The Engines of God (Academy - Book 1)

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And he maketh in Jerusalem inventions -- a device of an inventor -- to be on the towers, and on the corners, to shoot with arrows and with great stones, and his name goeth out unto a distance, for he hath been wonderfully helped till that he hath been strong. This is another edge-of-your-seat adventure in with McDevitt's recurring character Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins. Although, now 25 years after the setting of THE ENGINES OF GOD, she is an Earth-bound bureaucrat. The center of attention falls on the various ships and crews around Lookout, one of the few planets in the Orion Arm with a planet found to have a native intelligent civilization. Unknown to the inhabitants, one of the mysterious Omega clouds is bearing down on them, and it is a race to see if the humans can divert it, or at least convince the natives to head for the hills. I especially enjoyed the comical attempts of Digger Dunn to get the important message, or any message at all, through to them. (For some reason, I kept picturing the natives to resemble Jar-Jar Banks.) The book is, finally, a satisfying conclusion to the series, which consists of the following - Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-10-13 20:08:40 Boxid IA40258108 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Fortunately, Maggie was soon able to decipher the perplexing inscription from Oz: "Farewell and good fortune. Seek us by the light of the horgon's eye." A horgon was a mythical Quraquan beast, and the passage referred to a part of a stellar constellation, pointing the way to the Monument-Makers' home. Using the out-of-place cylindrical towers on Oz as waypoint markers, Hutch and Frank Carson (the second-in-command of the Quraqua expedition) were able to make a list of potential stars to which the passage might refer. Using a powerful radio telescope, they surveyed all the candidate stars and found one that was broadcasting a faint artificial transmission – Beta Pacifica.

Some of the crisis that arise seem almost too much of the “oh, now we need life-threatening peril to spice up the book - um, okay - cue the dire situation.” And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his name spread far abroad; for he was helped in a wonderful manner, till he was strong. And he made in Jerusalem machines invented by a wise contriver, to be upon the towers and upon the corners, to cast darts and great stones: and the fame of their preparation was heard at a distance; for he was wonderfully helped, till he was strong.In Jerusalem he set up machines, invented by skilled workers, on the towers and the corners for shooting arrows and large stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong. Despite the fact that this author is popular and has written a slew of other books, I never heard of him. That being said, in fact, there was nothing wrong with the writing itself. This guy can write, but the plot has some very thin areas, the story has too many characters, too much detail (pointless, needless, useless detail), complexity where it isn’t wanted or needed, and simplicity where depth is called for. They arrived in an unnamed star system that had already been surveyed decades previously. At first they found nothing unusual, and decided to make their OWN monument – a set of giant cubic structures, in an attempt to recreate the environment of the other disasters. But all of that I could have lived with. After all, a good series of books can survive a clunker. The part I hated about this book was that the Omega cloud were vastly different than they were in "The Engines of God". That book created a universe where advanced races were regularly, every 6000 years or so, nearly wiped out by the Omega clouds. But in "Omega", we learn that the Omega clouds are just creating art.... So the universe went from dark and menacing to just plain nuts. In Jerusalem his inventors made equipment for shooting arrows and for throwing large stones from the towers and corners of the city wall. His fame spread everywhere, and he became very powerful because of the help he received from God.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and on the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones with. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong. Book Genre: Adventure, Aliens, Fantasy, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space, Space Opera, Speculative Fiction The short stories "In the Tower" (1987) and "A Voice in the Night" (2013) are also set in the Alex Benedict universe. And he makes inventions in Jerusalem—a device of an inventor—to be on the towers, and on the corners, to shoot with arrows and with great stones, and his name goes out to a distance, for he has been wonderfully helped until he has been strong.

