Chindi

Rating:
Summary: Great story with a few faults
Review: CHINDI is part of a series of space adventures set in an Earth some 200 years in the future. All of these feature Priscilla ("Hutch"), a hardnosed by the book starship pilot and reluctant heroine. All deal in some way with alien contact but he the author is very careful not to descend to the typical close encounter of the third kind where strange creatures teach little ole' mankind great moral truths like "stop all war." No, his alien discoveries are furtive, accidental, perhaps even hopeless since a race may have decided to leave or has become extinct.

McDevitt's ideas about alien culture seem almost too "human". His aliens seem to operate under a similar evolutionary psychology of wants and needs aand that is quite impossible. Regardless, the story is about the discovery of a giant alien vessel along with countless "probes" whose task it to record events on other worlds, including our own planet.

Of course, they manage to enter the ship and discover that it contains actual footage of great events from other worlds, an endless history of intelligent life in the galaxy. Once inside there are problems and a brilliant rescue scene (another of the author's favorite things). Hutch falls in love, loses the man, then meets a man from the past who she discovers is her one true love.

Some reviewers complained that the ending falls short or is somehow diminuitive. But the quiet tone in which we finally learn about the purpose of the ship speaks louder than any shoot-em-up, kill the bad guy, laser-missle battle could ever say. Throughout it all the writing is intelligent and probing.

My main objection is the one I have to almost all his books - too many characters with little or no purpose. Why he feels the need to introduce a string of people who may have one or two lines and usually are simply "other captains" or "someone from the Academy" is unknown. The number of major characters should be whittled down to at most four or five. Doing that would yield a perfect book.

Rating:
Summary: A rarity, a deeply mediocre McDevitt book
Review: Continued reuse of the same rather wooden lead character cast a pall of boredom over the opening chapters for me, "Hutch' is well past her sell by date and has hopefully now been pensioned off to well deserved obscurity. The book has it moments but struggles to rise above the quality of star trek's threadbare soap opera. The whole plot and especially the ending suffered from plodding predictability and lack of pzazz. Its all been done before with more style, better characters, and superior imagination.

Rating:
Summary: There's A Lot Out There
Review: I enjoyed Chindi. I've noticed a lot other reviewers hitting the book on poor characterizations or for an unimaginative plot. To say either I think is unduly harsh. Yes, McDevitt could have drawn a few of his more minor characters a bit better...but I thought even those characters were drawn adequately enough. The major characters were certainly drawn well enough -- one in particular provoked an extremely annoyed reaction from me at several points. As for an unimaginative plot -- Chindi apparently has some similarities to other works of scifi -- I don't think that this makes Chindi any less of an interesting story.

I found Chindi to evoke a strong sense of mystery and wonder in me...two traits a good scifi book should have. There's unquestionably a lot out there and McDevitt does a good job theorizing about some of the possibilites. Chindi is third of four in the "Hutch" series (Engines of God & Deepsix before it, Omega after it)...within the context of the series the book is certainly a must read.

Rating:
Summary: nice science fiction mystery
Review: I enjoyed the book. I'd probably rate it more like a 3.8 than a 4 star. It has that certain "golden age of sci-fi" sense of wonder of space, an optimistic desire to unravel the mysteries of the universe, that often I see in Arthur C. Clark's books and golden age sci novels and stories. I found this to be refreshing. Characters were a weak point, adequate but sometimes thier actions I found to be questionable. Throwing caution to the wind seems to be a popular motto in the minds of some of the characters, so it was not surprising to see some of them meet unfortunate ends. However, by the end of the book I really liked the main female protagonist, "Hutch", enough so that I'll read the other books featuring her. She's got enough sass, spunk and humor that I found to be a refreshing mix and very endearing.

The other gripe I had is that McDevitt's universe seems a bit too human in its view of the otherworldly. Aliens and alien worlds seem a bit too normal. Do all Alien's have bookshelves and tables and wear pants? This was OK to do for the 40-50's sci-fi and original Star Trek but seems a bit old-fashioned for today's audience, but again I guess its part of McDevitt's love for Golden Age of Sci-fi. This is not surprising since the books adheres to the the premise that all worlds that promote life would be similiar to Earth's evolution, so aliens would be of the humanoid type like walking gatormen, birdmen, etc, which may have some legitimate scientific backing but makes for less intriguing aliens. In anycase, there's enough mystery and a dash of good ole science to propel to the plot and make it a worthwhile read. The title and the use of the Native American folklore was a nice twist as well. This book is a Nebula 2004 Award nominee and on this year's Locus Magazine's recommended reading list.

Rating:
Summary: Nebula nominee? What went wrong here?
Review: I find it very hard to believe that this book is up for a Nebula award.

Flat charachters with no development follow what was a pretty good plot. Most of the motivations and decisions made in this book make no sense.

