The Engines of God (Academy - Book 1)

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The novel starts off with a tense episode on a long-uninhabited alien planet, involving a confrontation between the archaeologist heroes and an impatient terraforming company waiting to begin their work on that world. This section is excellent on its own, but it also serves to put some clues in place for a riveting mystery about enormous monuments in space, and some mysterious force taking out civilisations every 8000 years. In the latter half of the novel, we follow some of the characters from the first half as they chase the mystery down, and end up witnessing some pretty terrifying cosmic phenomena. And in Jerusalem he made engines of war invented by skillful men to be on the towers and on the corners, for the purpose of shooting arrows and great stones. Hence his fame spread afar, for he was marvelously helped until he was strong. That is a huge plus in my book, to make me feel as though I am discovering planets and alien races as I read further in to the book. The downside is that this can be a rather slow read at times and patience might be needed. The beginning of this book was this way for me and why it took a little while to get involved, which was a marked difference from Chindi for me. Despite the slow beginning I found that I was thoroughly invested in the plot and the characters by the end of the book. I look forward to reading more from this author and, especially, this series. I would recommend both the author and the series.

McDevitt is a tad frustrating. He’s a highly competent writer and one can’t fault his science or his characterisation. The ‘Academy’ novels (of which this is the fourth) have been highly enjoyable and I’m sure there are legions of readers out there who want more of Priscilla ‘Hutch’ Hutchins, Academy pilot and now, somewhat older, in an executive role within the Academy itself. McDevitt tries to make a point about the cuteness factor. Many companies petition the Academy for permission to travel to Lookout for various money-making purposes, virtually all of which are refused. Humanity is completely engaged with them and their possible extinction, and at one point Hutch asks herself whether there would be so much public interest if the aliens had been unappealing insects? They arrived at the conclusion that the Monument-Makers had constructed their creations in an attempt to be lures for the deadly clouds – which came to be called Omega clouds. They attempted to save the populations of the planets in question by luring the clouds away from the right-angles and regular structures of their buildings and roads by putting geometric shapes in other locations.

Hello Out There ( Meisha Merlin, 2000), omnibus edition of A Talent for War and a revised The Hercules Text Characters and dialogue are so-so. Generally I would say the writing is pretty good. Parts of this really drag though - the first act which involves the archaeologists on Quarquara (sp?) trying to hang on till the last possible minute is a good example. I felt like it was endless description of digging interspersed with equally endless description of loading stuff. Could have been greatly condensed. There are a couple of intense 'action' sequences. The second of which (on Beta Pac III) seems really pulpy, and out of place with the rest of the novel. After that, the last 20% or so where they start to untangle the threads of the mystery seems hurried, almost like an afterthought. I don't know if these "Omega Clouds" will be the subject of a future novel in the series or what. But ultimately this is what everything in the novel is building to, and yet action-wise (and verbage-wise) it seemed like the part the author cared about more was a bunch of semi-intelligent crab creatures. I also note recycling of some hoary old sci-fi tropes, such as the overpopulated, environmentally damaged earth, and a carelessly simplistic narrative about the origin of religions, worthy of 'Ancient Aliens' on the history channel... in fact this part didn't jive with what was overall pretty smart and thoughtful writing.

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. 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?

Quite a cool book, and it's only just the beginning of a series I am excited to read. It's an interstellar archaeological mystery, but also a futuristic procedural novel following the working lives of archaeologists, scientists, and auxillary crewmembers. I love this kind of thing (see also Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative trilogy, which follows future biologists through their working lives). Non si può saltare da un orbita all'altra come si cambia nastro trasportatore all'areoporto (Gravity), non si può stare in maniche di camicia in una fessura fra i multiversi a ribaltare libri dallo scaffale (Interstellar), non è che se impari a leggere una lingua aliena dopo sei capace di prevedere il futuro (The Arrival - giudicato da molti un grande film, ma appunto per questa cosa che gli alieni arrivano per donarci i superpoteri letterari per me cade nel calderone delle puttanate).

They arrived in an unnamed star system that had already been surveyed decades previously. At first they found nothing unusual, and decided to make their OWN monument – a set of giant cubic structures, in an attempt to recreate the environment of the other disasters.

The now-extinct Quraquans had a complex civilization spanning tens of thousands of years. The science team had expected to have more-or-less unlimited time to complete their scientific discoveries before a massive terraforming project was initiated on the planet. The remnants of Quraquan civilization would be destroyed by terraforming process, which was funded by a wealthy, politically powerful corporation called Kozmik. Kozmik's political efforts had moved up the timeline for terraforming, despite the Academy's resistance. The terraforming process was scheduled to launch several weeks after arrival of the "Wink." b) The planet Quraqua, which had many similarities to Earth, had been home to an intelligent species (the Quraquans) until they became extinct just a few centuries prior; and It is interesting to see how the book written in 1994 assumes that governments will start to care about the environment three centuries after its devastation began, as well as some 20th-century terms like the “third world country” remain while both political and economic map is closer to 1991 than even to 2022. I understand this is because the author was interested in highlighting other questions, but this makes the book feel dated. d) One of the towers held a short inscription in one of the ancient languages of the Quraquans. This observation was bewildering because the Quraquans never developed space travel. Someone else (the Monument-Makers?) must have inscribed it. Although the scientists could identify the language, they could not read the inscription. Consequently, deciphering Quraquan language was a pressing need. A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.