Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 384
Printing Date: November 02, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 997746
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The luxury space yacht Polaris carried an elite group of the wealthy and curious thousands of light-years from Earth to witness a spectacular stellar phenomenon. It never returned. The search party sent to investigate found the Polaris empty and adrift in space, the fate of its pilot and passengers a mystery.
Sixty years later, prominent antiquities dealer Alex Benedict is determined to find the truth about Polaris-no matter how far he must travel across the stars, no matter the risk.
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Rated by buyers 
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I found POLARIS a pleasure to read. It is essentially a whodunit, but it takes place thousands of years in the future. McDevitt is one of the better prose writers in sci-fi, and I really enjoyed the quality of his storytelling in this book.
POLARIS is not a wham-bam action story, but an intelligent mystery that mainly involves the two main characters investigating an unsolved disappearance. It reads like a crime novel -- the protagonists travel from one place to another, meeting and interrogating a series of supporting characters. Most of the dialog is quite fascinating and thought-provoking. McDevitt's worldbuilding is also quite first-rate, and I enjoyed spending time in his future universe.
This novel isn't perfect, and I'm especially not a big fan of male writer who insist in writing female characters in the very first person -- most of them do an unconvincing job, and McDevitt is no exception. I also found the action scenes boring and quite repetitive -- they are the story's weakest link.
Still, POLARIS is a highly enjoyable book, and I plan on reading the Nebula-winning sequel to it (SEEKER) very soon. If you like Isaac Asimov's stories, you may want to give McDevitt a try.
Rated by buyers 
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I understand JMD wants to keep us engrossed and thrilled but why make AB and CK miraculously escape crashing TWICE! Isn't once enough? Besides, all the plot lies on the fact that a person, party concerned, having the key to the mystery didn't get questioned when the Polaris passengers were found missing. Isn't that a bit short and frail? That story tastes like a peppered rehash and some reworking would have been welcome before having it published. Well, let's be positive and say the book reads easily in spite of a repetitious and transparent plot thread.
Rated by buyers -
I have been a fan of Jack McDevitt for some time, but you never know if what you are going to get is a great novel, a pretty good one, or a mediocre one. Unfortunately `Polaris' is one of the mediocre ones.
One of my big issues is that McDevitt writes in the very first person, but the narrator is female. It is definitely not that I'm saying women cannot be the strong heroes of Space Operas, but few, if any, male writers do a good job or writing in very first person with a female voice and this book is a good example of the problem. You can accept that a woman would and could do all this, but not that they would talk about it like this. It just didn't work at all for me and it really got on my nerves at times.
The other thing is in any mystery, and this is a SciFi mystery, you have to have a strong motive driven plot. In this case, without giving anything away, the motive just isn't there. Why are these people driven to commit crime? In order to implement birth control? This is in the far, far distant future and we have to believe that humans have achieved Faster Than Light travel, instantaneous communications, disease control, all that good stuff but have not figured out birth control? I didn't buy it.
One of McDevitt's strong points is his `hard science' elements and there is that here; but it too small dosage to satisfy most SciFi fans. So, if you like mysteries, you won't like this, and if you like hard SciFi you won't either. A big disappointment.
Rated by buyers -
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 very 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
Rated by buyers -
Polaris follows the storyline previously established in McDevitt's A Talent for War, featuring Alex Benedict, an antiquities dealer and his assistant, Chase Kolpath. Polaris was an expeditionary spaceflight occurring some 40 or so years prior to the plot of this book. The Polaris contained an illuminated group of clientele who were taking part in the spaceflight to view a very rare interstellar event and they disappeared. The mysterious vanishment was never solved and many theories have cropped up in the years following.
At the outset of this novel it is the anniversary of the Polaris journey and there is to be a display and auction of Polaris artifacts. However, someone or something seems determined to destroy anything related to the expedition.
The story is told from the point of view of Alex' attractive and intelligent assistant, Chase. The author's style is very conversational and matter of fact. Chase's character is somewhat sarcastic and the internal and external dialogue is anything if not breezy and even humorous at times. Alex's character seems to be the true protagonist of the story, but since the story is not written from his point of view, we only get descriptions of his actions and words. This is a little disappointing because I felt that Alex was the most interesting character.
The book has its moments, with the story behind the Polaris revealing some intriguing plot twists, but it is not enough to overcome an essentially weak narrative. Much of the time is spent with the main characters going from place to place to talk to various people about the Polaris and what they knew, while nefarious and enigmatic characters engage in trying to waylay them. The technology was fairly standard sci fi fare, with nothing very creative.
The ending was derivative of any mystery/thriller, and was ultimately satisfying, yet calorie free. I think that McDevitt has something here with these characters, but this book could have used some work.
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