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Octavia Gone

By: Jack McDevitt
Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
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Summary

After being lost in space for 11 years, Gabe finally makes his triumphant return to reunite with Alex and Chase and retrieve a possibly alien artifact - which may lead them to solve the greatest archaeological mystery of their careers, in the eighth installment of the Alex Benedict series.

After his return from space, Gabe is trying to find a new life for himself after being presumed dead - just as Alex and Chase are trying to relearn how to live and work without him. But when a seemingly alien artifact goes missing from Gabe's old collection, it grants the group a chance to dive into solving the mystery of its origins as a team, once again.

When a lead on the artifact is tied to a dead pilot's sole unrecorded trip, another clue seems to lead to one of the greatest lingering mysteries of the age: the infamous disappearance of a team of scientists aboard a space station orbiting a black hole - the Amelia Earhart of their time. With any luck, Alex, Chase, and Gabe may be on the trail of the greatest archaeological discovery of their careers.

©2019 Jack McDevitt (P)2019 Recorded Books
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

EXCELLENT CONTINUATION OF SERIES

THE BRILLIANT NARRATION MAKES THIS A MUST LISTEN TOO.A WHO DONE IT WITH A BIZARRE CONCLUSION.IF YOU ARE A FAN OF THIS SERIES DON'T MISS THIS ONE.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Meh

Unlike others this one just did not seem to get going. The story seems more like a poor documentary. The performance of the reader improved a little but seemed at the start at least like she could not read more than two words without taking a little pause. Very irritating.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Well read McDevitt story

Jennifer van Dyke performs this audio book well. A nice range of voices without going over the top. My only minor criticism is the deliberately artificial nature of the ship AI voices. I had always imagined them to be human sounding.

The story is your traditional McDevitt mystery. Missing space station with four crew oberving a black hole. McDevitt doesn't do science so just go with the story that does not mention intense magnetic fields, time dilation or lethal accelerated particles. It is not important to the tale.

Familiar characters Chase an Alex are joined by uncle Gabe. Back from the dead having been lost in the very first book when his star liner vanished.

I always think the Confederacy sounds cosy despite A Talent for War being set after a human alien conflict. But the books are likeable.

Octavia Gone is not one of the best McDevitt books but it is is still worth listening to.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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Not up to the standard of the early series

I am a big fan of McDevitt's earlier Alex Benedict works (just re-listened to them all) but he seems to have lost his way, or is not really paying attention to the writing. A few things really stood out in this novel that undermined the suspension of disbelief:
- Factual dissonance across the series including items such as names, titles, the method of operation of interstellar travel, the origin of the Belle Marie. Some of these felt like they had been altered just to add narrative tension - which is unfortunate.
- Gabe is a particularly flat and disappointing character in this book. He seems to take a back seat wherever possible.
- The emotionally immature attitudes of sub-characters - such as Chase's love interest
- Not understanding the correct meaning of some words used in writing the book.
- OK we get that you are interested in the sentience (or not) of AIs but please try to develop the theme rather than keep coming at it from the same direction for different characters in the book.

I just did not get invested in the story in any way like the earlier books. It's become formulaic.

Still a big fan of the narrator though - although would have been good to check the pronunciation of a few of the words that you were not sure of.

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