Helpful Score: 6
Excellent look on what alien technology (or even the idea that we may have access to it someday) might do to our world. It focuses more on the social aspect than the actual science fiction part of the story.
Helpful Score: 5
This was a fun read.
There really was a great lake 10K years ago that stretched between what is now North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Archaeologists are researching lost coastal civilizations from 10K years ago that are now underwater. This book is a fun twist on the theme.
There really was a great lake 10K years ago that stretched between what is now North Dakota, Minnesota, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Archaeologists are researching lost coastal civilizations from 10K years ago that are now underwater. This book is a fun twist on the theme.
Helpful Score: 4
A darn good read. This book asks the questions and gives the answers. A romp through the worlds.
Helpful Score: 3
My husband says: More concerned with the social ramifications of first contact than with the exploration of alien worlds, and I would have been more excited by the latter. I preferred Eternity Road to this book.
Helpful Score: 2
Fast and interesting read! This is my first Jack Mcdevitt book and I want to read more of his books.
Helpful Score: 1
Slow start. I almost laid it aside several times, but then I had to pick it up again. Very good middle, disappointing end, but there is another book which I am waiting for. Jack McDevitt is a very interesting author. I look for him now.
This is a 'what if' similar to the black monoliths that show up in another science fiction work... but instead of strange monuments, a farmer finds a gorgeous yacht buried in the middle of a Great Plains farm. That's startling enough in itself, raising questions of who would put it there. But then scientists discover that the substance the boat is made of has an impossible atomic number. The thing CAN'T exist. But it does.
A little more hunting turns up additional alien technology on the nearby Indian reservation. Then things really hit the fan.
With simply the rumor of proven extra-terrestrial visit and possible advanced technology comes public furor, media frenzy, financial uproar and political cover-your-ass. Will the government step in with another $24 worth of beads and take over? Or will something worse happen?
From back cover: It turned up in a North Dakota wheat field: a triangle, like a shark's fin, sticking up from the black loam. Tom Lasker did what any farmer would have done. He dug it up. And discovered a boat, made of a fiberglass-like material with an utterly impossible atomic number. What it was doing buried under a dozen feet of prairie soil two thousand miles from any ocean, no one knew. True, Tom Lasker's wheat field had once been on the shoreline of a great inland sea, but that was a long time ago -- ten thousand years ago.
A return to science fiction on a grand scale, reminiscent of the best of Heinlein, Simak, and Clarke, Ancient Shores is the most ambitious and exciting SF triumph of the decade, a bold speculative adventure that does not shrink from the big questions -- and the big answers
A little more hunting turns up additional alien technology on the nearby Indian reservation. Then things really hit the fan.
With simply the rumor of proven extra-terrestrial visit and possible advanced technology comes public furor, media frenzy, financial uproar and political cover-your-ass. Will the government step in with another $24 worth of beads and take over? Or will something worse happen?
From back cover: It turned up in a North Dakota wheat field: a triangle, like a shark's fin, sticking up from the black loam. Tom Lasker did what any farmer would have done. He dug it up. And discovered a boat, made of a fiberglass-like material with an utterly impossible atomic number. What it was doing buried under a dozen feet of prairie soil two thousand miles from any ocean, no one knew. True, Tom Lasker's wheat field had once been on the shoreline of a great inland sea, but that was a long time ago -- ten thousand years ago.
A return to science fiction on a grand scale, reminiscent of the best of Heinlein, Simak, and Clarke, Ancient Shores is the most ambitious and exciting SF triumph of the decade, a bold speculative adventure that does not shrink from the big questions -- and the big answers
Whoa -- this was a good one. McDevitt has created his best yet. Read it.
I was disappointed in the story line. Most of the story is about how current society will be affected by the discovery of ancient visitors rather than about the visitors.
The book starts out building suspense. The suspense builds, but there is no payoff in the end! He developed his characters better than he developed an ending.
It looks like he ran out of steam, or ideas, in the end. Where I was expecting a bang, I got a whimper. I expected better from McDevitt. Then again, not every hit is a home run. This one is second base.
It looks like he ran out of steam, or ideas, in the end. Where I was expecting a bang, I got a whimper. I expected better from McDevitt. Then again, not every hit is a home run. This one is second base.
Yet again, we have found a passage to another world or universe. Granted this is nothing new in Science Fiction, but McDevitt has added one little twist... it belongs to Native Americans.
This is a unique look at what would happen if...
I won't give anything away, but I think this is McDevitt's best work to date. If you enjoy this author's work read this.
This is a unique look at what would happen if...
I won't give anything away, but I think this is McDevitt's best work to date. If you enjoy this author's work read this.
This is the seminal book in a series with amazing possibilities. Recommended read.
I feel I have to give this book at least 4 stars even though it was a little slow for my taste at times. I say this because it prompted me to head back to the book store the following week to see what else Mr. McDevitt had written as I liked the overall flavor of the storytelling. Any book that leads you to buy another just to see what the authors work is about has done its job and at least deserves 4 stars.
In this story what initially begins as a strange discovery turns into an all out archaeological project that results in an interesting form of access to other places. The story moved a bit slow for me at times and I wanted him to get on with it, but I really enjoyed the flavor of the characters and the tale being told. Perhaps part of my problem was the lack of patience as I waited for the story to unfold. I think perhaps I wouldnt have been good at the dig site in this story and would have been the one beating my head against the structure in frustration while the others scientifically and methodically continued.
As stated above this book led me to pick up some more of Mr. McDevitts books and I have very much enjoyed several of them. McDevitt is a writer that makes you think about things along the way and I appreciate that in a story. This story was pretty well thought out for the most part. It had a few flaws, but nothing big enough to really mention. Additionally, I liked the characters though sometimes they seemed a bit reckless as they barreled ahead at unexpected times. So in the end it wasnt a great book, but it was a good enough story that I enjoyed the adventure and hope to travel on others with this author.
In this story what initially begins as a strange discovery turns into an all out archaeological project that results in an interesting form of access to other places. The story moved a bit slow for me at times and I wanted him to get on with it, but I really enjoyed the flavor of the characters and the tale being told. Perhaps part of my problem was the lack of patience as I waited for the story to unfold. I think perhaps I wouldnt have been good at the dig site in this story and would have been the one beating my head against the structure in frustration while the others scientifically and methodically continued.
As stated above this book led me to pick up some more of Mr. McDevitts books and I have very much enjoyed several of them. McDevitt is a writer that makes you think about things along the way and I appreciate that in a story. This story was pretty well thought out for the most part. It had a few flaws, but nothing big enough to really mention. Additionally, I liked the characters though sometimes they seemed a bit reckless as they barreled ahead at unexpected times. So in the end it wasnt a great book, but it was a good enough story that I enjoyed the adventure and hope to travel on others with this author.
A great read, a lot of fun; a North Dakota farmer finds THE Archaeological Site of the last ten millenia sticking out of his wheat field; then in come the professional archaeologists, the Gumment, the Sioux Indians, the CIA, the NSA, etc. The author's first novel, I believe, and with "Eternity Road", his best.
Great book & I just heard that the author is writing a sequel!
