Publication
New York : Ace Books, 2013.
Description
" Priscilla Hutchins has been through many experiences. This is the story of her first unforgettable adventure; Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins has finally realized her lifelong dream: She's completed a nerve-bending qualification flight for a pilot's license. Her timing is far from optimal, however. Faster-than-light travel has only recently become a reality, and the World Space Authority is still learning how to manage long-range missions safely. To make matters worse, efforts to prepare two planets for colonization are killing off native life-forms, outraging people on Earth. So there's not a lot of demand for space pilots. Priscilla thinks her career may be over before it has begun. But her ambition won't be denied, and soon she is on the bridge of an interstellar ship, working for the corporation that is responsible for the terraforming. Her working conditions include bomb threats, sabotage, clashes with her employers-and a mission to a world, adrift between the stars, that harbors a life-form unlike anything humanity has ever seen. Ultimately, she will be part of a life-and-death struggle that will test both her capabilities and her character... "--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member stefferoo
Jack McDevitt has been writing books for a long time, but it wasn't until Starhawk that I finally got a taste of his work. I was initially uncertain about jumping on board with this one, seeing how the book's main character as well as the setting have been established for a while in McDevitt's The
The book takes readers back to the earlier days of Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, to a time when faster-than-light travel is still relatively new and earth politicians rage over the future of human expansion into space. People are also unhappy at the methods used to prepare alien worlds for colonization, which involves a terraforming, a process that essentially strips a planet of all life.
Supervised by her mentor Jake, Priscilla has just achieved her life long dream of becoming an interstellar space pilot, passing her qualification flight with flying colors. But due to the uncertainty of the times as well as her own tenacity, she is soon finding out the hard way that the right piloting job is hard to come by. Priscilla, however, is not one to be discouraged and soon she finds herself involved with all sorts of conflicts, including dealing with bomb threats, sabotage, rescue missions, and even the possibility of making first contact with extraterrestrial life forms. All of it will test her newfound knowledge of piloting as well as her own courage and force of will.
My friends who are fans of The Academy series love Priscilla, or "Hutch" to her friends, and I can see why. Even at this early point in her life, she is showing signs of the strength in her character, though at times I feel she is written somewhat awkwardly. The book's description makes her out to be the focus, for example, but I don't get the sense she is coming through as the "hero" of the story. At the same time, I realize this is supposed to be a prequel novel showing how she is still learning the ropes and coming into her own, and in that sense I can understand why might have been portrayed in more of a support role as the inexperienced and awkward new pilot. Regardless, I was completely unfamiliar with her character before this, so Starhawk was my first introduction to Priscilla and I liked enough of what I read!
The storyline in this book, however, is nothing short of incredible. Personally, the idea of being stranded in space scares the bejeezus out of me and is quite possibly one of the worst fates I can imagine. As such, I've never had the desire to go to space...but I do so love reading about it, for the thrills and tension! A lot of the situations in this book involve such dangers, and so a high level of suspense is constant during those scenes, and of course my own fears made reading this one even more intense. At times, the story even crosses the line into unsettling and downright spooky territory. Like I said, it makes my skin crawl and my heart clench just thinking about being lost in space, all alone in that big wide emptiness, thus making space disaster plotlines like the ones in this book very effective on me.
The fact that events take place in this amazing time of change is another reason why I liked this book so much. Jack McDevitt paints and interesting future, which despite having all this fascinating tech and being around a couple centuries ahead doesn't actually feel too distant. He really puts you there, including made-up pop culture references and the fictional names and accomplishments of famous figures which adds a realistic touch. The highlight for me was also the epistolary content at the end of each chapter, whether they are excerpts from Priscilla's journal, ship logs, news feeds and even internet chatter. It left me almost charmed and a little amused to read about how, even this far into the future, society still has the same concerns like politics, environmental change, education of our children, sports, etc. Oh, and that there will also always be internet trolls.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the novel though, is a theme alluded to in the prologue, where Priscilla ponders all those old science fiction stories featuring aliens that show up to take over earth and kill us all. That humans may be the terrifying invading aliens in this case, destroying all living creatures and ecosystems on entire worlds using terraforming to suit their own needs, is a central conflict in this novel. The story takes place in that awkward "in-between" stage where space exploration is still such a young discipline, and the human race becoming a species capable of long-ranged space travel is a process requiring a lot of growing pains. A lot of my recent science fiction novels have been space operas where humans have had the means for space travel for a long time, so long that it has become a given. So it's pretty fascinating to be reading a book where going into space is still considered a new idea, with so few safety precautions set in place that heading into space is considered dangerous and a topic of much controversy. I just really enjoyed how this book looked at a lot of things in a different light.