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The book is definitely compelling, though. McDevitt writes good, solid science fiction with a slight retro feel. His novels give off a vibe similar to Asimov's or Clarke's. I can't help but picture everyone dressed in 50's fashions and so on. They're definitely not old-fashioned. They just feel … classic. It's hard to explain, but I think if you read one or two of them, you'll understand what I mean. The Earth is facing environmental catastrophe in the 23rd century. Humans have spread to other star systems, but generally not found a lot of Earth-like planets, and those they have found are already inhabited. A handful of intelligent alien races have been discovered, but all are primitive compared to humanity. Most alien races discovered, however, are long dead, and the most prominent is one that apparently traveled to other stars, as their monuments have been found across the galaxy. Quite a cool book, and it's only just the beginning of a series I am excited to read. It's an interstellar archaeological mystery, but also a futuristic procedural novel following the working lives of archaeologists, scientists, and auxillary crewmembers. I love this kind of thing (see also Julie Czerneda's Species Imperative trilogy, which follows future biologists through their working lives). It sounds like a really good episode of Trek, right? Right. Well, no complaints there. I never expected total and complete originality out of these. Just a careful and methodical worldbuilding, care and devotion to characters, and a hopeful outlook despite everything. Including a very regular death toll on every single outing. (Wait... redshirts?) So, just what is going on? A question you as the reader, and Hutch as the protagonist will be asking throughout. Well, you do get your explanation by the end of the book even if, as I found it, not too satisfying but adequate.

This is very solid Indiana-Jones-style adventure in space with a group of women and men exploring ancient alien ruins. I never really connected emotionally to the characters and there was also a romance sub-plot I didn't care about at all. I'm not sure why, but since the people I buddy-read this with felt the same way, I thought I'd mention it. If you are a very character-focused reader who doesn't geek out about alien ruins and intergalactic mysteries, I think this book probably wouldn't work for you.There is a lot of the "professionals behaving very unprofessionally" trope that I always dislike in sci fi. So many accidents and even deaths could have easily been prevented if they'd just acted like careful professionals. On the other hand, when I look at the real world the same thing applies, so perhaps I have unrealistic expectations. Syfy - Watch Full Episodes | Imagine Greater". Scifi.com. Archived from the original on 2008-06-16 . Retrieved 2016-02-16. Shortly thereafter, they detected two strange anomalies – giant clouds in space, traveling at a high speed. Although the clouds were quite large – planet sized, at least – they were far too small to be natural objects. With insufficient mass, they should have been ripped apart by the star system's gravity. Nevertheless, the Academy crew, along with Truscott and her lieutenant, boarded the powerless and airless space station to investigate. What they discovered was very unsettling: dozens of alien corpses, apparently the same race as the Monument-Makers, who had all committed suicide by strapping themselves to their chairs and venting the atmosphere of the station. Connected Narratives". Archived from the original on September 19, 2010 . Retrieved February 9, 2012.

It is interesting to see how the book written in 1994 assumes that governments will start to care about the environment three centuries after its devastation began, as well as some 20th-century terms like the “third world country” remain while both political and economic map is closer to 1991 than even to 2022. I understand this is because the author was interested in highlighting other questions, but this makes the book feel dated. And he built structures on the walls of Jerusalem, designed by experts to protect those who shot arrows and hurled large stones from the towers and the corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide, for the LORD gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.Al che l'Academy, ora capitanata da Priscilla Hutchinson - che per la prima volta nella serie ricopre un ruolo secondario - mette in piedi un po' alla buona una missione per tentare di sviare la nube e salvare i Korbs, altrimenti detti Goompah perché somigliano ai personaggi di una trasmissione per bambini. Facciamo conto della specie di Teletubbies. c) The "city's" layout was perfectly symmetrical and composed of regular cubic units, with the notable exception of two cylindrical towers. Si noti come uso dei film come paragone. Il che perché di solito non leggo fantascienza e anche perché nessuno legge fantascienza, ma tutti vedono film di fantascienza. Ed è in questa trasmigrazione dei concetti fantascientifici dalla pagina allo schermo che il realismo narrativo viene macinato in favore di una favoletta fantastica e fantasiosa. McDevitt went to La Salle University, where a short story of his won the annual Freshman Short Story Contest and was published in the school's literary magazine, Four Quarters. As McDevitt explained in an interview: He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong.