The Long Sunset (Priscilla Hutchins #8)

The Long Sunset by Jack McDevitt is the eighth book in series featuring space pilot Priscilla Hutchins (now renamed the Academy series).  Priscilla Hutchins works for the Academy, the group that sends scientists into space to explore signs of other life.

While looking through the most powerful telescope yet invented, a signal is intercepted. It is a video of a waterfall with what sounds like classical music. This message sparks debate: do we send a ship to explore the area and maybe find intelligent life or should we worry about finding life that could follow a ship back and attack the Earth?

A team is chosen to go explore, if the okay is given by the Academy. Priscilla Hutchins, the captain of many a trip into the unknown, is chosen to fly what may be the last ship sent outside our solar system. They are not to make contact, but to find the source of the message.

What follows is the discovery of more than one planet containing sentient beings. One of which is in danger from a black hole slowly approaching.

McDevitt writes a great science fiction story. And Priscilla Hutchins is the captain you would want with you on any space exploration. Any fans of science fiction, good stories, or interested in how our society may progress should read this series.

McDevitt, Jack. (2018). The Long Sunset. New York: Saga Press.

Omega (Priscilla Hutchins #4)

Omega by Jack McDevitt is the fourth book in his science fiction series featuring Priscilla Hutchins.

Thirty years ago humans discovered clouds in outer space that seem to attack planets with man-made structures. One of these Omega waves is headed toward Earth but will not arrive for almost one thousand years.

However another wave appears to be turning toward a solar system. A ship is sent to see why - if there is intelligent life in that system. What is found is a planet with humanoid creatures who have less than a year to live unless the omega cloud can be diverted.

Priscilla Hutchins, now acting head of the Academy - the agency in charge of most space exploration - must quickly organize a team to try to save the creatures on a planet being called Lookout.

Two teams are sent to assists the couple of people already on site. One team will be tasked with trying to stop or turn the wave. Another team will be studying video from the planet's surface to learn the inhabitants' language an customs so they can try to warn them of what is coming.

McDevitt has created worlds both fascinating and believable through out outer space. His characters are great and readers will root for them in impossible situations. Great science fiction series.

McDevitt, Jack (2003). Omega. New York: Ace Books.

Chindi (Priscilla Hutchins #3)

Chindi by Jack McDevitt is the third book in his Priscilla Hutchins series - a superluminal pilot who usually works with archeologists exploring distant planets.

After a narrow escape on her last mission, Hutch is ready to retire. The Academy has other ideas and begs her to do one last flight - taking a group of alien hunters to investigate a radio signal picked up near a neutron star.

The Contact Society is thought of as a bunch of crazies. They train to meet aliens in spite of the fact that after exploring hundreds of planets, intelligent life has only been found on one world (with ruins on others implying that there once was a sentient race).

Priscilla agrees. She has been requested personally by the group. It should be a few weeks flying there and back. It is unlikely that the signal will lead to anything. Another ship is being sent to the possible target of the transmission.

After just a few days on site, Hutch agrees to meet up with the other ship and see what they found. It appears that there is a net of satellites at the end point that monitors the planet they surround and send a signal to another location.

The Contact Society is off to find the next point in the web. And what they find is the most incredible find since space travel began.

McDevitt has created a great character who goes to fascinating, and sometimes dangerous, planets. This is a great science fiction series that combines the far reaches of space, quantum physics, and archeology.

McDevitt, Jack. (2002). Chindi. New York: Ace Books.

Deepsix (Priscilla Hutchins #2)

Deepsix by Jack McDevitt is the second book in his science fiction series featuring pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins.

The planet Malevia III is about to be destroyed. There is a gas giant barreling toward it that will cause it to break up and become space dust. Scientists have begun to arrive to watch the once in a millennium event and collect data that they will study for years to come. But when a scan of the planet shows a building with a tower on the planet that was thought to be free of sentient beings, the Academy searches for a ship that can arrive in time to get some pictures and samples from the ground.

Priscilla Hutchins is in charge of a ship that is returning to Earth from Pinnacle - the only other planet found to have a sentient race. She is asked (told) to make a detour. And, as she has on of the few people who survived a brief survey of Malevia III 20 years before, take him to the surface to explore in the few weeks the planet has left. Hutch is not an archeologist but has worked with them for twenty years and has a love of discovery.

Randall Nightingale will never forget his first trip to Malevia III. He lost most of his team when they were attacked by local wildlife. Since then he has become the scapegoat for what went wrong with that expedition and ridiculed in the media by author Gregory MacAllister (who is on a cruise ship headed to watch the destruction). He has been keeping a low profile on Pinnacle and is ready to retire to Scotland.

McDevitt has created a great character in Hutch. His stories are fantastical but plausible. And his worlds are fascinating. The Priscilla Hutchins series is great science fiction - start at the beginning and read them all.

McDevitt, Jack. (2001). Deepsix. New York: EOS.

The Engines of God (Priscilla Hutchins #1)

The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt is the first book in his science fiction series featuring Priscilla Hutchins.

In the early 23rd century, humans are exploring space. A small number of planets have been found with the ruins of past civilizations. One planet, Quragua, has a team of archeologists excavating an ancient temple. If they can find more examples of the language, they can start to decode the language of the creatures who lived there. But the Academy team is running out of time. The space corporation, Kosmik, intends to start terraforming  the planet for human settlement - which will make the planet uninhabitable for close to 100 years.

Pilot Priscilla Hutchins has been to many of the planets and  with artifacts and ruins and is being sent to collect the Academy team. She will be joined by one of her favorite archaeologists, Richard Wald, who thinks a new discovery will lead to connections between Quragua and the people he has been studying.

McDevitt has created a great beginning to a series with a complete idea of the world he is writing about and an excellent main character who readers will follow through adventures where ever she flies. Great science fiction.

McDevitt, Jack. (1994). The Engines of God. New York: Ace Books.