Octavia Gone

By: Jack McDevitt

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

After being lost in space for 11 years, Gabe finally makes his triumphant return to reunite with Alex and Chase and retrieve a possibly alien artifact - which may lead them to solve the greatest archaeological mystery of their careers, in the eighth installment of the Alex Benedict series.

After his return from space, Gabe is trying to find a new life for himself after being presumed dead - just as Alex and Chase are trying to relearn how to live and work without him. But when a seemingly alien artifact goes missing from Gabe's old collection, it grants the group a chance to dive into solving the mystery of its origins as a team, once again.

When a lead on the artifact is tied to a dead pilot's sole unrecorded trip, another clue seems to lead to one of the greatest lingering mysteries of the age: the infamous disappearance of a team of scientists aboard a space station orbiting a black hole - the Amelia Earhart of their time. With any luck, Alex, Chase, and Gabe may be on the trail of the greatest archaeological discovery of their careers.

©2019 Jack McDevitt (P)2019 Recorded Books

Alexa anyone

How is it that these books take place 9000 years in the future and the narrators A.I. voice sounds like an audio processor that Hawking rejected?

Great performance, interesting moral tale

What happens when someone returns from what we thought was the grave? How does that affect the status quo?
Mr. McDevitt explores this in this latest episode of life with Alex Benedict (but really, Chase Colpath).
Not only that, our heroes uncover a horrible secret.
What to do?

Love Jack's story's and his writing

I haven't found one of Jack's books that I don't like. I think I've read them all and they've never run dry. With most authors a person gets bogged down about half or three quarters of the way through. It feels too repetitive and the reader gets bored. For me that doesn't happen with Jack McDevit.

another installment, nothing really new

I've enjoyed these stories, but maybe they are becoming repetitive. Expect pretty much the same kind of story as the previous, though I wouldn't rate this as one of the best.

Alien artifact / missing space station

Octavia Gone is the latest offering in the Alex Benedict franchise. Following on the last installment, Alex's uncle is now reunited and some of the familial differences come out: his uncle is an academic archaeologist and Alex's business doesn't sit well with him. Octavia is a space station once orbiting around a black hole, but missing for over a decade with the search having run into dead ends. At the same time, his uncle searches for a potential alien artifact that he was working on when he went missing. Naturally, these activities converge and Alex solves the mystery of the disappearing station.

McDevitt continues the general features of this futuristic universe, but offers a unique perspective where complacency, at least scientifically has developed. After 9000 years, there is a noticeable lack of advancement in terms of fundamental basic science. At the same time, he uses the alien situation as a warning for our current civilization. Furthermore, while there are plenty of overlaps, it is the AIs of the two species that make first contact and form the basis for communications.

Jennifer does another admirable job of narration with excellent character distinction as well as AI rendering without simply resorting to flat affect. Pacing is well aligned with the plot making for an easy listen.