Series
Nigel Walmsley
Gregory Benford · 2 novels · 3 novellas · 1 novelette · 1972–1984
Gregory Benford's In the Ocean of Night and its sequel Across the Sea of Suns follow Nigel Walmsley, a scientist and astronaut who discovers an ancient derelict alien probe near Earth and is later drawn into deep-space contact with vast, hostile machine intelligences. The two novels open Benford's wider Galactic Center Saga, a hard-SF sequence that eventually shifts its focus to other characters and a far-future war between organic and mechanical life. In the Ocean of Night began as a series of novellas and novelettes published 1973-77.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
Map
Nigel Walmsley at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 1970s5
- 1980s1
Shape
2 novels · 3 novellas · 1 novelette
1 author
Mood
Grim and intense: 80% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book5 of 6 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- Across the Sea of Sunsdarkest
- In the Ocean of Nightbrightest · calmest
- Icarus Descendingmost intense