The Engines of God

Rating:
Summary: Could be McDevitt's best book.
Review: I really liked this story about serious excavation in outer space. Set in a future of environmental decline, where the needs to terraform a world are weighed against the damage to the alien ruins on it. A link is discovered between sets of ruins scattered throughout the galaxy and the hunt is on to discover the homeworld of the Monument Makers. This is the first book in the "Hutch" series.

Rating:
Summary: The germ of an idea
Review: This is possibly one of McDevitt's most important work in terms of what it portends. He introduces the soulful, enticing, and always interesting "Hutch", the discovery of the Omega clouds and the presence of other sentient beings - First Contact twice removed one might say. Some have criticized the series (and his books in general) for their elusiveness, the almost ephemeral quality of the "encounters", the lack of action (quote unquote) and the timidity and rationality of the characters.

It is for those precise qualities that I value the works of Jack McDevitt. His sagas of alien encouters are more valid from a scientific point of view than most. It is doubtful that two intelligent cultures will exist at near the same technological level at the same time. Our best hopes are discovering life in its infancy or civilizations long disappeared. After all, our planet has sustained near-extinction events at least five times that we are aware. Furthermore, unless we do venture into space as an exploring / colonizing species there is a good chance that life could be exterminated on our own planet by either local or external means.

The adventure on Quraqua was near perfect with its mix of human emotions, scientific endeavors and near-catastrophic ending. Once again, the clues planted in this story are explored and expanded in the following sections (and books). Hutch is such a great character. I almost think of her as a "real" person. She has a spunk and sense of humor in this book that is missing in others, but the reflection on herself and her follies. Also present are the inner reveries in which she contemplates mankind's place among the stars, the past and the future.

Only a few cons - too many minor characters. If the character does not figure in the story use "the captain" or "the guy that loaded boxes" rather than a name and biographical information. The reader is left waiting for something to happen.introduce. The headlines, while understandable, are a distraction from the main story to this reader. Also, who really thinks it easier to terraform another world rather than change your own...but these are quibblings compared to the slow, steady surge of the story as it moves inexorably toward its conclusion. I wish this had been the FIRST Hutch story I read instead of the last. And although this is another superb effort by a great writer I am still waiting for that magnum opus, that DUNE or 1984, that will not only satisfy the reader but also stagger the imagination. Come on, Jack, hit the books!

Rating:
Summary: Retro SF
Review: The Engines of God is a typical golden-age hard SF novel - that just happens to have been written in 1994. And although the book displays both the strengths and weaknesses of SF novels, it has some peculiarities and weaknesses all its own. It may be retro SF, but it isn't a classic.

Reading Engines, I kept checking the copyright date. I'd happen upon some strange anachronism - people in 2200 still driving cars, for example, or the clunky, non-networked computers widely featured in 1970s SF - and think, wait, this must be a reprint. Flip to the copyright. No, it still says 1994. Back to the book, where I can't help but notice that people might have personal energy shields allowing them to walk naked in space, but back on Earth they're still using the internal combustion engine and reading all the same newspapers we have today. McDevitt does make some predictions of future technology and future changes in his book, but, just like in traditional hard SF, the underlying culture is unchanged. The result is a future that's unconvincing.

But that wouldn't be a problem - after all, traditional SF was fantastic despite its limitations - if the core puzzle of the book was good enough. Unfortunately, it isn't. And I found that frustrating. It's amazingly easy to solve the archeological mystery at the heart of the book; the average reader will figure it all out before the midpoint, and will spend the rest of the novel waiting for the big surprise that doesn't come. Worst of all, the "surprise" revelation at the ending is stunningly silly; I closed the book thinking "How could a race that advanced never have heard of *domes*?"

However, Engines does have strengths. It's fast-paced, with lots of action; really, it's more thriller than pure SF. It's light, easy to read, zippy - a beach kind of book. And on that level, it works. Just don't come to this novel expecting anything more.

So this isn't the book to read if you're looking for solid predictions or a dazzling future world. It's also not the book for you if you're hoping for a traditional SF puzzle. But if you want solid escapist fiction, action-packed and non-threatening, you'll love Engines of God.

