The Engines of God
by Jack McDevitt

List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $3.95
You Save: $4.04 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9780441002849
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of The Engines of God

Book Review: Seek us by the light of the horgon's eye
Summary: 4 Stars

For me, the plot started to collapse in on itself slightly in the second half of the book. On moons orbiting the important sites they visit are huge, fake cities (dubbed Oz) laid out in obsessively straight lines and right angles which have suffered serious charring at times of planetary catastrophe from an unknown source. Apparently, the inexplicable cosmic force they eventually get a look at has an innate attraction to linear geometries-this part of the story, which becomes very important toward the end, seemed a little ludicrous to me. Another thing that bothers me is that, aside from Hutch, the other characters who survived until the end seemed to be the least important and inscrutable of the bunch. McDevitt has no qualms about sacrificing major characters at any time and any way; it's refreshing to see an author do that, but it is sometimes slightly frustrating to finally get to know a character and then see him/her dispensed with rather arbitrarily. This leads to another weakness in the novel. I did not think the character development was very good, especially that of Hutch. McDevitt always seems to want to add a touch of romance and smoldering desires to his books, and in this case it detracts from my admiration from Hutch. She is a brave, heroic woman, yet she can't go on a mission anywhere in the universe, it seems, without at least one former or hopefully future love interest. McDevitt just doesn't handle this type of emotional content well here, and it detracts somewhat from a great story.

I think this book made McDevitt a better writer. The flaws that seem to stand out in this effort are much less prominent in his later novels. I felt pretty good about this particular plot up until the fourth and final section; at that point, some of the science seemed to fall apart, and the ultimate conclusion comes off as somewhat improbable and anticlimactic. Some of the decisions made on all sides along the way are incredibly criminal and oftentimes juvenile, and the same mistakes (such as the continued exploration of alien worlds with little or no weapons) have a way of repeating themselves over and over again. I remained incapable of buying into the supposed purpose for the strangely hewn alien Oz sites, and since the final section's activity was based around a scientific interpretation of those sites' significance, the final pages left me somewhat nonplussed. Flawed as this novel is, though, it is certainly a science fiction adventure worth taking. Hutch is a fascinating character whose richness does not really come through in these pages as it does in the follow-up novels Deepsix and Chindi, but this is a more than worthy introduction to her noble character. Sometimes I feel like McDevitt is taking me somewhere I have already visited with him in the past, but I am more than happy to follow him each and every time.

Summary of The Engines of God

Literature & Fiction Books

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