Doorway to the Stars by Jack McDevitt

Published by Subterranean Press on February 1, 2024

Jack McDevitt has a long history of writing entertaining space opera, often focusing on the exploration of alien races that have become extinct. His new novella sets aside the space travel that dominates most of his stories and imagines an easier means of interstellar travel.

About 12,000 years ago, a transportation grid was installed in North Dakota. Nobody noticed it until members of a Sioux tribe found it, started pressing buttons, and realized that it would transport them to other worlds. All the worlds they have visited are Earth-like in atmosphere and gravity. The journeys often seem like visiting the nicer parts of New Jersey.

The destination that departs from the norm is a space station at the edge of the galaxy. The station has no atmosphere, which led to an early explorer’s unfortunate death. Explorers now wear space suits when they visit the station.

A few of the worlds are inhabited. The aliens are generally humanoid, although the residents of one world are simian in appearance. They look like apes who wear pants and read books. Why these particular worlds are linked by the grid is answered (sort of) by the story's end.

Visitors to a ruined world catch a glimpse of an alien who resembles the devil. They decide to call the planet Brimstone. On the space station, visitors find a screen (perhaps an alien version of Facetime) that shows a devil speaking in a tongue they don’t understand.

The transportation system is Sioux property by virtue of being on their reservation. However, when a tribal leader dismantles it and tries to hide the pieces — on the reasonable theory that nothing good will come of giving white people access to such powerful technology — the government steps in and asserts its questionable authority. In the real world, I would expect the government to ignore tribal autonomy as it always does when treaties become inconvenient and to surround the grid with soldiers in the paranoid anticipation of an alien invasion. McDevitt tells a more optimistic story.

The novella’s ending illustrates the lesson that we shouldn’t judge others by their appearances. That includes aliens who look like devils.

There isn’t much to this story. Portals that allow quick transportation to other worlds are familiar in science fiction and McDevitt makes little effort to build the worlds his characters visit. The story’s point is its twist ending, but I'm not sure the relatively obvious tiwst merits the buildup.

The story is published as a deluxe first edition and is fairly pricey for a novella, but it is a signed limited edition meant for collectors. I ignore price when I review books because value is for the consumer to determine (and the text might eventually be available in a more affordable format). I might recommend the novella as a pleasant story by a long-time practitioner of the science fiction genre, but if Doorway to the Stars were packaged in a volume with McDevitt's best stories, it probably wouldn't be anyone's favorite.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

A Voice in the Night by Jack McDevitt

Published by Subterranean Press on August 31, 2018

Jack McDevitt is at his best with space opera. His novels about explorers or traders roaming the galaxy always convey a sense of realism that is missing from military science fiction and Star Wars clones. As this short story collection shows, McDevitt has a wider science fiction range, but I still like his space opera more than his other efforts. My favorite McDevitt novels star Alex Benedict. I was therefore happy to read “A Voice in the Night,” which introduces Benedict as a teenager who persuades his archeologist uncle to track down the radio waves of the final broadcast of a comedian who died in space.

McDevitt’s other major series of novels (the Academy series) features Priscilla Hutchins. “Maiden Voyage” is a prequel to his Hutchins novels. The story balances the wonders and perils of discovery as Priscilla takes a qualification flight to get her pilot’s license. Another story about Priscilla’s training (“Waiting at the Altar”) involves a distress signal and a first contact that has been lost to history.

In “Oculus,” another character from the Academy series, Kellie Collier, finds herself and her passenger in a pickle when their ship loses power while trying to remove an ancient civilization’s books from the moon where they were stored. The story (one of my favorites in the collection) asks in a rather thrilling way whether a dedication to knowledge can at some point become foolish.

One of the more substantial stories in the volume, “Lucy,” imagines that a space ship has gone missing. Characters debate whether to send a rescue ship operated by the same latest-generation AI, or one operated by the previous generation AI that has a proven track record. The AIs, of course, have their own opinions. The story incorporates old themes (whether there is a political will for space travel, whether AIs are capable of developing emotions), but the story has a new take on the concept of technological obsolescence and how sentient technology might respond to it.

“Blinker” is another good story. Two people who are trapped in a moon base use their ingenuity to survive. As they debate whether robots should take the risk of space travel rather than humans, they realize that humans have a survival instinct and cleverness that robots lack. In one of the most interesting and well-written stories (“Friends in High Places”), God changes history to save Jesus from being crucified.

In a twist on the science fiction cautionary tale, “Good Intentions” imagines a game played by a “solve the mystery club” in which the mystery is crafted by a science fiction writer who wants the participants to resolve, not just a mystery, but a pair of ethical dilemmas. As a good mystery should, the story takes a surprising twist at the end. “Molly’s Kids” is another surprising story about people at NASA who try to trick an AI into doing something it doesn’t want to do.

“Searching for Oz” is a first contact story about aliens who enjoy Jack Benny’s radio show. “Listen Up, Nitwits” is a first contact story in which contact is made by a lonely AI. Another story in which first contact is made by an AI, “The Pegasus Project,” suggesting an interesting way in which aliens and humans might prove to be similar. “Ships in the Night” is a story of contact between a dull human and an alien who (from the human’s perspective) might be even more dull, making them kindred spirits whose lives intersect in brief but important moments.

“The Law of Gravity Isn’t Working on Rainbow Bridge” is told from the perspective of a television news reporters who witnesses the effects of a time bubble. “Midnight Clear” is about displaying a Christmas tree on a planet that aliens no longer inhabit.

Sherlock Holmes investigates a dead physicist’s discovery of relativity two years before Einstein in “The Lost Equation.” In “The Adventure of the Southsea Trunk,” a literary critic is murdered after receiving an autographed copy of the latest Sherlock Holmes novel — autographed by a modern writer, not by Conan Doyle, who is celebrated for his other works.

