OK late entry in the Academy / Priscilla Hutchins series, undercut by several auctorial decisions. Half the book is about getting Earth back into interstellar travel. I took this as a thinly disguised retelling of our history with moon exploration. There's not much point to this. The more time spent on Earth, the more time you can see that McDevitt has trouble imagining anything but the present. AIs play a bigger role than I recall, both in the home and in the spaceships, but otherwise the trappings of Earth are contemporary. The second bad decision was to take the mission to find the origin of the Omega Clouds and turn into into a multi-stop tour of several other systems along the way. This turns what could have been an extended focus on the omegas into a stop and go sequence of stories. The reason for this may be that -- no spoilers I think -- the explanation finally given for the omegas is pretty limp.

That said, it's nice to see Priscilla in space again, and the writing chugs along, never surprising, but passable.

Recommended for fans of McDevitt. ( )

(2007) As PW says this is not one of McDevitt's better books. Easy read but that is part of the problem. Too many pat scenarios and things happen too easy, even the end where the ?evil? omega cloud is defeated.From Publishers WeeklySpace opera specialist McDevitt shoehorns two traditional SF plots into his latest Academy novel (after 2006's Odyssey), doing both stories a disservice. Youthful physicist Jon Silvestri persuades the philanthropic Prometheus Foundation to back tests of a risky interstellar drive that's vastly superior to current technology. Soon series keystone Priscilla Hutchins finds herself aboard a newly outfitted ship dispatched to the galactic core, seeking the source of a million-year-old interstellar menace. The cast is uniformly likable if prickly, but no true protagonist emerges from McDevitt's ensemble. Some sections are leisurely, others rushed. Readers see little of the star drive research, and the space voyage is triply sidetracked�to a planet of cheerfully technophobic aliens, an abandoned world with unexpected dangers and a black hole with a tantalizing secret¥before reaching its stated objective, where the threat's origin is summarily introduced and disposed of in the last 60 pages. Despite considerable inventiveness and an enthusiastic pro-space agenda, the story remains superficial, especially frustrating from a writer of McDevitt's caliber.

One of the better books of the series. Ties up loose ends. Questions the fate of civilizations. Has multiple characters and explores their motivations. I did not care about the last point.

The story is told from shifting points of view of the various characters. I could have done without that aspect also, but I guess it breaks things up and lends variety to the telling while at the same time gives insight to the characters. It also allows the author to shift the point of view in some situations to heighten the suspense. If he was locked into one point of view the reader would end up knowing what was going on to that individual character at all times and there would be no suspense about the outcome. Given the shifting point of view, the reader is sometimes left guessing. ( )

A solid conclusion (for now) to the Academy series.

Following from Omega, the Academy is basically dead (lack of funding / interest) and humanity is withdrawing from the stars. Then there's a breakthrough in new FTL drive technology orders of magnitude faster than the previous incarnations. Hutch returns as one of the two pilots sent out on a high speed mission to the origin of the Chindi, a world SETI received a transmission came from, a black hole, and the possible origin of the Omegas (finally).

On the upside: we finally got something in the way of answers for both where the Chindi and the Omegas came from. It's by no means a complete answer, but more than we've had thus far. I'll take it. The addition of the new drive technology promises to really shake things up. I hope this isn't the last book in the series--I want to see where this universe goes, now that you can fly to the galactic core in about four months... (As an aside, space is *huge*).

On a slight downside, some of the stops really felt undeveloped. What could have been an entire book earlier in the series was only a chapter or two. Even so, I think this book had the best flow of the six; I finished it in a day. ( )

I am generally a big McDevitt fan, but I found this title to be a bit slower than most of his other books. Still enjoyable, but not at the top of my list of favorites. ( )

Looking back on the other five books in the Academy series, I have to say I like Cauldron the best. It not only engages us back on Earth with something other than a religious diatribe, it gives us a look at the failing drive to get out into the stars.

Oh, and because there is hope for a brand new stardrive that would get us so much farther and faster out there, a great deal of the story is watching each attempt at the drive fail.

But let's cut to the chase. That's all great character-building stuff and when they finally go out there in much smaller ships to encounter and resolve all the great mysteries wondered at in the other novels, we're treated to real resolutions.

Setup, adventure, revisited mysteries, more death, and big reveals.

You know, like the Omega cloud, the one that seems to eat spacefaring species.

... And a lot of that is quite welcome. The pacing is much better, too.

But I will say this: the very last reveal was something of a major letdown. McDevitt's build-ups are always pretty awesome, but when we finally have an answer to the mystery, I'm kinda underwhelmed.

This is not a Peter Watts novel. *sigh* ( )

McDevitt always delivers a solid read but Cauldron is probably my least favorite of the series so far. Despite being the shortest entry it felt slow-moving. It isn't until about halfway through that they actually get out and exploring the galaxy. I realize the author probably didn't want to make the development of the new star drive seem too easy, but maybe it could have been compressed just a little. Once they are on their way they meander and make a few stops before heading for the main objective. As with DeepSix I felt there were instances of characters making unwise choices and then paying for them. I'm sure if I had found a habitable planet I might want to drop down and take a firsthand look, but as a reader...you know that something bad is going to happen, and none of these people are trained for this sort of thing. They're basically civilians.

In the final part we get the big payoff we've waited the whole series for. I won't give anything away, but I will say that it is a satisfying revelation, and for me it is what raises the book up to a three-star rating. ( )

Cauldron – ** SPOILERS **

I have found McDevitt’s stories strangely compelling, despite the many throwaway characters and the only stable person, Hutch, at times making incredible decisions in her life, you just have to slap your forehead and ask why. Why? Because I like space adventure and a great female lead.

After reading the Hutchins’ series of novels, I had to read Cauldron. The Cauldron is a place at the center of our galaxy that the omega clouds come from – strange machines, light-years wide, that destroy anything at right angles, i.e. buildings.

After a confrontation with one at the start of the story, we first get an update on what has been happening with Hutchins. That’s fine, but the domestic stuff goes on and on way more than necessary. I want to get to the good stuff.

Faster than light travel is about to be trumped by a new drive that may save the space program, as more humans want to forget about space exploration and stay on planet Earth. This of course is a criticism of the same things now with NASA. We have not been on the Moon in decades and unmanned probes have taken the place of manned missions. (Frankly I thought I’d be on Mars Station by this time!). But I digress.

After a half a book of handwringing we finally make it back in space: an ex-pilot cum real estate agent who gets to go back in space, a man who invented the new space drive and wants to take some ships out for a spin and Hutchins, who had sworn never to do deep space exploration but what the heck, just this one more time. Yeowza.

Spaces and Places:

The Chindi – we find where it finally came from, but unfortunately the planet they discover is a 20th century technology of frumpy aliens who live a very long time. The A.I. on board, trying to translate their language confuses physics with physical. Hey, it happens.

The Omega – we find it possessed by an entity who, as one reviewer mentioned, is similar to the alien God in the film Star Trek V. Trek fans take note.

Sigma – hey, cool planet with lizards that blend into snow. I liked it!

Bottom Line:

Overall enjoyable. I liked how the new Earth looks, what global warming has finally done, and Hutchins’ new love life and family. I enjoyed ex-pilot Mike’s exploration back into the unknown and that he no longer felt archaic. And finally liked how new inventions still often meet with opposition – nice tension there. If you followed the novels from the first, you may be disappointed. But the book stands on its own.

Recommended.
( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2727826.html

There was a time when each year's Jack McDevitt book appeared on that year's Nebula shortlist, and just as reliably failed to win (with one exception). This one was beaten by Powers, which I felt was a rather minor Le Guin. Cauldron turns out to be the last in a series none of the rest of which I have read, which maybe accounts for a somewhat elegiac tone. I thought it was competent enough hard sf; in a relatively near future earth, a new space drive is discovered and our protagonists set off on a quest to solve a cosmic mystery, stopping off at several planets along the way (rather brave to make the non-human civilisation a bit dull). If you want a bit more spice in your genre (and I usually do) this doesn't really push the boundaries - what's really striking is how little difference there is between McDevitt's imagined future human society a couple of centuries hence, and the year 2000 - and there were at least three better books on the Nebula shortlist that year. (Little Brother, Brasyl, and Making Money.) ( )

Cauldron was a pretty good book and a fairly satisfying ending to the Academy and Hutch six book series McDevitt created and wrote. A lot of the former characters make appearances again and that's nice to see. A giant mystery is partially solved, so that's good. But still, it's not the best book I've read and thus, four stars and not five.

