Book review, Seeker

Seeker by Jack McDevitt

I would like to say that this was a good book but it in reality it was not. I did make it all the way though but I had to look at the start of the next chapter a few times to keep interest because I did not know if the book was going to go anywhere.

Warning Spooler…. Kind of.

The book has a good premise. One I like, looking for a lost colony of human settlers that have been gone for 6000 years. The main character tells the story in 1st person. Witch I really don’t think I like. Kind of feel like I am reading an over written diary. But the still the writing was good enough to keep me interested. Maybe kept me in the book as, like I said, seemed to go no where quite often. Finding the colony seemed take a lot more steps then needed and a few of the things they did to try to find it were dead ends. And were as doing something like this for real might have quite a few dead ends, one of two in a book is enough.

The teller talked and visited an alien race but never really explored them. There was a couple attempts on there lives, but you knew were they were coming, and who did it. The threat to there lives was just something to have there and not really needed. And you never really felt like they were in any danger. There was a lot of things thrown in to try to keep it from feeling like a strait point A to B story. But yet it still felt that way.

Also at the end of the book they found an interesting civilization. One that was on a world lock in to title lock so did not have night. They lived in a zone around dominator of the part that was the most habitable but they live in just early evening all the time. They did not have night or for that fact day. So they did not brake up time like most people did. They never saw the stars so they did not have a drive to get off the world.

I though that was interesting. It seems like humanity has a need to get to the stars, get off world. But would we have that if we never say the stars? The did know about stars, people that went to the dark, cold side of the plait for research and the like. But is was not in the mass mind. Would you even think about other races living around other stars. But this was never really explored. Or anything else that a race of humans would be like if they were separated form humanity for 6000 years.

Of course they only had legends of were they came from and religions that had sprung up. But no real knowledge of were they came from. At 1st I thought this unlikely that 6000 years would be enough to have the forget that they were once a colony of a race from a deferent world. But then I remember there have been more than one large civilizations that have been on the planet of the last 6000 years that have come, and gone with little more then a few coins and legions to let us know they were there. So maybe. Still non of the was really explored.

End then end. The book just ended. Tied up loss ends all in the last chapter that gave few paragraphs to the few outstanding questions. Nice, but it could have been done better. A lot better.

In the end. I say the righting and concept of the book saved it. But the story was not that deep or good.

Read it if you have time. Good for a plain or bus to hold you over.

Thewildword~d