I had so much fun with Starhawk, I finished all 400 pages of it in less than a day. It wasn't just the plot that engaged me, it was the character and the setting and the whole package. I'm definitely going to look into picking up The Academy series, to see how things turn out for Priscilla/Hutch.
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Academy series. However, after discovering that Starhawk is actually a prequel of sorts, I took the opportunity to use it as a starting point, and let me just say now how very glad I am that I did. Starhawk is amazing, introducing me to a whole new world of space exploration and adventuring.The book takes readers back to the earlier days of Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, to a time when faster-than-light travel is still relatively new and earth politicians rage over the future of human expansion into space. People are also unhappy at the methods used to prepare alien worlds for colonization, which involves a terraforming, a process that essentially strips a planet of all life.
Supervised by her mentor Jake, Priscilla has just achieved her life long dream of becoming an interstellar space pilot, passing her qualification flight with flying colors. But due to the uncertainty of the times as well as her own tenacity, she is soon finding out the hard way that the right piloting job is hard to come by. Priscilla, however, is not one to be discouraged and soon she finds herself involved with all sorts of conflicts, including dealing with bomb threats, sabotage, rescue missions, and even the possibility of making first contact with extraterrestrial life forms. All of it will test her newfound knowledge of piloting as well as her own courage and force of will.
My friends who are fans of The Academy series love Priscilla, or "Hutch" to her friends, and I can see why. Even at this early point in her life, she is showing signs of the strength in her character, though at times I feel she is written somewhat awkwardly. The book's description makes her out to be the focus, for example, but I don't get the sense she is coming through as the "hero" of the story. At the same time, I realize this is supposed to be a prequel novel showing how she is still learning the ropes and coming into her own, and in that sense I can understand why might have been portrayed in more of a support role as the inexperienced and awkward new pilot. Regardless, I was completely unfamiliar with her character before this, so Starhawk was my first introduction to Priscilla and I liked enough of what I read!
The storyline in this book, however, is nothing short of incredible. Personally, the idea of being stranded in space scares the bejeezus out of me and is quite possibly one of the worst fates I can imagine. As such, I've never had the desire to go to space...but I do so love reading about it, for the thrills and tension! A lot of the situations in this book involve such dangers, and so a high level of suspense is constant during those scenes, and of course my own fears made reading this one even more intense. At times, the story even crosses the line into unsettling and downright spooky territory. Like I said, it makes my skin crawl and my heart clench just thinking about being lost in space, all alone in that big wide emptiness, thus making space disaster plotlines like the ones in this book very effective on me.
The fact that events take place in this amazing time of change is another reason why I liked this book so much. Jack McDevitt paints and interesting future, which despite having all this fascinating tech and being around a couple centuries ahead doesn't actually feel too distant. He really puts you there, including made-up pop culture references and the fictional names and accomplishments of famous figures which adds a realistic touch. The highlight for me was also the epistolary content at the end of each chapter, whether they are excerpts from Priscilla's journal, ship logs, news feeds and even internet chatter. It left me almost charmed and a little amused to read about how, even this far into the future, society still has the same concerns like politics, environmental change, education of our children, sports, etc. Oh, and that there will also always be internet trolls.
Perhaps my favorite thing about the novel though, is a theme alluded to in the prologue, where Priscilla ponders all those old science fiction stories featuring aliens that show up to take over earth and kill us all. That humans may be the terrifying invading aliens in this case, destroying all living creatures and ecosystems on entire worlds using terraforming to suit their own needs, is a central conflict in this novel. The story takes place in that awkward "in-between" stage where space exploration is still such a young discipline, and the human race becoming a species capable of long-ranged space travel is a process requiring a lot of growing pains. A lot of my recent science fiction novels have been space operas where humans have had the means for space travel for a long time, so long that it has become a given. So it's pretty fascinating to be reading a book where going into space is still considered a new idea, with so few safety precautions set in place that heading into space is considered dangerous and a topic of much controversy. I just really enjoyed how this book looked at a lot of things in a different light.
I had so much fun with Starhawk, I finished all 400 pages of it in less than a day. It wasn't just the plot that engaged me, it was the character and the setting and the whole package. I'm definitely going to look into picking up The Academy series, to see how things turn out for Priscilla/Hutch.
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LibraryThing member readinggeek451
Priscilla Hutchins gets her start in piloting, in a time of flux. Terraforming a distant world has become very controversial, and terrorist attacks on ships and station lead to danger, as do the accidents inherent in early exploration.
