Tag Archives: Ace Books

A Review of Jack McDevitt’s Thunderbird

Thunderbird
Jack McDevitt
Ace Books
Hardcover $26.95
ebook $13.99

Jack McDevitt’s latest novel takes up where Ancient Shores left off. This is not a stand-alone novel, although it’s not absolutely necessary to have read the first book. He focuses on different characters to some extent in this one. While McDevitt introduces dozens of characters whose lives are affected by the discovery of The Roundhouse, interstellar portal discovered on a Sioux reservation, his central character is Sioux Chairman James Walker.

Walker is not in an enviable position. The President, the UN, the press, and his own tribe are all pressuring him. Some want him to shut down or destroy The Roundhouse. Others want access to it. And some want to use it to colonize the tropical paradise world they’ve come to call Eden.

Walker tries to walk a careful path, not rushing and not making long term sacrifices for short term gains. Continue reading →

The Lines are Calling

Linesman
S. K. Dunstall
Ace Science Fiction
mmpb $7.99 US, $10.49 CAN
ebook $5.99

Before I get started, I’d like to thank Ace Books for the review copy. Ace is one of those lines you should be paying attention to.

S. K. Dunstall is the collaborative pen name of sisters Sherylyn and Karen Dunstall. Linesman is their first published novel. It won’t be their last (the sequel hits shelves in February).

The story takes place at least 500 years in the future if I picked up on all the internal clues correctly. Interstellar travel is accomplished by means of lines. They’re some type of sentient energy, although the sentient part isn’t a widely accepted idea when the book opens. Without the lines, it’s impossible to travel faster than light. (Where they come from is a mystery that isn’t solved in this book.)

In order to travel and make use of the lines, a ship has to have a linesman on it. Lines are numbered one through ten, with nine and ten being the two lines that involve entering and moving through the void. Not all linesmen can interact with all the lines, so “tens” are at the top of the pecking order. That pecking order is about to be upset by an alien ship discovered in deep space. Continue reading →

Conspiracy Theories and Moon Landings

The Cassandra Project
Jack McDevitt & Mike Resnick
Ace Books, mmp, 343 p., $7.99
ebook $7.99 Kindle Nook

I’ve been a big fan of both of these authors for years, so it was with high expectations that I approached The Cassandra Project. Now the thing to keep in mind is that collaborations rarely read like the work of either author involved. In the best cases, the result is something that surpasses what either author could produce on their own. A prime example of this would be the works of Niven and Pournelle or Pohl and Kornbluth. On the other hand, when the collaboration doesn’t work, the results can be downright awful.

Fortunately, the work under consideration here is much more of the former than the latter, even if it doesn’t quite rise to the level of Niven/Pournelle or Phol/Kornbluth. I’ll say more about that shortly. First, here’s the setup. Continue reading →