Well, this one isn't all that much different from Chindi or The Engines of God, but it got me through a flight to Seattle. After I finish this one, I doubt I'll read more of McDevitt's work, though.

This is not the sort of stuff I read, but my dad gave me one of McDevitt's other novels, Chindi, and this is a prequel in the same universe.

McDevitt is a classic "hard" SF author in the sense that the book is mostly ideas without much style. The book opens with that gravest of all sins, introducing the characters and telling us about their personalities. "She was a small and petite, but inside she was fierce ..." (not a literal quote). Describing a character's personality is just dumb, because it should be shown, not told.

The plot is kind of interesting, but mostly it was good because it was long and filled up some time.