382 ( )

This is another in my favorite Jack McDevitt series, the Alex Benedict series. This book starts off faster than some of JM's books. It sucked me right in and then, as usual, I was turning pages as fast as I could. The mystery was interesting but not as riveting as those in the first three books,[b:A Talent For War|352774|A Talent For War (Alex Benedict, #1)|Jack McDevitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174006924s/352774.jpg|2944265], [b:Polaris|337019|Polaris (Alex Benedict, #2)|Jack McDevitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173853535s/337019.jpg|2431463] and [b:Seeker|352777|Seeker (Alex Benedict, #3)|Jack McDevitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174006926s/352777.jpg|342999] but I liked it better than the fourth book, [b:The Devil's Eye|3076046|The Devil's Eye (Alex Benedict, #4)|Jack McDevitt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1267757492s/3076046.jpg|3107075]. I like Chase Kolpath. I don't necessarily care for the way that JM throws in random stuff about her love life. I guess in this sort of book I just don't care about any romance element. I did feel like in this one, we didn't get as solid a picture of who Alex was but if you've been following the series, it's not like you don't already know him. I like the way the narrator, Chase, throws in stuff about the world and society they live in as if she is just reminding you of stuff you might have forgotten. It's a great world building technique. I love these mysteries or puzzles if you will, in space. Bring on the next one and keep them coming. ( )

Sometimes characters in a book are suitably stupid and that can really bring that book down. That is my main criticism of this, the fifth book about Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath. I can accept that the future is a mix of 1950 and the year 10000, because who knows how humanity develop, but I have some trouble with the humans themselves.

Anyway, it is a rather entertaining, though not very complicated (sadly) story. An old seeker of aliens seems to have left a mysterious stone with inscriptions behind and now the chase is on. Where is that stone, what does it signify, is it alien? And off we go!

I am giving this a weak 3 stars.

( )

This made great travel reading--I need good distractions when I fly and this novel was engrossing and enjoyable. I always enjoy McDevitt's books. ( )

Historians In Space!!!!

Well, if anyone has followed this far in the series, you know this is nothing new. It's nearly 30,000 years after humanity has spread from Earth and we're all over the galaxy and there are very very few alien species out there. But humans being humans, we fall apart and lose touch and certain facts, places, and even people tend to drop off the map and the history books and any other kind of archive. This is known. Plus, space and time is very big. It's easy to lose track of anything. And that's where Chase and Alex come in, Space Opera Slueths, historians, adventurers, crack-shots, detectives, and assassin foilers. :) And let's not forget their trusty AI to help them out on the technical stuff, no?

None of that is particularly new, of course, but the plots continue to surprise and get better with each installment.

We dive deep into a mystery tablet left to Alex by an eccentric explorer. We're fighting off assassins set on keeping the discoveries under wraps. We hunt for tragic missing persons and the secrets they hold. And we even get a heavy dose of plain-ole world exploration with the demise of lost human settlements, possible traces of alien civilizations, and the final reveal as to what caused the tragic end of a certain individual and a whole lot more.

The novel kinda started out slow for me, but past a certain point, it was truly hard to put down again. I'm so glad I kept with the series. It's truly a Space-Opera potboiler par-excellence. :) ( )