“Combinations” asks whether dead people can be recreated digitally, and explores the question with a couple of petulant chess players and William Jennings Bryan. Two guys consider changing their lives by taking a long voyage in “It’s a Long Way to Alpha Centauri.” In “The Play’s the Thing,” an AI version of Shakespeare writes modern plays that might bring false fame of the sort that Shakespeare would have abhorred.

In “The Last Dance,” software brings back a nonphysical replica of a widower’s wife, something like a hologram that purports to have her memories and emotions. Easing the pain of moving on turns out to be a bad idea for people who can’t let go.

There are only three stories in the collection that didn’t work for me. “Blood Will Tell” is kind of a nothing time travel story about the origin of a business plan. “Cathedral” reads like a Ben Bova lament about how NASA never gets all the funding it deserves. The plot involves a NASA employee who decides to do something about the perceived problem. “Excalibur” is a nothing story about NASA doing nothing when it finds evidence of an alien artifact.

The collection mixes stories from the last three decades. It isn’t a “best of” book. Given the number of stories in this collection, it isn’t surprising that some are stronger than others. There are a couple of “best of” McDevitt collections but I think the last one was published in 2009. A Voice in the Night gives his fans a chance to catch up on his more recent short fiction. And if a retrospective “best of” collection is published, several of the stories in this volume are likely to be included.

RECOMMENDED

Polaris by Jack McDevitt

First published in 2004

Jack McDevitt is a skilled but uneven storyteller. His best work is found in his series of novels featuring Priscilla Hutchins. While the Hutchins series tends to be classic space opera that has characters charging around the galaxy and encountering aliens (or the artifacts left behind by long-dead alien races), the novels in the Alex Benedict series read more like mysteries. Benedict makes his living acquiring and selling antiquities. With his pilot, Chase Kolpath, Benedict zips around the galaxy solving puzzles that are related to recent acquisitions. Actually, Chase does most of the running. Benedict's strength is his reasoning ability; physical exertion is something he prefers to avoid. Chase's strength is her ability to improvise ways to keep Benedict from getting killed.

Polaris starts with the disappearance of the captain and passengers from a ship called Polaris that positioned itself to watch a star explode. Decades after the empty ship is recovered, Alex finds some artifacts that belonged to the missing travelers. After a number of attempts are made on the lives of Alex and Chase, it becomes clear that the artifacts may hold a clue to the disappearances -- a clue that someone does not want Alex to find.

Polaris moves at a good pace and the mystery is intriguing, although the solution is a bit too obvious. Characters are carefully developed but they are not as compelling as the characters in the Hutchins series. Alex is sort of aloof and not particularly likable, although Chase supplies a winning personality for readers who want to root for someone. My complaint about this series is that it does not give the sense that it is set in the far future. It could, in fact, be set in the present, but for the addition of convenient space travel and flying cars. Still, the novel is fun. It isn't the best in the series (Seeker might be) but it always held my attention.

RECOMMENDED

Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt

First published in 1997 by HarperCollins

In the year 306 of the post-apocalyptic world as Silas Glote knows it, few things are as valuable as the only surviving copy of a Mark Twain novel.  How Karik Endine acquired A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and why he kept its acquisition a secret, is a mystery.  An even greater mystery is why Karik bequeathed it to Chaka Milana, a young woman he barely knew, just before he killed himself.

Eternity Road is Jack McDevitt’s contribution to the enormous body of post-apocalyptic fiction.  The apocalyptic event, identified only as “the plague” until an epilogue sheds a bit more light upon it, occurred in the distant past.  Among the other legends and rumors that captivate the imaginations of those who live in the Mississippi Valley is the existence of a place called Haven, a repository of knowledge somewhere to the east.  Karik once led an expedition to find Haven; he returned alone.  Years later, shortly after Karik’s death, a new expedition is mounted.  This one includes Silas, Chaka, Karik’s son, a woman who renounced her priesthood, a woodsman, and a couple of others.  They confront danger and hardship, encounter wondrous remnants of the forgotten technology left behind by “the Roadmakers,” meet people who are friendly and some who are not, and generally experience the sort of adventures that are common in quest stories.

McDevitt is one of the best storytellers in science fiction so all of this is interesting and entertaining, but the story isn’t nearly as exciting and the characters not nearly so compelling as those in his Academy or Alex Benedict novels.  Character development seems half-hearted and the obstacles the characters encounter on their journey lack the imaginative brilliance that characterizes McDevitt’s best work.

A minor gripe but one that bothered me:  Everyone of importance in the novel is able to read English.  They have no difficulty, for instance, understanding A Connecticut Yankee.  They can even read a translation of Tacitus.  It is difficult for me to believe that the ability to read and write survived for so many generations but an understanding of science and technology did not.  It seems to me that literacy would vanish at least as quickly as the knowledge required to repair an internal combustion engine or to build a steam locomotive.  If books on paper did not survive the centuries, why were parents passing along to their children the ability to read but not the ability to generate electricity?  Did the plague wipe out engineers but spare English majors?

Illogic notwithstanding, a weak McDevitt novel is still a better effort than many sf writers can produce:  the writing is fluid, the pace is swift, and the story is capably crafted.  The novel’s best moments require the reader to puzzle out where the characters are and what they’re seeing, provoking fun little “aha” experiences (as in, “aha, they’re looking at a satellite dish!”).  Eternity Road should appeal to fans of quest and adventure novels and post-apocalyptic fiction, although readers familiar with McDevitt’s better novels may be disappointed.

RECOMMENDED