It takes about an hour into the book before all of the pieces come together but Jack McDevitt sure knows how to write a gripping story

These books remind me of a mix of Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones thrown into a sci-fi setting. (A mystery story set in the future, with an antiquit..Show More »ies dealer as the main protagonist.) In this universe the human race has been in space for about 20,000 years. In that time many ships, colonies and valuable items have gone missing. Alex Benedict, with the help of Chase Kolpath, specializes in finding missing and valuable items.

Seeker is the story of Margolia, a lost colony that disappeared long ago and has become a legend much like modern day Atlantis. One of the interesting concepts in the book, and McDevitt's writing, is the use of computer generated avatars of long dead people that are recreated through what is left behind and known of the person. In this case, Harry Williams the founder of the lost colony is used to help with the search. While he does not know where the colony is, or what happened to it, the avatar allows Benedict and Kolpath to get some unique perspectives on the colony and its foundation. In the end the avatar becomes a very sympathetic character.

This is a fun, quick book offers many twist and turns with a very satisfactory ending. Although it is the third book in Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series, these books can be read completely independent of each other.

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The Devil's Eye represents a modest departure from the preceding volumes. The earlier novels all involve the tracking down of a variety of clues, man..Show More »y being dead ends, that are quite engaging, and feel like you're peeling through the many layers of an onion to eventually arrive at the truth (the best of the group being the excellent "Seeker"). The Devil's Eye does not involve so many onion layers, and in fact is pretty well solved about half-way through. The remainder of the book focuses on interracial relations, and concludes with a rather obvious twist that was apparent well before the end. However, it is still a typical McDevitt novel - good dialog and a pleasant story line (and always involving a boobytrapped air vehicle of some sort!). I hope McDevitt continues to write these novels, but I prefer the earlier plotting technique.

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I'm one of the folks who bought the original version of this title with Paul Boehmer as the narrator. That version was horrible and I was never able ..Show More »to get past the first few chapters. Why use a guy when Chase Kolpath tells the story? Regardless, this version is much better though not up to the typical Alex Benedict standards. The narrator really struggles with the AIs and takes a while to get comfortable with the characters. She gets the hang of it by the last third of the book.

The story is good but not exceptional. The climax is pretty apparent a couple of hours before it actually happens. All in all, it is an okay way to spend a few days in the car.

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