Chindi by Jack McDevitt

While on vacation, I found myself without anything to read (bad planning). So we headed into town, and found a Wal-Mart and a Barnes and Noble. I wandered into the bookstore and started browsing the Sci-Fi section.

I saw a book on the shelf that called out to be read - Chindi by Jack McDevitt. I knew the book existed - after all, it's the most common hit on Google when searching for my screen name - but had never investigated what it was about. To my surprise, it's hard SF - and it was really good. Really.

I'm not going to go into great detail here, but if you enjoyed any of Asimov's Foundation books, you should really take a look at this. The one thing I did find odd - the title. It's completely offhand, and has little to do with th Navajo origin of the word. In fact, the definition given in the book is not really accurate.

That little quibble aside, everything about the book was enjoyable. I stayed up very late a couple of nights to finish it off, I didn't want to put it down. And more importantly, it made me want to pick up my own writing again. I love inspiring works like that!