A Talent for War
by Jack McDevitt

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Book Reviews of A Talent for War

Book Review: A Grand Stirring Saga for a Backdrop
Summary: 5 Stars

The main events of the war are two hundred years before the contemporary events. McDevitt uses this to add a sepia tone of nostalgia. Akin to Americans looking back at their Civil War. McDevitt adds amusing little sidenotes for detailed depth. All this is set in the far future, in a high technological star-spanning setting. Yet McDevitt has the narrator say how the advances of the narrator's time has taken the romance out of daily life, unlike the stirring days of the war.

The narrator's search across space to solve the mystery is akin to that in Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, in the last volume, when members of the First Foundation search for the Second. There are other similarities. Firstly in style. McDevitt cultivates a sparse descriptive narrative, much like that used by Asimov throughout his books. But there is something more. Joseph Patrouch in the late 70s wrote "The Science Fiction of Isaac Asimov", where he critiqued the Foundation Trilogy. He noted that the major action events were not usually described directly ("in real time"). Rather, Asimov would have his characters recall the events, after they had occurred. McDevitt's book resembles this. To large extent, it is not really a book on military science fiction. A reader of Drake, Weber, Pournelle or Stirling would see this quickly. But at a subtler level, the saga-like backdrop does give this book such a cadence.

Summary of A Talent for War

Literature & Fiction Books

• Subjects > Literature & Fiction
• Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Adventure
• High Tech