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Jack McDevitt (1935-) is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races and archaeology (or xenoarchaeology). McDevitt's first published story was "The Emerson Effect" in Twilight Zone in 1981. Two years later, he published his first novel, The Hercules Text about the discovery of an intelligently conceived signal which threatened human civilization through its repercussions. This novel set the tone for many of McDevitt's following novels, which focused on making first contact. Frequently this theme is mixed with both trepidation of the unknown and a sense of wonder at the universe. 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 manage to arrive on the scene. Initially written as a stand-alone novel, the main character, pilot Priscilla Hutchins, has since appeared in three more novels, Deepsix (2001), Chindi (2002), and Omega (2003). Omega is a sequel to The Engines of God and explores the origins of the Omega clouds, the destructive force revealed in the first novel. McDevitt's novels frequently raise questions which he does not attempt to answer, dropping the ideas in favor of other plotlines which are of more interest to the author.
Biography McDevitt went to LaSalle College, where a short story of his won the annual Freshman Short Story Contest and was published in the school's literary magazine, Four Quarters. As McDevitt explained in an interview, "I was on my way. Then I read David Copperfield and realized I could never write at that level, and therefore I should find something else to do. I joined the Navy, drove a cab, became an English teacher, took a customs inspector's job on the northern border, and didn't write another word for a quarter-century." He returned to writing when his wife, Maureen, encouraged him to try his hand at it in 1980. As of 2005, McDevitt lives in Brunswick, Georgia. Novels, series Novels, stand-alone Short stories (partial list) Collections Introductions Awards and nominations "Cryptic" "The Hercules Text" "The Fort Moxie Branch" "The Fort Moxie Branch" "Ships in the Night" "Time Travellers Never Die" "Time Travelers Never Die" Ancient Shores Moonfall "Good Intentions" (co-writer, Stanley Schmidt) Infinity Beach "Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City" Chindi Omega Omega Polaris See Also | ||||||||
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