Firebird

An Alex Benedict Novel

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

A new Alex Benedict novel from "a master of describing otherworldly grandeur" (Denver Post).

Forty-one years ago, the renowned physicist Chris Robin vanished. Before his disappearance, his fringe-science theories about the existence of endless alternate universes had earned him both admirers and enemies. Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath discover that Robin had several interstellar yachts flown far outside the planetary system, where they too vanished. And following Robin's trail into the unknown puts Benedict and Kolpath in danger.

©2011 Cryptic, Inc. (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Kept me Engaged All the Way Through

The performance was great as was the story. I was never sure what would happen next. One of the best Benedict novels.

More on the adventures of Chase

Another good book in series. Doing a reread so I’m fresh for village in the sky

best Alex Benedict in a while

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. This has been my favorite Alex Benedict story since the earlier ones (Seeker, Polaris, etc). Devil's Eye and Echo were much less engaging, so it is great to see McDevitt back to form in this story. Really engaging, lots of ingest, and the characters are well drawn.

What other book might you compare Firebird to and why?

This one reminds me of the first Benedict book, A Talent For War

Another solid Benedict mystery

With the latest installment of the Benedict/Colpath series, McDevitt again demonstrates domination of the subgenre of sci-fi mysteries. The entire series is best summed up as Indiana Jones meets Sherlock Holmes in the distant future. In this story, Benedict stumbles upon artifacts from a controversial physicist who simply disappeared 40 years earlier. In trying to establish some background on the events surrounding his disappearance, Benedict displays his adroit detective skills, while at the same time exploring some rather exotic physics that suggests long lost spacecraft may still be out there wandering some interdimensional no man's land. McDevitt also takes the opportunity to explore notions of human consciousness and identity which suggest this will receive more attention in future installments.

As usual, McDevitt's style is unique in generating characters that are quite familiar and very identifiable with today's culture in spite of the 9000 years in the future separation with Earth. Politics, prejudice, and PR still exist in abundance. At the same time, there are discussion of where to go for lunch and dating versus long term commitments that make the characters feel real and approachable.

McDevitt also does a great job of spreading the contributions around without resorting to a strictly ensemble cast of one trick ponies. The casting of Colpath as Dr. Watson and diarist to Benedict is a nice touch that solidifies the Sherlock Holmes reference.

The narration is well done with an excellent range of voices. This is one series that is always something to look forward to the next.

Excellent!

I had read this in the paper version when it first came out. I actually downloaded this one in error. but it was so much fun listening to it, and I do believe that I enjoyed it more than I did when I read it the first time. the narration is wonderful and as is always the case with these Jack McDevitt books, the character development is amazingly deep.