Hercules Text (Ace Science Fiction Special)
by Jack McDevitt
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jack McDevittEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1986-11-01
ISBN: 0441373674
Publisher: Ace
Book Reviews of Hercules Text (Ace Science Fiction Special)
Book Review: The Age of Reason?
Summary: 4 Stars
This is Jack McDevitt's first novel, and it shows, but Hercules Text is still a good read. What is lacking in this book is not story or characters, but just the refined style we read in McDevitt's later novels. The Hercules Text is apparently out-of-print. Perhaps now that McDevitt has become fairly successful, The Hercules Text will be reprinted.
Some reviewers compare The Hercules Text to Sagan's Contact, but I have to disagree: the two books resemble each other only insofar as each explores the ramifications and consequences of an extra-terrestrial communication. Contact explored much larger themes, in keeping with Carl Sagan's genius and vision. McDevitt writes a much more down to earth-and, in truth, more plausible-story that examines what would happen politically if an extra-terrestrial communication were discovered. The characters are not larger than life; they are not infused with Sagan's optimism. McDevitt's characters are scientists, bureaucrats, and politicians whom we can not only imagine, but whom we observe every day. The Hercules Text is, I believe, pretty close to what would actually happen.
And what happens is not grounds for optimism. The story is a little dated-the Soviet Union still exists-but the story would work just as well by substituting any of the other crazy, reactionary societies on the planet. The paranoia and hubris McDevitt writes into the American government is not a stretch either: just look at the behavior of the administration we have now.
If you believe that our species has successfully navigated through the Age of Reason toward some new intellectual enlightenment, then The Hercules Text should change your mind; if anything, we are still living in Sagan's Demon Haunted World.
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