Seeker -- Jack McDevitt

Not so long ago, I mentioned Jack McDevitt's Ancient Shores. George Kelley wrote to say that Seeker was even better, and to prove it, he sent me a copy of the novel. since I had a long day in waiting rooms yesterday, I thought I'd give it a try.

Not that I ever doubted it, but George was right. This is the kind of book I'd have loved when I was 15, which is to say it's got all the stuff I like: deep space, the far future, mystery, exploration, lost planets, and readable prose. And I like it that even many thousands of years in the future, people still read books and remember Byron's line about the Assyrians.

Alex Benedict and Chase Kolrath deal in antiquities. When they come across a cup that appears to have been on a ship presumed lost thousands of years previously, a ship that carried colonists from Old Earth to a new home, they're naturally curious. Their investigation leads to them to some dangerous characters and some wonderful discoveries. This is prime stuff, and I enjoyed it.