Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God a day or so ago; and as I've recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I'd chime in.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God a day or so ago; and as I've recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I'd chime in.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Happy Catholic Bookshelf\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-24T00:10:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"willduquette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"willduquette\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/\",\"name\":\"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-24T00:10:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-07-24T00:10:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/ff6351804d01f835d127aa686467fa2c\"},\"description\":\"Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God a day or so ago; and as I've recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I'd chime in.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/\",\"name\":\"Happy Catholic Bookshelf\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/ff6351804d01f835d127aa686467fa2c\",\"name\":\"willduquette\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8075b1526bb772efdba031f0e814158b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8075b1526bb772efdba031f0e814158b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"willduquette\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/author\/willduquette\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series","description":"Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God a day or so ago; and as I've recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I'd chime in.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series","og_description":"Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God a day or so ago; and as I've recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I'd chime in.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/","og_site_name":"Happy Catholic Bookshelf","article_published_time":"2012-07-24T00:10:15+00:00","author":"willduquette","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"willduquette","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/","name":"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-07-24T00:10:15+00:00","dateModified":"2012-07-24T00:10:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/ff6351804d01f835d127aa686467fa2c"},"description":"Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God a day or so ago; and as I've recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I'd chime in.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/","name":"Happy Catholic Bookshelf","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/ff6351804d01f835d127aa686467fa2c","name":"willduquette","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8075b1526bb772efdba031f0e814158b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8075b1526bb772efdba031f0e814158b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"willduquette"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/author\/willduquette\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":833,"date":"2012-07-23T19:10:15","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T00:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/?p=833"},"modified":"2012-07-23T19:10:15","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T00:10:15","slug":"jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/happycatholicbookshelf\/2012\/07\/jack-mcdevitt-the-academy-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack McDevitt: The Academy Series"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Julie posted her review of\u00a0The Engines of God<\/em><\/a> a day or so ago; and as I\u2019ve recently read that book and three of its sequels, I thought I\u2019d chime in.<\/p>\n

Priscilla Hutchins\u2014\u201dHutch\u201d to her friends\u2014is a starship pilot for the Academy of Science and Technology, circa 2200 AD. It seems that faster-than-light space travel (\u201csuperluminal\u201d travel in the parlance of the book) has caused a revolution in the field of archaeology; intelligent races are scarce in the galaxy, but relics of intelligent races are surprising common. Thus, Hutch spends her time ferrying archaeological teams around and about, here and there, and willy-nilly participating in the grand foolishness they get involved in.<\/p>\n

To date, Jack McDevitt has written six books about Hutch and her colleagues, along with some short stories; I\u2019ve read the first four books, which are uniformly entertaining, with lots of gosh-wowness, neat alien tech, ancient alien civilizations, and deadly mysteries in the depth of space.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Engines of God<\/em>, we find out why there are so few advanced civilizations out and about in the galaxy, and that archaeologists won\u2019t leave a promising site until the\u00a0very last minute<\/em>, even if it\u2019s likely to get them killed. We also learn that Jack McDevitt has a taste for destruction on the planetary scale, and breathtaking last-minute escapes.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Deepsix<\/em>, we learn that about more advanced civilizations that at least\u00a0used<\/em>\u00a0to be around and about the galaxy, and Hutch and her crew are nearly killed investigating archaeological sites on a planet that is about to be destroyed by a rogue star. To be fair, the archaeological team would have\u00a0loved<\/em>\u00a0to be able to leave the site well before the last minute, but were prevented. The final rescue is more convoluted and involved than the denouement of\u00a0Toy Story 3<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Are you detecting a pattern, here?<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Chindi<\/em>, the death and destruction are on a somewhat smaller scale, if I\u2019m remembering correctly, which is to say that I don\u2019t think we lose any planets. I could be mistaken about that. Nevertheless, there are still breathtaking last minute escapes, and even a little true love, and archaelogists who won\u2019t leave a promising site until the very last minute. I think I like this one the best of the four.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Omega<\/em>, there\u2019s yet another breathtaking last-minute escape, yet again involving an entire planet, and much is learned about why the galaxy is as it is. There\u2019s also a lot of reflection about religion.<\/p>\n

So basically, we\u2019re talking here good hard science fiction mind candy. The science is reasonable, the archeology well-done (so far as I can tell), and the plots and situations are both spectacular and completely over the top. Not five stars, consequently; but sufficiently entertaining to keep me coming back for more.<\/p>\n

I will say, I find McDevitt\u2019s approach to religion refreshing. The books are not overtly about religion\u2014certainly, I have no idea what McDevitt\u2019s religious views might be, assuming he even has any\u2014but there are religious people in them. This usually comes out at funerals, of which there are an appalling number, where the religion of the deceased is duly noted. And that\u2019s simply right: religion is part of life, and despite the New Athiests people will go on being religious right on into the future. Not all of them\u2014Hutch, herself, expresses a materialist worldview\u2014but some of them. It\u2019s not the main thing, there\u2019s nothing like advocacy here, one way or the other, but it\u2019s present.<\/p>\n

These are not kids\u2019 books, either in style or substance; McDevitt is reasonably frank about the presence of sexual relationships and the wide variety of possibilities that can arise when bored travelers are cooped on superluminal starships for months on end. But he\u2019s not graphic either, which is pleasant.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"