Odyssey (Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins Series #5)

by Jack McDevitt

Overview

To boost waning interest in interstellar travel, a mission is sent into deep space to learn the truth about "moonriders," the strange lights supposedly being seen in nearby systems. But Academy pilot Valentina Kouros and the team of the starship Salvator will soon discover that their odyssey is no mere public-relations ploy, for the moonriders are not a harmless phenomenon. They are very, very dangerous-in a way that no one could possibly have imagined.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101208625
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/30/2007
Series:	Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins Series , #5
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	173,715
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jack McDevitt is a former naval officer, taxi driver, customs officer and motivational trainer. He is a multiple Nebula Award finalist who lives in Georgia with his wife Maureen.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
Jack McDevitt's pulse-pounding deep-space science fiction adventure featuring protagonist Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins (previously encountered in Omega, Chindi, Deepsix, et al.) is a 23rd-century cautionary tale of sorts. After decades of political shortsightedness and overall disregard concerning the interstellar space program -- namely, continued government cuts in funding -- the inevitable has happened: An overused and inadequately maintained spaceship breaks down and disappears during hyperflight. The media uproar shines a glaring light on the maligned space program, which is increasingly being perceived as a massive black hole of a boondoggle into which boatloads of taxpayer's money enter and never return. In a desperate attempt to renew popular interest in space exploration, Director of Operations Hutch and the rest of the brain trust at the World Academy for Science and Technology (McDevitt's equivalent to NASA) plan a mission to study "moonriders," mysterious black globular spacecraft that have been seen in the skies around numerous deep-space research facilities and popular interstellar tour destinations.

Along for the ride is editor Gregory MacAllister, a major-league skeptic whom the Academy hopes to wow with sites like the ancient orbiting temple left by the Monument-Makers at 61 Cygni, the very first planet to be found with multicellular life forms, the thousands-of-miles-long hypercollider being used in the Origins Project, etc. But when the semimythical moonriders redirect an asteroid and destroy an orbiting hotel in the process of being built, humankind's interest in the space program is suddenly at an all-time high -- and so is their fear of being annihilated by alien invaders…

McDevitt has been called the next coming of Isaac Asimov for good reason. Combining thought-provoking, hard science fiction speculation with compelling, character-driven story lines, McDevitt -- like Asimov -- is a master of conveying a goose bump-inducing sense of awe and wonder, not only about the mysteries awaiting us in the vastness of space but also about the possible future paths of humankind. Paul Goat Allen

Journalist Gregory MacAllister launches a campaign to end the prestigious Space Academy's deep space program in favor of a last-ditch attempt to rescue Earth from global warming. In response, the academy sends the Starship Salvator to explore the "moonriders," strange lights seen in nearby planetary systems. MacAllister joins the expedition and helps discover that the moonriders are far more deadly than first thought. The author of Chindi and other novels featuring the academy succeeds in visualizing a believable future of space exploration as well as believable personalities whose lives and loves put a human face on scientific speculation. Expert storytelling and a thorough grounding in hard science strongly recommend this to most libraries. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Another adventure set in the same universe as Chindi (2002). With no intelligent, technologically advanced aliens yet discovered, and an Earth possibly dying from global warming and ecological chaos, interstellar travel is slowly withering, with only a handful of haulage companies and Orion Tours regularly plying the space lanes. Opinionated journalist (but with informed, witty opinions) Gregory MacAllister vocally supports the Earth-first faction. However, a sudden spate of UFO sightings-"moonriders"-persuades politically appointed Academy bigwig Michael Asquith to send a vessel, Salvator, to investigate, although ops chief Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins isn't convinced. So pilot Valya Kouros, a skeptical MacAllister, PR flack Eric Samuels and 15-year-old Amy Taylor, daughter of a powerful politico, depart to swing by the moonrider hotspots-including super-expensive supercollider project Origins-to drop off some monitors and investigate. All goes according to plan until, astonishingly, one of the monitors captures two globe-shaped moonriders rendezvousing with a wandering asteroid and changing its course. The ship's AI, Bill, predicts the redirected rock will smack into planet Terranova, devastating its developed but non-intelligent life forms. It then emerges that a half-constructed orbiting hotel is about to be pulverized by a huge asteroid. Salvator will assist with evacuating the hotel, dropping off Amy, MacAllister and Samuels at an orbiting spaceship museum. That night, Amy receives a visit from a being that resembles a too-tall Hutch, warning that the moonriders intend to destroy Origins, and soon. Surely Amy was dreaming-except that MacAllister discovers there's a minuscule chancethat Origins could destroy the entire universe. A low-key, reasonably surprising and involving tale, although not among McDevitt's best. Agent: Ralph Vicinanza/Ralph M. Vicinanza Ltd.

Kirkus Reviews