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The Devil's Eye
The recipe for The Devil's Eye might be given as follows: Take a rich science fiction idea; wrap it up in a deadly puzzle; sprinkle with hints of supernatural lore; and allow to rise in the heat of an extnded alien encounter. Many writers could attempt such a multilayered confection, but it takes a cook with McDevitt's proven authorial skill to pull it off.
--Jesup, GA Press Sentinel
...A fast-paced novel....A book that has more ghost hunters than an Indiana Jones adventure, with twists that reveal secret after secret....
Florida Times Union
Highly, highly recommended, I think The Devil's Eye is the best McDevitt novel since The Engines of God.... This book will be a tough act to beat in the Alex/Chase universe....
--Fantasy Book Critic
...Displays a truly Asimovian set of attractions....This book seems to belong on the shelf with recent Matthew Hughes SF/mysteries, and, ultimately, with the books of that other master of SF mysteries, Jack Vance.
-- Sci Fi Weekly
McDevitt is working familiar SF territory --playing with effects of scale-- but without the outsized heroic figures and shiny city-of-the-future movie sets of the pulps. There is heroic action (Chase in particular does some pretty snazzy stunt work and comes in for some well-deserved lionizing by the end), But it doesn't feel that way from inside the hero. The big show, McDevitt seems to be saying, is Out There, and we should remember that we're just playing the lounge.
--Locus
...Retains the author's ability to ground his speculative fiction in human manipulations, in this case, a pandemic that needs that most political of necessities, a coverup
--Fresno Bee
McDevitt fills the fourth far-future Alex Benedict adventure (after 2005's Nebula-winning Seeker) with historical details and thrilling stunts as well as sharp political allegory.
--Publishers Weekly
A singularly good example of McDevitt's gift --the previous Alex Benedict caper, Seeker (2005), won a Nebula Award-- for combining fast pacing, unforgettable world-building, and nerve-tingling suspense.
The Bookshelf
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Odyssey
"McDevitt is on his home court in this one....(He) won last year's
best novel Nebula for Seeker, and this book is a good example of why a lot
of readers thought he was overdue for the honor. A challenging, very well
written novel, with a strong plot and a future that looks way too probable--
in short, SF for thinking readers."
-- Asimov's
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The Hercules Text
"Besides being an excellent craftsman of prose, Jack McDevitt has
an intimate knowledge of that plane where science, religion, politics, and
their respective bureaccracies intersect. As a result, The Hercules Text is
much more than a knowledgable scientific mystery; it is simply the most
thoughtful and engaging first contact story I have ever read.
-- Paul Preuss, author of Human Error
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A Talent for War
"A Talent for War is a marvelously constructed novel. If McDevitt
never writes another word, his reputation is assured. There are battle
scenes, rescues, intellectual conversations, aliens, lost spaceships and
light romance, all conveyed by highly readable prose."
-- Science Fiction Chronicle
"If you like well-crafted hard science fiction, you should definitely read Jack McDevitt."
-- Gregory Benford
"Magnificent vision."
-- Locus
"Staggeringly good."
-- Starlog
"A Talent for War is the best science fiction war novel I have
read since Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. Its approach to the subjects of
large-scale conflict and the hard moral choices that such conflicts
inevitably require is among the most thoughtful and humane treatments of
these classic themes I have ever encountered. McDevitt has created a
supremely suspenseful, colorful, and complex story. The narrative ranges
over such daunting spans of time and space — without once sacrificing
poignant human detail-- that I was exhimarated by its scope and heartened
by its decency.
-- Michael Bishop
"A superlative novel...excellent pacing, a wonderfully lived-in
world, superior characterisations, and a rare quality of ethical concern. A
Talent for War bridges the gap between literary and commercial SF with rare
facility and belongs in every collection."
-- Booklist
"A Talent for War is an academic mystery story...a crackerjack
idea for the future...a very good novel indeed. A talent for writing is
quite the right phrase for the author."
-- Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction
Magazine
"Lightning-paced...McDevitt understands heroes, obsession, and
duty and writes about them with a ssturdy intelligence that shines from
every sentence."
-- James Patrick Kelly
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ancient Shores
"This is the big-vision, large-scale novel McDevitt's readers have
been waiting for."
-- Publishers Weekly
"An old-fashioned page-turner...filled with breathless
plotting...(and) a nail-biting ending that is both corny and emotionally
satisfying. Take this baby to the beach with you."
-- New York Daily News
"McDevitt has fashioned a solidly-engrossing tale...that brims
with low-key attractions."
-- Kirkius Reviews
"For intelligence and clarity, Jack McDevitt is the natural
heir to Isaac Asimov. Ancient Shores is crisp, smart, and vastly
entertaining. Sit back, relax, enjoy."
-- Michael Swanwick
"A premise guaranteed to grab your imagination--add a dash of
satire and a plot tuned tight enough to keep you turning pages
compulsively, and you've got a knockout."
-- John Kessel
"Jack McDevitt's best book to date--the kind of crowd-pleaser that
should take home the Hugo Award."
-- Robert J. Sawyer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eternity Road
"A deeply-imagined America of the far future...World-building,
adventure, characters one can care about — Eternity Road has it all. A
wonderful read.
-- Nancy Kress
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moonfall
"Big, bursting, medium-future global disaster yarn....Another
solidly engrossing entry from the dependable McDevitt."
-- Kirkus Reviews
"A thoroughly authentic, near-future double-planet disaster
thriller, with a blizzard of sympathetic characters, an electrifying pace,
and a stomach-twisting climax. It's the end of the world and it's on CNN."
-- Stephen Baxter
"Moonfall is a monumental tribute to the courage of the human
spirit. I held my breath for the last hundred pages."
-- Nancy Kress
"Moonfall is without doubt the very best disaster novel I have
ever read. A master writer, Jack McDevitt doesn't miss a trick--and he adds
a few of his own."
-- Kevin J. Anderson
"McDevitt's pace is breathtaking, his descriptions vividly real,
and his plot and science perfectly worked out....Moonfall meets all of the
reader's ectations and then some."
-- St. Petersburg Times
"Terrific."
-- Charles Sheffield
"An amazing thrill-ride of a novel."
-- James Patrick Kelly
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Infinity Beach
"Well worth reading."
-- Orlando Sentinel
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