The archaeological mysteries which were prevalent in the first three books are gone, replaced by a xeno-sociology/rescue mission. A new, thriving medieval civilization has been discovered on the world of Lookout. There's just one catch: an Omega cloud, those mysterious galactic phenomena that attack and destroy anything with straight lines--buildings for instance--is headed right for it.The inhabitants have been dubbed "Goompahs" after a cartoon character whom they resemble. Images of the creatures builds sympathy for them back home and a rescue mission is conceived. One drawback, besides the lack of time, is that there must be as little contact with the natives as possible, so as to prevent, or at least, minimize "culture shock". The question of "How do you rescue a people without them knowing that you're there" arises.Hutch, true to her word in Chindi, has quit her career as pilot and, as a reward for her past work, now works as a high ranking bureaucrat at the Space Academy. She organizes the rescue mission but doesn't actually go. She's regulated to a supporting character role in this book, which was a disappointment for me as McDevitt has made her a likable character. Instead, the book's main characters are Digby "Digger" Dunn and David Collingdale.Digger, who was on the original exploratory ship, initially isn't intent on saving the Goompahs so much as he's attracted to Kellie, the pilot of the ship he's on. But an accident, taking the life of the expedition leader, forces him into the leadership role while the relief mission scrambles to get there in time. Digger develops an affection for the Goompahs and his character evolves from being lightly self-centered to self-sacrificing.Meanwhile, Collingdale is cast as a Captain Ahab and the omega is his white whale. At first his hatred of the omegas is reasonable, but the closer he gets to Lookout, the worse he gets. Once there, his obsession takes over, alienating his crewmates (and this reader). McDevitt builds us up for final confrontation between Collingdale and the omega but just as it's climaxing, McDevitt puts the scene "off camera". It's the equivalent of showing Obi-wan about to duel with Vader but not actually show the actual fight or hear the dialogue, though you could infer its outcome from Luke's reaction. It left me feeling a little cheated.McDevitt's writing style continues to be excellent and his Goompahs make for interesting aliens. His characters are real and I could easily visualize the world. This novel won the John W Campbell Award for best sci-fi novel of the year and it's been nominated for a Nebula. I can see why. McDevitt tells a good story and is able to utilize action without relying on epic battles to do so. His characters, at least in this series, use their brains to solve their problems and only use violence as a last resort. And in this novel, violence, as represented by Collingdale, achieves nothing, while Digger's personal evolution symbolizes the human race as a whole.Perhaps it was Hutch's explanation for the Omegas themselves that did it. While the idea for them is original and intriguing, it was ultimately unsatisfying for me. It would be interesting to see McDevitt write a novel about a meeting between Earth and the Omega creators and see what happens. Could McDevitt write a novel about resolving the conflict between the two without resorting to violence?
Okay, first off - this was, hands down, the best McDevitt I've read to date. If you've not read McDevitt, and are at all a fan of Science Fiction, you need to go out there and find yourself a copy of 'The Engines of God,' 'Infinity Beach,' 'Deepsix,' and 'Chindi.' Now. If you're not a huge fan of Science Fiction, let me tell you, though there's some astrophysics in there, McDevitt writes a lot more sociologically, adventure-action, and philosophically than nearly any other contemporary science fiction author I know, with the exception of Robert J. Sawyer.Okay, fan-boy praising hereby endeth.The story picks up the character of Priscilla Hutchins (who, now married and with a kiddy, plays a much more administrative and planet-bound role) and the storyline of the Omega clouds. Strange clouds that pop up, find anything remotely geometrical (especially, say, buildings), and blast them to bits. They're all over the universe, but why worry, as the one heading towards earth is not due for another, oh, nine hundred years. Yawn.But one of them being tracked by the Academy makes a right turn, and this time, in McDevitt's nearly lifeless galaxy, seems to be setting its sights on leveling an alien race who are somewhere around the Ancient Greece level of evolution. In about nine months.The race is on - but to do what? Try to stop the cloud - no one knows how. Try to save the race - again, how do you save a race that's about to be hit by tsunamis, tidal waves, tornadoes and all the other horrid things the Omega clouds do? Obviously, it would be wrong to step in, break protocol, and talk to the natives?Right?The story is very high paced, and as is always McDevitt's style, you never know who will make it to the end (he is not above killing off a character in a completely realistic fashion - by which I mean there's no hero capable of dodging all the bullets all the time), and his tendency to through in a few philosophical characters absolutely shines in this book. McDevitt, as always, delivered a solid adventure worthy of any Sci-Fi buff's attention, but in a manner accessible to those who don't read Sci-Fi on a regular basis. Superb!
