Seeker (Alex Benedict Series #3) by Jack McDevitt

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Alex Benedict and his executive assistant, Chase Kolpath -- ambitious antiquities dealers from Jack McDevitt's A Talent for War (1989) and, more recently, Polaris -- are back in Seeker, a story in which the two antiquarians search for a legendary lost colony that is both a science fiction thriller and a remarkably complex mystery.

More than 9,000 years after an interstellar transport named Seeker left an overcrowded and politically repressive Earth with the dream of founding a new society on an unspecified planet, Benedict and Kolpath stumble across a ceramic cup that was once on the now-legendary lost starship. But tracking down how the ancient artifact got from the ship into the hands of a maltreated woman and her thuggish boyfriend turns out to be more than Benedict and Kolpath bargained for -- as their search leads them across multiple star systems and straight into an anonymous assassin's crosshairs. But as the killer closes in, the two courageous antiquarians uncover the jaw-dropping truth about the lost starship and the legendary colony…

Equally reminiscent of Frederik Pohl's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Heechee saga (Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, et al.) and a classic Ellery Queen mystery, McDevitt's Seeker will appeal to readers of hard-core science fiction, as well as adventurous mystery fans looking for an out-of-this-world story. And just like Polaris, Seeker is characterized by a bombshell of an ending that will leave readers absolutely awestruck. Paul Goat Allen

From the Publisher

Thousands of years after an entire colony mysteriously disappears, antiquities dealer Alex Benedict comes into possession of a cup that seems to be from the Seeker, one of the colony's ships. Investigating the provenance of the cup, Alex and his assistant Chase follow a deadly trail to the Seeker-strangely adrift in a system barren of habitable worlds. But their discovery raises more questions than it answers, drawing Alex and Chase into the very heart of danger.

Publishers Weekly

Ideas abound in McDevitt's classy riff on the familiar lost-space-colony theme. In 2688, interstellar transports Seeker and Bremerhaven left a theocratic Orwellian Earth to found a dictator-free society, Margolia-and vanished. Nine thousand years later, with a flawed humanity spread over 100-odd worlds, Margolia and its ships have become Atlantis-type myths, but after a cup from Seeker falls into the hands of antiquarian Alex Benedict, the hero of McDevitt's Polaris (2004), Alex determines to win everlasting fame and vaster fortune by finding them. Female pilot Chase Kolpath, this book's narrator, gutsily tracks the ancient Seeker on a breathless trek across star systems and through an intriguing mystery plot, a bevy of fully realized characters, ingenious AI ships and avatars of long-departed personalities who offer advice and entertainment. The scientific interpolations are as convincing as the far-future planetscapes and human and alien societies, bolstering an irresistible tractor beam of heavy-duty action. This novel delivers everything it promises-with a galactic wallop. Agent, Ralph M. Vicinanza. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Fleeing Earth's repressive societies in the 27th century, a pair of ships-the Bremerhaven and the Seeker-sought refuge in the stars and established the colony of Margolia. Then they disappeared. Several thousand years later, an artifact that may have come from the Seeker falls into the hands of antiquities dealer Alex Benedict and his assistant, Chase Kolpath. Their investigations into the lost colony lead them into a web of intrigue and danger as they become targets for assassination by powers that don't want them to pursue their goal. Set in the same universe as the author's Polaris and Deepsix, McDevitt's latest sf adventure features personal drama as well as fast-paced action in the depths of outer space. Combining hard science with superb storytelling, this compelling take belongs in most sf collections. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Another far-future adventure for obsessive relic locator/dealer Alex Benedict and his gorgeous pilot/assistant, Chase Kolpath (Polaris, 2004, etc.). When Alex examines a strange old cup inscribed with English characters, he's sure it's from the vanished Seeker, one of two transport ships aboard which 5,000 colonists fled the U.S.'s 27th-century religious dictatorship. Nobody knew where their planet, Margolia, was located, and the colonists were never heard from again. Now, 9,000 years later, Margolia is a myth, like Atlantis. Following an equivocal chain of evidence, Alex and Chase infer that two space Survey employees stumbled upon Seeker during one of their voyages, filed a false report and then died in an accident. Chase must visit the creepy, telepathic alien Mutes to retrieve the original ship's log. After more sleuthing-not to mention the unwelcome attentions of rival dealer Oliver Bolton, and the explicit disapproval of archaeologists and Survey bigwigs-Chase and Alex discover the system where Seeker drifts, derelict, its engines having exploded. They retrieve some artifacts, fight off a murderous attack by a robot probe and return home, narrowly avoiding an assassination attempt. However, Seeker's system contains a planet that might once have been habitable, as well as the other colony ship and a space dock in mystifyingly eccentric orbits. Was this Margolia's original location? If so, what happened 9,000 years ago to wreck the system and the colonists' hopes?Sounds far more exciting in summary than when stretched over several hundred pages, and it's hard to sympathize with protagonists who are merely looters. What really grates is that McDevitt is capable of much better work.

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