Talk:Jack McDevitt

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I am working on a new page on McDevitt's "A Talent for War" and linking it here, as was done for "Ancient Shores" and "Standard Candles". I plan a reasonably full article. I'll have it ready in about two weeks. Any comments or suggestions?

--Simmaren 04:10, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

The article on A Talent for War is underway. I added a link to it.

Simmaren 19:10, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] teeming?

"With The Engines of God (1994), McDevitt introduced the idea of a universe which was once teeming with intelligent species, but only contains abandoned artifacts by the time humans arrive on the scene. Although it was initially written as a standalone novel"

I have just finished reading this book. Key to it is that the universe is seen as NOT teeming with intelligent species. There are the monument-makers, Nok, Q..., humans and that's about it. I haven't changed the statement (yet) since it's possible that the teeming comes up in later novels. If this is the case, please so indicate. Other-wise, the statemetn should be changed. Another problem with the statement is that it can be understood as meaning that McDevitt was the first author to picture a universe teeming with smart species - He was not. Kdammers 10:45, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

You are correct, and I have changed the statement to "once teeming with intelligent life ". Cheers, Pete Tillman 20:16, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Copyedit request

I went through the article and did minor cleanup and copyediting.

Here's a sentence that needs work:

"McDevitt's novels frequently raise questions which he does not attempt to answer, and drop them in favor of other plotlines which are of more interest to the author." [last line, header para]

I think it's more accurate to say that he deliberately leaves ambiguities for dramatic and literary effect. See, forex, http://www.sfwa.org/members/McDevitt/Omega-Comment.html

Thoughts? Cheers, Pete Tillman 20:39, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

As you can see, I edited this, and added a source and quote. Pete Tillman 21:31, 2 May 2007 (UTC)