Customer Reviews

Polaris (An Alex Benedict Novel)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Sixty years ago (in a future so distant that space travel is commonplace), the luxury yacht Polaris carried a group of curious, science-minded (and very wealthy) passengers to Delta Karpis, once a typical G class star but now unique and of extraordinary interest as it was about to collide with a dwarf star. Having witnessed this astonishing once in a lifetime stellar event, the Polaris announced its imminent departure for earth and then was never heard from again. Search parties eventually found the Polaris empty and adrift, its passengers clearly having left or vanished with considerable speed - a space-faring celestial Marie Celeste, as it were! When prominent antiquities dealer, Alex Benedict, and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, managed to acquire a number of artifacts from the salvaged Polaris, it became clear that Benedict and Kolpath were targeted for elimination. Someone was desperate to ensure that the truth behind the Polaris story was never revealed to an unsuspecting world.

A diverting, enjoyable, if somewhat predictable mystery, "Polaris" will provide any sci-fi fan with some enjoyable hours of reading ... lots of whiz bang high-tech gadgetry, a dash of celestial mechanics and the science of stellar evolution plus a very provocative series of philosophical divertimenti pondering the potential effects of science's ability to stop or reverse the aging process. "To age or not to age, this is the question", McDevitt puts forward some extremely interesting arguments on both sides as to how the world might react and evolve were it possible to stop aging and prolong life indefinitely. And how does that fit into the mystery plot? Ah ... for that, you're just going to have to pick it up and read it!

The dust jacket publicity blurb styles McDevitt as the heir apparent to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke. On the basis of my first reading of his work, I don't think I'm quite ready to accord him that lofty status, but I'm willing and eager to seek out more of his novels and read on.

Paul Weiss

All seven people aboard a vessel, including the captain, mysteriously disappear. A search by other vessels fails to reveal what happened to them. Years later, an antiques dealer and his intrepid assistant, who are interested in objects that were on the vessel, find that someone else is attempting to get the same objects. After several attempts on their lives, they finally figure out why these objects are important and what happened to the missing people. There is a classic confrontation scene between the heroes and the villain.

Does this sound like a run of the mill mystery? Well it is. So how was this novel nominated for the Nebula award, the annual award of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America? Well, the trappings of science fiction were added on. The empty vessel is a space ship. The time is in the far future. The McGuffin, the reason for the disappearance, is something that present-day science has yet to discover, but it could just as well have been illegal proceeds of some kind.

But none of these trappings do anything to illuminate the characters or the society in which this adventure occurs, or our own present-day society. Nor are the plot devices so clever that they are worth reading about for themselves. In fact the plot is not just pedestrian but repetitious. For example not once, but twice the heroes' vehicle is sabotaged by the bad guy. You'd think smart detectives would have learned after the first time! Finally, the heroes themselves are quite insipid.

There are some interesting elements, like the presentation of two sides of a social argument that is a driving force in the novel, but after presenting both sides the author steps back and provides an intervening event that removes anyone (including the reader) from responsibility for actually making a choice.

If you need something to read on a long airplane ride and nothing else is available, this book may satisfy your requirement. But if the ride ends before you reach the end, you won't miss anything by leaving this book on the plane.

McDevitt is capable of turning out thoughtful, literate, involving science fiction novels of very high quality indeed. Unfortunately, this isn't one of them. This is a not-quite-sequel to his excellent A TALENT FOR WAR, in that it is set in the same future and shares some of the same characters several thousand years from now, in a diverse, dispersed human galactic civilization. A space-going yacht, POLARIS, accompanies a group of scientific research ships to witness and record a rare stellar event. Aboard are half a dozen scientific, philosophical, and political luminaries. And they never return, though the ship itself is found, mysterious empty of life. Sixty years later, the disappearance of the passengers of POLARIS is still one of the great modern mysteries. Alex Benedict, now a prominent antiquities dealer, acquires a number of the personal possessions found on the derelict ship -- just before the rest of the artifacts are destroyed in an explosion. And now someone, or some organization, is trying to kill him off, too. What does he unknowingly possess that could be that important? Well, McDevitt never quite makes it worth the reader's while to want to find out. The minutiae of life in his future are interesting at the beginning and help supply verisimilitude, but it gets a little old to be reading detailed descriptions of the lives of very minor characters when you're three hundred pages into the book. Also, it's an old sf device to casually mention the names of future historical figures in the company of names we would recognize from our own times, but McDevitt does this far, far too often -- and usually without giving any hint of who these great figures are. I'm prepared to believe, I guess, that a civilization that could produce a "quantum drive" (an improvement on mere FTL) still can't extend the human life span beyond 130 or so years, but that out not to have become the centerpiece of the plot. And I'm *not* willing to accept that ordinary people with only a basic education in that future are so conversant with the details of history and everyday life thousands of years in their past when few Americans in 2005 could pass a test on the lives of their ancestors only a few centuries ago. There's some good ideas and good writing here, but ultimately, this book just doesn't work.

This review, and my rating, is for those readers of "Deepsix", "Omega" and "Chindi" who, like myself, have been excitedly anticipating the next thrilling tale from this author. Why do so many great Science-Fiction writers seem doomed to this ignoble burn-out? Remember the downward spiraling later efforts of Heinlein, Clarke, Niven? It is so sad to witness this (inevitable?) process. So, here we are again disappointed by such a promising author. Icarus-like, McDevitt took us through absolutely fascinating, thoroughly engrossing and exciting tales in "Deepsix, "Omega" and "Chindi" only to ultimately dash our expectations with this unfortunately pedestrian mystery. Do not expect a dynamic protagonist in the mold of McDevitt's "Hutch" depicted so vividly in the aforementioned books. The main characters in this book are scetchily drawn in comparison and just do not involve us in their adventures. Chase and Alex simply blunder their way through dull and tedious plot details that lead them finally to an archly `profound' resolution that we dreaded so much earlier than we should have. Apparently the authors interest just fizzled out along the way, as does our own while negotiating this sadly boring and needlessly complicated plot-line. The intended profundity of the `resolution'- if it can even be called that, simply collapses with an empty, dry, disappointing thud. We can only hope that Mr M will use his profits from this one to take a vacation and seriously recharge his creative powers.

This book is a sequel to "A Talent For War", which McDevitt wrote over 10 years ago. That book was a stirring elegy of a future star spanning mankind at war with an alien race. He imbued that book with a grand backdrop, and invoked timeless qualities of heroism and sacrifice. The book had a typical print run for a paperback and quickly sold out. Even in used bookstores, it was hard to find, and people hung onto their copies. It was reissued about a year ago.

So when I saw this book, I read it eagerly. Hoping for a similarly engaging plot. As a twist, this book is told from the vantage point of the female character, Chase Kolpath, who is the secondary persona in the earlier novel. It expands on her personality, and gives another look at Alex Benedict, who was the main character in Talent.

But, the plot is tepid. Sadly, nothing to match the grandeur of Talent. Also, the plot unfolding contains elements that have been seen in McDevitt's earlier works. Somewhat predictable.

A portion of this book also deals with the topic of aging. His story is set millenia in the future. With faster than light travel and artificial intelligence software as a viable construct. Many futuristic details. But, the human lifespan is still only some 120 years. A marginal improvment over what we already have. This seems very implausible, given the other advances in the book over the postulated time period. It is as though our biology and medicine sputtered to a stop right about now.

But there is one nice item in the book - the quote in my subject line.

I found good points and bad points. The good is that I like McDevitt's writing. The quality of his writing is a step above most science fiction writers. Unfortunately that's also part of the bad because the book dragged enought that I was drawn into noticing the technical quality of the writing. More irritating was the repeated use of the same plot technique. Gee, the lights won't turn on. That can't mean that the bad guys are around, so lets go on in. Gee, the computer doesn't seem to be working right. That can't mean that there's something wrong with the space ship, so let's take off. It reminded me of the TV shows where the person says, "I can't tell you the secret information on the phone, but meet me tomorrow, and I'll tell you in person." Guess who's going to die before tomorrow? This flaw really detracted from the book for me because I couldn't get into a story where the two heros were so blind. The story itself is o.k.; I just wish it had been told better.

I really enjoyed this for 95 pages. Then I solved the mystery. I'm not someone prone to do that, but it was all pretty obvious by then. But not, unfortunately, to the heroes of this book. The most obvious thing of all was saved for the very end, apparently incomprehensible until then, despite the overwhelming evidence. Dumb.