Rating:
Summary: Seek us by the light of the horgon's eye
Review: I hold Jack McDevitt's writing in high regard and always enjoy his science fiction epics a great deal. While his writing has become somewhat formulaic, The Engines of God provides further proof that the man knows how to tell a good story. This novel is the first to feature renowned pilot Priscilla Hutchinson ("Hutch"), a character who has been involved in more grand missions and suffered some of the most globally cursed misfortunes of any character in the universe. This story is built around the mysterious Monument Makers. Saturn's moon Iapetus houses the first such monument discovered by mankind, a mysterious, winged ice sculpture bearing an indecipherable inscription; its existence fuels the search for more monuments, of which a good dozen are located throughout the galaxy. Following in the footsteps of the unknown cosmic entities is as close as mankind has come to interacting with intelligent life elsewhere. On earth, the ecology has progressed beyond the point of no return, and man is looking outward for new earths to be populated. One possible site is Quaraqua, whose civilization has already collapsed. The Academy struggles to learn all they can about this society underneath the waters of the planet at a site dubbed the Temple of the Winds. Hutch is sent to evacuate the scientists before a terraforming project destroys whatever priceless knowledge lies hidden in the watery depths. For me, this first section of the book was the most exciting. Afterwards, having detected a radio signal, Hutch and several others journey to a more distant system, following the path left by the Monument Makers. They finally end up on yet a third planetary body seeking factual data on the mystical "engines of God" alluded to in alien scripts discovered and interpreted along the way.

For me, the plot started to collapse in on itself slightly in the second half of the book. On moons orbiting the important sites they visit are huge, fake cities (dubbed Oz) laid out in obsessively straight lines and right angles which have suffered serious charring at times of planetary catastrophe from an unknown source. Apparently, the inexplicable cosmic force they eventually get a look at has an innate attraction to linear geometries-this part of the story, which becomes very important toward the end, seemed a little ludicrous to me. Another thing that bothers me is that, aside from Hutch, the other characters who survived until the end seemed to be the least important and inscrutable of the bunch. McDevitt has no qualms about sacrificing major characters at any time and any way; it's refreshing to see an author do that, but it is sometimes slightly frustrating to finally get to know a character and then see him/her dispensed with rather arbitrarily. This leads to another weakness in the novel. I did not think the character development was very good, especially that of Hutch. McDevitt always seems to want to add a touch of romance and smoldering desires to his books, and in this case it detracts from my admiration from Hutch. She is a brave, heroic woman, yet she can't go on a mission anywhere in the universe, it seems, without at least one former or hopefully future love interest. McDevitt just doesn't handle this type of emotional content well here, and it detracts somewhat from a great story.

I think this book made McDevitt a better writer. The flaws that seem to stand out in this effort are much less prominent in his later novels. I felt pretty good about this particular plot up until the fourth and final section; at that point, some of the science seemed to fall apart, and the ultimate conclusion comes off as somewhat improbable and anticlimactic. Some of the decisions made on all sides along the way are incredibly criminal and oftentimes juvenile, and the same mistakes (such as the continued exploration of alien worlds with little or no weapons) have a way of repeating themselves over and over again. I remained incapable of buying into the supposed purpose for the strangely hewn alien Oz sites, and since the final section's activity was based around a scientific interpretation of those sites' significance, the final pages left me somewhat nonplussed. Flawed as this novel is, though, it is certainly a science fiction adventure worth taking. Hutch is a fascinating character whose richness does not really come through in these pages as it does in the follow-up novels Deepsix and Chindi, but this is a more than worthy introduction to her noble character. Sometimes I feel like McDevitt is taking me somewhere I have already visited with him in the past, but I am more than happy to follow him each and every time.

Rating:
Summary: I liked it enough to read the next book, but...
Review: Yes, I did buy Chindi (and am now reading it), but I can't say I LOVED this or Deepsix (if you want a book you'll love, try Eternity Road). What brought me back was the finely drawn Patricia Hutchins, and the interesting adventures. What annoys the hell out of me is that no one seems to learn anything.

DANGER! POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD!

And look, I am very anti-gun, but you could you PLEASE tell me why, through 3 books, people who are running off to planets with potentially hostile environments (and history tells them they always are) don't carry some sort of weapon? It just defies explanation. Long before the end of this book I was tired of people a) getting stuck on a planet with something big coming (just like in Deepsix) and b) blithly ignoring the certainty of hostile animals. I mean, would YOU walk into the Amazon rainforests without something to protect yourself with?