Customer Reviews

Omega

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Okay, first off - this was, hands down, the best McDevitt I've read to date. If you've not read McDevitt, and are at all a fan of Science Fiction, you need to go out there and find yourself a copy of 'The Engines of God,' 'Infinity Beach,' 'Deepsix,' and 'Chindi.' Now. If you're not a huge fan of Science Fiction, let me tell you, though there's some astrophysics in there, McDevitt writes a lot more sociologically, adventure-action, and philosophically than nearly any other contemporary science fiction author I know, with the exception of Robert J. Sawyer. That said, his style is quite deft, as is Sawyer's, and a lot of people just don't 'get' it - as is obvious from some of the reviews written here. I happily suggest reading a chapter in the store prior to purchase, though I've yet to meet someone while working in my bookstore's Sci-Fi section who didn't like McDevitt.

Okay, fan-boy praising hereby endeth.

The story picks up the character of Priscilla Hutchins (who, now married and with a kiddy, plays a much more administrative and planet-bound role) and the storyline of the Omega clouds. Strange clouds that pop up, find anything remotely geometrical (especially, say, buildings), and blast them to bits. They're all over the universe, but why worry, as the one heading towards earth is not due for another, oh, nine hundred years. Yawn.

But one of them being tracked by the Academy makes a right turn, and this time, in McDevitt's nearly lifeless galaxy, seems to be setting its sights on levelling an alien race who are somewhere around the Ancient Greece level of evolution. In about nine months.

The race is on - but to do what? Try to stop the cloud - no one knows how. Try to save the race - again, how do you save a race that's about to be hit by tsunamis, tidal waves, tornadoes and all the other horrid things the Omega clouds do? Obviously, it would be wrong to step in, break protocol, and talk to the natives?

Right?

The story is very high paced, and as is always McDevitt's style, you never know who will make it to the end (he is not above killing off a character in a completely realistic fashion - by which I mean there's no hero capable of dodging all the bullets all the time), and his tendancy to through in a few philosophical characters absolutely shines in this book. McDevitt, as always, delivered a solid adventure worthy of any Sci-Fi buff's attention, but in a manner accessible to those who don't read Sci-Fi on a regular basis. Superb!

Strangely enough (the book was released quite a while ago) I've found myself to be the first one to review it. Everyone's waiting for paperback? (I've actually tuned in to READ opinions on this one, but since there are none - I'll put my two cents.)

This book is rather typical for Jack McDevitt of late. I'm a huge fan of his, and to me his best work is still _A Talent for War_, with _Infinity Beach_ and _Ancient Shores_ coming very close. In his best efforts he creates an intriguing mystery and explores it with us through main protagonists. This scheme fully applies to all the books in the _Hutch trilogy_: _The Engines of God_, _Chindi_, and the last one, _Omega_ (well, there's also the _Deepsix_, but it's more of a _rescue-them_ thriller and doesn't feature any grand ideas). Space archeology is intriguing subject indeed, but unfortunately the scheme works less and less with each subsequent book. McDevitt has an increasing tendency to bury the main plot (i.e. archeology, Chindi exploration, or omegas themselves) under some rather mundane adventures and constant attempts to rescue one or another character from various (but not terribly creative) dangers, mostly self-induced, which after a while gets incredibly tiresome. This, to a lesser extent, was also the problem of _The Engines of God_,
but that book still had great sense of wonder. However, the fundamental problem of the book is that these ordeals constitute the major part of it, with so little space given to the mystery of the omega clouds, that the solution to it feels almost as an afterthought (and, frankly, quite tedious one - but no spoilers here). Also, I have to say that, within the context of this solution to the origin of the omegas, some of the events of the two previous books just make no sense to me.

Ultimately, the book reads as a mixture of _The Engines of God_ and _Deepsix_, with far more of the latter in the mix. This might sound like a good combination, but it really isn't. For a fast-paced _rescue-them_ thriller it's far too slow, and for a book of discoveries on a grand scale it doesn't really have anything new. Oh yes, McDevitt introduces a whole new civilization of Goompahs; however, he fails to describe it in any convincing way, and at best they're still _men in funny costumes_, to put it in great Star Trek tradition. Honestly, rather sketchingly presented Noks from the first book feel much more compelling. So, if you loved _The Engines of God_ and _Chindi_ (doesn't seem to be very likely, this one), then you don't need an invitation. Others, who are new to McDevitt, might want to try his earlier books, they're well worth it.

"Omega" is the fourth novel in the Priscilla Hutchins series, and quite possibly the last, though I hope not.

The archaelogical mysteries which were prevalent in the first three books are gone, replaced by a xeno-sociology/rescue mission. A new, thriving medieval civilization has been discovered on the world of Lookout. There's just one catch: an omega cloud, those mysterious galactic phenomena that attack and destroy anything with straight lines - buildings for instance, is headed right for it.

The inhabitants have been dubbed "Goompahs" after a cartoon character whom they resemble. Images of the creatures builds sympathy for them back home and a rescue mission is conceived. One drawback, besides the lack of time, is that there must be as little contact with the natives as possible, so as to prevent, or at least, minimize "culture shock". The question of "How do you rescue a people without them knowing that you're there" arises.

Hutch, true to her word in "Chindi", has quit her career as pilot and, as a reward for her past work, now works as high ranking bureaucrat at the Space Academy. She organizes the rescue mission but doesn't actually go. She's regulated to a supporting character role in this book, which was a disappointment for me as McDevitt has made her a likable character. Instead, the book's main characters are Digby "Digger" Dunn and David Collingdale.

Digger, who was on the original exploratory ship, initially isn't intent on saving the Goompahs so much as he's attracted to Kellie, the pilot of the ship he's on. But an accident, taking the life of the expedition leader, forces him into the leadership role while the relief mission scrambles to get there in time. Digger develops an affection for the Goompahs and his character evolves from being lightly self-centered to self-sacrificing.

Meanwhile, Collingdale is cast as a Captain Ahab and the omega is his white whale. At first his hatred of the omegas is reasonable, but the closer he gets to Lookout, the worse he gets. Once there, his obsession takes over, alienating his crewmates (and this reader). McDevitt builds us up for final confrontation between Collingdale and the omega but just as its climaxing, McDevitt puts the scene "off camera". It's the equivalent of showing Obi-wan about to duel with Vader but not actually show the actual fight or hear the dialogue, though you could infer its outcome from Luke's reaction. It left me feeling a little cheated.

McDevitt's writing style continues to be excellent and his Goompahs make for interesting aliens. His characters are real and I could easily visualize the world. This novel won the John W Campbell Award for best sci-fi novel of the year and it's been nominated for a Nebula. I can see why. McDevitt tells a good story and is able to utilize action without relying on epic battles to do so. His characters, at least in this series, use their brains to solve their problems and only use violence as a last resort. And in this novel, violence, as represented by Collingdale, achieves nothing, while Digger's personal evolution symbolizes the human race as a whole.

Perhaps it was Hutch's explanation for the omegas themselves that did it. While the idea for them is original and intriguing, it was ultimately unsatisfying for me (And from what I gather reading other reviews, I'm not alone). It would be interesting to see McDevitt write a novel about a meeting between Earth and the omega creators and see what happens. Could McDevitt write a novel about resolving the conflict between the two without resorting to violence?

"Omega" is the fourth novel in the Priscilla Hutchins series, and quite possibly the last, though I hope not.

The archaelogical mysteries which were prevalent in the first three books are gone, replaced by a xeno-sociology/rescue mission. A new, thriving medieval civilization has been discovered on the world of Lookout. There's just one catch: an omega cloud, those mysterious galactic phenomena that attack and destroy anything with straight lines - buildings for instance, is headed right for it.

The inhabitants have been dubbed "Goompahs" after a cartoon character whom they resemble. Images of the creatures builds sympathy for them back home and a rescue mission is conceived. One drawback, besides the lack of time, is that there must be as little contact with the natives as possible, so as to prevent, or at least, minimize "culture shock". The question of "How do you rescue a people without them knowing that you're there" arises.

Hutch, true to her word in "Chindi", has quit her career as pilot and, as a reward for her past work, now works as high ranking bureaucrat at the Space Academy. She organizes the rescue mission but doesn't actually go. She's regulated to a supporting character role in this book, which was a disappointment for me as McDevitt has made her a likable character. Instead, the book's main characters are Digby "Digger" Dunn and David Collingdale.

