With Polaris, multiple Nebula Award-nominee Jack McDevitt reacquainted readers with Alex Benedict, his hero from A Talent for War. Alex and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, return to investigate the provenance of the cup. Alex and Chase follow a deadly trail to the Seeker - strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds. But their discovery raises more questions than it answers, drawing Alex and Chase into the very heart of danger.
Seeker (Alex Benedict)
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Browse the best books of summer including blockbusters, beach reads, and editors' picks in our Summer Reading Store. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
80 of 85 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
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".
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".
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
(***** = breathtaking, **** = excellent, *** = good, ** = flawed, * = bad)
McDevitt is more of an idea-guy than a writer: his characters are flat and his descriptions employ so little sensory information that he manages to make scenes like an apartment break-in by a vengeful man and a fight for survival outside of a spaceship seem boring.
BUT -- his ideas such as a journey among a telepathic alien species among whom lying is unknown, and (especially) what happened to the lost colonists of the Bremerhaven and the Seeker) are absolutely breathtaking.
Reading Seeker was sometimes a slog, but I was entertained and glad I'd read it in the end. Longer review at ImpatientReader-dot-com.
McDevitt is more of an idea-guy than a writer: his characters are flat and his descriptions employ so little sensory information that he manages to make scenes like an apartment break-in by a vengeful man and a fight for survival outside of a spaceship seem boring.
BUT -- his ideas such as a journey among a telepathic alien species among whom lying is unknown, and (especially) what happened to the lost colonists of the Bremerhaven and the Seeker) are absolutely breathtaking.
Reading Seeker was sometimes a slog, but I was entertained and glad I'd read it in the end. Longer review at ImpatientReader-dot-com.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By TeensReadToo
Format:Hardcover
Seeker (full name Seeker after Truth) has dreamed, his whole life, of becoming a Nomana, a Noble Warrior. A protector of the All and Only, the god who made all things. The desire to be one has only grown stronger since his brother, Blaze of Justice, became a Noble Warrior. Seeker knows that this is his destiny, never mind that his father expects him to become Teacher. Now he is sixteen, old enough to go before the Nom and offer himself, and hope that they accept him.
Morning Star is the daughter of a sheep herder. Years ago her mother left them to become a Noble Warrior. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, Morning Star intends to leave the hills she's always known, and join her mother in service to the All and Only. Her only worry is leaving her father; she is his world. She's not too worried about being denied by the Nomana; after all her mother is a Noble Warrior. If that's not enough, there are the colors. The colors surround all people, and change a little based on someone's mood and intentions, but everyone has colors around them. Morning Star can see them, and has learned to read them. She will journey to Anacrea to find her destiny.
Wildman has never known his family. He's never even really known friendship, or loyalty, or honor. He certainly doesn't know about the All and Only. All he's ever known is survival at any cost. In the midst of an attempted robbery, Wildman encounters a Nomana, though he doesn't know what that is. What he knows is that he's glimpsed a power far stronger than his own, and a peace he never imagined. Wildman wants these things, and what Wildman wants, Wildman always gets. He too will offer his services to the Nom, though he doesn't really think of it in those exact terms.
A stranger, more disjointed group could hardly be imagined. But through drastically unexpected circumstances, a group they become. As it turns out, they can all learn an awful lot from each other. Maybe they can even help each other. Maybe they can even save Anacrea and the Nomana from the threat of their enemies. If they can survive their journey, they may even find their destinies.
A wonderfully, beautifully, frighteningly well-imagined world, full of strong and interesting characters. No one is one sided; Morning Star is strong but capable of vulnerability, Seeker is determined but still scared sometimes, and Wildman is primal but lovable. Actually, I think Wildman is my favorite character.
This is so many different stories all in one great book. It's a story of strength and power. It's a story about friendship and loyalty and family. It's a story about faith and destiny. It's a story about life, and a story about people. It may not take place anywhere you could recognize, but all of the characters contain bits and pieces you see in other people and in yourself. The bad and the good. The best part is, it doesn't end here. This is only book one. I don't know how many there will be, but I'm very much looking forward to all of them.
