In the 23rd century, Earth possesses a superluminal drive that has allowed it to reach out to the stars. But the drive is far from ideal. For instance, it takes a day to cover 11 light-years. Sounds fast. But galactic distances are vast, and no one wants to spend a year traveling one-way to some colony world where the only life is single-celled organisms. That's another impediment to colonizing the galaxy. Habitable worlds are few and far between, and no other sentient race of any magnitude has been discovered to be our "sister culture." (True, ruins of a vanished equal are still to be seen, but the race itself is nowhere around.) Given that Earth is having continuing problems with the greenhouse effect, many people are arguing for a retreat from space in order to focus resources at home.

Fighting this retrogressive movement is Priscilla Hutchins of the Academy, the folks who run the space program. She has to contend both with antagonists like Senator Taylor, who wants to cut off funds to the Academy, and with dubious allies like Charles Dryden of Orion Tours, a company that wants to turn space into a slightly sleazy sightseeing attraction. Somewhere between these extremes is Gregory MacAllister, famed author, editor, commentator and all-round "crank and curmudgeon."

For some time now, odd reports have been filtering back from the stars about mysterious interstellar UFOs dubbed "moonriders." It occurs to Priscilla Hutchins that the allure of these enigmas could stoke public interest in space. She dispatches a small mission aboard the Salvator to the sites of the latest moonrider encounters. The mission consists of pilot Valentina Kouros; Academy PR guy Eric Samuels; MacAllister; and the teenage daughter of Senator Taylor, Amy.

Out in space, the crew of the Salvator does eventually encounter moonriders—and seems to observe the alien globes launching killer asteroids at human settlements. Now the Earth is indeed energized toward space, but in a panic. What are the intentions of the moonriders? How do they relate to the mysterious human scientific project named "Origins"? And why will the moonriders talk only to Amy?

More questions than answers

A number of factors conspire to drag down this tale, developing a germ of a good idea into something of a disappointment.

First off is the annoying and uncompelling character of Gregory MacAllister, who carries the bulk of the narrative. He's from the Jubal Harshaw mode of opinionated elder statesmen and libertarian freethinkers. (See Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land [1961].) Quotes from MacAllister's works begin and end almost every chapter, and frankly, there's not much insightful to them beyond consensus cliched wisdom. "Truth is slippery, not because it is difficult to grasp, but because we prefer our preconceptions, our beliefs, our myths." "For males, sex is like baseball." "Most people, other than politicians and CEOs, mean well." It's like being stuck in a room with Bill O'Reilly and Will Rogers, and I don't foresee any fans rushing to compile and spin off The Notebooks of Lazarus MacAllister. Now, I know that McDevitt does not endorse MacAllister completely (although the "Mac" and "Mc" formulations of the two surnames leads me to wonder just how deep the similarity goes), but even so, the pontificating pundit and windbag is still onstage continuously and unbearably.

Second comes the matter of pacing. I know I've harped on this all too often, but many new novels these days are bloated beyond the nature of their material. (Compare this book to any in Charles Sheffield's similar but more jam-packed Heritage Universe series.) McDevitt treats space travel as if no one had ever written about it before, stretching out over-familiar tropes. Chapters 17 through 22, more than 50 pages, chronicle the Cook's Tour of human settlements that Amy and company embark on, with excruciating details of shipboard life, before we finally get some moonrider action, the whole raison d'être for the trip. McDevitt seems to realize this inertia when he observes midway through the voyage, "Even Amy got bored while they waited." But he doesn't remedy this.

Last comes the inconclusive nature of the narrative arc. Many mysteries are left unsatisfyingly unexplained, perhaps to preserve the future history for subsequent novels, and after much huffing and puffing the sociopolitical situation is pretty much back where it started.

McDevitt has lots of talent, as exhibited in his more sprightly Alex Benedict series, but it's not on display at its best here.