Jack McDevitt is really, really good at two things: first, creating really interesting, intricate scenarios (often involving lost civilizations) and two, scripting tight, compelling plots that function as slow reveals of those scenarios. The more of his novels I read (I'm up to three or four, I think) the more I am coming to appreciate this talent. And, taken on that level, I'm starting to like his books more. There a couple of drawbacks, however. The first is that the characters seem very pro-forma. They have enough motivation and unique characterization to get by, but only just enough. The second is that--especially in his Alex Benedict series--there is too deep a conflict between the issues of scale (chronological and spatial) in all interstellar science fiction and Alex Benedict's job as an antiquities hunter. The problem is simple: space is really, really, really big. And it has been around for a really, really, really long time. So the scenario where we end up with dozens of intelligent, space-faring races all co-existing at more or less the same time and place at more or less the same technological level is preposterous. A lot of sci-fi just ignores this problem, and that's OK because it's just sort of one of the unspoken premises of the entire genre. But to specifically have books of this kind that are so obsessed with history and archaeology simply creates too much cognitive dissonance for me. The Engines of God avoids this trap by addressing it head on. The basic starting point of the novel is that humans have found monuments out in space (the closest on a moon orbiting Saturn, but the rest in other planetary systems), but that monument builders are gone. There are a couple of other intelligent species, but they seem to have all gone extinct within the last 10,000 years or so. And, for once, that tremendous coincidence actually gets some attention and, in fact, sort of becomes the focus of the novel. This was much more satisfying than previous books.Problems remain. First, I get the impression that McDevitt himself doesn't really know how to answer the questions he raises. (Apparently Engines was written as a stand-alone novel, but he wrote several more books about the protagonist, and doesn't get around to picking up the central question again until #4. Both facts cement my initial impression.) Second, this book is definitely from the very specific school--dating to male sci-fi authors writing in the 1980s--of treating women and sex in a deeply superficial and adolescent way. It's an irritant. Third and lastly, the mysteries in these books seem fundamentally sterile. Mystery writers use murder and theft because those are canvasses on which to tell stories about human nature and motivations. McDevitt tells archaeological mystery stories that focus some really emotional backstory, but it always seems to be of secondary consideration. It's kind of anti-humane. It's a fundamentally sterile and nihilistic setting, and that prevents McDevitt's formidable talents from really breaking through and having an impact on me.
Ce roman nous raconte les aventures d’une pilote de vaisseau et de ses camarades d’expédition, à la recherche d’artefacts d’une supposée civilisation intelligente et des traces qu’elle aurait pu laisser. J’étais au début de ma lecture tout à fait enthousiasmé par ce roman et par l’ambiance qui s’en dégageait. En effet, cette exploration de reliques extra-terrestres par une équipe purement scientifique me rappelait deux très bons romans : Le moineau de Dieu pour le côté assez amateur de la mission mise en place, et Les menhirs de glace pour d’innombrables autres raisons. Et puis, peu à peu, ces machines se sont détachées de leurs prédecesseurs grâce à différents points : un narrateur unique bien choisi, un parti-pris délibéré de rester dans la grande tradition du {Space-opera}, avec communications et voyages plus rapides que la lumière rappelant le classique ansible, explorations très superficielles des planètes pour laisser la place à une action essentiellement spatiale, et énigmes galactiques laissées par d’insaisissables prédecesseurs (ce qui m’a plutôt rappelé le cycle de Brin). Vous aurez sans doute remarqué que j’ai cité, de manière assez exceptionnelle, de nombreux bouquins dans ce début d’avis. Et c’est normal, car, à mon sens, l’auteur cherche un peu à nous éblouir avec sa connaissance des tics de construction des space-operas. Toutefois, l’un des éléments les plus intéressants de ce bouquin est que, contrairement par exemple à Le pays de Cocagne, dans Les machines de Dieu, l’auteur choisit sciement d’utiliser ces références pour nous placer dans un univers connu avant, subtilement je trouve, de se décaler suffisament pour les rendre obsolètes. C’est très intéressant, mais ça ne suffit malheureusement pas à en faire un chef d’oeuvre. Et effectivement, on n’est pas en présence d’un chef-d’oeuvre, mais plutôt d’un très bon bouquin, innovant par bien des points, mais pas franchement révolutionnaire. Il n’est pas révolutionnaire car l’histoire et les péripéthies sont convenues, car les personnages, même si très bien campés, ne sont pas à mon goût assez héroïque, bref car rien ne vient bouleverser le cadre. C’est d’autant plus dommage que le postulat est franchement intéressant et que les développements, pour convenus qu’ils soient, sont présentés avec beaucoup de finesse et de sensibilité. C’est donc un bouquin intéressant, qui peut mériter la lecture, mais ne changera pas grand chose.
