This is the second book in The Academy series and I loved it. Hutch, the space ship pilot from the first novel, is back, a number of years later, still piloting ships around for the Academy.A back plot. An earth-like planet is found and a group of scientists found to explore it, but they're nearly all killed by bird-like creatures. One scientist named Nightingale remained alive. Fast forward twenty years. In the same system, this same earth-like planet is about to collide with a huge planet floating through space destroying everything in its path and the smaller planet is going to explode. Naturally, the Academy had sent a team of scientists up to view this once in a lifetime phenomena and then the unthinkable occurs -- evidence of civilization turns up. A tower is found buried in ice. A scan is completed and entire cities are found buried beneath the ice. It's important to find out what civilizations lived there, what happened to them, what they were like, etc., before the planet explodes. Unfortunately, the scientific ship doesn't have a lander, so there's no way they can make it to the planet's surface. However, Hutch is in a ship nearby with a few other people, including Nightingale, and they're ordered to the planet's surface to explore and gather as much evidence as possible in their lander. So they do. In the meantime, another ship has appeared, carrying gawkers, including one insufferable Gregory MacAllister, a writer, editor, and all around snob, who agrees to a young writer's request to go to the surface to conduct an interview. So they join Hutch, who is none to happy to have them.Hutch finds some really good stuff. But the big planet is approaching and wreaking havoc with the weather. There's an earthquake, and MacAllister's lander falls down a new crack in the ice, wrecking. He and the female reporter take off in Hutch's, only to crash land a short distance later. She dies, as does one of Hutch's crew. That's two landers. They need another one to get off the planet. An emergency signal is sent out and yet another ship is contacted by the Academy with instructions to go to their aid with their lander. However, they are sabotaged by a bigwig on board, who releases the lander so they won't have to go, and so he can go to his precious dig on another planet which is oh so much more important than people's lives.What the hell are they going to do? Nightingale suggests their only chance may be to hike the 200 kilometers across difficult terrain with alien animals that want to eat them to find the old lander his old crew abandoned with the hope that it would still work. So they go off. And are attacked. And lose another crew member. And during this journey, MacAllister learns to become human, which is refreshing. And Hutch displays her exceptional leadership qualities. Meanwhile, the ship's captains are meeting with scientists to see if anything else can be done. Seems like there's one more long shot and it's got to work, because the old lander won't have enough power to get out of orbit. An alien object has appeared. It's many kilometers long and has a net at the end of it with an asteroid caught in it. They decide to cut it up and weld it into a scoop, so Hutch can literally fly into it and be scooped up in this object. So volunteers from the ships learn to weld and go out into outer space and do the job, all the while with time running down. The two worlds are about to collide.Hutch and one of the girls make it to the lander and it still works, so they take off. They need some technical stuff left back at the tower scavenged from their old landers, so they take off for it. However, Marcel, their ship commander informs them that the tower is about to be completely submerged in water due to the planet's ongoing issues. They make it back and sure enough, it's submerged and they're screwed, so they head back to recover MacAllister and Nightingale. Then they head for a high area. They're told of the scoop plan and they hope, oh, they hope. But it seems to unlikely. They'll have seconds to do it before the scoop leaves the rendezvous area. To top matters off, the Academy has found another area on top of a mountain that they want explored -- with the worlds about to collide -- while waiting for the scoop to be completed, so the lander heads off to the mountain and they encounter a flat surface on top of the mountain and evidence of civilization. It appears that two life forms were on the planet -- hawks and crickets. It appears that the hawks appeared out of nowhere to save the crickets with their own scoop thousands of years ago. What happened to them? No one will ever know. Some stuff happens. The action is breath taking. Finally it's time, so they head off to meet the scoop. Only to have the net on the scoop tear when a meteor field rips through it. Man, will nothing work? Are they saved? I'm not going to say because I don't want to give away the ending. I want you to read it for yourself. But I thought this book packed a lot more action into it than its predecessor and I was glad for that because I got occasionally bored with the first one. I saw character development here, character depth, science at work, alien culture, space ships -- hey, it's good sci fi! I've already got all of the other books in the series and I'm already looking forward to reading the third one. Definitely recommended.
