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Slow Lightning
Jack McDevitt
Voyager paperback, 560 pages, £6.99
Review by Mike Don (2000)

In SF terms, this is a deep space first contact novel; or possibly a second contact, since the story is driven by suspicion that a bungled first contact has been covered up. Slow Lightning is presented more or less in classic detective fiction style, as protagonist Kim Brandywine’s quest to discover the fate of her missing sister becomes ever more complex and dangerous. Below the surface of Slow Lightning, there is yet another speculation on Fermi’s Paradox: if humanity, after a thousand years of star travel, finds no trace of extraterrestrial life, will the species lose its outward drive and retreat into a Long Night?

I did have a number of reservations, minor niggles really, about Slow Lightning. A thousand years hence, would human society really still be a microcosm of contemporary America? On the other hand, the novel is compulsive enough in the telling to hold the reader’s attention, always a good sign. Plot construction offers the only serious drawback; there are several false climaxes before the final resolution, the impact of which is diminished as a result. And an oddly compressed finale, as if Mr. McDevitt suddenly realised the book was running away with him and slammed on the plot brakes to provide a comfortably pat ending.