The Engines of God

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Humans call them Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues scattered on distant planets throughout the galaxy, encoded with strange inscriptions that defy translation. Searching for clues about the Monument-Makers, teams of 23rd century linguists, historians, engineers and archaeologists have been excavating the enigmatic alien ruins on a number of planets, uncovering strange, massive false cities made of solid rock. But their time is running out.

Earth's ravaged environment is quickly making it unlivable, and colonizers want to begin terraforming these abandoned worlds for human habitation. Only interstellar archaeologist Richard Wald and starship pilot Priscilla Hutchins are convinced that uncovering the secrets of the monuments may hold the key to survival for the entire human race.

©1994 Cryptic, Inc. (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Splendid. Not since Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama has the discovery of artifacts of alien intelligence been treated so skillfully." ( Baltimore Sun)
"McDevitt is at his best award-winning style in this intelligent and wide-ranging novel." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"With plenty of startling plot twists, a heavy dose of intrigue, and an unusual amount of character development for science fiction, McDevitt holds us fast right through to a thrilling finish." ( Booklist)

Outstanding Story

I got it on paperback amd read it years ago and finally I got the audiobook and am not disappointed!

Don't waste a credit

I very rarely dislike a book. This one is terrible. The narrator thinks it's 1950 and the story is slow and pretty much uneventful.

Nice good stuff!!

Good stuff!!! An enjoyable story!!! with an excellent adventure followed by an awesome follow up!!!

Wish I’d found this years ago...

I found McDevitt recently through the Alex Benedict books. Initially I much preferred them, but I was drawn into the story and now I’m hooked. I need to know what happens next!

If you enjoyed the old Doc Savage serials, Indiana Jones, and that kind of story you’re going to love this. It’s well written, seems plausible in a pseudo-scientific way (for the era it was written) and is a great rollicking adventure. I think you’ll really enjoy it!

Interesting ideas, boring execution

Started out well but failed to really develop. A bit slow and plodding. Narrator’s “radio voice” vocal fry really wore me down and by the end I just wanted it to stop.

Surprisingly entertaining.

I many ways, this is a novel straight out of the '70s, filled with episodic tales of the great men of history. But, the characters and world-building are compelling and the physics is impeccable. Desipite spending an embarrassing number of words describing the physical assurance of the female characters (all of whom are, if course, "attractive") the author treats them far better than most of his peers. The narration in this book is cartoonish and a bit annoying, but worth putting up with for the story.

Second in a great series

Loved the book, the narrator was a bit dull though. Overall good. I definitely recommend the series.

Mediocre

What did you like best about The Engines of God? What did you like least?

The premise/mystery about the monument makers was the most intriguing part. I was hoping he was going to play off that more, but instead the focus of the story just became the cheap thrill of whether or not they would make it off the planet in time. I'd expect something that mundane to be maybe a climactic end to a chapter, but not the main focus of the book.
The narratation was terribly annoying. He has a nice voice, but feels the need to draw out every final vowel in each sentence to sound dramatic. Yikes. Make sure you listen to the sample to be sure you can put up with this before buying it.

Asimov Lives!!

Asimov warned that Sci-Fi needs to be driven by the "Sci" or it's just plain "Fi". Too often contemporary SF wants to be socio-political screed warped to some other similar culture or world. It's preaching in drag. McDevitt's piece has a spark of BIG TODAY ISSUE as part of the fuse to its powder, but its peripheral. He pulled in my imagination with a "Sci" mystery wrapped in a philosophical then cultural puzzles. Sweeeeet!

Tom Weiner's read's just fine. Oh sure a couple of the character voices overlap, but he's good enough. Love the risky way McDevitt treats important characters. And there's neither sexist damsel in distress nonsense, nor over reach to make all the men bumblers. He's created a cast of equals.

Now this cast ain't vying to create great literature… what they do is rise a tad beyond comic books, but that tad's fun, the plot's reasonably thrilling. And yeah, there's a cinematic thrum throughout. McDevitt should be, if he's not, a screen writer. I'll buy the next in this series...

Recording is monotone

The recording is a very deep voice that is hard to listen to. It’s kind of sing song.