the time travel part.)
Overall, this book was an fun read, especially after having read the first novel (a while back) and really enjoying it.
April 27, 2009
I enjoyed this story enough to stay up until 3am to finish it. One needs to read Cold as Ice first if you want to read the stories in order.
The Great War is over and humans have spread across the solar system, but mathematician Alex Ligon's complex computer model has just predicted that humanity is inexplicably doomed within a century. At the same time, scientist Milly Wu has identified what appears to be an extraterrestrial signal, and the idiosyncratic genius Bat searches for weapons from the Great War to add to his collection, finding much more than he bargained for. Their stories and others are intertwined in this tightly plotted and thoroughly engaging follow-up to Sheffield's Cold as Ice.
The Great War is over and humans have spread across the solar system, but mathematician Alex Ligon's complex computer model has just predicted that humanity is inexplicably doomed within a century. At the same time, scientist Milly Wu has identified what appears to be an extraterrestrial signal, and the idiosyncratic genius Bat searches for weapons from the Great War to add to his collection, finding much more than he bargained for. Their stories and others are intertwined in this tightly plotted and thoroughly engaging follow-up to Sheffield's Cold as Ice.
June 8, 2015
Not as good as Cold as Ice. That book ended with a nice hook I thought would be picked up in Dark as Day, but instead it all the events of that book were barely mentioned. Instead, a new possible threat is emerging, but then everything goes off on a tangent toward the end of the book, like the author just got sidetracked, or so wrapped up in one part of the story he forgot about the rest.
October 15, 2016
I've got to re-read this one, too. I remember I loved this novel when I first read it, like all of Charles Sheffield's novels. He was a great sci-fi writer, and it's a shame that he died as he did and when he did.
August 27, 2012
Not quite as good as Cold as Ice, but still a hugely entertaining novel from Sheffield.
March 15, 2019
Doughnut response
I wish to express my appreciation of a brilliant and humane author who has condescended to show an insight into sheer unadulterated intellect
I wish to express my appreciation of a brilliant and humane author who has condescended to show an insight into sheer unadulterated intellect
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews