Firebird

Firebird is the sixth entry in Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series, in which Alex and his partner Chase Kolpath go in search of famous scientist Christopher Robbin, who mysteriously disappeared seemingly in front of his house, never to be seen again. Their journey takes them to some unexpected, and surprising locales, which will forever alter the universe in the main characters live.

Jack McDevitt continues his excellent narratives, with his usual pace and clarity. Never too wordy, or repetitive, McDevitt continues to provide a fascinating, entertaining read. The characters are familiar, since readers of any of the previous Benedict novels will be familiar with them; McDevitt does delve a bit further into the relationship Chase had with Alex's uncle Gabe, which reveals some interesting emotions at play there. In some ways, Chase's attitude toward Alex reflects that the author may be growing weary of these characters, and future novels in this series may not be forthcoming. The dialogue is, as always, spot on; never do we hear something that sounds outright ridiculous, or unbelievable–McDevitt seems cautious to make his work easy for anybody to read, science fiction fan or not.

Though Firebird is a good read, and ends on a particularly high note, the twists and turns leave the reader wanting a bit. In many ways, this book has three different stories, all going on at pretty much the same time. While not hard to follow, the first part of the story gets set aside, and never truly resolved, which is unfortunate, since it's quite interesting. Instead, Alex spends roughly a paragraph explaining what he feels probably happened, and the author then moves on, never returning to detail for certain what occurred. From there, it's the two main sequences that go back and forth, sometimes interrupting each other to be told. Because of this, the book almost feels as if it were two different novels, thrown together into a single volume.

For all the flaws, it's still better than McDevitt's last Benedict novel, Echo. The plot is more intriguing, and ultimately has a better payoff. In many ways, Firebird feels like a finale to the Alex Benedict series. If so, it's an acceptable one. Still, it would be hard to let the characters go.