In the native science-fiction landscape, the Irish author Jack McDevitt is almost unknown, he is part of the new wave of relatively young SF authors who have distinguished themselves since 1990.
That does not make it less interesting though. McDevitt was a constant finalist between 2005 and 2009 in all the major SF awards and was expected to confer value and to earn himself … something.
With the “Explorer” McDevitt made a hit. For a well written book (though not really in my opinion Nebula, Hugo, rather) what it earn this prestigious award make author immediately well known.
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The book tells the story of a group of interstellar treasure hunters who come across an extremely interesting set of artifacts. Of course, as everything that is old and in small quantity, the artifacts that they find have tremendous value - and this creates conflicts and conspiracies.
So far, nothing unusual - maybe even normal if we think about the avalanche of books like “The Da Vinci Code” which bury the stalls in recent years.
But the characters are extremely interesting and the book catches you.
First, because it has the correct dosage of secrecy and action - ...