Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: November 01, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 654601
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Brief Book Summary:
With Polaris, multiple Nebula Award-nominee Jack McDevitt reacquainted readers with Alex Benedict, his hero from A Talent for War. Now, Alex and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, return to solve a riddle that leads them to the edge of known space.
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Thousands of years after an entire colony mysteriously disappears, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from the Seeker, one of the colony's ships. Investigating the provenance of the cup, Alex and his assistant 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.
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Rated by buyers -
Not much to say that hasn't already been written, But want to throw my two cents in on this one because it is a very good novel. McDevitt's story is 9,000+ years in the future and instead of going over board with the descriptions of what a future world is like, he just presents the future in a matter of fact manner. FTL travel is employed, AI's are common. He let's the characters really develop, and the plot carries the water. Nice twists and turns, has a gum-shoe element that works well. Worth reading!
Rated by buyers -
In Seeker, Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath have a 9,000 year old cup dropped in their laps by a potential client. The cup proves to be from the Seeker, one of two ships that set out to points unknown in the 27th century with colonists who were trying to escape Earth's oppressive leadership. On the hunt for the Seeker, Alex and Chase wind up visiting numerous locales (actually, it is Chase that does most of the "legwork", a point that does not go unnoticed by the character), all in the effort of tracking down the Seeker. The Seeker has been historically tied to the missing colony of Margolia, which, when the colonists left Earth, they refused to reveal the location of it to those they left behind and, therefore, the colony acquired a mythic status down the proceeding generations, similar to that of Atlantis and other "lost" places. Unfortunately, Alex and Chase's hunt for the Seeker, and ultimately Margolia, attracts some unwanted attention, and soon the pair not only have the hunt for the Seeker and Margolia at stake, but their lives as well.
McDevitt's Seeker follows a pre-established pattern that has worked well for the author in the past...and, indeed, works well for the author this time around as well. The pattern goes something like this: Mystery reveals itself surrounding some historic event or artifact. Characters discover there is much more to the event or artifact than originally believed. Characters traipse around galaxy on the search for clues to solving mystery. Unexpected danger pops up with somebody trying to off the main characters because of reasons that are not specified until near-end of book. Characters defeat bad guys. Mystery is completely solved (sometimes aspects of the mystery are solved earlier in the book) at end of book. Characters survive for the subsequent go-round.
So McDevitt's story's can be a tad formulaic. Who cares?! They are fun to read! And they present a realistic possibility of what our future may hold when we begin to colonize other worlds in this galaxy. I am totally looking forward to reading more of McDevitt's (formulaic) work sometime in the not-to-distant future.
Rated by buyers -
SEEKER is the third novel in the "Alex Benedict" mystery series and won the Nebula Award for best SF Novel of 2006. I found it an enjoyable read.
The "Alex Benedict" novels are essentially mysteries that take place thousands of years in the future. Benedict is a for-profit antiques dealer, along with his incredibly competent assistant Chase Kolpath (who serves as narrator). All of the novels begin with Benedict discovering a long-forgotten artifact, which opens up a mystery about the past that both he and Chase must solve. These novels are formulaic, but extremely well crafted. Mcdevitt is releasing a fourth novel in this series in late 2008.
McDevitt writes these novels in a low-key style, and the pacing is relatively slow. There are many scenes involving the characters having dinner, watching movies, and having philosophical conversations. Most of these scenes are well written, and provide insight into the day-to-day life of Mcdevitt's futuristic society. I found them quite fascinating, but some readers will no doubt be bored with the lack of action or intense drama.
Overall, SEEKER was a fine read and I look forward to the subsequent entry in this series.
Rated by buyers -
The technology in the book is quite convincing, but the ending feels like a cheap detective story on top of a dumb astronomical coincidence.
Rated by buyers -
"Seeker" is basically a sci-fi ancient mystery, part of a series of books McDevitt has written using the same central character. While this one is written from a very first person perspective of a different character than previous entries, nothing is lost in this approach. The story is well structured and keeps you interested as details are revealed regarding the central mystery.
There are only three downsides that keep this from being a five star story. First, McDevitt isn't very good at characterization. Nobody stands out in a really detailed way. This has been true of all McDevitt books I've read so far. Second, there is an unnecessary subplot involving murder in "Seeker" that does not serve any purpose other than to theoretically heighten the tension. It could have been completely removed without changing the story one bit. Third, McDevitt is just too fond of "deus ex" moments (where something unlikely happens that nobody has any control over that signicantly impacts the story) in his books and we have one here as well.
All that said, "Seeker" is definately worth picking up.
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