Rating: 
Summary: Adventure SF - stretches credibility
Review: Eternity Road is the first book I've read by Jack McDevitt, but it will most likely not be my last. McDevitt has a style and an ease with characters that is pleasant and subdued. He offers a vivid picture of a different future than the kind we like to imagine.The book begins in a small community living on the banks of the Mississippi river, at least 700-1000 years from now. Our society, called "The Roadmasters" by the locals, were wiped out in the late 21st century by a plague of unknown origin. The locals know something about The Roadmsters, with some handwritten versions of classic literature remaining, and they constantly scour the ruins around them for clues as to how the great civilization that proceeded them achieved so much, and how it fell so quickly. The story is about an expidition from the Mississippi river to the East Coast to search for a place called "Haven", where a hero of the past allegedly saved all the great information of The Roadmakers before the plague wiped out all traces. The group that makes the trip is actually the most interesting part of the story. They aren't deepli constructed, but they are better than just sketches, each with their own fears, desires, and hopes for the journey. What they find on their travels is fascinating, but the internal struggles of the group are just as entertaining. The book is fast paced and delivers on excitement and speculation on what our civilization might be thought of once we are gone. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it answers our questions without insulting us. All in all a great read for sci-fi/fanatsy fans.
Rating: 
Summary: It's Not Sci Fi, It's Fantasy
Review: Jack McDevitt's Eternity Road, a brief, post-apocalyptic travel story, shows exactly how a great idea can be executed with less than great results. McDevitt has created a fascinating and intricate society that exists some 800 years after a devastating war. Learning and study are beginning to seep back into society in a way reminiscent of the ancient Greeks, and an interest in the past sparks a group of travelers to go in search of a knowledge repository called Haven. The ancient civilization that destroyed itself (American civilization, actually) is called "The Roadmakers," and one gets a sense that McDevitt spent more time concocting this world than focusing on the story at hand. The travelers' journey is little more than a nice, if uniform, fantasy story with some science fiction elements. For a story to be true sci-fi, it has to address modern problems in far-flung ways to attempt to demonstrate current human folly. The sci-fi elements here serve only to distract, injure, and kill the band as they struggle in their "quest." If the adventure were as interesting as promised, it might have been forgivable, but even that isn't anything special - the reader is treated to different "mysteries" that turn out to be common 20th (and now 21st) century things. It's been done before, and done much better, as A Canticle for Liebowitz. But even the moral in that book is missing here, and all that happens is a few people get very rich and manage to imbibe their culture with fiction books. McDevitt is a fine author (case in point: Moonfall), but this isn't his best work. It comes across as a formulaic and dull story encased in a culture far too deep for what basically amounts to a pulp novel. McDevitt's prose, too, seems less developed, and there is often little reason to care for the characters, and little to no character development at all. In a day and age when such things don't seem to matter, Eternity Road might find readership among those who aren't used to science fiction like Liebowitz, Dune, or Stranger in a Strange Land - the same crowd that thinks Resident Evil is a good horror movie, or Triple-X is a good substitute for James Bond. McDevitt can produce high quality sci-fi, but this isn't it.
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