ZB7 ( )

ZB5 ( )

I finished Cauldron by Jack McDevitt- Overall, a very good book. Is it an award winner? I don't know. I only know I enjoyed it for the most part. It had a very good beginning, and ending, the middle (mostly their journey to points west before they reach the core of the galaxy) was ok, not bad, but astoundingly compelling? not really. But it was an interesting diversion.

One point really stuck in my craw: How could NOBODY on the ships NOT know how the engine works? Sounded like the author really had no ideas, and just expected us to take it on faith. Ok, I did, for the sake of the story!

Other than that, see the first paragraph. The ending was the best part, and one of the better endings I have read, and I have read Greg Benford's Sea of Suns, among others. By endings, I mean about the last third to last 1/4 of the book, not the last couple or so of pages.

I'll say this; Read the book! ( )

Simply awful. The whole five books based on the omega clouds and he ends it (in just 60 pages, mind you) by calling the highly-advanced malevolent alien "Frank"??? I was hoping thing would get better as I got more into the book, but they just got worse. In his amazing universe of ours, you know how he kills off one of his main characters? By falling down a flight of stairs. ( )

While this was a good story there was something missing. Maybe it was the small number of people who went on such a large mission. ( )