Seeker
by Jack McDevitt
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Book Reviews of Seeker
Book Review: It Started With a Call-in
Summary: 5 Stars
Seeker (2005) is the third SF novel in the Alex/Chase series, following Polaris. In the previous volume, Maddy tried to kill Alex and Chase, but instead damaged her own ship. The other conspirators met with Alex and Chase and tried to convince them to keep their secret. Alex agreed, but Chase didn't, so the others flew off and apparently died when their aircraft exploded over the ocean.
In this novel, Alex and Chase find a Celian station on the thirteenth moon of Gideon V. It has a few domes and an antenna farm. Nothing fancy, but it is only the third known outstation left by the Celians. Yet somebody has stripped the station within the past few months.
Alex asks Chase whom she has told about the site and she can only think of Winetta Yashevik, archaeological liaison and public relations chief at the Department of Planetary Survey and Astronomical Research. After they return, Chase asks Windy whom she has told and she denies telling anyone. But then she remembers that, of course, she did tell her boss, the Director of Survey. Alex spends some time searching for the vandals who stripped Gideon V, but eventually he gives up on the issue.
Chase handles a call-in from a woman inquiring about the value of a drinking cup. Amy Kolmer says that she had been given the cup by Hap, her former boyfriend. It looks like an ordinary cheap cup, but it has an English inscription on it. Jacob, the office AI, estimates that the design is third millennium.
Chase asks Amy to bring the item to the office and then she shows it to Alex. After Jacob performs a detailed assay, the cup is estimated to date back about six millennia. Alex asks for a declaration of ownership and then gives Amy a receipt for the cup. After Amy leaves, Alex starts looking for its origins.
In this story, Alex, Chase and Jacob track the cup down to a disaffected group who had left the Earth for an unknown destination. The cup had apparently come from the Seeker, one of the two ships used in the migration. Nothing has been heard from the Margolians since they left, but they are still remembered in popular fiction. Nowadays, they are often portrayed as a technologically advanced civilization that wants to have nothing to do with the rest of humanity.
Alex, Chase and Jacob also check the records on Amy's boyfriend and find that he has a record as a burglar. Maybe he had stolen the cup from someone else. Talking with Hap's sister, they learn that the family has had the cup for decades, but that Hap's father also had been a burglar.
They eventually discover that the cup had come from the home of Adam and Margaret Westcott, former Survey explorers. The couple had reported the cup missing after a burglary more than 30 years ago, but it was never recovered. Then the Westcotts went off on a ski trip and died in an earthquake and avalanche that destroyed the ski lodge.
Naturally, Alex and Chase have to use Survey resources to track down the Seeker and search for the long lost Margolian planet. Along the way, Alex and Chase discover who had vandalized the Gideon V outstation. They survive several attempts on their lives. And they also have a few personal surprises.
Highly recommended for McDevitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of private investigations, space searches and alien encounters.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Book Review: Could Have Been So Much Better
Summary: 3 Stars
I too like quite a few here wanted to enjoy this novel; especially since many of his books I do indeed find worthy of my time; engaging, fun, and thought-provoking. This book, however "well-written" in and of itself, has a plot as exciting as paint drying. It is extremely slow, as others noted as well, and there are just too many conversations that go absolutely nowhere and seem to serve only as filler. A few would have sufficed to let us know that hey, it isnt easy to find the Seeker.
But what truly just struck me as implausible was the ridiculous notion that 10 millenia hence, we are still stuck in too many of the backwards thinking that occurs today, as Chase Kolpath lets us know when she asserts that she will go on with the investigation into Ashiyyurean space despite her own misgivings only because "Alex would think never send a boy-or a woman-to do a man's job", and also like the times Chase(the ultimate self-effacing assistant/masochist sans any kind of a personality of her own)keeps on parroting how Alex thinks this, Alex does that about any given circumstance without giving her own in-put...she is more like an android than a person with her own mind! My God, I would hope that at least in ten thousand years we would be past such misogyny. Apparently not, we can get past racism, but not sexism, according to some. Jack, you are showing your age.
The other thing that was just unthinkably unrealistic is that we would still be in the same old clothes as today's, to name one such example, and with technology that(except for the FTL and the Quantum drive)just is in no way as advanced as we would probably be if we survive that long and if, in all probability, we keep on the same way as we are going now, regardless of political upheavals/religious conundrums, in another few millenia, never mind ten. Just not realistic. Look at the major changes in just the past century vis-a-vis clothing and technology, never mind (some)attitudes.
I have enjoyed other books by McDevitt, especially Chindi, which in my opinion had a much stronger main character in Priscilla Hutchins(Hutch) who was in no way a classic sturm-und-drang/always ready for action type hero, and which kept you on the edge of your seat as discovery lead to discovery, etc. and all minus patronizing males and lackluster dead-end conversations. And the Priscilla Hutchins books dont even occur in as far-flung a future as this book.
I recommend the author's Hutch novels over these, and also any of Alistair Reynolds galaxy-and-mind-bending TRULY far-futuristic novels.
Book Review: An 11th Millenium mystery thriller
Summary: 4 Stars
As the human race developed space travel, and as habitable worlds were discovered, it became possible for dissident human groups to flee oppression and found new colonies on new worlds. In a sort of "reverse Pilgrim" migration, the Seeker (and its sister ship) leave the theocratic pseudo-democratic Earth and plan to found a truly free society among the stars. The Seeker makes three trips, and is never seen again, nor is the colony they founded ever discovered.
