Rating: 
Summary: Abrupt ending; not up to the quality of his previous work
Review: The problem with the ending of this book isn't that it isn't "heroic" or upbeat, but just that it is poorly developed. It's almost like the author was suddenly told he had to wrap everything up in 15 pages, and just dumped off the characters and wrote a quickie ending, without much detail to back it up. The final 'chapter', reads more like an outline than anything else - X goes off to get married, Y set up a shop.. I would rather have waited for a sequel that dealt with the rest of the story more fully than to have the ending that this book has.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing relative to his prior works
Review: I had expected more after reading The Hercules Text and Engines of God. It seemed like a standard post-apocalypse story, with very few surprises, not particularly interesting characters, a romance which is tepid at best, and an ending which is so dull as to be unexpected in a science-fiction story. I can only hope the next book is up to his usually high standards.
Rating: 
Summary: The Right Road to Travel
Review: The story has an interesting plot which most stories today do not have. Eternity Road takes place a thousand years into the future with a "primitive" form of ourselves. The details of how much trouble there is in understanding the past actually made me think of it as a true possible future outcome for mankind. The story really did catch me off guard when the main characters started to die. He worked it well with the story, and it turned out to be one of the best that I have ever read
Rating: 
Summary: Unclimactic ending all but ruins an engaging story.
Review: There's a lot to like in this quest story set in North America several centuries after a plague brought the "Roadmaker" civilization to an end in 2079. There are the scholarly speculations, sometimes comical, sometimes poignant, on the meaning of Roadmaker ruins and literature. It is the discovery of a lost Mark Twain work that sets a group of scholars in search of the legendary Haven, reputed treasure trove of Roadmaker learning. The journey to Haven definately holds the reader's interest with the scholars encountering artifical intelligences that still haunt the landscape, river pirates, and other hazards of the road. However, the story quickly falters when Haven is reached. McDevitt hurries the conclusion to his tale and, though he provides a definate conclusion , it is so rushed it makes the book seem unfinished.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting ideas marred by abrupt ending
Review: Eternity Road is another in a long series of "archeological" SF novels by Jack McDevitt. Here, a group of people in a post-apocolypse America set out to find a fabled storehouse of ancient knowledge, despite the failure of an earlier mission and the deaths of almost everyone involved. As in most his books, McDevitt does a nice job of setting up a believable, consistant world. It's a fun game to play "Figure out what this was" when he begins to describe something mundane from our world in terms of a iron age culture. Less well developed are the characters, who tend to be there mostly as props for the story and are discarded as needed. Where the book finally begins to fail is near the end. As you read, you note that the story is still unfinshed with 20 pages to go, then 10, then 5. The ending is amazingly abrupt, almost like McDevitt got bored of writing and just decided to stop. This seems to be a recent trend in SF (See Neil Stephenson) and it's not a good one. The novel would have been far better if McDevitt had decided to discuss the implications of finding the storehouse on the people of the post-apocalypse world, or at least left room for a sequel, which the epilogue basically prevents. Eric Remy
Rating:
Summary: Similar theme to Mad Max and related post-doomsday stories
Review: The author would have been better served had the thoughts of the principle characters been less concerned with mundanity of everyday life. If you are looking for a glimpse of the future with intact technology, look elsewhere. This story is typical of the genre with quasi-religious undertones, vapid morality (as it was convenient to the persons involved) and superstitions about the unknown/unexplored lands
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!!, McDevitt is the Robert Heinlien of the 90's
Review: Hard science fiction at it's best,a believable character-driven story that you will not want to put down. If you can't get enough of Mr McDevitt I recommend "The Engines of God", first published October 1994....Enjo
Rating:
Summary: What will the future look like?
Review: I liked this book, although I had several problems with it. The book proposes that all books had not survived the 1000 years time after a plague wiped out almost all of humanity. Yet the dead sea scrolls and egyptian papyrus have survived far longer into our time. The characters show some modern attitudes and handle situations that a "primate" post-apocalyptic society would, I believe, react to differently. The ending is a bit of a let down, and the mysterious Ksrik Endine's reaction, destroying all those books!!! was insane, and the boatmen just watching him destroy them is nonsense. Other than that, the book does present an interesting future and interesting characters.
Rating:
Summary: They Found What They Were Looking For, But I Didn't
Review: This was my first Jack McDevitt book.
It will not be my last.
I truly enjoyed reading this novel. McDevitt's style is smooth and his imagery is vivid. The environment in which he has placed his characters is very well realized. Loved the character of Avila.
But ultimately, this book was a grave disappointment. I don't think that I'm spoiling anything to say that the heroes find what they were looking for, but the end of their quest just failed to satisfy me. I don't know if it was my fault for expecting too much, being a sloppy reader, or what, but my building expectations were not met. I suppose I was expecting a major epiphany, a revelation of some import or even an O'Henry twist, but instead was greeted by the same feeling as receiving socks for Christmas...
Definitely an author I will try again, but with lowered expectations.
Rating:
Summary: Failed to Deliver on a Great Concept
Review: I, like other reviewers, thought that the novel had a terrific beginning but went downhill from that point. McDevitt is not at his best when not in space. This book, though, is very, very similar to the "Hutch" series in many ways. Both works contain strong women; both works involve exploration of an unknown area; both involve science and both touch on the meaning of humanity, civilization and the future. The "eye" was a good touch but the book seemed to meander while the characters failed to grow. McDevitt is a rationalist whose characters reflect his own philosophical outlook. For this reason, we never have mass murderers or people going berserk and shooting everyone in range. No, his characters have purpose and plans - not totally realistic but certainly better than the nihilism that seems so prevalent in much of the "literature" published these days. The ending was particularly weak, especially when compared to the high hopes at the beginning.
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