He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong. And he made devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong. If her theory was correct, she could extrapolate the current position of this destructive wave in space: they could plot a course and go see what had caused numerous disasters across multiple inhabited planets. Shortly thereafter, they detected two strange anomalies – giant clouds in space, traveling at a high speed. Although the clouds were quite large – planet sized, at least – they were far too small to be natural objects. With insufficient mass, they should have been ripped apart by the star system's gravity.

This one gets a good 4 Stars for a great space mystery story, enigmas in space archeology. Recently (within the past few thousand years) space-going civilizations have disappeared. Traces of violent action are found but are unclear. Great space monuments are found. The archeology team is exploring ruins on an earth-like planet scheduled for terraforming to enable future human occupation. The story suffered from an artificial pace, the science team must evacuate so nuclear explosives can melt the icecaps to release trapped water. Tense action follows with unfortunate results. The future McDevitt invents for humanity feels rather realistic, with tons of problems still existing on Earth, but there's nonetheless an overriding sense of optimism akin to Star Trek, which I appreciated a lot. The characters were all likeable, and became pretty memorable once the initial glut of people "on screen" got whittled down to the main players. I particularly liked the friendly(ish) rivalry between the main character Priscilla Hutchins, and the fiery bureaucrat Melanie Truscott. c) Inakademeri, a.k.a. "Nok", a moon of a ringed gas giant, and home to the only known non-human intelligent species still alive; the "Noks" had developed technology roughly equivalent to Earth's early 20th century. At the time of discovery they were engaged in a global conflict roughly analogous to World War I. Even after decades of exploring, humans had found disappointingly few habitable worlds, and even fewer signs of intelligent alien life. At the time, only three examples had been identified: But the cloud draws closer to its target, and the unsuspecting humanoids have only days to live. Scientists must find a way to rescue the humanoids without violating the protocol not to interfere with the civilization.And he maketh in Jerusalem inventions -- a device of an inventor -- to be on the towers, and on the corners, to shoot with arrows and with great stones, and his name goeth out unto a distance, for he hath been wonderfully helped till that he hath been strong. Nevertheless, the Academy crew, along with Truscott and her lieutenant, boarded the powerless and airless space station to investigate. What they discovered was very unsettling: dozens of alien corpses, apparently the same race as the Monument-Makers, who had all committed suicide by strapping themselves to their chairs and venting the atmosphere of the station. Characters and dialogue are so-so. Generally I would say the writing is pretty good. Parts of this really drag though - the first act which involves the archaeologists on Quarquara (sp?) trying to hang on till the last possible minute is a good example. I felt like it was endless description of digging interspersed with equally endless description of loading stuff. Could have been greatly condensed. There are a couple of intense 'action' sequences. The second of which (on Beta Pac III) seems really pulpy, and out of place with the rest of the novel. After that, the last 20% or so where they start to untangle the threads of the mystery seems hurried, almost like an afterthought. I don't know if these "Omega Clouds" will be the subject of a future novel in the series or what. But ultimately this is what everything in the novel is building to, and yet action-wise (and verbage-wise) it seemed like the part the author cared about more was a bunch of semi-intelligent crab creatures. I also note recycling of some hoary old sci-fi tropes, such as the overpopulated, environmentally damaged earth, and a carelessly simplistic narrative about the origin of religions, worthy of 'Ancient Aliens' on the history channel... in fact this part didn't jive with what was overall pretty smart and thoughtful writing.

I never really connected emotionally to the characters and there was also a romance sub-plot I didn't care about at all. I'm not sure why, but since the people I buddy-read this with felt the same way, I thought I'd mention it. If you are a very character-focused reader who doesn't geek out about alien ruins and intergalactic mysteries, I think this book probably wouldn't work for you. Frank Carson - Second in command of the Quraquan research team, former colonel in the army of the North American Union Earth has generally taken a "hands off" approach to living natives, but as pressure mounts to begin terraforming habitable worlds as an escape plan, this "Prime Directive" morality begins to seem less desirable. There is an interesting reversal of the classic sci-fi trope, and subtle commentary on colonialism and how we might justify it in the future, when an argument is made to colonize an inhabited planet "for the natives' own good." They are in the middle of a savage global war, and it is claimed that some of them have become aware of the existence of their alien watchers, and are begging for intervention. That technological aid and imposed peace would incidentally involve Earthlings resettling on their hosts' planet would be only a logical extension of a benevolent intervention...

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The loss of Wald angered many of the team, and there were differing opinions as to who held the most blame for Richard's death: Henry (team leader) for pushing his team too hard in the face of danger; Maggie, for her insistence that the alien machines had to be recovered; or even Hutch, who Henry felt had only hurt the situation by her desperate pleas for the team to abandon the effort.

Even so, I can envision a possible setup, where frustration at the omega clouds and their seemingly mindless destruction of planets drives Hutchins to take personal action in the future. Sure, knowing there are a few more books in the series allows me to make such a projection – kind of a cheat. I’m okay with that, as it means more sci-fi goodness from Mr. McDevitt. I get a feeling of space opera grandeur slowly unfolding as I read the Hutchins novels, a kind of Babylon 5 simmer into what I hope is huge stakes for the future of the galaxy. And he built structures on the walls of Jerusalem, designed by experts to protect those who shot arrows and hurled large stones from the towers and the corners of the wall. His fame spread far and wide, for the LORD gave him marvelous help, and he became very powerful.So, just what is going on? A question you as the reader, and Hutch as the protagonist will be asking throughout. Well, you do get your explanation by the end of the book even if, as I found it, not too satisfying but adequate. Scientists at the Academy nervously watch the killer comet draw closer to Earth. The clouds aren’t simply nonliving collections of materials. They appear to be able to focus on civilizations with technology, and they have a frightening record of destroying every technically advanced civilization they encounter. Despite the fact that this author is popular and has written a slew of other books, I never heard of him. That being said, in fact, there was nothing wrong with the writing itself. This guy can write, but the plot has some very thin areas, the story has too many characters, too much detail (pointless, needless, useless detail), complexity where it isn’t wanted or needed, and simplicity where depth is called for. Non si può saltare da un orbita all'altra come si cambia nastro trasportatore all'areoporto (Gravity), non si può stare in maniche di camicia in una fessura fra i multiversi a ribaltare libri dallo scaffale (Interstellar), non è che se impari a leggere una lingua aliena dopo sei capace di prevedere il futuro (The Arrival - giudicato da molti un grande film, ma appunto per questa cosa che gli alieni arrivano per donarci i superpoteri letterari per me cade nel calderone delle puttanate). Pulpit Commentary Verse 15. - Engines; Hebrew, חִשְּׁבֹנות; used only here and Ecclesiastes 7:29 (where it is rendered "inventions"), but the related word חֶשְׁבּון is found three times: Ecclesiastes 7:25 (the "reason"), 27 (the "account"); 9:10 ("device"); while the verb root חָשַׁב, to "devise," occurs about a hundred and thirty times, as in next sub-clause מַחֲשֶׁבֶתחושֵׁב. A strict rendering of the clause would make it read, "He made inventions, the inventing of an inventive man;" and the force of the words might be to appraise very highly the virtue of the invention or machine, while to himself may have been due the credit thereof. The balista which discharged stones is depicted on Assyrian sculptures; not so the machine for discharging darts and arrows, the catapult. Although, as just suggested, it were conceivable that to Uzziah himself was due in part the invention or the great improving of the machines in question, yet the verse may be regarded as simply saying that the introduction of them into Jerusalem was his work. He was marvellously helped (see ver. 7).