The Engines of God
(Academy #1)
by Jack McDevitt
science fiction
copyright 1994
read in March 2016
rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else
Science fiction. Slow, plodding, science based fiction. Big questions. No answers.
Shades of damming the Nile and flooding antiquities... The book starts with an archaeological site which is about to be deliberately flooded. Yep, even in the future the past is worth less than the hope of profit in the future !
btw: The dig site is flooded as part of a terraforming effort. Earth has been damaged beyond repair. Yet there is hope that total destruction of an alien ecology can be transformed into a viable Terran ecology. Oh yeah !?
Then the story drags itself across the galaxy. At light speed but it seems to be so slow.
A hint here, a clue there, a near miss somewhere else.
Incidentally: Is space really warm near a planet ? Because the space station in orbit round a planet -- with all its doors open -- is comfortable. Yet the space ship further out in space is so cold that gases freeze. I guess it's reasonable. I would have liked the author to comment on the difference.
Some of the characters do have some depth. Enough depth that it is not possible to like any of them. Pity about that.
So, anyway.
We drag across the galaxy. Following clues. Chasing a mystery. Catch up with the mystery... and...
Nope, no idea what it is. Is it important ? Well, it will destroy the Earth. Oh dear, that's bad. No it isn't, it won't happen for another thousand years. Oh well, that's okay. I guess we may as well end the book. Okay.
What a pointless exercise in nonsense !
The book drags but it's readable.
The end is not worth the effort.
No comments:
Post a Comment