It has been over a century since the war between the humans and the 'Mutes' (the only other known race of intelligent beings in the universe - they don't speak but communicate through telepathy). Despite vast exploration, due in part to faster-than-light travel, the universe has turned out to be quite empty, with the Mutes the only other known life form. But when an explorer vessel in the Orion Nebula reports of a village on a small planet, interest is high.

Interest is replaced by intrigue when a follow-up mission arrives a few months later and there are no signs of the village. How does a town completely vanish - buildings and all? This is a question that Alex Benedict, archeologist/explorer/antiquities dealer wants to know as well. And of course, if there is any small artefact left behind, it could bring a good price at auction. Alex and his associate Chase Kolpath and Alex's uncle Gabe head out for the long voyage and will get more than they bargained for.

I haven't reviewed many of the Alex Benedict books prior to this (only one, in fact), but I have read - or, more accurately, listened to - the entire series. My wife and I have found that this is a series we both enjoy and we listen on our long drives. Seeing that there was an advanced copy of the newest book in the series available, I was definitely interested.

This felt like one of the most 'direct' stories in the series. Generally it seems that the journey Alex and Chase start out with often takes a number of twists and turns and ends up quite different. Not so here. We've got an eye on the prize and we stay that we through the book. The prize might wander but it's still the same goal we start with.

Through the course of the previous eight books in the series we've really gotten to know Alex and Chase, and to a lesser degree, Gabe. The relationship building has been an important side bar to the stories. For that reason I wouldn't recommend jumping right in wit this, the 9th book. Although I think you could. I believe you get to know enough about these people to enjoy the story at hand. What makes a series fun to read is getting to know the characters and watching them grow. It takes a skilled author like McDevitt to give us that growth in a series but make an individual book standalone readable.

This is not my favorite in the series (that might go to the only other book in the series that I've reviewed - Seeker) in part, I think, because of the open-endedness of the story. There is a sort of finality put to some of the characters, but even that 'finality' leaves me with more questions.

I really don't want to give too much away or spoil any surprises. This is definitely a science fiction book worth reading, particularly as part of this series. The more you know about the world (universe) McDevitt has created, the more you will appreciate this story within that world. And fans of the series can likely expect more stories, given the way this ends. Sorry to be mysterious .. seriously, go read the first three books and see if you aren't interested in reading the next six!

Looking for a good book? Village in the Sky by Jack McDevitt is the 9th book in the Alex Benedict series. It takes us to some new places with interesting new characters that will likely feature more in upcoming books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The plot of McDevitt's new Alex Benedict novel recalls his most recent Priscilla Hutchins novel, "The Long Sunset", which finds the author spinning a first contact scenario through a narrative of discovery and mystery. The book is like a comfortable old pair of shoes, for better or worse: its familiarity is beguiling and relaxing, though at some point you stop noticing it's even there.
McDevitt makes it easy to return to the far future world that Alex and his pilot Chase Kolpath inhabit. It is a largely pleasant, low-conflict future, though not entirely lacking in the typical anxieties that attend human society. Alex, now re-united with his recently recovered Uncle Gabe, is still selling antiquities and artifacts, and Chase is still getting him wherever he needs to go. The story kicks off when an exploratory vessel stumbles on a tiny alien colony in the furthest reaches of known space. Up until then the only other alien race humans had encountered were the Ashiyyur, with whom they fought a long and devastating war before achieving a peaceful resolution. So when a follow-up mission is sent to make first contact, they are even more surprised to discover that the colony has completely vanished, leaving no trace of its presence behind.
In another odd twist, a third, completely different alien race of spider-like humanoids shows up to make first contact with humans. These folks, the Ulakans, are friendly and inquisitive, and their culture is so similar to that of humanity that one of their great works of literature seems lifted from Shakespeare.
While the encounter with the Ulakans is a positive one in contrast with their previous encounter with the Ashiyyur, the question of whether to send another ship out to look for the missing alien colony becomes a political hot potato: the general consensus is, we got lucky with the Ulakans, who is to say whether these elusive alien colonists have similar goodwill and peaceful intentions or not? It is decided that no further missions to that star system will take place, and furthermore anyone who attempts to privately undergo a mission there will be subject to legal penalties.
Alex is of course having none of that. Soon he and Chase have put together a party to reach out and find where the lost colony went, and hopefully pick up a few artifacts along the way that might make up the losses they will incur for defying the law.
The novel's strengths are those typical of McDevitt's fiction. His ability to craft an engrossing and suspenseful scientific mystery has not diminished over the decades, and his characters are as likable, and likeably flawed, as ever. In this case, though, his weaknesses are magnified by design. McDevitt has always been a proponent of the idea that cultures will necessarily evolve in the general direction that European civilization has taken, hence the very Eurocentric slant of future humanity and the aliens they encounter. It bogs the story down in a conceit that isn't particularly illuminating or wonderous - that humanity ventures out to the far reaches of the galaxy to find alien races that are really kind of boring and like us. Additionally, the lack of a true antagonist, or anything but minor obstacles in Alex and company's path, keeps the stakes too low for this to be anything other than a minor entry in McDevitt's canon.

