Book Review: Starhawk by Jack McDevitt

Starhawk by Jack McDevitt

Genre: Science Fiction

Series: The Academy

Publisher: Ace

Date of Publication: November 5, 2013

Author Information: Website

Mogsy's Rating: 5 of 5 stars - "Loved the whole package; touched upon my deepest fears of being stranded in space and made me see interstellar space travel in science fiction in a whole different light."

Jack McDevitt has been writing books for a long time, but it wasn't until Starhawk that I finally got a taste of his work. I was initially uncertain about jumping on board with this one, seeing how the book's main character as well as the setting have been established for a while in McDevitt's The Academy series. However, after discovering that Starhawk is actually a prequel of sorts, I took the opportunity to use it as a starting point. How happy I am that I did! Starhawk is amazing, introducing me to a whole new world of space exploration and adventure.

The book takes readers back to the earlier days of Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, to a time when faster-than-light travel is still relatively new, and earth politicians rage over the future of human expansion into space. People are also unhappy at the methods used to prepare alien worlds for colonization, which involves terraforming, a process that essentially strips a planet of all life. 

Supervised by her mentor Jake, Priscilla has just achieved her life long dream of becoming an interstellar space pilot, passing her qualifications flight with flying colors. But due to the uncertainty of the times as well as her own tenacity, she is soon finding out the hard way that the right piloting job is hard to come by. Priscilla, however, is not one to be discouraged and soon she finds herself involved with all sorts of conflicts, including dealing with bomb threats, sabotage, rescue missions, and even the possibility of making first contact with extraterrestrial life forms. All of it will test her new-found knowledge of piloting as well as her own courage and force of will.

My friends who are fans of The Academy series love Priscilla, or "Hutch" to her friends, and I can see why. Even at this early point in her life, she is showing signs of the strength in her character, though at times I feel she is written somewhat awkwardly. For example, the book's description makes her out to be the main focus, but I don't always get the sense she is coming through as the "hero" of the story. At the same time, I realize this is supposed to be a prequel novel showing how she is still learning the ropes and coming into her own. In that sense, I can understand why she might be portrayed in more of a support role as the inexperienced new pilot. Regardless, I was completely unfamiliar with her character before this, so Starhawk was my first introduction to Priscilla and I liked enough of what I read.

The storyline in this book, however, is nothing short of incredible. Personally, the idea of being stranded in space scares the bejeezus out of me and is quite possibly one of the worst fates I can imagine. As such, I've never had the desire to go to space...but I do so love reading about it, for the thrills and tension! A lot of the situations in this book involve such dangers, and so a high level of suspense is constant during those scenes, and of course my own fears made reading this one even more intense. At times, the story even crosses the line into unsettling and downright spooky territory. Like I said, it makes my skin crawl and my heart clench just thinking about being lost in space, all alone in that big wide emptiness, thus making space disaster plot lines like the ones in this book very effective on me.

The fact that events take place in this amazing time of change is another reason why I liked this book so much. Jack McDevitt paints an interesting future, which despite having all this fascinating tech and being around a couple centuries ahead doesn't actually feel too distant. He really puts you there, including made-up pop culture references and the fictional names and accomplishments of famous figures which adds a realistic touch. The highlight for me was also the epistolary content at the end of each chapter, whether they are excerpts from Priscilla's journal, ship logs, news feeds and even internet chatter. It left me almost charmed and a little amused to read about how, even this far into the future, society still has the same concerns like politics, environmental change, education of our children, sports, etc. Oh, and that there will also always be internet trolls.

Perhaps my favorite thing about the novel though, is a theme alluded to in the prologue, where Priscilla ponders all those old science fiction stories featuring aliens that show up to take over earth and kill us all. That humans may be the terrifying invading aliens in this case, destroying all living creatures and ecosystems on entire worlds using terraforming to suit their own needs, is a central conflict in this novel. The story takes place in that awkward "in-between" stage where space exploration is still such a young discipline, and the human race becoming a species capable of long-ranged space travel is a process requiring lots of growing pains. The bulk of my recent science fiction novels have been space operas where humans have had the means for space travel for a long time, so long that it has become a given. So it's pretty fascinating to be reading a book where going into space is still considered a new idea, with so few safety precautions set in place that heading into space is considered dangerous and a topic of much controversy. I just really enjoyed how this book looked at a lot of things in a different light. 

I had so much fun with Starhawk, I finished all 400 pages of it in less than a day. It wasn't just the plot that engaged me, it was the character and the setting and the whole package. I'm definitely going to look into picking up The Academy series, to see how things turn out for Priscilla/Hutch.

5 of 5 stars

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.