The Engines of God
by Jack McDevitt
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jack McDevittEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1995-12-01
ISBN: 0441002846
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Ace
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780441002849
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Engines of God
Book Review: Search and Destroy
Summary: 5 Stars
The Engines of God (1994) is the first SF novel in the Hutch series. Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins is a superluminal pilot contracted to the Academy of Science and Technology. She has known Richard Wald for several years, once taking him to Iapetus to see the First Monument. The sight of that alien ice statue became one of the most memorable moments in her life.
In this novel, the Academy crew on Quraqua has been excavating the Temple of the Winds in its underwater site near the shoreline. The Temple was located on a major crossroads and was an important military and religious center for millennia. The Lower Temple was the original installation, a military outpost with a chapel, and over time the structure had been expanded, partially demolished, replaced and modified.
Quraqua's moon has a stone construct imitating a town, with right angles galore, but built with solid blocks having no interior spaces. The only relief from the rectangularity is two circular towers at opposite ends of the construct. One of the circular towers has an untranslated inscription in Casumel Linear C. Since the inhabitants of Quraqua seem to have never achieved space travel, the Oz construct is unexplained.
Project Hope had received permission to terraform the planet Quraqua for terrestrial inhabitation. The Academy had fought Project Hope to the last moment, yet only notified the Temple of the Winds team of the coming move after the final legal defeat. Now the Academy crew has to rush to get off the planet within a court mandated timeframe.
Casumel Linear C was used during the era that the Lower Temple was constructed. Since the eviction notice was received, the team has been concentrating on that portion of the Temple. Maggie Tufu, the exophilologist, needs as many samples as she can get to translate the Oz inscription.
When the Academy crew discovers a frieze in the Lower Temple depicting one of the Monument-Makers, Henry Jacobi, the team leader, sends Ward a facsimile of the frieze. Hutch is taking the Johann Winckelmann to Quraqua to evacuate the crew prior to the nuking of the icecaps, so Ward wrangles a ride with her to see the artwork. Upon entering the system, Ward asks Hutch to take him to Quraqua's moon to see Oz. There they find square and rectangular blocks arranged into a false image of a city. The construct has been significantly damaged, more so than the surrounding area. Ward, Hutch and Frank Carson, the project administrator, speculate that Oz was built by the Monument-Makers.
When the team finds a printing press on a lower floor in the Temple, they concentrate their efforts on removing it. It may contain the longest single sample of Casumel Linear C that they have found. By itself, the set type may be enough to achieve a breakthrough with the language.
Unfortunately, the Kosmik team working on Project Hope decides to give the Academy crew a little nudge and drops an iceberg from orbit into the sea far from where they are excavating the Temple. The resulting tsunamis are fairly small compared to those that will the raised during the nuking to the icecap, but are still disruptive. Then the northern icecap project engineer decides that further delays will not be tolerated.
In this story, the terraforming crew gets away with murder, but the archaeologists retrieve the type chases and Maggie translates the Oz inscription. This leads to other discoveries and further voyages. Ultimately, Hutch and friends discover the nature of the Engines of God.
Highly recommended for McDevitt fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of high adventure, archaeological discovery and astronomical calculations.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Summary of The Engines of God
An unknown race called the Monument-Makers creates a stunning array of gorgeous statues, scattering them throughout the galaxy and encoding them with strange inscriptions that hold the key to the survival of humankind. Reprint. AB. K.Literature & Fiction Books
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