The Devil's Eye is constructed as a mystery, and holds the interest of the reader from beginning to end. This retired customs official knows the mindset of bureaucrats who consider their own careers to be of supreme importance, and are criminally indifferent to the consequences of their venal actions. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, the Romans didn't crucify Jesus between two thieves to humiliate him. It just happened to be crucifixion day, and there were only three slots available.
MacDevitt excels, however, in creating believable landscapes and backdrops for his stories. Imagine a planet so far out on the edge of the galaxy that its night sky contains precisely one star ...
(I know, I have a dissertation to organize and launch -- but our library suddenly offered books by my favorite novelists simultaneously -- Orson Card, Jack MacDevitt, Michael Flynn, Gregory Benford -- and even a posthumously published novel by the all-time grand master Arthur C. Clarke.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment