The Engines of God (Academy - Book 1)

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And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and on the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones with. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. Disclaimer: The version of this book that I read was an ‘Uncorrected Proof for Limited Distribution’. So, it’s possible that the final draft is much improved over what I read, but for that to happen, this book would need a team of editors and a vast reserve of scientific advisors. (But it's still possible.) A third of the way into the novel they began to annoy me and I was at the point of hoping the Omega cloud would arrive prematurely and save me the trouble of reading any more about them. The characters are sadly but predictably underdeveloped. There’s also too many of them: I get that McDevitt wanted to make the team feel and sound realistic, and on a dig, there will be a ton of people, which does often result in a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation. I’m happy to give him a thumbs up for realism, but from the uninitiated reader’s perspective, it can feel overwhelming. McDevitt wrote a bunch more Priscilla Hutchins books, so I can only hope she is more fleshed out as the series goes on, because in this one, I didn’t learn much about her character – besides the fact that she is feisty and that her mother is very disappointed she won’t settle down.

That is a huge plus in my book, to make me feel as though I am discovering planets and alien races as I read further in to the book. The downside is that this can be a rather slow read at times and patience might be needed. The beginning of this book was this way for me and why it took a little while to get involved, which was a marked difference from Chindi for me. Despite the slow beginning I found that I was thoroughly invested in the plot and the characters by the end of the book. I look forward to reading more from this author and, especially, this series. I would recommend both the author and the series. Meanwhile, the others arrive on the planet's surface and can't find what happened to the previous team. They extend the range of their search then are caught by swarms of hostile carnivorous crabs, who caught them by surprise and unable to call for help because the first one to die was the pilot left to keep the engine running. Hutch flies down and is barely able to rescue any of them. In the end, the mystery cloud was drawn towards both the cubic monument and the roughly cubic shuttlecraft, and annihilated them both. The crew survived by evacuating the shuttle, and finally discovered the nemesis that had plagued advanced societies for thousands of years. In fact, they deduced that biblical disasters on Earth corresponded to the pattern of destruction as well. c) Inakademeri, a.k.a. "Nok", a moon of a ringed gas giant, and home to the only known non-human intelligent species still alive; the "Noks" had developed technology roughly equivalent to Earth's early 20th century. At the time of discovery they were engaged in a global conflict roughly analogous to World War I. Scientists at the Academy nervously watch the killer comet draw closer to Earth. The clouds aren’t simply nonliving collections of materials. They appear to be able to focus on civilizations with technology, and they have a frightening record of destroying every technically advanced civilization they encounter.In Jerusalem his inventors made equipment for shooting arrows and for throwing large stones from the towers and corners of the city wall. His fame spread everywhere, and he became very powerful because of the help he received from God. Like most hard science fiction novels, “The Engines of God” suffers from prose that’s on the dry side. The ideas are ambitious and wonderful, but you never get a true sense of atmosphere. I mean, the very idea of an abandoned alien temple complex should inspire so many feelings: awe, terror, fascination, ominousness… But the descriptions of the settings are so minimal that you never really build up those feelings, which is a shame. It must also be noted that people with zero prior knowledge of how weird and complicated archaeology is probably will scratch their heads a bit from time to time: if you have no idea what the Rosetta Stone is and why it was so crucial to Egyptologists, you will probably wonder why everyone is getting their panties in a twist about finding the alien version of that. I do love that McDevitt makes his xenoarchaeology very believable (to me, for what that’s worth): his way of adapting an existing science to this speculative future setting rings perfectly true, with the described methods, terminology and specialties modified just so. In archaeology, the process of artifact preservation is actually really rare, and McDevitt turns that into the very existence of civilization being a rare occurrence, dependent on so many variables that need to have perfect timing to allow cultures to develop – making the discoveries of the Monuments all that more remarkable and significant. Shortly thereafter, they detected two strange anomalies – giant clouds in space, traveling at a high speed. Although the clouds were quite large – planet sized, at least – they were far too small to be natural objects. With insufficient mass, they should have been ripped apart by the star system's gravity. The Earth is facing environmental catastrophe in the 23rd century. Humans have spread to other star systems, but generally not found a lot of Earth-like planets, and those they have found are already inhabited. A handful of intelligent alien races have been discovered, but all are primitive compared to humanity. Most alien races discovered, however, are long dead, and the most prominent is one that apparently traveled to other stars, as their monuments have been found across the galaxy. Characters and dialogue are so-so. Generally I would say the writing is pretty good. Parts of this really drag though - the first act which involves the archaeologists on Quarquara (sp?) trying to hang on till the last possible minute is a good example. I felt like it was endless description of digging interspersed with equally endless description of loading stuff. Could have been greatly condensed. There are a couple of intense 'action' sequences. The second of which (on Beta Pac III) seems really pulpy, and out of place with the rest of the novel. After that, the last 20% or so where they start to untangle the threads of the mystery seems hurried, almost like an afterthought. I don't know if these "Omega Clouds" will be the subject of a future novel in the series or what. But ultimately this is what everything in the novel is building to, and yet action-wise (and verbage-wise) it seemed like the part the author cared about more was a bunch of semi-intelligent crab creatures. I also note recycling of some hoary old sci-fi tropes, such as the overpopulated, environmentally damaged earth, and a carelessly simplistic narrative about the origin of religions, worthy of 'Ancient Aliens' on the history channel... in fact this part didn't jive with what was overall pretty smart and thoughtful writing.

