Polaris (Alex Benedict) (Hardcover)

by Jack McDevitt (Author) "It no longer looked like a sun..." (more)
Key Phrases: quantum drive, grip shoes, main airlock, Nancy White, Teri Barber, Delta Kay (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This SF mystery's smooth and exciting surface makes it difficult to appreciate how exceptionally good it is at combining action and ideas. After a string of well-developed space operas, McDevitt returns to the lead characters of his second novel, A Talent for War (1988): antiquarian entrepreneur Alex Benedict (think Indiana Jones with an eye for profit) and his beautiful assistant, Chase Kolpath (think smart, sexy Dr. Watson). Decades earlier, in a future version of the Marie Celeste incident, the spaceship Polaris was discovered drifting and empty, its captain and passengers apparently vanished in an instant. Now, Alex and Chase realize that someone is tracking down relics of the Polaris and is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way. Alex is first of all a businessman, but he becomes stubbornly fascinated with the impossible puzzle. While Chase saves Alex's neck from increasingly ingenious attacks, he untangles a complex plot. The real problem turns out to be not how the mass disappearance was done but the tangled motives behind it. McDevitt does a fine job of creating different worlds for Alex and Chase to explore as they hunt clues. Through Chase's wry narration, the novel also succeeds in presenting characters who may be concealing important facets of themselves. That's appropriate in an SF mystery novel, but especially in one that turns out to have a surprisingly serious human core.
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From Booklist
A mystery surrounds the starship Polaris, whose crew vanished while observing a stellar collision. Some 60 years later, two freelance archaeologists discover a good many artifacts that belonged to the vanished crew, the appearance of which attracts much attention--frivolous, festive, larcenous, and even outright homicidal. The archaeologists set out to track down whoever is out to get them and to recover the stolen artifacts, if possible, and at least protect the surviving ones. They lead a merry chase, involving both interstellar voyages and 14-hour train trips (McDevitt sees railroads in any civilized future) and revealing a good many carefully guarded secrets about both VIPs and ordinary citizens. The traveling affords readers a panoramic view of humanity 2,000 years hence, and that at book's end only part of the mystery has been revealed bodes strongly of a sequel, which would be no bad thing at all, at all. Another highly intelligent, absorbing portrayal of the far future from a leading creator of such tales. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Ace Hardcover; First Edition edition (November 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441012027
• ISBN-13: 978-0441012022
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #374,230 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars McDevitt is capable of MUCH better than this . . ., January 8, 2005

By	Michael K. Smith (Gonzales, Louisiana) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A tantalizing blend of mystery and philosophy, February 6, 2008

By	Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment from this author, November 11, 2004

By	J. Campbell (LaGrange, GA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.