Helpful Score: 1
Firebird was a really good mystery/thriller science fiction time travel story. This is a smart story that doesnt depend on jaunting through time to give you a great time travel story. In fact, aside from one poor soul who accidentally ends up there, the focus of the story is not about the actual experience of traveling through time but how to save those who are stuck traveling in time and the science of how those people became stuck in time. Those who read my reviews know I have a soft spot for time travel pieces, but I believe this one is smart enough and slick enough to interest regular science fiction readers as well and perhaps even those who dont generally enjoy time travel stories. This is a story about the science of how the universe is made up and some of the possibilities that might be encountered by a society that travels freely through the stars. I dont know if these things are possible or will be in the future, but it certainly is interesting to think and dream about such interesting and frightening possibilities.
Its probably pretty obvious at this point that Im on a Jack McDevitt kick as I just discovered his books recently and have been enjoying the chance to discover a new writers voice, characters and stories. I really enjoyed this book and have to say that of the books Ive read from Jack McDevitt that my favorites are fast becoming the Alex Benedict books. For an antiquarian this character sure finds himself at the middle of a lot of things, but thats where a good sense of curiosity takes you.
Its probably pretty obvious at this point that Im on a Jack McDevitt kick as I just discovered his books recently and have been enjoying the chance to discover a new writers voice, characters and stories. I really enjoyed this book and have to say that of the books Ive read from Jack McDevitt that my favorites are fast becoming the Alex Benedict books. For an antiquarian this character sure finds himself at the middle of a lot of things, but thats where a good sense of curiosity takes you.
Sixth in the series, but all of them work fine as standalones. McDevitt follows his usual formula although this time there are no humans attempting to kill off Benedict and Kolpath. Nice mystery, fun puzzle-solving, with maybe an eyebrow lift that any talk show, let alone several, would be interested in the debate betwen an antiques dealer and a museum curator about an obscure physicist. Perhaps in McDevitt's world, this is the most pressing topic - what a nice thought. The AI debate is very interesting and I'm sort of surprised about Benedict taking the position he did. Anyway, nice snappy reading and good world-building.