Digger, who was on the original exploratory ship, initially isn't intent on saving the Goompahs so much as he's attracted to Kellie, the pilot of the ship he's on. But an accident, taking the life of the expedition leader, forces him into the leadership role while the relief mission scrambles to get there in time. Digger develops an affection for the Goompahs and his character evolves from being lightly self-centered to self-sacrificing.

Meanwhile, Collingdale is cast as a Captain Ahab and the omega is his white whale. At first his hatred of the omegas is reasonable, but the closer he gets to Lookout, the worse he gets. Once there, his obsession takes over, alienating his crewmates (and this reader). McDevitt builds us up for final confrontation between Collingdale and the omega but just as its climaxing, McDevitt puts the scene "off camera". It's the equivalent of showing Obi-wan about to duel with Vader but not actually show the actual fight or hear the dialogue, though you could infer its outcome from Luke's reaction. It left me feeling a little cheated.

McDevitt's writing style continues to be excellent and his Goompahs make for interesting aliens. His characters are real and I could easily visualize the world. This novel won the John W Campbell Award for best sci-fi novel of the year and it's been nominated for a Nebula. I can see why. McDevitt tells a good story and is able to utilize action without relying on epic battles to do so. His characters, at least in this series, use their brains to solve their problems and only use violence as a last resort. And in this novel, violence, as represented by Collingdale, achieves nothing, while Digger's personal evolution symbolizes the human race as a whole.

Perhaps it was Hutch's explanation for the omegas themselves that did it. While the idea for them is original and intriguing, it was ultimately unsatisfying for me (And from what I gather reading other reviews, I'm not alone). It would be interesting to see McDevitt write a novel about a meeting between Earth and the omega creators and see what happens. Could McDevitt write a novel about resolving the conflict between the two without resorting to violence?

Some readers don't seem to grok Jack McDevitt, but he remains one of my all-time favorite writers of science fiction - and Omega did not disappoint this fan. He may take technological shortcuts at times, but McDevitt is a master at creating exceedingly human characters and seeing what they will do in futuristic sociological situations. In Omega, the story revolves around a newly discovered, intelligent alien race - one that unknowingly lies in the path of imminent destruction.

McDevitt's readers have followed Patricia "Hutch" Hutchinson through some wonderfully exciting adventures (in The Engines of God, Deepsix, and Chindi). In what looks to be the final Hutch novel, the focus shifts considerably. The intrepid hero of past jaunts now finds herself behind a desk, serving as the Director of Operations at the Academy, when word comes in that intelligent life has been discovered on a distant planet. Mankind had come close before, finding two exceedingly primitive alien societies, turning up lost artifacts on a number of worlds left by the mysterious Monument-Makers, and discovering a gigantic ship that served effectively as a museum of past interstellar races. Overshadowing everything was the discovery of omega clouds, wholly mysterious entities roaming the universe and destroying life-bearing planets. One of these omega clouds is headed for Earth, but governments and scientists have put little money into research efforts because the cloud is not due for another 900 years. The newly-discovered inhabitants of the planet unceremoniously dubbed Lookout, however, have a mere nine months before seemingly inevitable destruction.

Hutch coordinates the rushed effort to get people out there to do what they can to save lives. Because of their resemblance to a popular children's cartoon character, the inhabitants there are dubbed Goompahs - and the people of earth fall in love with them (which raises all sorts of issues in and of itself). The first Academy personnel to reach the planet surreptitiously stash recording devices all over the place, allowing scientists and linguists to begin trying to interpret the language and understand the culture based on recorded conversations, debates, plays, etc. The Goompahs are unusual in that they live comparatively simple lives seemingly free of war and full of play; their cities all cluster around a central isthmus, and they seem to have no desire to expand across their seas. They are, in essence, many a scientist's dream come true - but they will all be dead within the year unless mankind can figure out a way to save them (and to do so in such a way that they are not alerted to mankind's presence).