As these things have a way of doing, history gives way to myth, so it is with great incredulity that antiquarians and auctioneers Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath find themselves in possession of a 9000-year-old cup with Seeker markings on it. They set off to find the Seeker, and if possible the colony they founded. Some people don't believe it really exists. Some people hope to beat them to the discovery. Some people don't like their methods and try to sabotage their efforts. Through it all, plucky Chase and dogged Alex piece together the puzzle and work towards the biggest discovery of all time.
To place a story 10000 years in the future is risky - will we even be recognizable as humans? Will we have developed technology that is, to our eyes, "indistinguishable from magic"? (Arthur C. Clarke's term) McDevitt wisely, I think, keeps the technology subdued, and assumes that basic human nature doesn't change that much (and to emphasize that, his intelligent aliens are also very "human"). We can then settle in and enjoy the story, which is very well written and has a number of genuine edge-of-the-seat moments to keep you coming back for more. It is no wonder that this is an award-winning novel: and as "hard" science fiction combined with mystery-suspense, it recalls the glory days of Isaac Asimov.
The book is not perfect. Some of the suspense is over-simplified; for example, after multiple attempts on their lives, the characters still seem surprised when there's yet another attempt (also, the law of conservation of characters comes into play - when a new character is introduced on p. 300, you know he's an assassin by what he says, but the heroes seem willfully naive). The ending seems a bit drawn-out and artificially positive - I could have done without the last 75 pages or so. (It's still very interesting and well-written, but the plot itself seems contrived). But these are relatively minor, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Book Review: Formulaic But Enjoyable
Summary: 4 Stars
Seeker is the third book in the continuing adventures of Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath, star-hopping antiquities hunters. Fortunately, you do not need to read the previous two books, "Talent for War" and "Polaris," to enjoy this one.
Ten thousand years from now, humans have spread over much of the Orion arm, and they've left ruins and lost cities scattered among the stars. Alex and Chase make a living finding artifacts from these sites and selling them to rich clients. This time, the story begins when a woman brings in an unlikely artifact: an ancient plastic cup with an inscription in unreadable "English characters." They discover that the cup is from a colony ship, the Seeker, that left Earth 9000 years ago. The group has never been heard from since, and their story has become legend. Where did the cup come from? What happened to the Seeker and its colonists? The mystery leads Alex and Chase out among the stars, to search for the lost ship and its crew.
The books in this series follow a definite pattern. In each, an "impossible" artifact surfaces. Alex and Chase do research and begin digging up clues. Alex relies on his intuition to piece things together, while Chase (an interstellar pilot) travels to interview experts or witnesses. With each clue, the mystery deepens. An unknown enemy finds their efforts threatening, and they escape multiple assassination attempts, thanks mostly to Chase's quick thinking. In the end, they survive a final confrontation to unearth another Find of the Century.
Formulaic, yes, but it's a good formula. It's like watching a new episode of a TV show you like; you know pretty much what to expect, and the show delivers. Same with McDevitt. The stories are good, the characters agreeable, the mysteries intriguing. And it's fun to imagine a time when our future is as ancient and mythical to historians as Troy or Atlantis is to us.
McDevitt is a capable writer. The story moves at a good pace. The world of the "Confederacy" is well fleshed out, and the characters are very comfortable in it. Chase, the narrator, sprinkles her narrative with natural, off-hand references to pop culture, history, restaurants, fashion, and so on, which give the world a realistic, lived-in feel.
All in all, an enjoyable read.
Book Review: The Search for Seeker
Summary: 4 Stars
In Seeker, Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath have a 9,000 year old cup dropped in their laps by a potential client. The cup proves to be from the Seeker, one of two ships that set out to points unknown in the 27th century with colonists who were trying to escape Earth's oppressive leadership. On the hunt for the Seeker, Alex and Chase wind up visiting numerous locales (actually, it is Chase that does most of the "legwork", a point that does not go unnoticed by the character), all in the effort of tracking down the Seeker. The Seeker has been historically tied to the missing colony of Margolia, which, when the colonists left Earth, they refused to reveal the location of it to those they left behind and, therefore, the colony acquired a mythic status down the proceeding generations, similar to that of Atlantis and other "lost" places. Unfortunately, Alex and Chase's hunt for the Seeker, and ultimately Margolia, attracts some unwanted attention, and soon the pair not only have the hunt for the Seeker and Margolia at stake, but their lives as well.
McDevitt's Seeker follows a pre-established pattern that has worked well for the author in the past...and, indeed, works well for the author this time around as well. The pattern goes something like this: Mystery reveals itself surrounding some historic event or artifact. Characters discover there is much more to the event or artifact than originally believed. Characters traipse around galaxy on the search for clues to solving mystery. Unexpected danger pops up with somebody trying to off the main characters because of reasons that are not specified until near-end of book. Characters defeat bad guys. Mystery is completely solved (sometimes aspects of the mystery are solved earlier in the book) at end of book. Characters survive for the next go-round.
So McDevitt's story's can be a tad formulaic. Who cares?! They are fun to read! And they present a realistic possibility of what our future may hold when we begin to colonize other worlds in this galaxy. I am totally looking forward to reading more of McDevitt's (formulaic) work sometime in the not-to-distant future.