Jack McDevitt

Jack McDevitt
McDevitt at the Festive Bookweek in Budapest, 2010
Born	(1935-04-14) April 14, 1935 (age 89)
Occupation	Novelist, short story writer
Nationality	American
Alma mater	La Salle University
Period	1981–present
Genre	Science fiction
Website
jackmcdevitt.com

Jack McDevitt (born April 14, 1935)^[1] is an American science fiction author whose novels frequently deal with attempts to make contact with alien races, and with archaeology or xenoarchaeology. Most of his books follow either superluminal pilot Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins or galactic relic hunters Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath. McDevitt has received numerous nominations for Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell awards. Seeker won the 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel.

McDevitt's first published story was "The Emerson Effect" in The Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981.

McDevitt went to La Salle University, where a short story of his won the annual Freshman Short Story Contest and was published in the school's literary magazine, Four Quarters. As McDevitt explained in an interview:

I was on my way. Then I read David Copperfield and realized I could never write at that level, and therefore I should find something else to do. I joined the Navy, drove a cab, became an English teacher, took a customs inspector's job on the northern border, and didn't write another word for a quarter-century.

McDevitt received a master's degree in literature from Wesleyan University in 1971.^[2] He returned to writing when his wife, Maureen, encouraged him to try his hand at it in 1980. As of 2007^[update], McDevitt lives near Brunswick, Georgia. In 2005, he donated his archive to the department of Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University. The novel Seeker won the 2006 Nebula Award for Best Novel, given by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award sixteen times; Seeker is his only win.^[3][4]

With The Engines of God (1994), McDevitt introduced the idea of a universe that was once teeming with intelligent life, but contains only their abandoned artifacts by the time humans arrive on the scene. The main character of The Engines of God, pilot Priscilla Hutchins, has since appeared in seven more books, Deepsix (2001), Chindi (2002), Omega (2003), Odyssey (2006), Cauldron (2007), StarHawk (2013), and The Long Sunset (2018). The mystery surrounding the destructive "Omega Clouds" (which are introduced in The Engines of God) is left unexplored until Omega.^[5]

McDevitt's novels frequently raise questions which he does not attempt to answer. He prefers to leave ambiguities to puzzle and intrigue his readers: "Some things are best left to the reader's very able imagination."^[5] The SF Site's Steven H Silver has written about this:

McDevitt has a (probably unintentional) tendency to give the impression that his novels will go in one direction and then take them in a different direction. Or possibly his background is so well thought out, that throw away lines, or subplots, or minor characters, have enough information behind them to make the reader want to see their story as much as the main plot of the book. While slightly annoying, this is, I've decided, a strength of McDevitt's writing since it shows the depth of his created worlds.^[6]

• The Hercules Text (1986), a revised version was also published as part of Hello Out There
• Eternity Road (1998)
• Moonfall (1998)
• Infinity Beach (2000), UK title Slow Lightning
• Time Travelers Never Die (2009)
• The Cassandra Project (2012) with Mike Resnick

• StarHawk (2013), prequel ISBN 0-425-26085-2
• The Engines of God (1994), book 1 ISBN 0-441-00077-0
• Deepsix (2001), book 2 ISBN 0-06-105124-1
• Chindi (2002), book 3 ISBN 0-441-00938-7
• Omega (2003), book 4 ISBN 0-441-01046-6
• Odyssey (2006), book 5 ISBN 0-441-01433-X
• Cauldron (2007), book 6 ISBN 0-441-01525-5
• The Long Sunset (2018), book 7 ISBN 1-481-49793-6

The short stories "Melville on Iapetus" (1983), "Promises to Keep" (1984), "Oculus" (2002), "The Big Downtown" (2005),^[7] "Kaminsky at War" (2006), "Maiden Voyage" (2012), "Waiting at the Altar" (2012), and "The Cat's Pajamas" (2012) are also set in the Academy universe.

• A Talent for War (1989), also published as part of Hello Out There
• Polaris (2004) ISBN 0-441-01202-7
• Seeker (2005), winner of Nebula Award for Best Novel, ISBN 0-441-01329-5
• The Devil's Eye (2008) ISBN 0-441-01635-9
• Echo (2010) ISBN 0-441-01924-2
• Firebird (November 1, 2011) ISBN 0-441-02073-9
• Coming Home. New York: Ace. 2014.^[8]
• Octavia Gone (May 7, 2019) ISBN 0-481-49797-8
• Village in the Sky (Gallery Publishing Group/Saga Press, January 31, 2023) ISBN 978-1-66800-429-6

The short stories "In the Tower" (1987) and "A Voice in the Night" (2013) are also set in the Alex Benedict universe.

• Ancient Shores (1996)
• Thunderbird (2015)
• Doorway to the Stars (2024)

• Standard Candles (Tachyon Publications, 1996)
• Hello Out There (Meisha Merlin, 2000), omnibus edition of A Talent for War and a revised The Hercules Text
• Ships in the Night (AAB, 2005)
• Outbound (ISFiC Press, 2006) ISBN 0-9759156-4-9
• Cryptic: The Best Short Fiction of Jack McDevitt (Subterranean Press, February 2009) ISBN 978-1-59606-195-8
• A Voice in the Night (Subterranean Press, August 2018) ISBN 978-1-59606-880-3
• Return to Glory (Subterranean Press, October 2022)

• Nebula Best Short Story nominee (1983) : Cryptic
• Philip K. Dick Award (special citation) (1986) : The Hercules Text^[9]
• Nebula Best Short Story nominee (1988) : "The Fort Moxie Branch"
• Hugo Best Short Story nominee (1989) : "The Fort Moxie Branch"
• International UPC Science Fiction Award winner (1993) : "Ships in the Night" (first English language winner)^[10]
• Nebula Best Novella nominee (1996) : "Time Travelers Never Die"
• Arthur C. Clarke Best Novel nominee (1997) : Engines of God^[11]
• Hugo Best Novella nominee (1997) : "Time Travelers Never Die"
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (1997) : Ancient Shores^[11]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (1998) : Moonfall^[12]
• Nebula Best Novelette nominee (1999) : "Good Intentions" (co-writer Stanley Schmidt)
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2000) : Infinity Beach^[13]
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel nominee (2001) : Infinity Beach^[14]
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel nominee (2002) : Deepsix^[15]
• Nebula Best Short Story nominee (2002) : "Nothing Ever Happens in Rock City"
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2003) : Chindi^[16]
• Campbell Award winner (2004) : Omega^[17]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2004) : Omega^[17]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2005) : Polaris^[18]
• Nebula Best Novel winner (2006) : Seeker^[19]
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel nominee (2006) : Seeker^[19]
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel nominee (2007) : Odyssey^[20]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2007) : Odyssey ^[20]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2008) : Cauldron^[21]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2010) : Echo^[22]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2011) : Firebird^[23]
• Nebula Best Novel nominee (2014) : Coming Home^[24]
• Robert A. Heinlein Award winner (2015)^[25]

• Flickinger field

Wikiquote has quotations related to Jack McDevitt.

• Official website
• Profile of Jack McDevitt Archived 2017-05-14 at the Wayback Machine by Michael Swanwick
• Official forum at The Internet Book Database of Fiction
• Jack McDevitt's Short Story Bibliography at the Wayback Machine (archived December 1, 2008)
• Jack McDevitt at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• The Jack McDevitt Papers at Northern Illinois University
• Story Behind Starhawk - Online Essay by Jack McDevitt