Darkworld: Earth

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

In a universe where the homeworld of humanity is lost to legend, countless human civilizations thrive on distant planets, some isolated for millennia. Among these "Darkworlds," cut off from interstellar infonets, lie secrets that could reshape the cosmos.

Captain Ji-eun Moon commands an exploratory mission from Earth, embarking on a journey that shifts course upon detecting ancient radio signals from a distant star system. What they discover is beyond imagination: a planet teeming with advanced technology, millions of humans, and alien allies known as the Sulivans, who resemble creatures from a child's dream.

As they navigate this new world, the explorers encounter the Yonohoans, descendants of Neanderthals who share a unique bond with the Sulivans. At the center of this cultural exchange is Eolai, a Yonohoan with a fascinating outlook on life and a mission to bridge the gap between species. His world, shaped by temporal mechanics and ancient customs, challenges everything the Earthlings thought they knew about humanity's place in the universe.

Darkworlds weaves a tale of exploration, cultural clash, and unexpected alliances. As Captain Moon and her crew delve deeper into the mysteries of the Yonohoans and Sulivans, they must confront their own preconceptions and uncover the truth behind the enigmatic signals that brought them here. Join the journey in Darkworlds, where every discovery raises new questions, and the line between ally and adversary blurs in the vast expanse of space.

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2024
Author: A. Stargazer

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.6/ 5.0
Followers: 218
Views: 190,029

What readers say about Darkworld: Earth

“If you're into hard sci-fi, you're in for a treat! Well developed characters and storyline. Occasional spelling and grammar errors, but not nearly enough to interrupt the story. Novel ideas that I hadn't yet encountered in other sci-fi stories. Explanations…”
jmc5003Royal Road5.0 / 5
“Just the kind of space opera I like. Not too ,uch shortcuts are made, but for aliens to recognize/know English after hundred thousand years, English that only Sheakspear invented 2000-3000 words and many others are taken from other languages, well that is n…”
Drlove73Royal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

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Community Reviews(10)

