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Polaris (Mass Market Paperback)

by Jack Mcdevitt (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Price:	CDN$ 8.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 39. Details
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Product Details

Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Ace (MM); Reprint edition (Oct 25 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0441012531
ISBN-13: 978-0441012534
Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.4 x 3 cm
Shipping Weight: 182 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #112,415 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#10 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( M ) > McDevitt, Jack

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

This SF mystery's smooth and exciting surface makes it difficult to appreciate how exceptionally good it is at combining action and ideas. After a string of well-developed space operas, McDevitt returns to the lead characters of his second novel, A Talent for War (1988): antiquarian entrepreneur Alex Benedict (think Indiana Jones with an eye for profit) and his beautiful assistant, Chase Kolpath (think smart, sexy Dr. Watson). Decades earlier, in a future version of the Marie Celeste incident, the spaceship Polaris was discovered drifting and empty, its captain and passengers apparently vanished in an instant. Now, Alex and Chase realize that someone is tracking down relics of the Polaris and is willing to kill anyone who gets in the way. Alex is first of all a businessman, but he becomes stubbornly fascinated with the impossible puzzle. While Chase saves Alex's neck from increasingly ingenious attacks, he untangles a complex plot. The real problem turns out to be not how the mass disappearance was done but the tangled motives behind it. McDevitt does a fine job of creating different worlds for Alex and Chase to explore as they hunt clues. Through Chase's wry narration, the novel also succeeds in presenting characters who may be concealing important facets of themselves. That's appropriate in an SF mystery novel, but especially in one that turns out to have a surprisingly serious human core.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

A mystery surrounds the starship Polaris, whose crew vanished while observing a stellar collision. Some 60 years later, two freelance archaeologists discover a good many artifacts that belonged to the vanished crew, the appearance of which attracts much attention--frivolous, festive, larcenous, and even outright homicidal. The archaeologists set out to track down whoever is out to get them and to recover the stolen artifacts, if possible, and at least protect the surviving ones. They lead a merry chase, involving both interstellar voyages and 14-hour train trips (McDevitt sees railroads in any civilized future) and revealing a good many carefully guarded secrets about both VIPs and ordinary citizens. The traveling affords readers a panoramic view of humanity 2,000 years hence, and that at book's end only part of the mystery has been revealed bodes strongly of a sequel, which would be no bad thing at all, at all. Another highly intelligent, absorbing portrayal of the far future from a leading creator of such tales. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Jack McDevitt Lite - great taste but less filling, Aug 22 2006

By	Daniel Jolley "darkgenius" (Shelby, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

I make no secret of the fact that I am a big Jack McDevitt fan. Having thoroughly enjoyed the author's space opera novels built upon the character of Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchens, I was more than anxious to sample a different side of McDevitt in Polaris. This ghost ship mystery in space, told from a first-person perspective, is not as weighty or serious as other McDevitt novels I have read, but it is certainly an engaging read that casual science fiction fans will likely quite enjoy. For McDevitt fans, however, Polaris is more of an afternoon matinee than McDevitt's usual prime time special. Attempts on the heroes' lives don't seem all that serious in the context of the narrative, and nothing that takes place here has the potential to revolutionize the very nature of humanity.

Sixty years ago, the Polaris carried a small party of acclaimed scientists to witness firsthand (from a safe distance, of course) a rare cosmic phenomenon, namely the collision of a white dwarf with a star. Contact with the ship was lost following the commander's indication that she was beginning the journey home. A search ship arrived in-system some weeks later and found the Polaris drifting in space, its crew missing. There was no sign of foul play whatsoever; the crew had simply vanished. Naturally, at the time, the news created a firestorm of interest as well as some concern that a hostile alien race had somehow absconded with the passengers.

Sixty years later, a number of artifacts from the ghost ship are set to go up for auction, bringing famed antiquities dealer Alex Benedict (whom McDevitt readers first met in A Talent For War) into the picture. The bulk of the novel is in fact narrated by Benedict's more than able assistant Chase Kolpath, a rather remarkable woman who nevertheless plays second fiddle to her boss. Alex has the opportunity to purchase a set number of Polaris artifacts before the bidding is opened up to the public at large. Just after he and Chase manage to secure their new purchases, the rest of the collection is tragically blown up in what appears to be an unrelated assassination attempt. After Alex sells his purchases to his best clients, those clients begin reporting unusual visits and even robbery attempts centered on their newest acquisitions. Alex becomes convinced that someone is trying to make sure that some secret of the Polaris remains undiscovered. He begins researching the history of the ghost ship and the perplexing depths of its mystery, and soon he and Chase find themselves in physical danger from unknown enemies. Safety can only be assured, Alex firmly believes, by solving once and for all the mystery of the Polaris and her crew.

Alex and Chase hop-scotch across the system in pursuit of the truth, slowly assembling the intriguing pieces of a most remarkable puzzle. There's a lot of action, some of it quite thrilling, and the reader's determination to discover the truth increases alongside that of Alex himself. That truth is much more complicated than anyone would have predicted. The ultimate ending doesn't seem to deliver quite the payoff I was expecting, but a nice, final twist makes up for a slight lack of excitement in the closing scenes.

For whatever reason, Polaris is not as absorbing of the McDevitt novels I have read in the past, nor does it strikes the author's typical vein of seriousness. The first-person narrative of Chase Kolpath somewhat stymies McDevitt's talent for building worlds and describing elaborate scenes, and there are touches of wry humor that would seem out of place in a novel such as Chindi or Omega. More significantly, there is no cosmic sense of wonder embedded in the pages of this science fiction mystery. Polaris is a good novel, but it falls significantly short of McDevitt's best work.

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