I've read most of McDevitt's other works (most notable the Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins books), and in general I've only been mildly impressed by the novelty of the stories. "A Talent for War", on the other hand, completely blew me away with the depth of the story, and McDevitt's storytelling ability.

McDevitt's novels can often be described as Space Archeology and usually involve the cast of characters trying to research some ancient alien race. A Talent for War is a similar theme, but involves the primary character, Alex, investigating a war hero from a war in the recent past. The war was recent enough that much evidence is present, but long enough ago that all the primary actors have long since died.

The war hero is Christopher Sim, who led a band of seven anonymous volunteers in a hopeless battle against a superior alien adversary. Sim of course perishes, but his sacrifice led to humanity's banding together and defeating the alien.

The story beings with Alex receiving a message from his recently deceased uncle that not everything is as it seems with the Christopher Sim legend. It seems Alex's uncle was hot on the track of an important artifact, and pre-recorded message in case something happened to him. Alex begrudgingly takes on the task of finishing his uncle's work.

Immediately, several mysteries arise -- why did Christopher Sim's original crew desert him? Who were the seven volunteers? How come nobody know who the anonymous volunteers were? ... and who is trying to prevent Alex from solving the mystery?

The story unfolds as Alex searches for the historical clues to what really happened. We get to find out what really happened as Alex does -- as he travels to various worlds and interviews persons of interest. McDevitt's real accomplishment with this work is in his story telling ability -- rather than simply telling us what happened, he leads us through the discoveries as Alex's investigations continue. The effect is a cross between Science Fiction and a good mystery where you're constantly trying to figure out for yourself what really happened.

The bottom line -- I highly recommend this book -- it's a relatively quick and easy read (about 310 pages) and will give you a lot of satisfaction as the story evolves.

Also check out McDevitt's other works: Ancient Shores (which I also really enjoyed), Eternity Road, and the Priscilla Hutchins books (The Engines of God, Chindi, Deepsix, Omega, Polaris, etc). I only hope I get time to write reviews for all of them!

This review Copyright (c) 2005 by Scott M. Baker -- please do not use or publish without permission