jmc5003Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
If you're into hard sci-fi, you're in for a treat! Well developed characters and storyline. Occasional spelling and grammar errors, but not nearly enough to interrupt the story. Novel ideas that I hadn't yet encountered in other sci-fi stories. Explanations of some of the science but doesn't bog down the story, just explains why certain decisions were made or how certain things were accomplished, just enough to advance the storyline. It'll definitely keep you on your toes! Great read! I highly recommend that you give this author a try!
Drlove73Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Just the kind of space opera I like. Not too ,uch shortcuts are made, but for aliens to recognize/know English after hundred thousand years, English that only Sheakspear invented 2000-3000 words and many others are taken from other languages, well that is not-scientific, although it is necessary to shorten comunication issue. Visual lexicon with mathematics and few weeks of sofistication would be much more belivable.
All in all one of best SF space operas I have read in my life.
Jordan Elias R.Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
This is a review swap. Usually, I tend to busy myself with high fantasy and Litrpgs, but I must say that this book has held me hooked even past the word count I sighed up for.
The concept of this story is really interesting. Worlds still blind to the nature of the universe are called Darkworlds, and this story begins with a jaunt into space to investigate a signal coming from a seemingly inhabited world light years away from earth.
The style of writing is really impressive. It's fluent and easy to read, and it's obvious that the author has done their research, especially when it comes to the military and space exploration. The writing is descriptive, but not too much, allowing the readers to fill up the blanks themselves to enhance immersion.
The story has multiple POVs, but the author has managed to make it work and keep immersion. I particularly love the back and forth between Eolai and Captain moon in the earlier chapters as they probed the threat level of each other. The story is really well written, and from the little I've read, it shows that the author has a firm grasp on the direction of this fiction, and has established it with intriguing dialogue and action right off the bat.
The Grammer is peak! There are a few minor errors here and there, but none too jarring. A little editing and proofreading would go a long way into smoothing things out.
The characters are perhaps my favorite part of this fiction. They are well rounded out and very relatable. The captain is great, and the topokans and a myriad bunch, but most importantly, I love Eolai and I can't wait to see how far this goes.
Rowdha Al SolRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
The author is a very educated individual. As in, they have a pretty good understanding of the mechanics of space opera to convey a generally enjoyable, non-boring space expedition. It has a very strange execution on a multi-POV which might jar some people, but otherwise I've tipped away at it and it's been pretty enjoyable, even though I told myself I was going to drop it but eh.
Now, I am not entirely sure how long this is gonna pan out, but it is pretty consistent nonetheless.
CaptainJimmy42Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Style: This story reads like a good book I would pick up from the bookstore. I feel like this would make me stand there for hours reading it, before coming back to reality and finding a comfortable seat to continue it in. The flow is smooth and all the transitions between the different views is done in a tv show way that feels natural to me. As if my brain is imaging this story playing out in my own personal sci-fi tv show, it does help to have music and refreshments available to enhance the experience.
Story: A wonderful space adventure of a first encounter for Earth, and a traffic ticket for the Captain of the ship. I haven't read many space stories lately, and most of the ones I remember usually end up shooting each other the moment they spot each other, so this is a pleasant change of pace. The first xenospecies we meet, just made me laugh out from their antics, and the visualizations of the characters makes the story even better.
Grammar: My grammar scoring is simple. Did you write in a pleasing to read manner? Yes. Was your spelling seemingly correct to me? Yes. Did you use proper punction? I think so. I found almost nothing wrong with this work, maybe a missed spacing or autocorrect shenanigans causing a bit of trouble and only take a second to correct, but nothing that wouldn't score below a 99/100, so I'll round up.
Character: Loving the Sullies! I can even picture them doing a "Put that thing right back where it came from, or so help me!" play to show their discomfort. The humans and the Yonohoans are well written and so far the subtle details help you not focus too much on one character and instead you get to enjoy the dialogues between the multiple groups within different areas.
Overall: Without giving away too many spoilers, I skipped the synopsis because I loved the cover art, and fell into this interesting space adventure. It reads as if I'm watching one of those space exploration tv shows, more than those movies filled with explosions. I'm enjoying t
RNJSUSRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This story is about humanity exploring the stars, and finding humanity.
It is an interesting slow burn with a predictable but fun plot. None of the characters make senseless decisions so far, and all actions and reactions are logical, even when emotionally driven. Also there is still much room to grow in this story, with most seemingly mayor players unadressed, a good thing in my opinion.
The writing is good, albeit a bit dragged out. Only very small editing mistakes, no glaring grammatical issues here!
DarkodiaRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
This is a story about humanity's first contact with aliens. What I liked most was how it showed both perspectives - the human explorers and the aliens already living in that star system. It created a lot of tension and misunderstandings between the two different sides, which felt realistic.
The author did a good job building up the excitement and nervousness of the human crew as they realized they'd found alien life. I could almost feel Captain Moon's different emotions as she tried to figure out how to handle this huge discovery.
On the alien side, I thought Eolai was an interesting character. He's clearly used to dealing with different species, which gave him a unique perspective on the situation. His calm approach helped balance out the more jumpy Topokans.
The story also touched on some cool concepts, like different methods of faster-than-light travel and how we might communicate with aliens. I liked how it showed how both sides trying and struggling to understand each other despite their best efforts.
Overall, I found this story to be a pretty good take on first contact. It explored the possibilities for both conflict and connection when two very different civilizations meet each other.
DragygRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Story:
Pros: Darkworld: Earth presents an intriguing situation between two opposing POVs, one belonging to our protagonistic faction, the other to a strange alien race lead by a familiarly-human figure. A mystery slowly unfolding over the nature of this setting, as the two factions meet and the reader is presented with many questions regarding the differences between the two and how they came to be. They each respectively struggle in a prisoner's dilemma trying to figure out if the other is friendly or not, and opening communications once that struggle is overcome. To me, that was the highlight of the first five chapters, seeing intelligent people trying to figure out a way to solve the situation. The conflict escalates mainly by the trigger-happy and jittery nature of the Topokans which I felt was a good way to keep the stakes from completely vanishing in the scenes in question.
Cons: As pointed out, aside from the initial meeting between the two factions, the conflict does calm down over the course of the situation's unfolding. The characters are worried and concerned as they should be, but the reader has the advantage of seeing both of the factions' POVs and knowing that there are reasonable people in command on both sides neuters the implicit danger slightly. While that in itself isn't necessarily bad, its a scene of two strangers meeting and coming to an understanding despite lack of communications after all, its not meant to be all out war, it ties in my opinion to a more central issue:
The story from the first 5 chapters lacks a little bit of what I would consider "necessary scaffolding". What I mean by that is - we are presented with an intriguing mystery in a sci-fi setting, as such questions are not going to be answered right away, naturally - However I feel there should be SOME preliminary answers presented at this point. Who are these characters searching around in space? Why IS this protagonistic faction searching for signals in deep-space? Why should w
K. J. HarrowickRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
Thanks for sharing your story!
I'm a huge fan of science fiction worlds that dive into darkspace and leave Earth behind, and I'm so glad I read the opener here. There are just enough hints of dark and delicious worlds and alien species to draw me in.
One thing I would have loved more of is character GMC (goal, motivation, conflict). They were in tune with their world, but it was unclear how they saw their world and why they reacted certain ways to really dig deep into their psyches.
Anyways, I really enjoyed reading this. Lovely work! ^_^
FanFanLoverRoyal Road
★★ 1.5
While i find the premise interesting the execution is overly formulaic.
The conversations feel as a simple script is followed and find no character engaging. The radio conversation between the earth ship and Eloai is quite exemplary. A simple back and forth Q-A, Earth questions, Eloai answers, Earth does a new Question based on that answer. Rinse and repeat
While the writing in-of itself is not bad i just wholly lost interest to continue. Even quite many chapters in one senses a general dread but that is never acted upon and every character is just oblivious to it.