Seeker

Starred review from September 5, 2005
Ideas abound in McDevitt's classy riff on the familiar lost-space-colony theme. In 2688, interstellar transports Seeker
and Bremerhaven
left a theocratic Orwellian Earth to found a dictator-free society, Margolia—and vanished. Nine thousand years later, with a flawed humanity spread over 100-odd worlds, Margolia and its ships have become Atlantis-type myths, but after a cup from Seeker
falls into the hands of antiquarian Alex Benedict, the hero of McDevitt's Polaris
(2004), Alex determines to win everlasting fame and vaster fortune by finding them. Female pilot Chase Kolpath, this book's narrator, gutsily tracks the ancient Seeker
on a breathless trek across star systems and through an intriguing mystery plot, a bevy of fully realized characters, ingenious AI ships and avatars of long-departed personalities who offer advice and entertainment. The scientific interpolations are as convincing as the far-future planetscapes and human and alien societies, bolstering an irresistible tractor beam of heavy-duty action. This novel delivers everything it promises—with a galactic wallop. Agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza.

October 15, 2005
Fleeing Earth's repressive societies in the 27th century, a pair of ships -the "Bremerhaven" and the "Seeker" -sought refuge in the stars and established the colony of Margolia. Then they disappeared. Several thousand years later, an artifact that may have come from the Seeker falls into the hands of antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his assistant, Chase Kolpath. Their investigations into the lost colony lead them into a web of intrigue and danger as they become targets for assassination by powers that don't want them to pursue their goal. Set in the same universe as the author's "Polaris" and "Deepsix" , McDevitt's latest sf adventure features personal drama as well as fast-paced action in the depths of outer space. Combining hard science with superb storytelling, this compelling take belongs in most sf collections.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2005
McDevitt's latest gripping novel of future history begins in the late twentieth century, when a technological breakthrough costs the lives of its discoverers. Then it jumps seven centuries forward, to the beginning of interstellar flight and some of the first refugees from Earth. Finally, it moves into the very far future and to the seeker of the title, one of several looking for inhabited worlds that are the results, however longterm, of events recorded earlier. McDevitt is now being compared, quite legitimately, to Arthur C. Clarke, and not only because he has a similar kind of grand vision of the human future among the stars. He also has characters with amiable, or not-so-amiable, quirks, who in the middle of deciphering the secrets of lost races take time to worry about where to get a good meal in the next town. One of these days McDevitt is going to receive an actual and well-deserved big award to go with his professional stature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)