Searching the Vastness of Space May Take a While

The Alex Benedict series has explored some fascinating and original hard science fiction and philosophical topics. Jack McDevitt is masterful at world building and has made humanity comfortable, living among the stars with amazing tech, but humankind is essentially the same.

The constraints of organizational red tape have gotten more rigid since first contact turned out badly. It's thrilling but also frightening to consider what it would be like to find actual proof of past civilizations, much less living aliens. Village In The Sky provides both.

Alex and Chase Kolpath have a good working partnership after relying on each other for many years and getting each other through many tight spots. Momentous and strange events are making this business endeavor more complicated. On top of a mystery which has them coming up with a pretext to explore it, the two of them are changed. I get the sense that they're both feeling the passage of time and are considering choices they're not sure they want.

McDevitt usually provides some background from past episodes so that the current story has some context, making each book a stand alone adventure. I think this one would be better appreciated if the reader has more familiarity with the series, however.

Though the science fiction elements and subtext are equal in quality to the other volumes, the author seems to be intimating some serious changes ahead. I have a sinking feeling that we may not see these two again and that would be a terrible loss. I hope it isn't so, because things didn't get resolved satisfactorily, at least for me!

Thank you to Jack McDevitt, Gallery Books and Saga Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a free advance reader's copy. I was predisposed to love the book, but there's no mandate to provide a positive review. I'm happy to report that it's a great read!

Despite the formulaic plots of this series and lack of character development, I have generally enjoyed the stories in this series if for nothing more than the sci-fi archeology twists and curiosity about where Alex and Chase would end up. This installment, however, leaves me cold. I am not going to go into a forensic analysis of why this is but am leaving it there. If you love Alex Benedict, of course, you will want to read Village in the Sky. If you are new to AB, you would be better served starting with one of the earlier works.

Village In The Sky by Jack McDevitt is the 9th book in the Alex Benedict series and what readers have come to expect from Jack McDevitt. The book is a space sci fi mystery novel set in a distant future with a comfortable idealized 1950s Americana feel rather than an action packed adventure, speculative, or somehow genre defining. Village In The Sky, although part of a longer series, can easily be read as a standalone novel by those who never read the previous books. As always with Jack McDevitt, the book is objectively well written and an easy read.

In this installment of the series the main plot revolves around our protagonists presented with the mystery of a briefly discovered then promptly lost alien colony. Our protagonists have to figure out how and why the colony disappeared along with where it went. There are additional subplots involving first contact with two additional alien species. First contact with any alien species is more than a little notable in the Alex Benedict series because until this novel, the universe our characters exist in is an empty one devoid of intelligent life other than humans, the machines humans create, and a single inhuman antagonist species. In this novel the universe is dramatically changed with not just one new species but three new intelligent species making the universe transform from what always felt like an ancient tomb of long lost civilization to one filled with life, emotion, and empathy.

If you have read any other Jack McDevitt novels and enjoyed them, then you will enjoy Village In The Sky. If you have never read any of Jack McDevitt’s work but are looking for a comfortable novel to fill a lazy weekend, then I would also advise you to read this book..

Village in the Sky
Release: 1/31/23
Publisher: Saga Press
Rating: 3 stars

Invariably when I request books for the year I end up with one book I did not realize was a series. Village in the Sky is the ninth book in the Alex Benedict series. That is quite a bit in to start, but as I was about 25% into the book before I thought to do more research, I just kept reading. After all the first 100 pages was really a lot of summarizing and covered so much back story I didn’t feel like I was really missing out.

This book is written in first person past tense. It is a very interesting perspective to read from. It made me feel like I was reading one of those old detective stories. However, even with that choice there could have been more descriptions and involvement in the narration. The first third of the book was a story the narrator was only relaying second hand. Even when they became more connected to the plot it still felt distant. I wasn’t connected to any of the characters. Although, maybe that connection was built in previous books.

There are several things that happen in this books. They honestly do not seem to tie together at all and I left the book feeling very unsatisfied. For a sci-fi thriller everything also seemed to tie together too easily. The book also lacked any kid of diversity and really had the feel of a 50s male dominated society.

So while I have no regrets for picking up A Village in the Sky I don’t feel like I will go back to read the rest of the series or move forward with any other new releases.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Gallery books for an advanced copy of this science fiction novel about first contact, lost contact, mysteries with a sort- of retro feel.

When I first started reading science fiction stories I was blessed with a library that constantly had book sales where on the second day one could fill a bag with books for the princely sum of one dollar. So I learned patience, and how to back paper bags really well. Mostly paperbacks, anything with aliens, space ships, explosions, stars planets, all of these. First contact stories were a big thrill. If it led to war and space battles, cool. However it was the stories about making contact, the science, the ideas that I really found myself enjoying a lot more. Jack McDevitt would have been one of those authors I would have gone crazy for, and packed extra securely in my bag. Village in the Sky, the ninth book in the Alex Benedict series, features first contact, a mystery, hard science, and a retro feel both in story and in environment that younger me would have gone crazy for.

On the outer edge of the Orion Nebula a small craft looks for planets that exist in the magical plane of orbit that could sustain life. The first aliens humans have found in the Twelfth Millennium were a group of aliens known as the Mutes, but that led to a war centuries earlier. Since then there has been life forms, but not alien beings, a search humans are beginning to tire of looking for. On a small world, the ship finds signs of buildings, lights, roads and people, but only in a small area, not anywhere else on the planet. The ship has protocols and can only watch from a distance, another crew must return to make contact. Months later an expedition returns to the world, to find the village vanished, and no sign anywhere of these aliens or civilization. Alex Benedict, alien archeologist and his crew are sent to find any trace of the aliens, and what might have happened.

A first contact story, well two first contact stories that don't really go how anyone planned. The story does take a while to get going, and there are a few moments when things are happening that don't really seem to be gelling. McDevitt's future is as if the 1960's continued into the Twelfth Millennium. There are mentions of stand up comedians, Explorer clubs, late night hosts, and much about books, which as I read this as an e-book, seemed anachronistic. One character doesn't want to go on a trip to make first contact as she just starting dating a guy, who has pretty customers shopping in his store. For a scientist, first contact, or a guy to go steady with seemed odd. The story itself was good. I liked the science and the ideas. I've read other books in this series, not all of them so I was familiar with them, but it might be hard for first time readers. Again the narrator does and says some odd stuff, but all in all this was a good science fiction story, with a old fashioned feel.

Recommended for fans of Heinlein especially his adventure science fiction or A. E. van Vogt for a big cosmic feel, but with characters who seem very familiar with each other.

I'm a fan of the Alex Benedict series and I always look forward to reading the next new vook in the series. I was kind of disappointed with this entry.
Village in the Sky started slowly, All the books have a comfy pace to them - no breakneck rushing from battle to battle or whatever, but I was 40% in to this book before Chase and Co even decided to go on their mission.
The story soends so much time getting to the end and then the ending wraps up quickly. And it reads like an ending to the series.
I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley.com for the purpose of review.

A spaceship comes across a small town on a planet with aliens. The ship observes the aliens for a period of time and returns to earth. On a return mission, the alien town has disappeared. Thus begins the search for the alien race. It's a good novel by McDevitt.

I haven't read a lot of McDevitt, but he is pretty talented and seems pretty consistent in terms of quality. I liked this, but suspect it's not his strongest work. Nonetheless, this is good overall, particularly if you like his other work.

I really appreciate the free ARC for review!!

Jack McDevitt started what is now known as the Alex Benedict series in 1989 with A Talent for War. After that first novel, the perspective character has changed to Chase Kolpath, the pilot and sidekick of antiquities prospector Alex Benedict, and Alex’s archeologist uncle Gabe. Each features investigations into artifacts of lost alien civilizations, which are very few and far between in McDevitt’s universe. Village in the Sky is the 9th installment of the series. The story stands alone, although there is technological development moving forward through the series.