LibraryThing member Pabkins
In Starhawk, we can see what very well may be our near future. The space race has paved the way to global cooperation in the form of a space station in orbit around earth and we are capable of interstellar space travel to worlds far beyond our own. Other planets have been discovered with life and
Priscilla's Journal
I couldn't help thinking about all those old science-fiction stories from the early years of the space age. There were always aliens showing up who wanted to kill everybody and take over the world. Turns out maybe, we are the aliens. -June 17, 2195 - pg 5
This story takes off like a shot in these first few chapters, introducing us to the two main characters Priscilla Hutchins and Captain Jake Loomis. Jake is doing a flight assessment on Priscilla to see if she is ready to be an interstellar pilot. They encounter several crisis on this test flight, one which could change the future of the space program and another which could mean life or death. When it is over neither one of them will ever be the same.
He'd been tested and found wanting. And he'd have to live with it. - pg 97
In the first 100 pages I was literally unable to put the book down I was so caught up in the tension of each scenario they were thrown into. However, things slow down considerably for the following 200 pages before they pick back up again in the last fourth of the book. I would have to say during the middle portion you see a lot about the state of the world, politics, and how society is reacting to the terraforming of another world that may kill of many of the species on that planet. There are frequent "newsdesk" snippets through the entire book, usually at the end of chapters, where you get to see news headlines. These help give you a feel of what is going on in our future world, in the same way reading all of the top headlines of today would give you a feel for all the current events. I found these to be fascinating and really helped me feel like I really was living in our future.
Starhawk is a fascinating story with exceptionally well written characters and extremely believable world building. It is very much a novel of exploration, not only of space but of your own beliefs, going after what you want in life, and fighting for what you believe in, no matter the cost. In many ways the characters Jack McDevitt writes are inspirations - true role models in their world and our own. They are what some heroes in other novels can only aspire to be. If you are a fan of science fiction, or space opera, or even if you've never read a sf novel before Starhawk would be an excellent place to start.
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we have made contact with other sentient races. Unfortunately, advances in technology have not given us the answers to our ever present problems of over population, pollution and dwindling natural resources. Because of this corporations have turned their eyes to other planets in the hopes that terraforming another world similar to our own will be the answer to these issues.Priscilla's Journal
I couldn't help thinking about all those old science-fiction stories from the early years of the space age. There were always aliens showing up who wanted to kill everybody and take over the world. Turns out maybe, we are the aliens. -June 17, 2195 - pg 5
This story takes off like a shot in these first few chapters, introducing us to the two main characters Priscilla Hutchins and Captain Jake Loomis. Jake is doing a flight assessment on Priscilla to see if she is ready to be an interstellar pilot. They encounter several crisis on this test flight, one which could change the future of the space program and another which could mean life or death. When it is over neither one of them will ever be the same.
He'd been tested and found wanting. And he'd have to live with it. - pg 97
In the first 100 pages I was literally unable to put the book down I was so caught up in the tension of each scenario they were thrown into. However, things slow down considerably for the following 200 pages before they pick back up again in the last fourth of the book. I would have to say during the middle portion you see a lot about the state of the world, politics, and how society is reacting to the terraforming of another world that may kill of many of the species on that planet. There are frequent "newsdesk" snippets through the entire book, usually at the end of chapters, where you get to see news headlines. These help give you a feel of what is going on in our future world, in the same way reading all of the top headlines of today would give you a feel for all the current events. I found these to be fascinating and really helped me feel like I really was living in our future.
Starhawk is a fascinating story with exceptionally well written characters and extremely believable world building. It is very much a novel of exploration, not only of space but of your own beliefs, going after what you want in life, and fighting for what you believe in, no matter the cost. In many ways the characters Jack McDevitt writes are inspirations - true role models in their world and our own. They are what some heroes in other novels can only aspire to be. If you are a fan of science fiction, or space opera, or even if you've never read a sf novel before Starhawk would be an excellent place to start.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lithicbee
It's an odd book. While there are some tense moments in it, and some interesting topics, it is connected by a lot of mundane happenings that could as easily take place today as in 200 years. I didn't expect a thriller, but it was a bit too slow-going for my tastes.
LibraryThing member DLMorrese
For a taste of good, old fashioned space opera, you can't do better than Jack McDevitt. This one has the same quirky mix of futuristic tech and an almost 1960s feel to the culture of the 'future'. The story is about the early years of the space pilot Priscilla Hutchins, who we have met in six other
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novels. This one is like a prequel to those, and I recommend for people who have read and enjoyed them as I did. Show Less
LibraryThing member JSPerkins
Way too long, filled with boring bits.
Language
Original publication date
2013-11-05
2013
Physical description
407 p.; 24 cm
ISBN
9780425260852