jack mcdevitt

One of the problems of writing a book about someone investigating a momentous event that occurred in a war two hundred years previously is that it requires the reader to understand much of what happened in that earlier war. This is the problem the McDevitt faces in A Talent for War and the...

This is the fourth book in this author's Academy series, the earlier ones reviewed here being The Engines of God (TEoG), Deepsix and Chindi. A linking element between all of them is starship captain Priscilla Hutchins (Hutch), although in this story – set years after Chindi – she is now...

Seeker Jack McDevitt Ace, Nov 2005, $24.95, 368 pp. ISBN: 0441013295 Amy Kohler shows antiques dealer Alex Benedict a decorated cup with an eagle and strange language etched onto it. Alex looks up the language and says it is Mid-American English last used in the third millennium. Amy is stunned...

Odyssey Jack McDevitt Berkley, Nov 2006, $24.95, 416.pp ISBN: 044101433X The earth is in trouble as global warming doomsayers of the early twenty-first century prove right. Space has proven a big expensive failure as the costs overshadow the few benefits. However with pandemic ecological...

Cauldron Jack McDevitt Ace, Nov 2007, $24.95 ISBN 9780441015252 Government sponsored interstellar flight research is a thing of the past as it proved to expensive; some private foundations provided limited funding to scientists, but by 2255 everyone knows that the dreams of the now defunct...

The Devil’s Eye Jack McDevitt Ace, Nov 2008, $24.95 ISBN 9780441016358 In the far future, famous horror writer Vicki Greene leaves a message of despair with antiquities dealer Alex Benedict. Soon after dispatching her note, Vicki has her memory expunged. Alex and his pilot companion Chase...

Time Travelers Never Die Jack McDevitt Ace, Nov 2009, $24.95 ISBN: 9780441017638 Michael Shelborne is a two time nominee for the Nobel Prize; a brilliant scientist in numerous fields until one day he disappeared without a trace. The mystery of his vanishing intensifies because the evidence...

Echo Jack McDevitt Ace, Nov 2 2010, $24.95 ISBN: 9780441019243 In eight millennium of space travel, humans met one sentient alien race by 1403 Rimway Calendar. Over the centuries since Melony Brown accidentally met the Ashiyyur when she was measuring solar temperatures her discovery led to many...

Firebird Jack McDevitt Ace, Nov 1 2011, $24.95 ISBN: 9780441020737 Karen Howard arrives at the office of Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath wanting to hire them to find good prices for her late sister Elizabeth’s estate. After insulting Chase by demanding to meet with Alex, she explains her...

The Cassandra Project Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick Ace, Nov 6 2012, $25.95 ISBN 9781937008710 In 2019, the United States remains in the throes of the Great Recession. Federal agencies are cut to the bone so that there is little strategic planning when surviving daily operations has become the...

Chindi is the third in McDevitt's Academy series featuring Hutch (Priscilla Hutchins) a spacecraft pilot with a tendency to get involved with alien archaeology; I have already reviewed The Engines of God and Deepsix on this blog. The mix is much as before; mystery and drama set in a future in...

Set in the same universe as The Engines of God (reviewed here last January ) but twenty years later, Deepsix has only one character from the earlier story; spacecraft pilot Priscilla Hutchins (Hutch). Despite this the focus is not particularly on her, with various people acting as viewpoint...

I'd not come across this author's work until this one was chosen by the Classic SF discussion forum as a monthly read, but it sounded interesting enough for me to get hold of a copy. The Engines of God does indeed have a classic SF plot: ancient alien remains are found scattered around the...

I have read the outstanding "A Talent for War" and the very good "The Devil's Eye" in this series. I have "Polaris queued up and ready to go. But I have a question that someone here might be able to answer: "Why did he change the point of view from Alex Benedict in the first novel to his...

Considering the four dozen and one author forums here, I’m really astonished there is not more discussion of Jack McDevitt. Over the last ten years, he has turned into a pretty major force in science fiction literature, garnering award nomination after award nomination and churning out a string...