Thursday, December 10, 2015

What is Jack McDevitt reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Jack McDevitt, author of Thunderbird. 

His entry begins:
I’m scheduled to do a presentation on Mark Twain for the St Simons Island Literary Guild in a few weeks, so I’ve been reading every Mark Twain book I can find, other than novels, most of which I’ve already read. Just finished The Library of America edition of his Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches,& Essays, 1852-1890. I’ve been discovering that, while he deserves his reputation as America’s Great Humorist, he also has a dark side. It’s evident that he believes life is too painful to be worthwhile, not only for humans, but for everything else on the planet. I’m also...[read on]
About Thunderbird, from the publisher:
The Nebula Award–winning author of the Alex Benedict novels and the Priscilla Hutchins novels returns to the world of Ancient Shores in a startling and majestic epic.

A working stargate dating back more than ten thousand years has been discovered in North Dakota, on a Sioux reservation near Devils Lake. Travel through the gate currently leads to three equally mysterious destinations: (1) an apparently empty garden world, quickly dubbed Eden; (2) a strange maze of underground passageways; or (3) a space station with a view of a galaxy that appears to be the Milky Way.

The race to explore and claim the stargate quickly escalates, and those involved divide into opposing camps who view the teleportation technology either as an unprecedented opportunity for scientific research or a disastrous threat to national—if not planetary—security. In the middle of the maelstrom stands Sioux chairman James Walker. One thing is for certain: Questions about what the stargate means for humanity’s role in the galaxy cannot be ignored.

Especially since travel through the stargate isn’t necessarily only one way…
Learn more about the book and author at Jack McDevitt's website.

The Page 69 Test: Firebird.

The Page 69 Test: Thunderbird.

Writers Read: Jack McDevitt.

--Marshal Zeringue