Perhaps it's because I've read the entire series and know what to expect, but I felt as though a lot in this book was fairly predictable. New worlds are discovered. The crew goes down to a planet to explore ruins. A main character dies, which always happens in these books. They investigate a black hole. They spend a lot of time in space, bored and getting on each other's nerves.

However, there are some differences as well. First, the Academy is no more. It's been about, maybe, twenty years since the events in the last novel occurred and the government and the people are sick of space exploration and don't want to fund it anymore. After all, nothing is ever found, for the most part. Why pour billions and billions of dollars into a losing effort? But there's still a foundation in existence for space exploration. And a young scientist who was the protege of a deceased researcher who discovers a new space drive that provides for transportation at incredible speed. As in earth to Pluto in six seconds. Meanwhile, Hutch is retired, missing her dead husband and her kids who are off at college.

Rudy, the man in charge of this foundation, and Jon, the scientist, want to take this new space drive, after testing it, out into deep space where no one's gone before. They have a pilot, Matt, a former Academy pilot who has been selling real estate for several years. But they want to take two ships and they need another pilot, so they talk Hutch into it. Sweet. Also, they take a journalist, Antonio, with them. And they decide to go to the galactic core, the Cauldron, in search of the origin of the Omega clouds seen in so many of these Academy books, which have been so very destructive. They want to find what's behind the clouds, what the secret is. It's a zillion light years from earth and they're going to have to make several stops along the way and the travel will take a number of months.

As I wrote, things are fairly predictable. In fact, I got bored and thought I'd be giving this book three stars. Until I reached the last four or five chapters. The last section of the book, when they reached the Cauldron. And things changed. The ending was pretty cool. It was unexpected. It wasn't totally satisfying, to be honest, but it was original and McDevitt tried to wrap things up while still leaving a bit of a mystery to the story, if that makes any sense. After the final scenes, there's an epilogue telling what happened to the survivors, which is a strategy I don't always like, but in this case, it seemed appropriate. All in all, it was a pretty good series, especially the first three books with Hutch as pilot. It went downhill when she went into administration. This book was an improvement over the previous two though. I'm sad it's over. I've also been reading McDevitt's Alex Benedict series. I have one remaining in that series too and when I'm done with that, I guess I'll be done with McDevitt, which is sad, because I've really enjoyed reading his books. This book can probably be read as a stand alone novel, but I recommend reading the series in order, as you'll have a better understanding of the overall plot. Recommended. ( )

If you've followed the Engines of God series, this is a must read. It's pure space exploration suspense and mystery, with a huge payoff. ( )

This book explores mankind's early steps after they discover FTL. It is set against current global warming and climate fears. The story asks is exploration worth the effort. Given the time it takes to go between stars, the dangers, and poltical realities at home.It uses our current retreat from deep space exploration as a model. I stumbled on this author and hope to read more his stuff. ( )

Cauldron – ** SPOILERS **

I have found McDevitt’s stories strangely compelling, despite the many throwaway characters and the only stable person, Hutch, at times making incredible decisions in her life, you just have to slap your forehead and ask why. Why? Because I like space adventure and a great female lead.

After reading the Hutchins’ series of novels, I had to read Cauldron. The Cauldron is a place at the center of our galaxy that the omega clouds come from – strange machines, light-years wide, that destroy anything at right angles, i.e. buildings.

After a confrontation with one at the start of the story, we first get an update on what has been happening with Hutchins. That’s fine, but the domestic stuff goes on and on way more than necessary. I want to get to the good stuff.

Faster than light travel is about to be trumped by a new drive that may save the space program, as more humans want to forget about space exploration and stay on planet Earth. This of course is a criticism of the same things now with NASA. We have not been on the Moon in decades and unmanned probes have taken the place of manned missions. (Frankly I thought I’d be on Mars Station by this time!). But I digress.

After a half a book of handwringing we finally make it back in space: an ex-pilot cum real estate agent who gets to go back in space, a man who invented the new space drive and wants to take some ships out for a spin and Hutchins, who had sworn never to do deep space exploration but what the heck, just this one more time. Yeowza.

Spaces and Places:

The Chindi – we find where it finally came from, but unfortunately the planet they discover is a 20th century technology of frumpy aliens who live a very long time. The A.I. on board, trying to translate their language confuses physics with physical. Hey, it happens.

The Omega – we find it possessed by an entity who, as one reviewer mentioned, is similar to the alien God in the film Star Trek V. Trek fans take note.

Sigma – hey, cool planet with lizards that blend into snow. I liked it!

Bottom Line:

Overall enjoyable. I liked how the new Earth looks, what global warming has finally done, and Hutchins’ new love life and family. I enjoyed ex-pilot Mike’s exploration back into the unknown and that he no longer felt archaic. And finally liked how new inventions still often meet with opposition – nice tension there. If you followed the novels from the first, you may be disappointed. But the book stands on its own.

Recommended.
( )

I'm a fan of McDevitt's to the extent that I've always enjoyed reading his books, and keep telling myself I should read more of them, so I was licking my chops as I settled down to this one. I've got to confess I was pretty spectacularly disappointed. Earth's interstellar enterprise looks to be falling into abeyance because of the apathy of shortsighted politoicians, so the discovery by a physicist called Jon Silvestri of a new principle of faster-than-light travel that makes the far extremes of the galaxy a mere jaunt away rescues the effort just in time. For about two-thirds of the book, Our Heroes (who include McDevitt's series protagonist Priscilla Hutchins) try to get the thing to work. In the remaining one-third, they go off to the Galactic Core, having a couple of adventures en route and another when they get there. This all reads less like a novel, more like a rather tired fixup (to use the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction's terminology). My guess is this bridges the gap between two periods of McDevitt's future history -- that this is just a sort of a transitional passage within a larger scheme, as it were -- but that's no real excuse. ( )

After reading this book, I don't know if I ever want to try another McDevitt book. His writing style is easy to read, yet he seems to waste space. Of this book, more than half the book could have been dropped into back story. The big deal with the engine wasn't that big a deal. The actual trip held more interest to me than the technical aspect of the works. The characters meant nothing to me, which might suggest that the entire series must be absorbed to find a link to any of the characters, which is a shame. However, it also seems to hold as the way the publishing industry.

From a writer's standpoint, I can understand the ease of reading but the story itself was very dry.

Not worth recommending to anyone. ( )

Spring12:

Characters: Actually liked Hutch's companions; that's an improvement. Frank is awesome when you meet him.

Plot: Like a good version of the first Star Trek movie.

Style: A good space adventure. ( )

Cauldron by Jack McDevitt

Cauldron

The Academy (Priscilla Hutchins) Novels #6

By Jack McDevitt

Publisher: Ace Books, The Berkley Publishing Group, Penguin Group

Published In: New York, USA

Date: 2007

Pgs: 373

Summary:

In 2255, the Academy that trained pilots and sent missions into space is gone. The efforts in space have changed. For profit missions…very little pure science. The privately funded Prometheus Foundation is one of the only entities still devoted to deep space exploration. The Hazeltine Drive has been getting humanity between the stars for a number of years. But now an upstart physicist has taken a discounted theory and turned it into a new, faster way to get around. The universe is opening. And the origins of the civilization destroying Omega clouds may finally be within reach.

Genre:

Science fiction, space opera

Main Character:

Priscilla Hutchins though for much of the book you wouldn’t have guessed that it was her.

Favorite Character:

Antonio. The Dr. Science journalist is a great character.

Least Favorite Character:

Rudy. Not sure if it was the space madness or if he was just a 5th wheel and was intended for what happened for the get go. His character was a little bit of all over the place.

Favorite Scene:

“Hutch, get clear. Do it now. Get out of there. Up ahead. It’s watching you.”

Plot Holes/Out of Character:

Rudy. I’ll just leave him at that. His character was fine up until the transit in Locarno/Barber/Silvestri Space. Would have probably went down better, if he’d had a bit of space narcosis or something instead of the way that it went.

Last Page Sound:

I really liked this book. It picks up pacing all the way through and it is kicking pretty good when you get to the end.

Author Assessment:

Definitely be reading this author again. On the cover page, he is referred to as the logical heir to Asimov and Clarke. That’s very high praise. And while, I’m loathe to put anyone in that category…this was damned good.

Disposition of Book:

This is a keep it and re-read it book. I might even have to look into some other books in this series. This is the best kind of series book. You don’t even have to be aware that it is part of a series to read it and enjoy it. This book stands on its own quite well and while it does reference things that happen in other books, it explains them in such a way that you don’t have to read the other book to enjoy this one. ( )

Too many diversions, too much time getting to the point. The main alien intelligence bit was predictable. The book was somewhat reminiscent of Fred Hoyle's Black Cloud, just twice as long and half as good. I'm afraid it ended up being a bit of a drag but, for its size, was a mercifully quick read. ( )

(Reviewed February 18, 2009)

This is the last book of his that I will read. Although it is a return to form of sorts, it's still weighted down by the many failings of the author and his style. This time he spends much too long setting up the new engines, which you know from the start will work. There is no tension, mostly just frustration when the damn things apparently don't work the first couple of times. Just get on with it. And then when the plot finally gets underway, he seems to lose interest, and rushes through the last half of the book. This was compounded thoroughly today when I read the first chapter of Reynolds's House of Suns. Oh my goodness, the difference is extraordinary. Jack, put down the hammer. ( )

This book was much better than the previous one in the series, Odyssey, but at this point in the series, McDevitt's focus on the small details of interpersonal relationships and politics means that there is no time to focus on the exploration and amazing occurrences that I personally was hoping for. There are hints of amazing landscapes, impossible physics, alien life, extinct civilizations, but only that, and then only in the last third of the book. The book kept me reading at a quick pace to find out what happens next, but was never as fulfilling as I hoped. ( )

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. ( )

"Cauldron," Jack McDevitt's last installment of the Priscilla Hutchins series of novels, is a double-edged sword. Fans of the series were doubtlessly saddened that this would be the last. Yet, at the same time, it is far from a weak finish.

The world that fans of the series grew to love is, sadly, over. The Academy is gone, and humanity has regressed to narrow-minded isolationism, despite the looming question - and one that occupied several books - of what drives the dreaded Omega Clouds. It's a bleak future, turning even the once vivacious Priscilla Hutchins into a morose, subdued version of herself.

But things change when a largely-unregarded invention is perfected: a new stardrive that puts the core of the galaxy, the source of the omegas, within reach. And so, with Hutchins as a semi-reluctant leader, a private expedition sets out for the cauldron of the core to find out, once and for all, the story of the omegas.

Fans of the series will have a difficult time relating to the Hutch of Cauldron, and with good reason: she's quite unlike herself. Her usually energetic, "can-do" spirit is largely packed away, buried under cynicism and, probably, angst at the demolition of the superluminal exploration effort.

Compounding the issue is an usually long and dry exposition. McDevitt books usually start a little slow but manage to catch their gear within 100 pages or so. Cauldron has an atypically slow start, needing about 150 pages to warm up to a canter, and doesn't hit a gallop until the last third of the book.

However, the reader that forgives a slow start is treated with a story well worthy of the master that McDevitt has become. Cauldron is a look not only into the galaxy's core, but the core of the character that has driven a series of books, and an unforgiving look at that. Questions are answered, some of which have been with regular readers for several books.

Cauldron, although unusual for a Hutch book, is nevertheless an excellent read, and a must for fans of the series.

-BrowncoatLibrarian ( )

397 ( )