
Covers of McDevitt’s Deepsix and The Engines of God
The story of Jack McDevitt’s novel
Deepsix takes place about 20 years after the events of
The Engines of God, to which it is a sequel. They’re both fun reads. They could both be described as energetic science fiction novels. And yet,
Deepsix lacks something that appeared in
The Engines of God—namely, a sense of awe. In
Engines, the characters are struck by archeological clues in a mysterious universe, while in
Deepsix the story arc is based upon a race against the clock to engineer an escape of some people out of a dangerous environment, which—oh yeah—has some scattered remnants of alien civilization, but we don’t have time to look at it so forget it. The story of
Deepsix could easily have been set in Alaska with a few variables replaced.