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
Morning Star is the daughter of a sheep herder. Years ago her mother left them to become a Noble Warrior. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, Morning Star intends to leave the hills she's always known, and join her mother in service to the All and Only. Her only worry is leaving her father; she is his world. She's not too worried about being denied by the Nomana; after all her mother is a Noble Warrior. If that's not enough, there are the colors. The colors surround all people, and change a little based on someone's mood and intentions, but everyone has colors around them. Morning Star can see them, and has learned to read them. She will journey to Anacrea to find her destiny.
Wildman has never known his family. He's never even really known friendship, or loyalty, or honor. He certainly doesn't know about the All and Only. All he's ever known is survival at any cost. In the midst of an attempted robbery, Wildman encounters a Nomana, though he doesn't know what that is. What he knows is that he's glimpsed a power far stronger than his own, and a peace he never imagined. Wildman wants these things, and what Wildman wants, Wildman always gets. He too will offer his services to the Nom, though he doesn't really think of it in those exact terms.
A stranger, more disjointed group could hardly be imagined. But through drastically unexpected circumstances, a group they become. As it turns out, they can all learn an awful lot from each other. Maybe they can even help each other. Maybe they can even save Anacrea and the Nomana from the threat of their enemies. If they can survive their journey, they may even find their destinies.
A wonderfully, beautifully, frighteningly well-imagined world, full of strong and interesting characters. No one is one sided; Morning Star is strong but capable of vulnerability, Seeker is determined but still scared sometimes, and Wildman is primal but lovable. Actually, I think Wildman is my favorite character.
This is so many different stories all in one great book. It's a story of strength and power. It's a story about friendship and loyalty and family. It's a story about faith and destiny. It's a story about life, and a story about people. It may not take place anywhere you could recognize, but all of the characters contain bits and pieces you see in other people and in yourself. The bad and the good. The best part is, it doesn't end here. This is only book one. I don't know how many there will be, but I'm very much looking forward to all of them.
Reviewed by: Carrie Spellman
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
I love this series!
Ancient earth space craft, lost colonies, corrupt administrators, what's not to like. Mr. McDevitt puts it together with great writing. Makes you wish you were there with them. Read more
Published 14 days ago by SM
4.0 out of 5 stars
unique story
Seeker, the first book of the Noble Warriors trilogy, has several different narrators. At different times it is told from Seeker's point of view, Morning Glory's, or the Wildman's,... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Kayla
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
if you like Indiana Jones and you like Sci Fiction you will love this book. Just a thrill a minute. Great book and a fun read.
Published 1 month ago by R. Bergren
4.0 out of 5 stars
9,000 years in the future a legend from humanity's first expansion is...
n the future humanity has roamed in the stars for over 9000 years. We have discovered that for the most part that we have missed the great civilizations of the past and we share... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Morgan Cahall
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Read
I liked this book. It's interesting and a different twist on sci fy from what I normally read. Think Clive Cussler meets Isac Assimov.
Published 4 months ago by Helper
5.0 out of 5 stars
One hell of a read
This is not your average sci-fi story, nor is McDevitt your average sci-fi writer. His characters come alive as if their avatars are with you in the room. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. J. Strycharske
2.0 out of 5 stars
Wanted so much more
I am a sucker for sci-fi, hard science, time travel, first contact, cerebral notions, all of it. I also enjoy my fair share of adventure books. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Brian
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mysteries with answers, discoveries with importance
I began my science fiction readership in 2007 with the likes of Greg Bear, Larry Niven, and Iain M. Banks. Read more
Published 6 months ago by M-I-K-E 2theD
2.0 out of 5 stars
not worth the read
Seeker is the first novel from William Nicholson that I've read, and after reading it, I don't particularly feel the need to read any of his other novels. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Carl Alves
3.0 out of 5 stars
Seeker
Pretty good. The Story lagged on a bit in the beggining and there were a few odd 'religious' bits. But dispite all that it was a pretty good book. Read more
Published 6 months ago by atg
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 5
books:
- The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt in Front Matter
- Warren Hastings by Lord Macaulay on page 154
- Society and Solitude by Ralph Waldo Emerson on page 305
- The Rampart Worlds: Orion Arm Bk. 2 by Julian May on page 134
- Three Essays on Religion by John Stuart Mill on page 350
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
|
|
So You'd Like to...
|
|
