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Liked It “Typical McDevitt "Hutch" novel, enjoyable as the rest. His universe is a very lonely one: where great alien races have developed and thrived, only to disappear or collapse into ruin. I like how he resolved the Omega mystery. His characters are enjoyable even if they don't grow or change a lot.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“fitting for the times
John H wrote this review Tuesday, November 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
”“Typical McDevitt "Hutch" novel, enjoyable as the rest. His universe is a very lonely one: where great alien races have developed and thrived, only to disappear or collapse into ruin. I like how he resolved the Omega mystery. His characters are enjoyable even if they don't grow or change a lot.”
Bobby L wrote this review Wednesday, July 15 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I picked this one up because it was nominated for the 2008 Nebula Award for best novel. (It didn't win.) I was impressed. This is the first novel of McDevitt's that I've read, and now I've got another author whose works are going to wind up getting added to my "should read" list...
Steve C wrote this review Sunday, May 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This was a novel of spaceflight in a post-spaceflight world, which is an interesting environment to explore, especially as it correlates strongly to the current (early 21st century) public disinterest in advancing space technology. This was a fun theme to explore.
McDevitt also has (nearly-so if not outright) sentient AIs running a lot of life; the plight of their kind is also a background theme in the story, done nicely, if mildly.
There's a bit of action as well, both on the pulp-ish "monster on frozen world" formula, and in the "speak to a intelligent gas cloud" style. It was fun to read.
It was also interesting to hear McDevitt's thoughts on "first contact" and establising a common language with an alien intelligence; the parallels with Robert Sawyer's Rollback, which I read only two months ago, were striking. Both authors probably used the same source material while authoring their books; the parallels were striking.
This was a fun fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
”
“Excellent if traditional Man Joins the Universe tale; well written...”
John J wrote this review Friday, April 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This is the last book of his that I will read. Although it is a return to form of sorts, it's still weighted down by the many failings of the author and his style. This time he spends much too long setting up the new engines, which you know from the start will work. There is no tension, mostly just frustration when the damn things apparently don't work the first couple of times. Just get on with it. And then when the plot finally gets underway, he seems to lose interest, and rushes through the last half of the book. This was compounded thoroughly today when I read the first chapter of Reynolds's House of Suns. Oh my goodness, the difference is extraordinary. Jack, put down the hammer.”
Icelandic T wrote this review Wednesday, February 18 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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