McDEVITT, Jack

   Working name of US writer John Charles McDevitt (1935-), who began publishing sf with "The Emerson Effect" for Twilight Zone in 1981, coming to prominence with "Cryptic" (1984), a tale whose theme - First Contact between humans and the ALIEN races who are sending communications across space - was elaborated in his first novel, The Hercules Text (1986). Despite the occasional descent into CLICHES in his plotting and hispolitics (even as early as 1986 the vision of the USA coming close to war with the USSR over ownership of the information in the signals lacked extrapolative vigour), JMcD managed in this tale to concentrate very effectively on the human dimensions of the conundrum posed by the existence of a COMMUNICATION whose contents, when deciphered, might well devastate human civilization; and the Roman Catholic viewpoint of one of the SCIENTISTS involved in decoding the message is presented with an obvious sympathy which does not hamper the storytelling, which involves threats of violent skulduggery. JMcD's second novel, A Talent for War (1989), set in a galactic venue eons hence, similarly sets a religiousframe around the central quest plot, in which a young man must thread his way through the unsettled hinterlands dividing human and alien space in his search for the secret that may retroactively destroy the reputation of a human who has been a hero in the recent wars. His third novel, The Engines of God (1994), puts into the darkly humane terms that have becomehis trademark an epic space opera plot that gives some new life to old movements of story: the ancient artifact; the unfolding COSMOLOGY; and so forth. In all three novels, JMcD wrestles valiantly with the task he has set himself: that of imposing an essentially contemplative structure upon conventions designed for violent action. He comes, at times, close to success.

   JC

   See also: PHILIP K. DICK AWARD.