Steven C. (SteveTheDM) - , reviewed on 2/11/2010 + 204 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

A very solid science fiction novel, though it really felt like two novellas smashed together. This is the book that starts off McDevitt's "Academy" series, and establishes the idea of extraterrestrial archaeology (which tends to compete with the terraformers who want to change worlds wholesale). Or at any rate, that's the bulk of the first half of the book. The second half of the book is about the discovery of what come to be known as Omega Clouds, which seem to be the big bad guy for the remainder of the series.

The characters were well-rounded and satisfying to read about; the future science is kind of fun. There were some not-obvious leaps of reasoning in the second half of the book, though, which bugged me a bit, but that didn't detract too much from the storytelling.

4 of 5 stars.

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