Rating:
Summary: Decent, Worth a read
Review: I have never read a McDevitt novel before so "Chindi" was my first. I almost gave up on it. The first 160 pages were seriously dull. But when it started moving, it really took off! I had no problem with the personalities of the characters (some reviewers thought they were "whiny") but I did notice that the crew was continuously making bad decisions that inevitably got people killed. That was unrealistic.

The positives: excellent descriptions of outer space phenomena, great sense of awe and wonder accompanying first contact, and a good sense of humor.

The negatives: definitely too long and drawn out! Over 100 pages could have easily been cut making it more concise. I don't know why there is this rule that a sci-fi book has to be long to be good! Please! Also, the size of the type (in the paperback) was very tiny.

I might read the sequel "Omega" but I have no burning desire to. I just don't know if I could get through another long-winded saga--and from what people are saying, these "Hutch" books don't differ much from one another.

Final analysis: Starts off slow, greatly improves at page 150 or so. Nice diversion. You'll have a good time.

NOTE: Read giant clumps of it in one sitting. It goes quicker that way and is more enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: A question??
Review: I just bought Chindi, because it was on display and it looked really good. I have just now found out that it is a sequel to two earlier books and is followed with Omega.

Should I read Chindi first? Or should I read Engines of God and Deepsix first?

Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Not up to standard
Review: I never thought I'd say it of a Jack McDevitt book, but I was disappointed by "Chindi". It started off with so much promise, but there was no payoff in the end. But more than that, it felt so much like a rehash of the various elements of McDevitt's previous books that the fun I've had reading his work in the past was mostly lost with this one.
The wealthy but not respected Contact Society is pressuring the Academy of Science and Technology to investigate some mysterious signal that no-one really believes originates from aliens. To keep them happy and keep the funding they provide rolling in, the head of the Academy sends them off in a couple of ships to investigate, expecting that they'll wander around for a while, see there's nothing out there, and come home again knowing that at least they tried. Of course, things do not go according to plan. There ARE aliens out there, and the various members of the Contact Society fall into one adventure/disaster after another.
I've always appreciated how uncomfortably human McDevitt makes his characters, but these guys were such a bunch of utterly stupid jerks that I found the story increasingly hard to swallow. None of the new characters really came alive for me, and I've never found Hutch, the pilot, particularly interesting. McDevitt has a great imagination and there are some wonderful elements to the story, but it abruptly shifts from a mission of exploration to a tale of daring rescue with the obligatory hard physics angle, and then dribbles away to a nothing conclusion. None of the characters exhibit any personal growth and we never get any answers to the mysteries that appear. If that was the sort of story I wanted, I'd go back to Arthur C. Clarke.
I agree that a certain amount of the unexplained is a good thing in a story and it's something that has played really well in McDevitt's other books, but I started to wonder with "Chindi" whether there were any answers at all - whether McDevitt was too focused on details to have worked out any master plan behind what was going on in this story.
If you're new to McDevitt or like a certain kind of old style science fiction, you may really enjoy "Chindi" - it's certainly not necessary to have read "Engines of God" or "Deepsix" first. Fans, like me, may be disappointed. More wonder and solidity, and less stupidity, please.

Rating:
Summary: A bad sci-fi story with aspirations of greatness...
Review: I really should have quit while I was ahead with Jack McDevitt's more recent novels, but I couldn't resist the Native American mythos behind the novel's title, "Chindi." I should've resisted. It starts out promising enough, with a good premise and an even better plot. But then the main characters actually get out in space, and things go awry.

It seems that McDevitt can't handle as many characters as is required for a space ship's crew, as he kills them off seemingly at random at the most inopportune moments. I spent half the novel wondering if my next-favorite character was going to be the next one to bite the dust, and wondering if the author drew names for the "next victim" out of a hat. I realize that perhaps the author is saying, "Look, this is life, people die"...yes, they do, but not in random, obviously stretched-out for a reason encounters.

Furthermore, towards the end of the novel, the author lost the plot. Don't ask me where; but he lost it. First they were out investigating satellites and following the chindi, not knowing what it is, and suddenly it's all a glorified rescue mission. And afterwards? Nothing. Satellites? What? We've never heard of any satellites. Chindi? Eh? But hey, look, the characters got the glory again!

Though I do have to admit, the plot and ending was better than the contrived and trippy "Engines of God" ending, but "Deepsix" was much better. But really, I have to wonder why I bothered with this book. I could've told anyone half the plot without even reading it; Jack McDevitt's plots are getting so predictable.

Rating:
Summary: Not recommended for self-respecting women.
Review: I was incredibly dissapointed with Chindi. I would have been able to overlook the slow plot if it had not been for the terrible character of Hutch. The female characters are so fake and seem so obviously written by a male. I was hoping that Hutch would be a strong female lead but as in all of Jack McDevitt's Hutch books, she was not. She is unbelievable and an incredibly poor depiction of women. I, myself, am not an extreme feminist but even so I was taken aback by her unrealistic and weak character. Other than this, the plot was drawn out and anticlimactic.