wee doors banging

I’ve enjoyed the previous Academy books (with reservations) but I’m not sure what to make of this one. One the one hand, Odyssey is excellent and worthy of the award nominations it has receieved, but on the other the pacing fails in spots and there’s a gaping back story hole you could, well, fill a book with.

Jack McDevitt: Odyssey

The synopsis is thus: to boost waning interest in interstellar travel and raise much needed funds, a mission is sent on a deep space odyssey to try to learn the truth about “Moonriders” – strange lights supposedly being seen in nearby star systems. As in the previous book, Omega, our series heroine Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins is once again deskbound on Earth but still pulling the strings on the mission.

It’s an intriguing premise and the writing is, for the most part, fast moving and easy to read. Space adventuring is usually entertaining plot material, but in Odyssey McDevitt makes even the politics of scrabbling for research funding interesting and I think we can thank the strong characters he’s developed for that. A better job is done on characterisation generally than in previous Academy novels (I think mostly by by reducing the usual cast size) and even the ending is strong with a nasty surprise that I didn’t see coming. Both of these points have been weak spots of the series up until now, for me anyway, and it’s a relief to see them being addressed at last.

Where Odyssey falls down a little though is, oddly enough, in the eponymous odyssey itself. The motley crew assembled for the sightseeing mission visit stars and artefacts that we’ve seen and read about before. Fantastic as they are, and despite encounters with the mysterious Moonriders, the early stages of the journey do drag a little.

Soon though, in classic McDevitt style, things hot up and we’re back into action mode effecting a last chance rescue mission as the Moonriders make their play. However it’s not as simple as that as other factions are actively involved in proceedings, twisting them to suit their own agendas. I mentioned a surprise earlier: I think half of the surprise factor was that there was a deeper plot than the obvious, but it was still a thrill when I realised what was going on. I won’t say more for fear of spoiling things.

So Odyssey has a lot going for it, but there’s that pesky gaping hole: The Moonriders. The whole point of the Academy adventures was to find another extant technological, starfaring civilisation. It’s even mentioned a few times in this very book. But when such a species finally becomes evident, very, very little is made of them. They show up, flit around acting all mysterious and puzzling, and apart from one specific action (which I won’t detail as it’s quite a spoiler) leave mankind pretty much alone. I suspect they’re supposed to be mysterious and puzzling, and they are, but in a frustrating and annoying way and it’s enough to leave a bad taste when you realise the book has finished and so much has been left unanswered. They’re Space MacGuffins, no more, and that’s wrong.

There’s no doubt Odyssey is a fine addition to the Academy series, but it’s frustrating at the end. Pretty standard McDevitt then.