Seeker (Alex Benedict) (Hardcover)

by Jack McDevitt (Author) "The station was exactly where Alex said it would be, on the thirteenth moon of Gideon V, a gas giant with no special characteristics to..." (more)
Key Phrases: status lamps, quantum drive, antique cup, Harry Williams, Ollie Bolton, Hennessy Foundation (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ideas abound in McDevitt's classy riff on the familiar lost-space-colony theme. In 2688, interstellar transports Seeker and Bremerhaven left a theocratic Orwellian Earth to found a dictator-free society, Margolia—and vanished. Nine thousand years later, with a flawed humanity spread over 100-odd worlds, Margolia and its ships have become Atlantis-type myths, but after a cup from Seeker falls into the hands of antiquarian Alex Benedict, the hero of McDevitt's Polaris (2004), Alex determines to win everlasting fame and vaster fortune by finding them. Female pilot Chase Kolpath, this book's narrator, gutsily tracks the ancient Seeker on a breathless trek across star systems and through an intriguing mystery plot, a bevy of fully realized characters, ingenious AI ships and avatars of long-departed personalities who offer advice and entertainment. The scientific interpolations are as convincing as the far-future planetscapes and human and alien societies, bolstering an irresistible tractor beam of heavy-duty action. This novel delivers everything it promises—with a galactic wallop.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
McDevitt's latest gripping novel of future history begins in the late twentieth century, when a technological breakthrough costs the lives of its discoverers. Then it jumps seven centuries forward, to the beginning of interstellar flight and some of the first refugees from Earth. Finally, it moves into the very far future and to the seeker of the title, one of several looking for inhabited worlds that are the results, however longterm, of events recorded earlier. McDevitt is now being compared, quite legitimately, to Arthur C. Clarke, and not only because he has a similar kind of grand vision of the human future among the stars. He also has characters with amiable, or not-so-amiable, quirks, who in the middle of deciphering the secrets of lost races take time to worry about where to get a good meal in the next town. One of these days McDevitt is going to receive an actual and well-deserved big award to go with his professional stature. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441013295
• ISBN-13: 978-0441013296
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #285,699 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good story, February 23, 2006

By	Christopher K. Koenigsberg (Norman, OK USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I really enjoyed this book. It satisfies various "itches" that I try to "scratch", by reading good mature science fiction.

One thing I appreciate about his writing in this novel (and its predecessor) is his use sometimes of fairly realistic first-person narrative, by a woman character. Male authors often don't get their female characters quite right (my wife made me especially aware of this).

McDevitt has carved out a sort of unique niche for himself, with this and some (not all) of his other novels, perhaps you might call it "future archaeology"?

For the most satisfying experience, before reading this novel you should read the two earlier, equally good novels, that take place in the same world, with the same main characters (Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath): "A Talent For War" (don't be put off by the awful title) and "Polaris".

And for "A Talent For War", you can get it by itself, or you can also get it in a book called "Hello Out There", that combines it with a rewritten earlier novel of his ("The Hercules Text").

McDevitt's other, equally good series, of "future archaeology" novels, features a different world and different main character (Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchinson". That series starts with "The Engines of God" and continues through "DeepSix", "Chindi", and "Omega".

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another satisfying science fiction/mystery from Jack McDevitt!, November 17, 2005

By	Michael Fitzsimmons (Montgomery, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath, of "A Talent for War" and "Polaris" fame, are at it again solving ancient mysteries, avoiding persistent assassins, and makin' money hand over fist in their morally ambiguous profession as acquirers of and dealers in historically relevant "antiquties".
Mr. McDevitt is in top form doing what he does best creating an intriguing S-F mystery, and taking us for a very satisfying ride.
I am somewhat curious as to how a human civilization set ten thousand years in the future could still resemble our own, except with better appliances. It reminds me of "Forbidden Planet" set hundreds of years in the future with their 50's hairstyles, and 50's attitudes toward women and everything else ("We Still Like Ike!"). Well, there were numerous "dark ages"...
Jack McDevitt rarely disappoints, and "Seeker" is one of his best! Highly recommended!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars exciting science fiction adventure thriller, November 2, 2005

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amy Kohler shows antiques dealer Alex Benedict a decorated cup with an eagle and strange language etched onto it. Alex looks up the language and says it is Mid-American English last used in the third millennium. Amy is stunned that she possesses an artifact that is nine thousand years old, but Alex says it is probably recent with just an ancient inscription though he has no idea outside of academia who would use a dead language like English especially on a cup.

As he looks closer at the relic, Alex becomes convinced that the cup is from the mythical space vessel the Seeker that legend says along with the Bremerhaven transported 5,000 expatriates from the religious intolerance of the twenty-seventh century United States. They supposedly founded a colony on the planet, Margolia, but no one ever heard from the colonists again so they are part of the mythos. Alex and his assistant pilot Chase Kolpath begin to follow clues while a rival follows them, pirates await their return to steal their booty, aliens control information, and a Survey team wants them stopped.

This science fiction adventure is quite exciting in spite of the over kill of opponents that seem to run the gamut of outer space adventures (besides the above there are killing robots and weird aliens), Jack McDevitt spins a fun futuristic thriller. Readers will appreciate how the future looks back and interprets twenty-seventh century America the same way archeologists do to ancient and prehistorical societies. Alex and Chase come across as the good guys against a horde of nasty dudes though the heroes are artifact mercenaries (somewhat like Han Solo) in a fine tale that fans of Mr. McDevitt will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner