Chindi is the
third in McDevitt's Academy series featuring Hutch (Priscilla Hutchins) a
spacecraft pilot with a tendency to get involved with alien archaeology; I have
already reviewed The Engines of God
and Deepsix on this blog.
The mix is much as before; mystery and drama set in a future
in which humanity, having recently discovered faster-than-light travel, is
rapidly spreading through the galaxy. Many ruins of dead alien civilisations
have been discovered but the only live one has a primitive level of technology.
The key plot element this time is what appears to be an
alien message accidentally intercepted by a spacecraft exploring in a remote
part of the galaxy. This prompts the
Contact Society, a group of wealthy alien enthusiasts (that is, humans who are
interested in aliens!), to fund an expedition to track down the source of the
message, and Hutch is recruited to pilot them. What follows is an escalating
series of discoveries as the explorers follow the track of the message from
system to system, surviving catastrophic threats not without loss, but drawn
ever onwards by the lure of encountering another spacefaring race. One dramatic
twist follows another as the pace gradually accelerates towards the climax.
The plot is not as intriguing and awe-inspiring as The Engines of God, but it is better
than Deepsix which has a relatively
mundane mystery. The characterisation is improving, although the author still
has a tendency to provide each new character with a sizeable biographical
infodump which is not the best way to learn what kind of people they are. All
in all, this is a good, exciting adventure story in the best traditions of
space opera.
***********************
Courageous is the
third of Campbell's Lost Fleet
series, which is simply one long, continuous story of a running fight between
opposing starship fleets as seen through the eyes of John Geary, commander of
one of the fleets (see my reviews of the first two volumes, and repeat). Nothing
very new happens in this one and the repetition ought to be boring, but every
time I pick up one of Campbell's books I am gripped by his storytelling skills
and find it hard to put down again. This one finishes on a cliffhanger, but I
will try to resist buying any more for a while – too many other books in my
reading pile!
Incidentally, in an interview at the end of the book, the
author lists his favourite TV series. The one in first place is no great
surprise (the original Star Trek),
but in second place comes The Prisoner
(1960s British mystery) and in third The
Avengers (not the comic strip characters, but another 1960s British
series). I can't disagree with any of those, and I enthusiastically endorse his
comment on The Avengers: "Emma Peel. Best. SF. Female.
Character. Ever."
5 comments:
Anthony,
Fascinating title. "In Navajo religious belief, a chindi (Navajo: chʼį́įdii) is the ghost left behind after a person dies, believed to leave the body with the decedent's last breath."
Is there a connection to anything in the story?
Following is the url for the Wiki entry on chindi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chindi
As for his opinions regarding TV series and Emma Peel, I heartily endorse and support everything he said.
Way back when Johnny Carson was the host of the Tonight Show, Patrick Macnee was a guest and said that various "specialty retail establishments" had reported dramatically increased interest in and difficulty in keeping leather clothing items in stock shortly after Emma Peel became a regular.
Yes, the meaning of Chindi is explained in the book, as it is very relevant to the story - not literally in terms of ghosts, but in terms of something left behind and still functioning long after the originator was dead.
Anthony,
Ah, so the title is relevant in a way.
I read Chindi last year. I liked it enough to wedge it into the "keep" shelf, but several times I wished McDevitt's editor had told him to cut the word count by 1/4 or 1/3 - it felt like it was originally a tightly-written story expanded by various side tracks and infodumps.
It's not just McDevitt's problem; I've seen a lot of books with similar issues over the last 20 years or so. Possibly the publishers feel their customers think "more is better." I guess eventually mass market paperbacks will become cubical.
I've expressed my views on the subject of over-long SF novels in the article The Length of SF Novels (see the links to SFF Articles on the left).
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