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Title: The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0441002846 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 1995 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.91
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Read, Some Negative Points
Comment: Engines of God was the book that first got me reading McDevitt. It's an excellent peace of anthropological science fiction. I would recommend it as a starting point for reading the author, along with Ancient Shores.
It typifies the comfortable nature of his writing style, which is some combination of Heinlein's Everyman tone with some of the hard science authors. And unlike some earlier reviewers (i.e. "superdestroyer") contend, it is not at all about "non-happenings." The novel is very much event driven, but the events are driven by the character's desire to understand a dead race and the clues they leave to a mystery that bears very much on the future of the human race.
There are only really 3 weaknesses I see in Engines of God (and McDevitt's work in general), that prevents me from giving it 5 stars:
1) The characterization is weak, not exactly Card or Donaldson or even Babylon 5. This can prove for exceedingly pointless moments as he explores characters that we don't really feel.
2) He has a way of creating slow spots in his writing that can be difficult to wade through if you don't know that there's a payoff coming. This is never really a problem in EOG, but in some of his more recent efforts like Moonfall, it can grate.
3) His writing style will never be considered highly literary. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes there are narrative flow issues related to this that can be jarring.
Ultimately, this book is for people who can enjoy what is very much an above-average prose SF book. It's not the next Stranger in a Strange Land, but -and thank God- it isn't Voyager either.
Rating: 4
Summary: Hard sci-fi that's easy
Comment: The Engines of God was an easy read. It kept me interested, was well paced, and well written. I have enjoyed hard science fiction about as long as I have been able to read, but most of recent sci-fi is really fantasy... hobbits in space. I love Tolkien and I love Asimov, but I just don't enjoy mixing the two. I was very pleased to discover McDevitt; there was not one single word of fantasy, magic, or supernatural in this book.
This story combines science fiction and mystery. It is the story of archeologists of the future who study the ruins of ancient alien cultures instead of human ones. The archeological study reveals a mystery that spans the galaxy, and the reader is left guessing until the last few chapters.
This is a well-conceived and well-executed novel, and in a very special class because of its faithfulness to the hard sci-fi genre.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another good one
Comment: I buy a fair number of books, and many of them I struggle to finish, and ultimately get bored and put it on the shelf for another day. I never did finish "Cryptonomicon", or any of Neal Stephenson's books for that matter, even after reading hundreds of pages.
But for some reason Jack McDevitt is able to weave an interesting sci-fi story that can really keep my attention. His books focus on a single character and you are always working your way toward the conclusion of the book. You feel like you're making progress.
Engines of God is no different. There's a constant, logical progression as the characters weave their way through discoveries and ultimately wind up at finding a conclusion that you speculated about, but weren't quite sure. You really want to skip to the end and figure it out, but you don't want to wreck a really good read.
Frankly, I'd like to see a sequel to this book written about 900-1000 years in the future to see what happens.
My first McDevitt book was "Infinity Beach", then "Eternity Road", and now this. All were excellent and interesting.
If I have a complaint about McDevitt, it's that technology in his books isn't all that advanced, even 1,000 years in the future. I guess that helps with the readability, as he doesn't get carried away with tons of technobabble as most authors do.
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Title: Ancient Shores by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0061054267 Publisher: Harper Mass Market Paperbacks Pub. Date: 1996 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Deepsix by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0061020060 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Chindi by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0441009387 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 02 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0061054275 Publisher: Harper Mass Market Paperbacks Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Moonfall by Jack McDevitt ISBN: 0061051128 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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