There are few things as disappointing as a beloved authorexcuse my Frenchitting the bed. I love Jack McDevitt, he's absolutely my favorite science fiction author. The fact that this book, a follow up to the terrific Ancient Shores, isn't so much bad as it is totally forgettable is almost worse than if it were just a crappy story. Which by the way it also is. A crappy story.Ancient Shores is another of McDevitt's terrific "future earth" stories where in a world exactly like ours humanity is faced [...]

Very Disappointing!I've waited for YEARS for a sequel to Ancient Shores. What a huge disappointment. Overpriced, mediocre writing, antiquated concepts. This book should have been awesome and pointing towards a future where mankind joins the rest of the galactic community. Instead it's focus is on ignorance, superstition, fear and Xenophobia. Is this the BEST you could do?

This is a fun, feel-good story about an ancient portal discovered in a Sioux Indian reservation in North Dakota. So, in principle, the portal is owned by the Sioux Indians, and all passages are controlled by a member of the tribe. The portal leads to other places in the universe, and those places lead to yet other places. However, the U.S. president fears that bad things may come of the usage of the portal, and puts pressure to stop using it, or even to destroy it. And there is an additional eth [...]

Probably closer to 3.5 STARS. However, it is definitely engrossing and moves at a rapid pace. I inhaled the book in just over 24 hours. The premise of a star gate which is found on Indian-controlled land in North Dakota is intriguing.There are some annoying aspects of the book in that you want to shout at the characters, "you're doing it wrong!" They have multiple encounters on various works that are not recorded and they even have amateurs who are responsible for security.The mystery of the sha [...]

I'm a long time fan of Jack McDevitt's. I've been reading his work since his first novel, The Hercules Text back in the late 80's. I just finished Thunderbird, a recent work, and I was sincerely disappointed.This novel is a followup to his novel, Ancient Shores, which was published in 1996. I quite enjoyed Ancient Shores, a combination of xenoarcheology mystery story and thriller, pitting scientists up against the overwhelming odds of the federal government, with science winning the day.Thunderb [...]

I usually like sci-fi, but my gosh, this one was just off the radar. The premise was okay but the characters were all taking actions that a rational person would ask "what the heck they doin?". I think they should all have put on red shirts and got killed off.

Originally posted at fantasyliteratureWhen we last left Jack McDevitt’s North Dakota in 1996’s Ancient Shores, the U.S. Government had failed miserably and embarrassingly to wrest control of an alien stargate from the Spirit Lake Sioux, rightful owners of the land on which the alien artifact was found. Thunderbird, a sequel Ancient Shores, picks up several months after the showdown, which also saw fictional poet Walter Asquith shot dead.The world of Grand Forks, North Dakota, with its brutal [...]

Note: This book is a sequel to Ancient Shores, a book I thoroughly enjoyed. You don’t have to read that book to understand this one, but I highly recommend that you do. This review will necessarily include spoilers for that book.I have sometimes said of Jack McDevitt that he likes to write archaeological science fiction: stories where an artifact from the distant past reveals a mystery in the story’s “present” (which might be our distant future). The Alex Benedict books are about a famou [...]

I did not like where it ended. But it was a very good book nonetheless.

In general, I *love* McDevitt's books: great, big ideas; fast, tight plots; interesting characters, if not of the greatest depth; and a comfortable style of prose. I've read every book of his as soon as available for decades. Well, every rule has an exception. I give it 2 stars, but it's really more like 1.5 stars. The big ideas are there, maybe a little less plausible than in other books, but some initial suspension of disbelief is necessary when ready SF & Fantasy. My problem is the behavi [...]

This sequel to Ancient Shores, one of my favorite Jack McDevitt novels, was even better than it's predecessor. The characters deal with with the ramifications of the Stargate (called the Roundhouse in the book) in uniquely personal ways. As a reader, I travelled with some of them to other worlds and felt their sense of wonder on Eden, beyond the edge of the galaxy and elsewhere as well. Over the years, I've found few science fiction authors that evoke a sense of wonder as effectively as McDevitt [...]

The premise of this book is the discovery of a working teleportal, and McDevitt uses this to explore the what-ifs of using this device. Also, and more importantly to the story, he describes a variety of what might be termed real world consequences in terms of how people act and react to such a discovery. In this, the depictions are quite realistic and many of the major characters are well drawn and engaging. Where the story falls down, in my view, is that in no world I can imagine would such a s [...]

I could not read this book fast enough! Totally engrossing and with the kind of wondrous ideas that Jack McDevitt is so good at putting on the page.

I'm torn about this book. It was an amazing study, from a writers perspective, about shifting pov's within a chapter and jeep continuity. It was handled really well, with a nice ease. As a story goes, though, it felt very Grisham-esqued not in a totally fulfilling way. The story just ends after 300+ pages of build-up and no payoff. And the scene that was supposed to be the "a-ha" moment gets almost no tension to it. It just felt like the author ran into a deadline and had no easy way to end the [...]

definitely not a bad book but not as great as some of his others.

