Rating: 
Summary: Great premise and yarn, but....
Review: "We are alone, after 1000 years of searching mankind believes there is simply nothing out there", but a ship does return after having made contact, and it returns with unwanted passengers - malevalent passengers! McDevitt has a good start here for a rollicking science fiction / horror story, however it soon devolves into more of a detective story that is set in the future. Albeit an entertaining mystery on its own. Being a hard science fiction fan, I found the future (+1000 years!) a bit too current, with flyers and video screens basically replacing today's cars and telephones. My other disappointment was later in the book when it was finally revealed what actualy happened at First Contact, and with whom. As for the BIG question - how does mankind stay motivated when it finds itself alone still after a 1000 years? Well, I think we have always been able to identify something our neighbor has - and that we want.... Finally, I should say that the book WAS a good read, and although I could see where the story was going, McDevitt was quite successful in keeping the interest at a high level.
Rating: 
Summary: A top-notch blend of science fiction and mystery
Review: Infinity Beach takes the reader on an exciting ride. Top-notch adventure, strong characters, a gripping mystery, burnished prose, and good science--this book has it all. Twenty-seven years prior to the opening of the main story, four interstellar explorers in search of extraterrestrial life unexpectedly return home early from a mission. Two of the four disappear, and a third is killed in an explosion that devastates a mountain on their home world. The fourth team member, the starship captain, never flies again and eventually dies in a planetary rescue mission far from his home. Although the authorities suspect foul play in the explosion, they have neither proof nor motive, and never solve the case. What happened? And why? This mystery forms the centerpiece of Infinity Beach. The main character, Doctor Kim Brandywine, is the younger sister to one of the missing explorers. A relative of the other vanished explorer convinces Kim to conduct her own investigation into what happened twenty-seven years ago. Much of the action takes place on the terraformed planet of Greenway. Machines care for the needs of its human settlers, most everyone has a healthy youth and extended lives, and almost no crime exists. However, rumors of strange ghostly phenomena run wild in the region of the explosion. No one has proof and the stories are dismissed--at least officially. Kim is drawn into a puzzle that becomes ever more complex, involving incidents that happened far from Greenway, in interstellar space. McDevitt develops the mystery beautifully, introducing one clue here, another there, tantalizing the reader with bits and pieces of the puzzle. He draws in the players one by one, giving them intriguing personalities without resorting to cliches. By weaving this refreshing mix of characters in and among the clues, he makes the puzzle even more riveting. Infinity Beach showcases world building at its best. McDevitt constructs a believable society. He layers in the science with expertise, using a light touch that remains unobtrusive. The world, Greenway, it well described in all its quirks. Parts of the story take place in space, near a star in the belt of Orion. McDevitt creates the milieu well, successfully evoking a sense of incomparable beauty out among the stars. The clean, polished prose in this book flows well, and the characterization pleases. Kim is particularly strong; she comes across as self-confident, skilled, and likable, yet at the same time she is no paragon. She stumbles, then pulls herself up and continues on. McDevitt writes with understanding and compassion for his characters, making their tragedies and triumphs all the more poignant. The most compelling subplot involves Kim's relationship with Solly, or Solomon Hobbs, a starship captain. Solly thoroughly charms and for the most part plays an excellent role in the story. I did very much wish that this subplot had a different conclusion, however. The reason I had such a strong reaction, of course, is because McDevitt writes human interactions with such a wonderfully appealing touch. Infinity Beach is an engrossing science fiction mystery. In addition to telling a great story, it offers the reader thoughtful questions about what it means for humanity to mature rather than stagnate as a species. McDevitt has served up another exciting, literate yarn.
Rating: 
Summary: First Contact Mystery
Review: Are we alone in the universe? What would be the consequences for humanity if we believed ourselves to be alone? These are questions McDevitt attempts to answer in Infinity Beach. Along the way he writes an excellent and unique first contact novel to add to a long list of first contact novels. Infinity Beach is set several hundred years in the future when mankind is ensconced on nine worlds. There is faster than light travel and communication but no contact has been made with aliens, or has there? When a young woman begins to investigate the disappearance of her long lost sister (clone) she begins to suspect that there was an earlier contact and that it was covered up. What follows is a private individual's investigation into a cover up that may or may not be government related. This type of plot has been done before but McDevitt has given it a unique setting. The result is a nail biter that reaches a thrilling conclusion. Some of McDevitt's conjectures about the future world are interesting but not all ring true. For instance, one of the featured characters is a war hero. I found it hard to believe that a society such as that in Infinity Beach would fight wars. Furthermore, wars on an interplanetary scale and with technologies advanced several hundred years from our own would be devastating on a staggering scale. However, the war seems to have let little more societal residue than the U.S. invasion of Grenada. One idea that wasn't much of a stretch was the idea of marriages of various terms with renewal options. Given the transitory nature of many human relationships in our own time, codifying options in law seems reasonable. It's also clear that people will continue to suffer emotional pain as relationships fail. I had another problem with the novel in the way that obtaining secret information was depicted. Security systems would most likely be far more advanced than those of today and the heroes' covert activities detected. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the novel is McDevitt's depiction of a rich society in decline. People appear to be playing with their lives without any serious commitments or motivations. In some ways that future society mirrors our own. It is very much a secular society, which McDevitt reinforces by using the politically correct designation C.E. for Common Era as opposed to the traditional A.D. for Anno Domini (year of our Lord). In his earlier Moonfall, McDevitt featured a Christian minister as one of his strongest characters indicating that he doesn't necessarily have an anti-Christian or anti-religious bias. The point may be that a society without some greater sense of purpose is most likely to look inward and collapse.
Rating:
Summary: McDevitt is up to his usual high standards!
Review: As a friend of Jack's, I read this in manuscript form last year. This novel is incredibly well-plotted, with lots of action and suspense. You won't be disappointed. If you're not already a McDevitt fan, read this and you will be. Jack McDevitt is a major SF talent.
Rating:
Summary: Nice mystery
Review: Entertaining thriller. Nothing new here, and sometimes the characters behave in unbelievable ways, but good story with some compelling images.
Rating:
Summary: Attack of the Killer Kleenex
Review: First of all, a book that devotes more pages to an aerial pursuit by a spooky black tissue creature than the actual aliens themselves doesn't really qualify as a "first-contact" novel. Secondly, a lot of the skullduggery that the main character indulges in shows that human IQs have really devolved, like putting on a fake moustache, makeup, and a wig in order to pass as a man. That might've worked on Mission Impossible, but I'd like to think people would be a bit more sophisticated a few centuries hence. The plot moves too slowly, ends too quickly (with barely a glipse and elaboration on the aliens), and brings in far too many ancillary characters. As an SF novel, it is nothing that hasn't been done before elsewhere, and better. That being said, the author is good at setting a mood of tension and fear, and describes scenes well, and the worlds the book takes place in do have a sense of history about them. However, nice prose can carry a book only so far. First-contact has been done better elsewhere. Read A Deepness in the Sky instead.
Rating:
Summary: This is what science fiction should be...
Review: I am a big McDevitt fan, and Infinity Beach is no disappointment. McDevitt combines his interest in science, archaeology and humans having to deal with the "we are not alone" problem into a trully fascinating story. The story captures you right from the beginning with an intriguing situation (having found something very interesting buried in the earth) and keeps you enthralled from that point on. Where did it come from? What does it mean? What do we do? To me, this is McDevitt at his best
Rating: 
Summary: Bleh
Review: I can't agree with the other reviews. I was unimpressed with the main character, who came across wishy-washy and a slave to a plot who's mystery was no mystery whatsoever. The setting was also fairly generic, coming across more space fantasy than science fiction. All in all, I can't really recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Published in UK as Slow Lightning
Review: I prefer the UK title. This is a good book full of interesting ideas, although the emotional tone is a little flat, and some of the heroine's adventures stretch credulity a bit. Well worth reading, I will be looking for more by this author.
Rating:
Summary: good yarn but not his best
Review: I've liked every McDevitt book I've read so far including this one. In this case most of the story is enjoyable but every now and then it seems as if the characters are forced to make some astoundingly unlikely decisions in order to keep the plot following the outline the author had prepared ahead of time. For example, on two separate occasions, two otherwise intelligent characters are heard to utter virtually the same foolish statement as they lurch into harm's way with predictable results. I also found the main character somewhat unsympathetic (which is not the case in his other stories). If you like McDevitt you will like this book (but maybe not as much as some of his others).
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