A Talent for War: An Alex Benedict Novel

This is NOT a book about war, or fighting in space, or action of any kind. You should NOT judge the book by it's cover or title or you will be disappointed (as several reviewers were), but if you know going in that it is more of a detective story (where the detective is a librarian type) you will like it. I would actually compare it to "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" or the other George Smiley spy books - there is very little action currently happening (but past action is discovered and discussed by the protagonist). That is not a bad thing (John La Carrie sold millions of those books, and they are great), but if you are expecting the protagonist to have a "talent for war" (he doesn't) or men in spacesuits (the cover depicts a man dead for a hundred years) you will be disappointed. If you want an interesting future mystery with some science fiction (it is the future, but that future is 90% like the present) and several very interesting "twists", give this a try.

This is probably my most favored science fiction novel and the first in the series starring an intergalactic antiquarian. For students of history, this book will evoke parallels with ancient Greece and its empire, and the threat from an alien race. The story concerns the legendary Christopher Sim, the hero of the Confederacy; the man who defeated the alien race by fighting them to a standstill. But there is much more to this tale than battles in space, politics and history, the characters are finely drawn and first-class. Jack McDevitt did not win a Hugo for this work (The Hercules Text which preceded it did) but all the books he has written, this one has a compelling majesty and richness to savor.

This book was a strange experience. It was, in large part, the story of a story. We follow a very dry, and somewhat dim hero unearthing dusty histories, reading over his shoulder snippets describing vast adventures as if through smoked glass. Minutes are devoted to characters we never see again, and events that deserve far more explication are lovingly set up and then casually abondoned. On the plus side, if you are patient, the ending suddenly rouses to slam-bang action and poignancy that ties the whole effort together at long last.
One more odd plus is that you can make a drinking game out of counting the times the verbally dyslexic narrator mispronounces and misreads fairly basic vocabulary. You will wince at first and then laugh.

Possibly

Possibly

The main character

I had listened to" seeker". The main character was Chase not Alex. It was much more interesting and the reason I got this story. The story was interesting but they drained on and on about mans flaw of war blah blah blah. It could have been reduced to 5 hrs instead of 9 easily.if you like alit of narration and pointing out of all of mans flaws constantly then this book is for you

I found the story interesting, but was totally distracted by the ineptitude of the narrator. How an adult human being can not know how to pronounce, "emeritus," "Aeneid," "islet," and "Demosthenes," especially if you are going to be pronouncing these words as part of a paid narration, shows a complete lack of attention by the actor reading and the producers. It was disappointing.

Doubtful. My enjoyment was interrupted constantly by my disbelief at the illiteracy of the narrator.

No.

If you have enjoyed any of the Alex Bennidict or Chase stories that Mr. Mcdevitt has written you are going to hate this book. Alex meets Chase for the first time and she sounds like a 500lb sailor, not like the sweet girl we have come to love. I would highly recommend the rest of the Alex / Chase stories. Also, the narrator is horrible, all the voices sound the same, and its very monotone. Very boring and the only reason I finished it is that I wasted a credit on it.
As for space battles, I highly recommend the Lost Fleet Series, now that collection of books kept me glued to my Ipod.

I had listened to the 2nd-4th books of this series (which can be read in pretty much any order) and came to this one last mostly because it did not have the same reader. This book is OK- a good mystery with interesting back story. The subsequent books, however, are much better. They are told from the perspective of Chase (the "sidekick") and the reader of those is great. They all involve search for historical artifacts, adventures, and a bit of sleuthing so there is a lot of information on the fictional history of their (future) society as they go about their investigations. Fun SF.

I am a very big fan of Jack McDevitt's, but this book was disappointing. It had his usual clever mystery with a nice ending, but the story was just much too slow. And while I usually am indifferent to the reader, in this case (perhaps because I had so much time on my hands) I was particularly bothered by the many mispronunciations.

This book was very disappointing. The few highlights of technology were interesting, but the constant barrage of information dumping and telling made it a snooze. I got through the first 3 hours of this, and decided to stop wasting my time with the book. Perhaps it get's better later on, but the author lost me after the first 30 minutes. Definitely would not recommend this to any of my friends.

The story is good. But the narrator is on speed. I think if this was rerecorded at a medium pace I would give it another star.