3.5* Love the main character Hutch and find the supporting characters interesting, but I get a little frustrated with some of the really stupid decisions they make that lead to dire straits.

True to form McDevitt delivers yet another solid installment in the Academy series.

Contrary to the alex Benedict series which are solely told from Chase's point of view, the academy books are told from the viewpoint of a number characters, of which most are unique to each book, only Priscilla Hutchins are a recurring character.

The rapid jumping from character to character often describing the same situation from different viewpoints,suits the suspense part of the story.

Even though its labeled and sold as sci-fi and world exploring it's foremost a suspense rescue operation story, not unlike "The Poseidon Adventure".

Es incluso más entretenida que la primera

I think this one was my favorite of all the Hutch novels - action, story, redemption, it kind of had it all. (well, no romance, but that's how the ball rolls)

Really loved the description of this alien planet and how there are the little things that are never left explored; I think that's part of the magic!

This was another nice light read. I'm probably going to read the rest of the stories, and I enjoy the archeology angle. Still there were a few things that bothered me. The combo of FTL and artificial gravity (which certainly makes the universe easier to work in), yet other aspects of it seem barely ahead of our time. I found it odd and somewhat unsatisfying being 200 years in the future. Still, it was a fun alien world disaster novel.

I don't know if it's because I accidentally read them out of order (1, then 3, then 2) I felt that this book wasn't as strong as the others. The one good thing was how completely and immediately I hated the character MacAllister. I very slowly came to think the experience of the events on the planet changed him. The character of Nightingale also grows quite a bit during the novel.

This is both good and bad, because the I felt the main character (Hutch) was ignored, other than being a badass pilot, having to be saved several times by other characters, and having a plant attack her in a very... fanboy pleasing way... She gets much more real attention in both Chindi and The Engines of God and they were better for it.

Good but not great.

Strong sci-fi. Fresh perspective on ideas of life's inevitability in the universe and gives the universe the physical breadth and depth most sci-fi is lacking. Terrifically detailed and suspenseful. McDevitt writes with scientifically supported plausibility within a fantasy environment. Characters are three dimensional, many layered and complex. The story is simple, yet satisfying; with imaginative plot twists that, rather than jolt you to the core, are satisfyingly fluid. Like the other books in the Priscilla Hutchins series, this is a book that was crafted and intelligently molded. McDevitt's work is that of a simple artistry. His style is much more akin to Asimov than to, say, William Gibson or Joe Haldeman.

i'm loving the story, but the characters are pretty flat. it's as though the author doesn't really have any understanding of complex emotions or motivations. ps. lots of OCR errors in the Kindle version of this book.

Incredibly boring.

Had the potential for really cliche and kitch disaster movie style book. But while yes, people did some really silly things to put themselves into a bad situation, from that point on the book becomes a potboiler with some really cool SF elements. It captured my attention right to the end