Ostensibly concluding the series begun with The Engines of God (1995), and yet leaving the door open for more adventures, the latest novel from McDevitt focuses on the unstoppable and lethal interstellar nano-constructs known as omega clouds. In the year 2234, the flourishing human race, having explored a fair amount of the galaxy, knows that one of these clouds is due to impact Earth in approximately 1,000 years. Unable to focus clearly on such a distant threat, mankind has tended to ignore the clouds. But now one is on its way to destroy a newly found world populated by the most advanced aliens mankind has yet encountered. The race, dubbed the "Goompahs" by the humans (they call themselves "Korbikkans"), is not all that technologically savvy, but they represent the most complex culture yet discovered, and offer much in the way of fellowship—if only they can be protected from the omega cloud.

A small ship, the Jenkins, makes the initial contact. Its crew of four is soon secretly planting eavesdropping devices among the Goompahs in order to amass data and learn their language. Meanwhile, several other ships are dispatched by Priscilla Hutchins, the head of Earth's Space Academy. As the news of the discovery of the Goompahs becomes public, Hutchins has to contend with religious zealots, liberal do-gooders and the media, all intent on using the Goompahs for their own purposes. "Hutch" is also subject to demands by David Collingdale, who has previously seen a world he loved destroyed by an omega cloud and wants to do his part to rescue the Goompahs. He's soon leading the main backup mission to their planet.

Back on the Goompah world, the crew of the Jenkins—notably Digby Dunn, a most unheroic sort, in love with the captain of the Jenkins, Kellie Collier—are flitting about in invisibility suits, hoping to make firsthand observations of the Goompah culture. A rash move by Digby leads to the death of a fellow crewmember, and Digby berates himself, but is soon back at his spying. At the same time, closer observation of the omega clouds reveals that each one is accompanied by a shepherd device dubbed a "hedgehog." The role of these hedgehogs will reveal the ultimate secrets of the clouds.

Collingdale's backup ship breaks down en route to the Goompahs, derailing the complex plans to save that world. Now the whole burden is on the shoulders of Digby and Kellie. Two humans must strive to protect a world where, when they finally show themselves, they are regarded as demons.

Good old-fashioned problem-solving SF

If I array before you the names Christopher Anvil, Gordon Dickson, Poul Anderson, John Dalmas, James Schmitz and Fred Saberhagen, does a gestalt begin to form? These men, mostly associated with the classic Astounding/Analog school of SF, all offered similar tales, discounting such individual quirks as Schmitz's humor and Anderson's bardic romance. Highly competent men and women protagonists, hewing to the scientific method and some lateral thinking, inhabiting a realistically detailed, optimistic future, encounter aliens of varying degrees of cultural weirdness and meet the challenges of the cosmos. Reduced to such a formula (and the reduction, like all such, omits much of the individual charms of the works being distilled), the books written by these authors can plainly be seen to form the backbone or core of science fiction. My formula given above is almost a definition of what SF has traditionally focused on, and its methods and approaches.

Jack McDevitt rides this spinal SF axis with panache and brio and solid workmanship. His new novel never gets into really bizarre quantum territory like ones by Bear or Benford might. His characters are not as conflicted or angst-ridden as Mike Brotherton's. The drama is never over-the-top, as in some of the stories by the new "hard SF" crowd. (In fact, the human deaths in this book come off as rather flat, and the eventual destruction of 20 percent of the Goompahs occurs entirely offstage.) The Goompah culture is cleverly constructed and supported by example, but it's not even as oddball as that of the Neanderthals in Robert Sawyer's Hominid trilogy. And the Campbellian ruminations on culture, history, science, etc. are hardly contrarian. ("[Humans are] too easily programmed. Get them when they're reasonably young, say five or six, and you can make them believe almost anything.")

In short, McDevitt empathizes heavily with the genre classics of the somewhat distant past (that the exploration ship is named the William Jenkins after the birthname of SF icon Murray Leinster is a sufficiently revelatory homage) and is content to work in that mode. Having said this, it remains to add that he does a fine job in that vein. The story zips along, with deft handling of multiple viewpoints. The final secret of the omega clouds is a potent one. The eventual rapport between Digby and a Goompah named Macao is touching. And the realistic mechanics of interstellar flight are convincing. In short, McDevitt honors the memory of his predecessors by writing up to their level. If such futures seem a tad familiar, there's no harm in that. In this case, familiarity breeds affection.