What do You think about The Engines Of God (1995)?
In The Engines of God a team of archaeologists are forced off a planet just as they are on the verge of making the discovery of a lifetime. Listening in audiobook, I honestly can't remember the names of any characters except Hutch the pilot. I'm not going to look them up, not out of laziness, but because they don't matter. This is not a book about characters Each character has a name, a profession, and a quirk. Hutch is a pilot who is friendly. There's a xenophilologist who is stuck up.Heck, I can't even remember all of their quirks and I just finished listening to this hours ago.What does matter, and why you might read this book, is the xenoarchaeology. It starts with the excavation of an underwater complex on an alien planet and an inscription on a rock tower in an artificially created pseudo-city on that planet's moon.Follow the clues, do some action archaeology, maybe some action xenophilology, right to the heart of the puzzle. Love or hate the solution, it was an entertaining ride.
—Karin
This is book 1 of a 6 book series known as The Academy Novels (aka the Priscilla Hutchins Novels). Sadly for me, I read book 5 first, not knowing any difference. But, it really didn't make much difference except I know where Priscilla Hutchins is in her career.This is a very good book and a treat to read. McDevitt has been praised by other Sci-fi authors as being one of the best...and I could not agree more. I like his works very much.This book introduces us to outer space archaeology, where Hutch is a a star ship pilot with a strong interest in archaeology. On this adventure she is supposed to help archaeologists evacuate an important underwater find on another planet as it is about to be terraformed for eventual human colonization. The ancient temple will be destroyed in a few days and Hutch must help them leave and take them and their finds back to earth.Of course, things work out a bit different than planned and the story races ahead. Like real archaeology, in the story the scientists find some answers, but also many more questions. This opens up the future book subjects...some of which may get answered while others may never be answered.I heartily recommend this book for fiction readers who like their science fiction realistic and more true to real life. Can't wait to read more.
—Jim
by Jack McDevitt, published in 1994.There is something I really, really like about a mystery science fiction, especially if that mystery comes from a long vanished alien race.Well, this novel, “The Engines of God” is just such a novel. It seems that thousands of years ago, when humanity was just picking up sticks and learning how to brain each other with them, an advanced alien race was busy building incredible monuments in the galaxy.We follow Hutch, a spaceship pilot, as she travels with archaeologists to visit and investigate the creations left behind by the Monument-Makers. We start off on Iapetus, a moon of Saturn, where an assumed self-portrait of one of the creators is sitting for all to see. There are even, preserved in the ice near the self-portrait, footsteps of the creator as well. Very cool opening to the world we find Hutch in.There is action, danger and a lot of who-made-them-and-why about this novel. It is a milieu novel, and as such we get to explore the galaxy according to McDevitt. Something strange has been happening for a very long time and as you read you get to wondering if what happened to other alien civilizations will one day happen to ours.It is kind of a “Rendezvous with Rama” but with much more than just one large artifact to explore. There are ruins on planets, objects in space and monuments with perfect right angles on moons.So, just what is going on? A question you as the reader, and Hutch as the protagonist will be asking throughout. Well, you do get your explanation by the end of the book even if, as I found it, not too satisfying but adequate.I pretty much enjoyed this novel though, but it seemed like all the pieces didn’t quite fit together like they should have.Some of the crisis that arise seem almost too much of the “oh, now we need life-threatening peril to spice up the book - um, okay - cue the dire situation.”And we see the action from the perspective of Hutch, but I found she had little to no character growth throughout the book. I was kind of hoping for more, but I can’t fault McDevitt for this since it was not written as a character novel, and there is so much to like about jumping into a star system to find an floating space station abandoned for thousands of years - isn’t there?So with that said, I will definitely check out more of McDevitt’s work. If you haven’t read any of his novels before I would suggest you do give him a go.I mean abandoned alien space stations - how cool is that?
—Paul Darcy
