Cauldron
by Jack McDevitt
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jack McDevittEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN: 0441016502
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Ace
Book Reviews of Cauldron
Book Review: Disappointing and childishly written
Summary: 1 Stars
I wouldn't say that the entire first 2/3 of the book was quite as boring as other reviews have projected, but the novel definitely is disappointing both taken in parts and as a whole. The characters are mostly one dimensional and, for individuals who are supposed to be at the forefront of their fields, uncommon only in how mundane they come across as. The end of the book does seem like a botched rush-job (although I don't know of any hastily assembled endings that have ever been anything but botched), and it only touches upon arguably more interesting locales very briefly and unsatisfactorily. It almost seems as if McDevitt was distracted while writing this, and only towards the end realized that he'd devoted too much space to the war against apathy. As a solution, he tried to cram visits to multiple worlds in, in the process giving frustratingly little detail during the novel's sparsely scattered interesting bits, such as the visit to the abandoned space station in the Sigma system. Then...I don't know how or why he chose to, but he reveals the main antagonist of the series, an intelligence that has spent literally eons seeking out and destroying any shred of intelligent civilization, to be a...cyclopean emo cloud. Hmmm...what? Not only is it somehow helpless despite its eons long existence spent constructing malevolent clouds that systematically eliminate any possibility of rescue, but it also has the tactical aptitude of a 4 year old sitting down to his first game of Stratego. One wouldn't think it could get more unsatisfactory than that, but then McDevitt even manages to throw in an ambiguous no-solution ending, as if the armada of loose ends screaming to be answered weren't enough. Considering how magnificent novels like Deepsix were, I wish the author had taken more time to consider how much time he should allot to character development and perhaps tighten the scope of how many worlds/systems he was attempting to explore, which would have given him space to be more creative with the descriptions.
Summary of Cauldron
Chosen as One of the Five Best SF Novels of the Year by Library Journal.
When a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, veteran star pilot Priscilla ?Hutch? Hutchins finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly omega clouds that continue to haunt her.
When a young physicist unveils an efficient star drive capable of reaching the core of the galaxy, veteran star pilot Priscilla ?Hutch? Hutchins finds herself back in the deepest reaches of space, and on the verge of discovering the origins of the deadly omega clouds that continue to haunt her.
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