The reasons why our heroes came to know about this incident were also dumb --- the 'criminals' made something that could have been a simple disappearance of an entire ship into something mysterious enough to inspire a cult. And the idea that the authorities couldn't have figured this out at the time --- I just don't see it. The 'bad guys' also drew our heroes in by idiotically running around trying to prevent them seeing a very obscure clue, while leaving far more important clues --- like their faces and their anxiety --- to be observed.

There were three cases of vehicles having problems, and each time there were warning signs, yet each time those signs were ignored, and each time one of the heroes did overly ingenious things to prevent death. Sorry, but it was too much.

Finally, after a rather silly get-together, where no one gets hurt and everyone is apparently on their honor suddenly to abide by one person's preference, it's all over without much change to society. I was thankful for the final conclusions on the subject by our hero, but our heroes seem to have forgotten where other dna exists.

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I'm usually a pretty big McDevitt fan, but this one left me cold, and annoyed. I finished it, but barely, and only by skimming the dull parts. A "C-" book, disappointing.

POLARIS is a locked-room mystery (in this case, a locked spaceship), marred by long dull stretches, stupid-character gimmicks, a really stupid denouement, and an astonishingly clumsy twist ending (which is sequel-ready). What's there to like? This is a 15 year-later followup to _A Talent for War_, which I recall as being quite good.

POLARIS has gotten some pretty good notices, such as Ernest Lilley's review at sfrevu.com (Google). It does have a good opening scene, and has flashes of Good McDevitt (space archaeology, cool gadgets). But, overall, it's the weakest McDevitt I've read. Avoid if you're lukewarm on McDevitt, and start with hesitation and low expectations if you're a fan.

If you've never tried McDevitt, I'd start with INFINITY BEACH ,
or the first Priscilla Hutchins book, ENGINES of GOD.

Just don't let POLARIS be your first McDevitt experience!

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman
Google "Peter D. Tillman" +review for McDevitt reviews, and many more!

Polaris follows the storyline previously established in McDevitt's A Talent for War, featuring Alex Benedict, an antiquities dealer and his assistant, Chase Kolpath. Polaris was an expeditionary spaceflight occurring some 40 or so years prior to the plot of this book. The Polaris contained an illuminated group of clientele who were taking part in the spaceflight to view a very rare interstellar event and they disappeared. The mysterious vanishment was never solved and many theories have cropped up in the years following.

At the outset of this novel it is the anniversary of the Polaris journey and there is to be a display and auction of Polaris artifacts. However, someone or something seems determined to destroy anything related to the expedition.

The story is told from the point of view of Alex' attractive and intelligent assistant, Chase. The author's style is very conversational and matter of fact. Chase's character is somewhat sarcastic and the internal and external dialogue is anything if not breezy and even humorous at times. Alex's character seems to be the true protagonist of the story, but since the story is not written from his point of view, we only get descriptions of his actions and words. This is a little disappointing because I felt that Alex was the most interesting character.

The book has its moments, with the story behind the Polaris revealing some intriguing plot twists, but it is not enough to overcome an essentially weak narrative. Much of the time is spent with the main characters going from place to place to talk to various people about the Polaris and what they knew, while nefarious and enigmatic characters engage in trying to waylay them. The technology was fairly standard sci fi fare, with nothing very creative.

The ending was derivative of any mystery/thriller, and was ultimately satisfying, yet calorie free. I think that McDevitt has something here with these characters, but this book could have used some work.

I gobbled up McDevitt's last three novels, DeepSix, Chindi and Omega. So without hesitation, I sprung for Polaris without waiting for the softcover.

I have to say though, that I was a bit dissapointed. The novel, a story of what happened to the crew of the Polaris, reads much like a mystery who-dunit: pages and pages of the two lead characters interviewing suspects and chasing leads.

Now, if you like this sort of thing, you'll find an intelligent story with an satisfying ending.

But I guess I wasn't up to the task of slogging through 250 plus pages before things got really going ... or probably the real reason is, I'm just not that big of a fan of this type of novel.

But again, I did enjoy the ending and the rather fascinating ethical questions it raised. And I'll probably be buying McDevitt's next novel ... before it comes out in softcover.