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A review by scottcurtis10
Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
3.0
I do like this book. It has a good story, compelling and believable characters, and a star (Priscilla Hutchins) worth building a series of books around - in fact, McDevitt does.
I think the premise is compelling: archaeology done on ancient, highly advanced and now extinct alien civilizations on the outer fringes of the galaxy. The dialog is realistic, the interplay between the scientists is fairly believable as research banter, and you grow to care about the characters.
However, this is not a work of hard SF. Some may not be bothered by this, but transdimensional travel at faster than the speed of light, amorphous entities that obey no physical laws of gravity, planets with gasoline lakes and ethylene rainstorms (without any suggestion of how hydrocarbons could become so abundant) stretch my willingness to suspend disbelief a trifle too far.
There are three incredibly gripping climaxes in the book, suggesting to me that the book could have been written as three separate novellas. I think that, in some ways, the story would have been better divided up in this way. This is a book with some idea discussion but primarily about plot, character development, and action. I would have preferred more exploration of the concepts, which could have been elaborated about at length.
I think the premise is compelling: archaeology done on ancient, highly advanced and now extinct alien civilizations on the outer fringes of the galaxy. The dialog is realistic, the interplay between the scientists is fairly believable as research banter, and you grow to care about the characters.
However, this is not a work of hard SF. Some may not be bothered by this, but transdimensional travel at faster than the speed of light, amorphous entities that obey no physical laws of gravity, planets with gasoline lakes and ethylene rainstorms (without any suggestion of how hydrocarbons could become so abundant) stretch my willingness to suspend disbelief a trifle too far.
There are three incredibly gripping climaxes in the book, suggesting to me that the book could have been written as three separate novellas. I think that, in some ways, the story would have been better divided up in this way. This is a book with some idea discussion but primarily about plot, character development, and action. I would have preferred more exploration of the concepts, which could have been elaborated about at length.