Chindi

This was the best science fiction book that I have read this century! In every facet of Priscilla Hutchins search across the galaxy, I was in awe of Jack McDevit's descriptions of their findings, and their search for intelligent life. It reminded me of Arthur C. Clarke's wondrous novel 'Rendevous With Rama.' I could not put this novel down.

I won't describe the plot, because this has been done. But instead I will point out what I liked. McDevitt managed to convey the wonders and the sheer scariness of space that we might find one day. He demonstrates that there could be engineering marvels such as the unnatural orbiting pleasure moon, or the museum ship, with no discernable answers as to why it was done or why the creators abandoned it. Amidst all of these marvels there is still plently of room for everyday human pettiness, screw ups and sacrifice. Of all the 4 books in this series I rate this as the best. Humanity is brought to light against this backdrop.

Well it's been a while since I've read a really good science fiction novel (Oh, how I started to long for the tales of Clarke, Asimov, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Ellison, Silverberg, and the rest of the masters of old--no slight intended to Brin, Card, Simmons, Gibson, Butler, or the score of other wonderful science fiction writers of the last 20 years), but low and behold I stumbled upon this novel with a blurb by Steven King upon the cover, and from the first page I was hooked. Ok, so the novel depends heavily (as does it's prequel "Deep Six" which I am now reading) on one disaster after the next taking place to advance the story, but the characters and the plot more than make up for this difficulty. On the whole the book reminded me a great deal of Rendevous with Rama by the afore mentioned Clarke, but with a more satisfying conclusion. The wonder and awe of discovering a new sentient species is well portrayed, as are the perils involved in exploring the great beyond.It's admirable that McDevitt, as he does in Deep Six, offers a story with strong a female lead character, something so often missing in much of science fiction (the stories of Octavia Butler, Kate Wilhelm, and Joan D. Vinge--all women writers--excluded). He also does a fine job of exploring the inner psyche of the characters in this book and the ways in which events, as they unfold, effect the way they think about themselves and the world around them. All in all a fine tale of humanity's encounter with an alien unknown.

Jack McDevitt is probably my favorite author currently writing science fiction, and Chindi was a particularly fascinating, thrilling read. Like one of the spaceships in the story, the novel takes a little while to get up and going, but once it does, it is edge-of-your-seat action all the way. The story starts with a mysterious signal picked up in the vicinity of a neutron star. Satellites are left in orbit, and five years later they pick up the indecipherable signal again. Priscilla Hutchins ("Hutch") is chosen to pilot a craft housing members of the Contact Society (a private group of extraterrestrial enthusiasts and believers) to the star, while another ship travels to the possible destination of the signal. Here begins a monumental, interstellar journey filled with great discovery and great tragedy. Hutch and her passengers pursue the signal through several star systems, finding proof of advanced alien civilizations but no aliens they can speak to. When they attempt to explore one world populated by large, clothed avian beings, their hopes of making contact are dashed rather brutally. One of the most interesting sites they explore is the Retreat, a large house filled with seemingly human, albeit over-sized, artifacts-library, desks, shelves of books (frozen in the cold vacuum), beds, etc. The Retreat sits on a small moon offering a gorgeous view of a two-star system of great majesty and beauty. It is here that they discover another ship, proof of advanced extraterrestrial life, and the rest of the plot revolves around their attempts to learn the secrets the ship holds and to return home. Finding their way back ends up being the most difficult and definitely most thrilling part of their journey.Chindi actually marks Hutch's third appearance in McDevitt's novels, a fact which I did not discover before I was well into the story. It is not necessary to know the story of Hutch's earlier missions in order to read and enjoy this particular novel, though. The cast of characters is interesting but improbable-the Contact Society team members are not scientists. They include an actress/producer, an artist, a funeral home director, and similarly unscientific men and women. One is, of course, a former love interest of Hutch, and that adds a little more flavor to the pot. These people make mistakes, and some of them pay with their lives, yet they all emerge as truly heroic souls who want nothing more than to answer the cosmic questions man has been posing as long as he has looked at the stars and wondered if he was alone in the universe. The science of McDevitt's science fiction works pretty well, although I have a problem with a couple of things that happened. I found McDevitt's characters to be vibrant, real, and interesting, although I understand some readers apparently do not find them as interesting as I do. We don't get to the essence of them all, and Hutch's future is left quite unresolved at the end, but I came to know and like ev

In the far distant future, man has learned to travel at FLS (faster than light speed) but has also terraformed other planets so that humans could colonize them. One thing mankind has not found is a sentient species that is their equal or superior. They have found remnants of other civilizations that have long since died when man was crawling out of the caves and they have found a warlike race of beings that have depleted the resources of their planet with their many wars.Priscilla Hutchins, Hitch to her friends, is a very good space pilot in the academy who is nearing burnout and ready to retire. She is asked, on behalf of the academy, to take control of the civilian spaceship the City of Memphis and guide the crew, members of the contact society, into deep space in hopes of meeting intelligent alien life. They discover that someone has left a series of stealth satellites in orbit around space bodies all across the galaxy. Every time they find one of their trackers, they beam something new about this universe and those who have and continue to inhabit it.CHINDI is a space opera with plenty of action and unexpected developments in almost every sense. Jack McDevett has created a realistic space-faring universe mindful of Star Trek that is just waiting to be explored by Hutch, her fellow adventurers, and readers. There are many characters in this novel that deserve to have their own story told.Harriet Klausner