In the year 2204, tragedy and terror forced a scientific team to prematurely evacuate Maleiva III. Nineteen years later, a rogue moon hurtling through space is about to obliterate the last opportunity to study this rare, life-supporting planet. With less than three weeks left before the disaster, superluminal pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins -- the only even remotely qualified professional within lightyears of the ill-fated planet -- must lead a small scientific team to the surface to glean whatever they can about its lifeforms and lost civilizations before time runs out. But catastrophe awaits when they are stranded on this strange and complex world of puzzles and impossibilities. And now Hutch and her people must somehow survive on a hostile world going rapidly mad -- as the clock ticks toward apocalypse for a doomed enigma now called... Amazon.com Review Deepsix is concerned with the motivating force that drives all scientists--the quest for truth, for expanding the limits of human knowledge. How much are we willing to risk for that moment of discovery, of knowing what no other soul yet knows? Our time? Our reputations? Our careers? Our lives? The premise is this: just weeks before the planet Deepsix will be destroyed by a collision with a gas giant, ruins are detected on its surface, suggesting the presence of civilization. The Academy diverts scientists from the nearest spaceship to go down and explore, and they are joined by their century's Ellsworth Toohey: a misogynistic, sanctimonious gadfly who has never before been off of Earth's surface. The party's landers are destroyed in an earthquake induced by the approaching gas giant, so now they must find a way to get off of Deepsix before it is destroyed by the collision. Needless to say, their excavations are placed on the back burner. The physics describing the space travel and the archeology used to reconstruct the lost culture of Deepsix are interesting and explained well. There is plenty of action and suspense--will the party survive? And the evolving characters and group dynamics are more complex than those usually found in science fiction books, making Deepsix a worthwhile read. --Diana Gitig From Publishers Weekly Those who like their science hard and their alien adventures bloody will enjoy this latest from Philip K. Dick Award runner-up McDevitt (The Hercules Text). In the 23rd century Deepsix is a planet in deep trouble. In about three weeks a Jovian-sized world will collide with it. Although Deepsix is a treasure trove of life, it has been left unexplored for the last 20 years because hostile animals slaughtered most of the first human landing party. Now, with the discovery of traces of an advanced civilization on the planet, a new expedition hastily sets out to rescue bits and pieces of the culture before they are lost forever. To find the lander that was abandoned two decades earlier, the disgraced commander of the original expedition must make a deadly trek across Deepsix with (among others) two feisty women and a misogynistic celebrity writer who once pilloried the team leader in the press. Goaded by their off-planet superiors, they also have to solve the mystery inherent in the disappearance of Deepsix's civilization. McDevitt puts his characters into predictable jeopardies while methodically solving the conundrum of the missing aliens. Though the rigorous scientific explanations of the techniques used in the rescue are absorbing, the huge, mostly two-dimensional cast slows down the action. Sadly, McDevitt's world building is frequently sketchy and his otherworldly animals too terrestrial, although the sexual Venus's-flytrap segment does have its creative and amusing moments. 3-city author tour. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
What do You think about Deepsix (2002)?
I enjoyed this work by McDevitt: I thought it got more riveting the deeper I got into the book. The storyline did not suffer from the conventional expectations of 'if X was spoken about earlier, then Y will occur later." I liked that McDevitt kept me guessing as to what might happen next. A running theme throughout the novel was the short-sighted, impersonal, uncaring attitude of "The Academy." One thing that I thought was missing at the end was that McDevitt did not wrap up that background storyline in the Epilogue. Also, August Canyon and his producer, Emma, were quite annoying and self-serving. In some respects, I was hoping that they would get what I thought should have been coming to them!Another theme was the human folly of greed and ego that surfaced amongst several of the scientists, even Gunther Beekman who ended up being one of the most heroic of the characters by acting quickly in a crisis. Both themes seem to speak to the jaundiced view in which many people today view large corporations: willing to sacrifice anyone to further the company's own interest (usually, good PR and large profits). Also, the unseemly behavior of Captain Nicholson is referred to periodically as well, reminding the reader that Nicholson's thoughts are never far from what is most important to him: covering up his serious breach of rules that helped contribute to two deaths. The interpersonal relations between the stranded survivors on the surface of Maleiva III is rather... human: full of good and bad personality traits, nobody being perfect, everybody willing to put him/herself in harm's way to save the others. McDevitt juxtaposes this against the backdrop of a strange, often hostile, world that is beginning to disintegrate due to an impending collision with a much larger planet. Gregory MacAllister comes off somewhat humbled and vulnerable - something that the controversial columnist needed. Randy Nightingale needed a chance at redemption after the disastrous ending to his failed expedition twenty-two years earlier. Priscilla Hutchins possessed an inner need to prove herself worthy of being a leader, especially since she was disappointed in not having a family of her own. Kellie Collier, the co-pilot of the expedition, so to speak, didn't seem to be developed quite as much as the other three were. Marcel Clairveau is painted as the almost unflappable captain, refusing to give up despite the odds. Overall, a very enjoyable and entertaining read.
—Aaron Million
I liked this book a little less than Engines of God. For the most part, I enjoyed the characters that were on the ground--though they were the only ones I could keep in my head (and only the core ones of that). Hutch remains really awesome, but I also liked McAllister--in terms of characterization and growth... and Nightingale was interesting but I don't think in the end he was handled well. Basically I don't like how his cowardice was ultimately presented. I mean...he fainted because of pain. S
—Sharon
I greatly enjoyed Deepsix. Similar to the Engines of God a large chunk of the book is spent on the technology / archaeological aspects and how they interact with the story, but in this case there's also a strong thriller aspect. Things just keep going wrong (although, given that it's a novel, you can almost guess how each thing is going to go) over and over up until the climax. The last section in particular was intense; I read the entire thing in one sitting--a literal page turner. I liked the main characters well enough, at least as they were written. This time around, I could actually start to tell them apart, which is an upside. There are at least two who are curiously misogynistic for no reason that I could tell... On a downside, we really didn't learn anything more about the Omega Waves from the previous book. And now we have some mysterious aliens who were about with advanced technology on a few thousand years ago... Perhaps we'll run into them in one of the sequels? One can hope.
—JP
