Hearing the premise to Engines of God makes it sound like a very promising read; sadly this is not the case. The story follows a space pilot/archeologist named Hutch as she unravels the mystery of a long dead alien civilization. Simply known as the Monument Makers this intriguing alien culture has indelibly left their mark on our part of the galaxy by leaving beautiful and intricate statues of varying designs scattered almost everywhere. But why? And where did they go? The idea is captivating; solve a mystery from back to front. Here’s the effect; now what’s the cause? In a way I’m reminded of Asimov’s Foundation series; a strong premise with a grand, sweeping follow through that feels for the most part diluted.
The particulars are trivial and I found it hard to invest myself in the characters. Not to say they aren’t realized nicely by the end of the book, but the story dragged from the get go.
A couple of things I liked about this book was seen in the courage by McDevitt to go against the grain as it were. Not to say that all of his ideas paid off in the end, but we get a fresh perspective on space and sci fi. Firstly and fore mostly, this universe seems very sparsely populated. Most sci fi in which humans have faster than light (FTL) travel the universe is either bristling with aliens, or human colonists are everywhere. In Engines of God this is not the case. This is due to the second unique point; in McDevitt’s universe humans can’t compensate for long exposure to low gravity in space or off world. This distinct possibility is almost entirely ignored by sci fi, probably because it doesn’t write very well. But McDevitt uses it to explore human limitations. Planets like Mars suddenly become uninhabitable, due to it’s slightly different gravity level. In this way McDevitt paints a very lonely galaxy. The final really unusual plot device that doesn’t altogether work in the story is the existence of simple, portable personal force fields. Maybe McDevitt thought it would open up the very constricted galaxy he created, but to me it just felt like an excuse. Force fields and a ready supply of oxygen take too much of the challenge out of space travel.
My final qualm with this book is that it is too disjointed. The story takes place over years. It’s just too slow. There are exciting moments to be had but they are punctuated by long boring stretches of uninteresting rambling.
Overall, I’ve got to give this book points for at least trying a few different concepts; but it ultimately just doesn’t work. It may be a good read for someone out there, but not me.
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