What do You think about Omega (2004)?
Ok, so I quite enjoyed this book, but...I've read quite a few of McDevitt's books lately, and for the most part I have liked them, but he does something so consistently that its starting to bug me. Namely, he makes huge sweeping assumptions about supposedly alien cultures based on little or no evidence (that he tells us about, anyways.) Omega has this great scene where a human is sneaking around on an alien planet, having just seen this particular species for the very first time, and he says something to the effect of "they were singing and dancing and having a great time." How the heck does our hero know that what they're doing is singing and not arguing? How does he know what they're doing is dancing and not playing a game, or a mating ritual, or something actually _alien_ with no analog in human culture? Much the less judge if they're enjoying themselves or not? And it doesn't come across as his characters doing it either; its always done in a third-person voice, and yet not fully omniscient either. It would be easy enough to say something like "The aliens were jigging about on first one leg and then the other, screeching all the while. Jack couldn't be sure, but it looked for all the world like they were singing and dancing and enjoying themselves hugely."Also, I don't mind when SF writers make up some physics. That's why its called science _fiction_. So if your ships go faster than light with some hand-waving and no real explanation thats fine with me. But the word "science" is in there too - if you're going to include detailed descriptions of things any high school physics student would get right? Try to have them not contradict natural law? In Omega we get a somewhat belabored description of a weathermaking device powered by a helicopter parked underneath - and blowing air up - an enormous chimney. We go into some detail about how said helicopter has to be tied _down_ and is straining _upwards_ against its anchorings. If its pushing air up, then its pushing the helicopter down; Uncle Isaac says it must be so.If these sound like relatively minor nitpicks about details not central to the plot... its because they are. Its a fun book. But its precisely because they're not central to the plot that they would be so easy to get right without changing anything else. And there are more like this; enough of them pile up and it breaks the immersion, making it harder to appreciate the otherwise fun story he's spinning.
—Dev Null
I have to agree with a number of other reviewers on this one. Omega is about a hundred pages longer than it should be, drags on in many places, and is more space politics than space adventure. Hutch is also out of the main plot for most of the novel, which is a huge letdown since she is more interesting than any of the other characters. However, once the action does get going in the last third of the book, things stay frantic and it seems like a return to the magic of the previous Academy books. You might want to skip this one unless you're a big fan of the series, but it's still a decent read if you don't mind skimming a bit to get to the good parts.
—Michael
This was pretty good. It advances the larger story arc of the series, and has the primitive culture that needs saving aspect. Something seemed a little off to me, but I guess I wasnt into it enough to put my finger on it. It could have been the Omega cloud business. I havent been taking notes on the characteristics of them as I read previous books in this series, what they will and will not do and so on, but I would have swore that in previous books in this series they never responded to things people have done to try and "distract" them. I also seem to recall it being mentioned they cruise through a system every 6000 years, and now they are being detonated by the hedgehogs in what amounts to some type of extra-galactic light show? I dunno, maybe the author has a specific thing in mind he is working towards with them, it just seems to me to be kind of random, or like he changed his mind partway through the series.Maybe introducing us to new characters is a favorite pastime of his too, but I tend to lose interest in series where a previously central character becomes kind of set off in the corner somehwere like Hutch has been in this series. It makes it hard to get interested in a new cast when armed with the knowledge that in the next book they may be off in an office somewhere while someone else has to figure out what to do in the far corners of known space.Even with the above things to mark against it, I enjoyed the story, and will will be reading whatever the next one is in this series.
—Darth
