_A Talent for War_ by Jack McDevitt is the first volume in the Alex Benedict series, an engrossing series by one of my favorite science fiction writers. I actually read the third volume in the series, _Seeker_, first, so this novel had additional interest to me in showing something of the origins of the two characters of the trilogy, Alex Benedict and his capable assistant Chase Kolpath, particularly how the two came to work together and their first mission as a team.
The basic premise of the series is that the two main characters are antiquities dealers in the far future, a future approximately in the 11,000 AD range, a future in which humanity has spread far and wide in this galaxy and has settled hundreds of worlds. Though contact with Earth still exists and knowledge of ancient history is still common knowledge - one of the characters in the book was a keen scholar of ancient Greek history - there are worlds (about twenty or thirty or so) that experienced the rise and fall of entire civilizations over the many centuries since they were settled, of entire cultures that arose and then vanished (or were extinguished) on distant planets in what is to us the very far future but what is to people of the present of this novel the distant past. That, and the rich history of the various worlds of human space over many thousands of years mean there is quite a bit of real estate (both temporally and physically) to explore. Alex and Chase aren't scholars but they are accomplished researchers, detectives, and despite Alex's misgivings, adventurers, able to track down obscure clues, decipher ancient texts, puzzle out primitive (to them) technology to uncover truly astonishing finds to solve ancient historical mysteries and also to make a tidy profit.
The book begins with Alex receiving the unfortunate news that his uncle, Gabriel (or Gabe) was on an interstellar vessel that failed to renter normal space and is presumed deceased. Contacted by the executors of his will, Alex found that he was the sole inheritor of his uncle's estate. In addition to title to the house he grew up in and his Gabe's vast wealth, he also inherited an archaeological mystery that his late uncle was working on, one that involved one of the greatest figures in the Confederacy, a starship commander, admiral, and war hero, a man by the name of Christopher Sim, a legendary figure that lived 200 or so years ago in the novel's past, a man part George Washington (as his actions were key in forming the modern Confederacy) and part Leonidas (he was one of the few leaders of a handful of ships that stood against an invading alien race, the Ashiyyur, largely unsupported by the other human worlds, who mythically died fighting a bitter, symbolic last stand against the enemy, his sacrifice being one that turned the tide against the aliens and united the humans). McDevitt did a great job of not only in generally giving the sense of the great depth of human history that has passed in the novel's setting but the truly legendary importance of Sim to this setting, of making him very familiar to the reader as the story progressed, conveying the excitement Alex and others felt that more remained to be discovered about him.
Evidently Alex's uncle died while trying to uncover some deeply buried, closely guarded secret regarding Christopher Sim, one that also involved Ludik Talino, a much debated figure even two hundred years later who may have been a martyr, a hero, or a vile traitor who betrayed Sim: Sim's legendary ship _Corsarius_; and a woman Sim knew and served with, formerly a scholar with a reputation as a peace activist, an expert on the Ashiyuur who against her better initial judgment became a valued member of the Resistance (as the fight against the Ashiyyur was called), a woman by the name of Leisha Tanner. Alex picks up the frustratingly incomplete trail and with the help of an artificial intelligence named Jacob and Chase Kolpath undertake something that feels like a murder mystery and also an archaeological and genealogical research project. Gripping reading, it was also enjoyable to get excerpts of treatises and first hand accounts from Sim's time, including Alex himself experiencing exciting virtual reality simulation of some of the battles Sim and his fleet fought in. Oh and someone is trying to drive Alex and Chase off the trail, possibly even trying to kill them and the alien Ashiyyur may be involved, a species that still exists in great tension with the Confederacy (indeed it is pretty much a Cold War-that could turn -hot war situation in the novel). Exciting, thought provoking, and very well written, I really enjoyed _A Talent for War_.
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