A Talent For War

Despite the title, this story is a mystery, not a war story, with normal human being Alex Benedict trying to unravel the truth behind the legend of interstellar war hero (hence the title) Christopher Sim. Were the stories about him true, or too good to be true? With the death of his uncle, Alex inherits some clues that lead him hither and yon, meeting up with other mysterious people until the puzzle pieces slowly start to fall into place, but not without great adventure and peril. In the end the mystery is revealed.

Author Jack McDevitt does a pretty good job in writing. He describes the people and places in sufficient detail that forming a mental picture is quite easily done. However, my big beef with this book is two-fold.

First, the pacing for the big storyline is slow. Frankly, when you get the end of the book, you'll wonder whether the "revelation" was worth reading 310 pages. For that kind of length, you'll wish Mr. McDevitt could've had come up with something a little more "meaty" or unusual. (Don't worry, I won't spoil the ending for you.) The great secret was, to me, rather mundane. There were many sections of action and excitement, but they were for supporting plot points, whereas the main storyline doubled back on itself several times dragging things out.

On a side note, points to Mr. McDevitt for using a prologue and epilogue. He used this literary technique quite well setting up what at first appears to be a completely irrelevant scene, and then tying it in with the epilogue.

Second, I generally love books that don't beat you over the head with things, but instead allow you to draw conclusions from separate pieces that you fit together in your mind, resulting in a "wow, now I understand" moment. If anything, the great secret of this book was too esoteric and could've used a little more guidance from the author. Yeah, I figured it out when I was supposed to, but it seemed like there were still several pieces of the puzzle that were missing, or could've been explained better.

In this book you can tell that Mr. McDevitt has the skills to be a great science fiction writer, I just don't think he pulled it off with this particular book.

In general I give this book a "B". You could do far worse with your reading, but there are quite a few books out there that are knock-your- socks-off better. Try Pandora's Star by Peter Hamilton for example.

This is a really, really good novel. A journalist begins to look into the root causes, personalities and propaganda behind a past war.

Humans have fought a war with telepathic aliens, but it was not a united front. A small band led the resistance while others stayed out of the war. An absorbing tale of politics and personality, along with military strategy.

I can see where all the raving reviews come from. There is some truly outstanding writing in this book. After reading it I bought a second copy to give away sometime; I also expected to have fun rereading it. However I didn't. I am not sure why, but I guess that the book lacks unity. There is great military SF here, as well as political reflection, as well as human tragedy, as well as an alien race, and all this within the framework of a mystery novel. So I can see why, in spite of some truly mindblowing stuff, this book was remaindered.

My personal experience of this novel has been similar to that expressed in 'Hrinwar's review. I can across it in a remainders bin in '94, one of my most fortunate finds ever. Since then I have read it pretty much every year, sometimes more. This is not from lack of other material to spend my time on but the levels that unravel as the story progresses, the sheer thrill of watching the clues come together, the intrigue built up around the historic mysteries, never fail to hold me entranced. I love this book and only wish others by the same author, or anyone else for that matter, could ignite my interest in the same way. However it would be an irrelevance to make comparisons with other works - put simply it is one of my most deeply held personal favourites and has stood the test of nine years repeated reading. A supreme example of a deeply satisfying reading experience.

Years ago, I randomly picked up "Talent for War" at our library based on its' cover blurb. Reading it turned out to be one of the most pleasurable surprises I've ever had reading science fiction. Its vision of a technologically advanced, fully grounded human society was described with such a nostalgic and gentle voice that it still resonates within me, and I've reread it a number of times with continued enjoyment. Its' mysteries were engaging and its' ending was grandiose. But mostly, I found its' depictions of war and sacrifice and their transformation into myth and glory (in their best senses) to be more moving than anything I can recall having read.
I bought 4 copies. 2 got loaned out and never came back. On is pristine and kept wrapped, and the other is all worn out from reading. I wish I'd gotten some more copies.

This is not a truly action packed story. A nephew is bequeathed some information in a will and he seeks out man of history and legend. We follow him as he questions history, finds allies and those arrayed against him while rushing headlong to find the truth. Is it about a weapon, a man, or a truth no one needs or really wants to know?

Next time how about a less embarrasing cover!

This book is 310 pages long. The first 240 pages describe a 'literature review' by the heroe of the book. If you like to read about people visiting libraries and reading through obscure books (that's right, you're reading about someone else reading), then this is the book for you. Finally, on page 240, the lead character flies of into space to solve the mystery that's been slooowly building.

I like this author, but this book has awful pacing.

This book was a strange experience. It was, in large part, the story of a story. We follow a very dry, and somewhat dim hero unearthing dusty histories, reading over his shoulder snippets describing vast adventures as if through smoked glass. Minutes are devoted to characters we never see again, and events that deserve far more explication are lovingly set up and then casually abondoned. On the plus side, if you are patient, the ending suddenly rouses to slam-bang action and poignancy that ties the whole effort together at long last.

I actually purchased this on audio and was unable to finish it. By the mid-point it still was plodding along, with Alex researching his uncles work, yet it had almost no character development to grab me and pique my interest. I was not at all engaged by him (Alex), or even the subjects of his research, and finally I couldn't take it any longer. I gave up, and frankly didn't care. I would not recommend this novel.

I found myself constantly wondering why I was reading this book. Not a good effort from McDevitt who has written some entertaining if not totally original books; Chindi comes to mind. The book is based on a mystery whose answer lies at the end of a merciless litany of uninteresting and half-developed characters. I often read a secondary character's name and had that feeling that while I'd definitely seen it before I had no idea how they related to the story; then I would realize I didn't care as they would undoubtedly have little impact on the story. Skip it.