Product Description

The blistering sequel to McDevitt's most successful novel THE ENGINES OF GOD. It should have been a straightforward exercise; but they were reckoning without mechanical failures, earthquakes and hostile indigenous species. It's 2225. Mankind has reached the outskirts of the universe, and discovered evidence of intelligent life on dozens of planets. Nothing still alive, but some amazing archaeological remains. On the distant planet Maleiva III, known colloquially as Deepsix (it's about to be wiped out by a rogue gas giant, the Jerry Morgan) they've found traces of an ancient civilization. With two weeks to go before the gas giant destroys the planet, a team of crack archaeologists lands on the surface to record and salvage as much of this ancient civilzation as they can. Suddenly, the team is stranded there with no means of getting off it. With the Jerry Morgan bearing down on them day by day, survival is going to require some ingenuity!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24326 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Deepsix is concerned with the motivating force that drives all scientists--the quest for truth, for expanding the limits of human knowledge. How much are we willing to risk for that moment of discovery, of knowing what no other soul yet knows? Our time? Our reputations? Our careers? Our lives?

The premise is this-just weeks before the planet Deepsix will be destroyed by a collision with a gas giant, ruins are detected on its surface, suggesting the presence of civilisation. The Academy diverts scientists from the nearest spaceship to go down and explore, and they are joined by their century's Ellsworth Toohey: a misogynistic, sanctimonious gadfly who has never before been off of Earth's surface. The party's landers are destroyed in an earthquake induced by the approaching gas giant, so now they must find a way to get off Deepsix before it is destroyed by the collision. Needless to say, their excavations are placed on the back burner.

The science and technology, both the physics describing the space travel and the archaeology used to reconstruct the lost culture of Deepsix, are interesting and explained well. There is plenty of action and suspense-will the party survive? And the evolving characters and group dynamics are more complex than those usually found in science fiction books, making Deepsix a worthwhile read. --Diana Gitig, Amazon.com

Review
Praise for McDevitt: 'Jack McDevitt is that splendid rarity! a storyteller first and a science fiction writer second. In his ability to absolutely rivet the reader, he is the logical heir to Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke! . Snatch this baby up, all right? You're going to love it even if you think you don't like science fiction. You might even want to drop me a thank-you note for the tip before racing out to your local bookstore to pick up the Jack McDevitt backlist' STEPHEN KING

About the Author
Jack McDevitt is widely regarded by his fellow professionals as one of the finest sf writers working in the USA. His previous novels include Ancient Shores, Moonfall and the highly acclaimed The Engines of God. He has served as an officer in the US Navy, taught English and literature, and worked for the US Customs Service. He currently lives in Georgia, USA.

Customer Reviews

Deepsix? In Deep s**t more like!
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I loved this book. I was disappointed with the Engines of God, that had more of the archaeology content that I liked, but jumped around too much and was very shallow.
This book is different. Hutch is dropped right in it again. Piloting the only “lander” the academy has in the area, Hutch has to pop into a planet that has visible signs of a past civilisation. The only problem – a rogue gas giant is within 3 weeks of colliding with the planet. You know from the offset that they will get stuck on the planet, so the storyline is set for an adventure to survive an alien environment, gather archaeological data and escape the doomed planet before it disintegrates.
The characters might have been developed a little further, but on the whole we had the right mix of good, bad, antagonists, heroes, cowards, boffins and fools. The pace is good, the alien environment well thought out and the balance between adventure and science about right. McDevitt has no compunction about killing off main characters, so you can never be sure that anyone will survive the book, which adds to the suspense. The desperate attempts to extract data and it’s meanings about an entire global spanning culture in just a couple of weeks, gets you wondering about the finality of the event. If nothing could be rescued, who’d know they ever existed?
I found I didn’t want to put the book down. It’s a great read and I look forward to Chindi.

How Sci Fi should be...
Deepsix is the perfect Sci Fi read, it's got action, adventure, romance, spaceships and aliens (?). The plot of the team being stranded on the planet about to be devoured by a gas giant, and they've got to escape is a simple one, but works like a dream. Coming toward the end of the book was a real shame as the planet held many mysteries and more. More planetary exploration would have been appreciated perhaps, but thats just me. I also felt genuine loss for the planet and all that it held.. But it did stir emotions of loss, a whole planet still really undiscovered.. Jacks writing is easy and flows well, and has already got me searching for his next book to order. Thoroughly recommended!!!

My sort of SF novel. Doesn't stop for air, just keeps going.
I do not normally write reviews on line, even for books like this that I enjoyed so much, but the * rating by Boah drove me to break the habit. I REALLY enjoyed this book. I did not find it shallow. The characters lived the pages, the storyline fascinated me throughout and drew me back to it day after day. My only complaint is that the book was not longer and did not explore Deepsix further. If you have not read McDevitt before, do Slow Lighting (Infinity Beach in the USA) and Engine's of God first. His overall theme of older races leaving their footprints all over the stars in our region of the galaxy before vanishing into oblivion I find fascinating, if only he bothers to continue to organise and develop his 'universe' better and explore what has happened to them, (as his latest novel about to be published appears to promise), while at the same time enriching the interactions between the few younger races who have escaped extinction and the humans who encounter them. I have liberated all of the author's older novels from secondhand book shops with no regrets, except however for Moonfall to which I would indeed have to award a *.