Thunderbird, by Jack McDevitt [Minor spoilers]First ThoughtsJust finished this on Kindle and though I was not a fan of the original Ancient Shores, this modernized sequel written many years later, was an improvement, but the ending was disappointing. Story & Plot:Basically picks up from the first book which is unnecessary to read to read this sequel, but it would be a good idea to since the characters won’t make a lot of sense otherwise. It was really hard to really connect to any of the c [...]

This book is one that I both loved and hated.I loved it because it's just the sort of SF book of ideas and exploration that I love, with a touch of politics, which I also love. The 'roundhouse' that was found in the first book (which I read many years ago and no longer remember anything about, I'm afraid) is a gateway to other worlds. It falls on Indian lands, which means that the government can't simply grab it. The worlds they travel to are interesting (although the reaction to the on that app [...]

It would help this guy out a lot if he would read an ethnography once in a while. Or even if he had talked with the "Sioux" he says he stayed with for a time. He really seems to believe that every culture on Earth has evolved to be monotheistic, monogamous, heterosexual (and of course, gendered--don't miss that little lecture in there about how it would be totally inefficient for evolution for there to be three genders), you get the picture. So therefore every other culture in the universe would [...]

Thunderbird is a sequel to Ancient Shores, one of McDevitt's more obscure early books from a couple of decades ago. I thought he did a good job of blurring the time jump, because this one starts out right where the first one ended, although it features some different characters. It's thematically similar to The Hercules Text in that it examines the sociological issues raised by proof of other life, including advanced civilizations, in the universe. I thoroughly enjoyed the exploratory sequences [...]

McDevitt takes an interesting idea - a wormhole on a Sioux reservation - yet fails to deliver a good story. What ends up being told is a group of "let's go here but not do very much". We are exposed to several aliens from afar and a large number of cool locations. But in the end, the story leaves us with many more questions than we started with.

The novel is classic McDevitt about the discovery of a star gate on Sioux land in North Dakota during a present day political climate. It features a surprise ending which I did not see coming. As usual I loved his newest work. But this is the 2nd recent Sci-Fi that left me feeling angry and wishing for Scientist-Kings in control of all political systems. 8 of 10 stars

.I had high hopes for this book , it started off well , and had lots of interesting plot twists and developments . But then it all ended rather abruptly . There was no proper buildup , it's almost as if the author was tired of writing . Not a good sequel , and not up to his usual standards . Quite disappointing

A mysterious building pops up on the Sioux reservation and mysterious sightings begin appearing in the United States. In the building is a doorway to to another world hundreds of light years away. Will the the alien technology help or harm human life as we know it?

Not one of his better books, mostly because the middle dragged and didn't seem to be going anywhere. The ending was good though.

Only the second I've read by Jack McDevitt - Time Travelers Never Die being the first - I am not sure what to make of this novel. Much of the way through the book, it kept me reading for a certain endearing voice of the author. The arc of the story, however, seemed an average device some writers use to keep interest: until close to the end, the presentation remains pedestrian, and one must have kept reading to find a flash of moment.The theme was fraught with an ongoing element that seemed to co [...]

Jack McDevitt continues to dominate the science fiction field with the tales that he spins so masterfullyUNDERBIRD is a thrilling sequel 19 years in the making that takes us back to the world of ANCIENT SHORES.An alien artifact has been unearthed in the wilds of North Dakota. An artifact that is looked at as the answer to all of Earth's resource problems by some, but, to others it signifies the potential end to civilization.The artifact opens up the universe to the world and yet, all that potent [...]

What if the Stargate were on Sioux land in the United States today, and the media (and the not-to-bright) President got involved, AND the only people(?) visited on the other end had i.q.'s of around 100. Well. April was a spring breeze, and the Sioux were independent at least. Why didn't April visit more intelligent people on the other end, or why didn't more intelligent people in this end get involved? That continuously frustrated me throughout the book.Interesting glimpses of other places, oth [...]

A great concept. I generally like stories based on finding alien devices here on Earth, and this was no disappointment. (Avoiding a spoiler here) This is written in typical Jack McDevitt style, which is to say with a lot of attention to the people and their relationships as they slowly unravel the mysteries surrounding alien artifacts.

A fairly absorbing effort that continues the storyline from ANCIENT SHORES. McDevitt's imagination appears to be undiminished. A travel gate located in North Dakota, takes travelers to several alien locations, along with the contact that ensues. Perhaps there are a few dangling threads left that could have been resolved. However, enjoyed the read.

Continuación directa al anterior libro (Ancient Shores). Pero no es tan efectivo, y la injerencia de los políticos llega a niveles sorprendentes. Pero por la exploración de otros planetas merece lampena leerlo. B