In this episode, there has been observation of an actual living alien village on a distant planet. Mysteriously, this village seems to have some degree of technology, but to be alone on the planet. A second return mission finds that the village has disappeared. Ever in search of artifacts such as the coffee cup of the prior mission’s captain, which could command collector value, Chase, Alex, and Gabe seek out the planet for themselves. They discover the truth of the village, and embark on discoveries across the Orion Arm. As always, McDevitt’s human cultural milieu resembles 1950s and 1960s America, in social institutions and gender roles, rather than the distant future that it is described to be, hence I label it as “cozy science fiction.” Unfortunately, at this late stage of the series, when we finally do encounter living aliens, they turn out to be simplistically imagined, akin to the 1960s juvenile adventure fiction of Andre Norton. Gone is the pathos of imagined aliens and lost civilizations that characterized this series in the beginning. I have loved Jack McDevitt’s works from his early days, but no longer find innovative ideas herein – just an updation of the rather bland lives of the persisting main characters.

I read an advance Digital Review Copy of Village in the Sky in an ebook format, which I received from Saga Press through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 31 January 2023.

I havent read the previous stories surrounding this book, so I was most definitely very confused. But the writing was not bad at all. I will be trying out more books from this author soon.

This was a very slow story with no real sense of plot, at first. I was confused at the beginning but I ended up really enjoying it. I think if I had read the other books first I might have at least felt like I knew the characters and maybe could have gotten into it a little faster/earlier. Nevertheless, it was an interesting story. I loved the world the author created and would like to read more. I think I'll have to read the first 8 books now.

A phenomenal return to form for Jack McDevitt. I wasn't a huge fan of his last book but the Benedict novels are some of my favorites by him and this one gets back to a hugely successful formula for McDevitt. Love the space mystery archeology thing and this one answers a good number of questions that have been posed throughout this excellent series. Loved it and I hope the next one is just as good! Full review coming over on the blog once I can get my thoughts organized.

Good to see Chase and Alex again. A slow moving story as they chase alien contact. Full of surprises as they find unusual and unexpected results.

There’s something about McDevitt’s SF that I have yet to figure out. Despite the layers of anachronisms served up with a heaping helping of melancholy, and plots that are more and more recycling elements from earlier works, I still find them strangely compelling and readable. Reading McDevitt requires a determined suspension of reality – and a willingness to sign on to believing that life in the far future will look a heck of a lot like today, contrary to all historical evidence of sociology evolution that keeps pace or even outpaces biological evolution. It’s as if a midwestern state’s culture from the 1950’s was translated 9000 years into the future, with a few SF-ian gee gaws pasted on. The main female protagonist has some agency of her own, but in many respects is a throw back to 1950’s views of women in SF – the second banana to the male characters. The plot clips right along, propelled by the author’s carefully placed reveals, signature short sentences, and some recycled elements from other books he’s written (mysterious settlement on a distant planet with only one light on comes to mind). Some plot elements are raised and then dropped, such as one newly discovered sentient race of beings is introduced but dropped for the remainder of the book.
Again, I’ll read most anything McDevitt will write, but the cracks and rivets are starting to show.

The Alex Benedict series offers the reader comfort; regular characters in a futuristic milieu that is generally civil, and never too offbeat. In nine thousand years the world seems not too different from today, despite FTL travel, astronomical wonders, and AI being prevalent. There is also the sense that the galaxy is a small neighborhood, with people knowing people light years apart and all part of a reasonably static, uniform culture. I think the homey, 1960s vibe has grown a bit stale.

Within this setting, Jack McDevitt has written some great books, like A Talent for War, Seeker, The Devil’s Eye, and Firebird, which offered gripping stories with heft. Others in the series are less compelling and Village in the Sky fits with those. The initial mystery is set up well: aliens found in unlikely circumstances, who then disappear. The antique dealer hero and pilot/sidekick narrator feel compelled to solve the mystery, much as they have seemingly solved most galactic mysteries for the past eight books. I found the plot twists either unsurprising or unbelievable, the moral quandaries and debates unrealistic, and Benedict to be rather arrogant and unpleasant. The resolution felt flat. I fear that over the past book or two this series has gone from a favorite to an also-ran.