An intensive effort is made to destroy or divert the deadly cloud - and to camouflage the Goompah cities in the event the cloud does hit. As disaster draws nigh, brilliant minds try to figure out a way to warn the Goompahs of the coming cataclysm and evacuate them to higher ground - Protocol or no Protocol. Everyone involved becomes fascinated by these noble innocents and their simple yet enlightened Goompah philosophy of life. This is the equivalent of a sociological study of an alien culture - and McDevitt works his way through all sorts of ethical dilemmas and provocative questions in his typically deft, insightful manner. As the cloud closes in, the pace of the story goes into overdrive, and true heroes emerge on both sides of the alien divide. It feels strange not to have Hutch out there making more of her patented miracles happen, but the scientists on the frontlines of this unprecedented effort grow into well-developed characters capable of producing some on-the-fly magic of their own.

Omega does have a few small faults, however. Technology such as light-benders (allowing for invisibility) makes things far too easy for the scientists, a couple of human dimensions of the story (especially the early death of one of the project leaders due to another person's moment of utter stupidity) don't have the lasting impact they should have, and the ultimate explanation of the omega clouds themselves is rather disappointing. Still, McDevitt never fails to sweep me up in the events he describes, and I enjoyed this novel just as much as the author's earlier works in the Hutch series.

I was a bit shocked to see such an angry review of this book by an earlier reviewer. I guess some people just dont get mcdveitt. Some people didnt understand heinlein either i suppose.

I'm not saying Mcdevitt is on par with heinlein, but the style of writing is very similar. If you are looking for hard SF, with science driven stories, this isnt for you. If you like character and idea driven stories, with a SF background, this is an ideal book, although not as good as some of the earlier in the series (The Engines of God, Deepsix, Chindi...although it really isnt neccessary to have read any of them before this one. While they do follow a sequence, they're stand alone books as well, the older books would just provide more background)

The plot is more or less summarised in the reviews above, so i wont go into that. If you've liked Mcdevitt in the past, you will enjoy this as well. If you havent liked him, well, his writing hasnt changed, and probably wont. I'd reccommend the book to those who havent started in on Mcdevitt yet, but would reccommend starting with The Engines of God first as i feel it's a better starting point that jumping into this one.

Omega is the fourth novel in the Hutch series, following Chindi. In the first volume of this series, Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins piloted the expedition that discovered the omega clouds in 2202. Twenty-eight years later, an omega cloud turned from its path and approached Moonlight (Brinkman IV), an iceworld with extensive ruins. David Collingdale led an Academy team that tried to destroy the cloud with nuclear weapons. Although the bombs tore great holes in the cloud, it recovered and carried through the attack, yet missed one city hidden within a blizzard.

In this novel, four years later, Hutch is acting Director for Operations at the Academy. She receives word from Broadside that another omega cloud, 3000 lightyears away, has turned from its path and that an academy ship, the Bill Jenkins, has been diverted to check the target system for artificial structures. Elsewhere, other Academy ships have been investigating the omega clouds. The Peter Quaqmor team find something unusual directly in front of their cloud: a 240-sided vessel that looks like a hedgehog. When the team drills a hole into the vessel, however, everything in the vicinity disappears in a great flash.

Academy ships soon find that hedgehogs are leading every omega cloud that they have investigated, with one exception. The cloud that recently turned aside does not have a hedgehog in front of it, but one was found on the original path. Apparently the clouds normally follow the hedgehogs, but can change directions after detecting objects with right angles, such as artificial structures, in order to attack those objects.

When the Jenkins reaches the target system (which the team names Lookout), they find that funny looking aliens dwell in a limited area on the surface. Since Hutch has been anticipating this situation, she sends two more ships to Lookout. One contains a team of linguists and nabobs and the other is a freighter carrying rainmaking gear, holographic projectors and a huge box kite. The mission chief is David Collingdale, who is determined that the cloud will not destroy the homes of this civilization.

In this story, the aliens, who look like the Goompahs in a popular children's show, catch the interest and sympathy of the general public, prompting a number of movements and activities to profit from the situation. For example, a drive to provide assistance to the natives is well funded from public donations. However, various firms also produce dolls and other products based on the alien society. Moreover, the media and other entertainment industries want footage of the aliens during the crisis to titillate their patrons.

Hutch is squarely in the middle of the efforts to analyze the omega clouds and to avert a catastrophe on Lookout. The Commissioner stays as far away from these efforts as possible to avoid any fallout from a possible failure. Hutch gets to talk to all the flaky, greedy and narrow-focused opportunists who want transportation to Lookout.

Meanwhile, Digger Dunn and the team on the Jenkins are getting to know the Goompahs. They have been provided with lightbenders, so that they can walk invisibly among the Goompahs, setting pickups in public places to collect data for analysis by the linguists on the al-Jahani. They start in the city which they have named Athens, due to its architecture, but called Brackel by the natives.

This story is the best so far in a particularly good series. The aliens have many human attributes, but seem to mostly lack any form of bigotry or fanaticism. They seem to be more flexible in their thinking than humans. However, they are terrified of the human image because of the resemblance to a type of demon in their mythology. They run off screaming whenever Digger appears, which rather depresses his mood.

Highly recommended for McDevitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of alien societies and first contact.

-Arthur W. Jordin

A quiet, contemplative read. Readers accustomed to McDevitt's earlier works will enjoy this book. His style tends to resemble that of Asimov's books. The book is hard science fiction, but far removed from the grand space opera of clashing Dreadnought fleets in David Weber's work, or the technopolistic beepings of William Gibson. The action scenes in Omega, while well done, are comparatively low key. It is the idea that dominates, that of robots (or somethings) going from star to star, destroying civilisations that make buildings. In some ways a toned down version of Saberhagen's berserker hypothesis. The Omega clouds do not try to kill all life. And given that Saberhagen has not published anything recently about berserkers, McDevitt's musings are the best that you will find, from a current major author.

The descriptive prose is minimal. Again you can see the resemblance to Asimov's works. The planetary scenes include several in the countryside of an inhabited world. McDevitt's sparse sketchings of this stand in utter contrast to the baroque lushness of Steve Stirling's rural worlds.

Chindi was the first McDevitt book I read and I was hooked. I was really looking forward to this book and was not disappointed. Between reading Chindi and Omega, I read all of his books except Moonfall which I am still trying to get.

I think the best thing about McDevitt's writing is that he does include so many characters and not every one is important to the story -- hey, welcome to life! How many people are in the "story" of your life, you know their bio, they come and go, but they are not integral to the plot.

He is simply a superb writer. I have brow-beat two people in my life who have no interest in reading sci-fi to read his books and they are also hooked.

No book is perfect, so take all the criticisms with a grain of sand. Read anything and everything Jack McDevitt has written. Omega is not a bad place to start.

For 30 years now the Omega clouds have been on humanity's radar. These gigantic space-born clouds of unknown origin glide benignly through the galaxy, until they encounter a civilization. With little mercy the clouds then change course and annihilate the civilization. Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins has seen it before...or at least the remains of the civilizations that have been struck by these clouds. She was on the mission that discovered the clouds 30 years ago. Now, a cloud has changed course and it is Hutch's job (she is director of operations for the Academy) to put together a mission to save a previously unknown, living alien civilization from the cloud.

As usual, McDevitt does a remarkable job in eliciting a sense of wonder of the unknown; in this case, his description of the alien civilization...the Goompahs...is marvelous. The Goompahs (a human-coined word for the aliens) are wonderful beings. They are like and unlike us in numerous ways. McDevitt does extremely well describing those ways. He makes it clear, that some things are universal (like math and how they use it their daily lives, in their architecture for instance), while other things, like their political and sexual mores, are completely different.

How would contact with a more technologically primitive culture than our own be viewed from the aliens point of view? How would it be viewed from our point of view? McDevitt asks and sets forth his own answers to these questions and more in a fundamentally believable way.

The only disappointments in the book are minor. I would have liked a bit more contact with the Goompahs. The Goompah female Macao, with her part right, part wrong view of her physical world, was extremely interesting, and I don't think McDevitt took her storyline quite far enough. The only other problem I had with the story was that we never really find out for sure what the Omega clouds really are...only a suggestion. Also, there is no attempt to trace them back to their source to see who is behind them. While the clouds provide the underlying foundation for the story, they really take second place to the descriptions and interactions of the alien culture and how humanity views it...this was as it should be.

Omega is what science fiction should be about. Discovery. The discovery of what is unknown, what is actually "Out There", and the discovery of ourselves, pushing our limits, and figuring out what we are really capable of. Omega is supposed to be the last of the Hutch novels...hopefully this will not be the case. Omega is highly recommended to any with any curiousity at all.