On the way home from Jeremy and Venetia’s place in Melbourne on Boxing Day after a very pleasant lunch, I stopped into Minotaur Books to use a voucher I’d been given for my birthday by Jess (thanks, Jess!)
A few moments later, I had a couple of new books by one of my favourite science fiction author, Jack McDevitt – Infinity Beach and Moonfall.
(Alas, I couldn’t find a couple of his other more recent books – other gift-hunters had probably snaffled them).
I spent part of the last few days reading them in between watching the cricket. Jack McDevitt is a fascinating writer who is very interested in tales of alien contact. The first book I read of his, and possibly his best, The Engines of God paints a really interesting universe where these strange phenomenons known as “Omega Waves” wipe out technological civilisations every few thousand years, and humanity is currently exploring the ruins of several of those civilisations.
Infinity Beach isn’t in the same universe, but it’s a tale of a universe where there are presumed to be no aliens in it – an Asimovian universe. (Asimov had no aliens in the Foundation books because one of his main editors at the time, John Campbell, objected to his portayal of aliens in some of his early work and he decided instead of getting into conflict with Campbell, to no write about aliens at all!) However, the crew of one of the last survey flights looking for aliens died in mysterious circumstances, and the clone-sister of one of the crew is now looking for answers…
Yes, there is alien contact in the book eventually, and the tale surrounding it is an interesting (if possibly depressing) one; I did find the actions of the human authorities rather strange, detracting from what was a good premise.
No such problems existed (for me) with Moonfall, an entirely more upbeat novel about the moon being destroyed by a rogue extrasolar comet. Yes, disasters hit the Earth, and a lot of good characters die, but a lot of good characters survive as well. This is a 1998 novel (Infinity Beach is 2000) which gives you an idea of how behind I am in collecting McDevitt’s work! (Of his novels, I’m only missing a couple of recent ones now). I’m amused to see that Moonfall came out in the same year as the films Deep Impact and Armageddon, which have somewhat similar themes.
With the possibility of an extinction event from part of the destroyed moon crashing into the Earth, and nuclear weapons not being able to be used due to the problems with fallout (which would prompt a different extinction event), it’s a fascinating look at the subject.
So, Jess, if you wanted to know what your voucher netted me – now you know!