Slow Lightning Book

Jack McDevitt's debut novel was The Hercules Text in 1986; since then he has published further thoughtful science fiction and the disaster blockbuster MoonfallSlow Lightning comes with an enthusiastic plug from Stephen King, but is still straight sci-fi, exploring the ever-fascinating theme of alien contact and whether the universe is as empty as it seems.It's early in the 31st century, life is good, humanity has reached the stars, there are thriving colonies on other worlds and the long, unsuccessful search for alien neighbours is faltering. The last hope, detonating suns as message beacons, is surrounded by both controversy and apathy. Perhaps we have reached our limits and are going into retreat? But 27 years earlier--as indicated in the prologue--something extraordinary happened, since very carefully covered up. Everyone who returned from a four-person interstellar mission is dead or vanished, leaving only abandoned houses, rumours of ghosts and a model spacecraft of unfamiliar design. McDevitt's attractive heroine Dr Kim Brandywine scents something profoundly odd, and stubbornly investigates even though repeatedly told to stop making waves or lose her job as a fund-raiser for big science. She is enjoyably resourceful, finding talents for trespass, disguise, impersonation, fraud and burglary as she follows a trail leading to a bizarre massacre and to the star Alnitak--where contact with the unknown was shockingly but very humanly bungled. Despite hair-raising sequences in which Brandywine barely escapes with her life, she still presses on to a satisfying resolution. This is a solid sci-fi thriller with realistic underpinnings. --David LangfordRead More