He also had various siege engines built by skilled designers and placed them on the towers and on the corner ramparts that could fire arrows and very large stones. His reputation spread far and wide, and he was marvelously assisted until he grew very strong. I never really connected emotionally to the characters and there was also a romance sub-plot I didn't care about at all. I'm not sure why, but since the people I buddy-read this with felt the same way, I thought I'd mention it. If you are a very character-focused reader who doesn't geek out about alien ruins and intergalactic mysteries, I think this book probably wouldn't work for you. Specifically, there are far too many characters who simply aren’t germane to the plot, a dozen linguists who never even reach their destination, a slew of researchers, historians, professors, a dignitary or two. In the end, the action boils down to three or four, or five, or should I call it six characters, none of whom can be said to be the main character, who gets killed off well before the ending. Interested in some science fiction that features a killer cloud, a race against time, an almost-human alien race, and a romance that is both sweet and memorable? This fourth book in McDevitt’s Academy series may be exactly what you’re hoping for. It’s pretty important that you read the first three books in the series though.He made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, until he was strong. International UPC Science Fiction Award winner (1993): "Ships in the Night" (first English language winner) [9] Syfy - Watch Full Episodes | Imagine Greater". Scifi.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16 . Retrieved 2016-02-16.

So what's my problem? We get a fully developed alien culture here including PoVs from these guys, right down to a fully religious world-build and science-debates and a huge survival thing. In Jerusalem, he made devices, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and on the battlements, with which to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far abroad, because he was marvelously helped until he was strong.

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This one gets a good 4 Stars for a great space mystery story, enigmas in space archeology. Recently (within the past few thousand years) space-going civilizations have disappeared. Traces of violent action are found but are unclear. Great space monuments are found. The archeology team is exploring ruins on an earth-like planet scheduled for terraforming to enable future human occupation. The story suffered from an artificial pace, the science team must evacuate so nuclear explosives can melt the icecaps to release trapped water. Tense action follows with unfortunate results. A first part of the book introduces the characters, and the setting and sets up a race against time – an archeologist team from Earth (the Academy) has to save as many artifacts as possible before the Government starts terraforming, which includes nuking polar caps and dropping ice asteroids on a planet – actions which will bury/destroy all remnants. Each group sees its task as more urgent. So the battle of egos starts.