Polaris
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4.2 • 133 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Jack McDevitt brings back the daring Alex Benedict from A Talent for War, thrusting him into a far-future tale of mystery and suspense that will lead the prominent antiquities dealer to the truth about an abandoned space yacht called the Polaris.
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.
Customer Reviews
Science fiction the way it should be
Take a gem of an idea, toss it in a well crafted playground, shake it up a bit and watch the jewels of technological development, political commentary, social ethics and a simply a whopping good story fall out..
Question for the author
I'm 3/4 the through Polaris, having previously read A Talent For War, and I wish I could ask Jack McDevitt the following:
How many times do your main characters have to experience ship/vessel sabotage before they begin to anticipate it and take extraordinary precautions against it? Is this going to be an ongoing theme in the rest of your books? Because it's already gotten real old...
An enjoyable Read
Even when you figure out the entire plot way before the main characters, the book is still a page turner to the very end. I have my criticisms, but I must admit it’s a fun read and lovely escape into a space mystery.
My criticisms/annoyances really:
1. I’ve read three of books in the series: Seeker, Polaris, and A Talent for War. The two main characters are idiots when it comes protecting themselves from obvious sabotage. Again and again and again in every book. I can’t help be but very frustrated by a glaring contradiction, the characters are obviously intelligent enough to connect the dots and take precautions but don’t. I suspect the author is either lazy or actually the creativness to challenge the protaginist new ways. Can you imagine if Indiana Jones got caught by a giant rollling stone ball in every film?!?! Ugh. Come on Jack, let’s put some new obstacles and villians in the way of intrepid explorers shall we. I really hope book four doesn’t follow the exact same plot as the as the previous three.
2. McDevitt doesn’t convey a female lead well, it seems to me, or perhaps that’s an illusion and instead I just don’t relate to Chase as much as Alex, since I’m a guy. Though I don’t think that’s true, since I’ve found many female protagonists quite compelling, and other reviews also critizize McDevitt’s switch from Alex to Chase.