I’ve enjoyed Jack McDevitt’s “Academy Series” with star pilot Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins. The latest volume (and possibly the last), The Long Sunset, kicks off with an alien transmission 7000 years old. The political environment of 2256 is isolationistic. The politicians want to ground all the interstellar ships and just “hunker down.” A scientific group contacts Hutch and convinces her to pilot a FTL starship to the region where the alien transmission originated. The Government tries to stop them, but the starship manages to launch. What happens next is predictable. The Long Sunset features one of the lamest First Contact stories I’ve ever read. The conclusion will surprise no one. The best thing about The Long Sunset is the John Harris cover. Disappointing. GRADE: C
Academy Series – Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins
The Engines of God (1994), ISBN 0-441-00077-0
Deepsix (2001), ISBN 0-06-105124-1
Chindi (2002), ISBN 0-441-00938-7
Omega (2003), ISBN 0-441-01046-6
Odyssey (2006), ISBN 0-441-01433-X
Cauldron (2007), ISBN 0-441-01525-5
StarHawk (2013), ISBN 0-425-26085-2
The Long Sunset (2018), ISBN 1-481-49793-6
The short stories “Melville on Iapetus” (1983), “Promises to Keep” (1984), “Oculus” (2002), “The Big Downtown” (2005),[7] “Kaminsky at War” (2006), “Maiden Voyage” (2012), and “The Cat’s Pajamas” (2012) are also set in the Academy universe.
I have read 5 or 6 of his books and found them mildly enjoyable but not particularly well written. I’ll pass on this one.
Steve, my favorite McDevitt SF novel is SEEKER. THE LONG SUNSET is a dud.
Must have read one or two books too – but don’t remember them, that’s not a good sign.
Again maybe an example of Sturgeon’s law?
Wolf, I recommend McDevitt’s SEEKER. It’s very good. THE LONG SUNSET…not so much.
Thanks for reading (and reviewing) this, so we don’t have to.
Jeff, I was hoping for more from THE LONG SUNSET. But it turned into a 464-page slog.
That’s a long slog. Did you ever consider putting it aside?
Patti, I give most books 50 pages to engage me. If I reach page 50 and I’m bored, I stop reading. THE LONG SUNSET isn’t terrible. It’s just tedious. I was hoping for more.
The lowest grade you’ve given McDevitt, I believe. You mention the conclusion, so you must have finished it, which means you still liked it at 50 pages. I thought the plot summary and discussion on Scalzi’s blog made it sound interesting. Guess not.
Rick, I kept reading THE LONG SUNSET hoping it would get better. Instead, I got one of the goofiest First Contact storylines I’ve ever encountered. Scalzi’s right that the elements of a good story are part of THE LONG SUNSET, but McDevitt just didn’t put them together in any satisfying way.
I was disappointed with The Long Sunset too. Everything happened too easy, and the technology was magical. But it started off with a wonderful premise – that we had interstellar travel but the people of the Earth wanted to give it up because it scared them we might attract unwanted attention from a superior alien species. That’s a very good science fictional idea to explore, but McDevitt didn’t follow through. He obviously wanted to write a space adventure story, but he would have been more daring if he had written a story where we gave up space travel for our fears. I’m not sure McDevitt is the kind of writer to write such a story though. Probably Kim Stanley Robinson could do it.
Jim, I agree with you on Kim Stanley Robinson being the type of writer who could explore the concepts in THE LONG SUNSET. But, I did order McDevitt’s short story collection, VOICE IN THE NIGHT, that’s being published by Subterranean Books this Summer.