Firebird
An Alex Benedict Novel, No 6
Jack McDevitt

Ace Books
November 2011 / 978-0441020737
Science Fiction
Amazon

Reviewed by Jan Fields

In the distant future, Chase Kolpath and Alex Benedict deal in antiquities.
When a woman comes to them, wanting to sell the personal belongings of her late brother-in-law, the deal doesn't sound very appealing to Chase. But Alex knows the brother-in-law was a physicist who vanished mysteriously years before. Alex is sure they can stir up some media interest that will mean top dollar for the goods. So he begins to poke around in the scientist's past. He soon finds his reputation on the line -- a place he's been before. And he's learning that sometimes you can do the right thing and still have results that are hard to live with.

I enjoyed this book more than any science fiction I've read in a while. I love seeing something sci-fi that isn't just space battles and future marines. Alex Benedict is more like a cross between Indiana Jones and Sherlock Holmes, only in the far, far future. This is the sixth book in the Alex Benedict series, but there is not one moment of confusion as you jump in. It functions beautifully as a stand-alone novel. That characters were compelling and very human. The politics felt so real, so perfect -- albeit a little depressing when you think of humans changing so little through the centuries. And I loved seeing the sentient artificial intelligences that Alex and Chase deal with -- they're fascinating without falling back on the "funny man" cliché so often found with robots and computer intelligences. If you're looking for science fiction that leaves you thinking, this is a winner.

Odyssey [review]