The novel “The Long Sunset” by Jack McDevitt was published for the first time in 2008. This is the eighth novel in the Academy series, set in the 23rd century and starring the space pilot Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins.
When an alien signal is detected on Earth, a new interstellar expedition is set up with Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins as the starship’s pilot, also due to her experience in first contacts with alien species. However, humanity’s isolationism is growing and the mission is in danger.
Derek Blanchard, who runs the new mission, is determined to leave but even the authorities seem to want to prevent the starship from leaving for purely political reasons. More and more people seem terrified of encountering hostile aliens, and this forces the team to leave hastily.
Jack McDevitt writes stories with elements of archaeological science fiction, and that’s true of this series as well. “The Long Sunset” is set in the 23rd century but the future humanity depicted by the author remained basically the same as today’s. The parallels between today’s Western society and the future society are quite transparent.
In “Cauldron“, the novel of this series preceding this one in its internal chronology, Jack McDevitt already showed a growing disinterest in space travel despite the advances in the speed of interstellar travel. That tendency becomes an isolationist trend in “The Long Sunset” with the North American elections played largely on the fear of finding hostile aliens.
The vision of politics is negative, above all because it’s based on people’s emotions and not on programs that lead to the improvement of their lives. The media’s portrayal is decidedly unedifying in a society in which the press seems to be subservient to politics.
Despite these negative elements, Jack McDevitt maintains a certain optimism about both humans and aliens. In other stories, he already showed that sentient aliens are different from humans in many things but there are more similarities than differences. The universe may be dangerous but that’s due much more to natural phenomena such as black holes than to the intentions of some alien species.
Priscilla “Hutch” Hutchins is a veteran of interstellar travel and first contact with aliens but she can’t rule out the possibility of encountering a hostile species. Honestly, this seemed really unlikely to me precisely because of the ideas Jack McDevitt had expressed in other of his stories I had read previously. All in all, it seemed like a minor flaw to me.
Readers who want the mysteries posed at the beginning of a novel to have a solution may be disappointed by “The Long Sunset.” Let’s be clear, the origin of the signal is discovered but the reconstruction of millennia of history of the species that sent it remains incomplete. In the end, the archaeological science fiction element is secondary.
This novel seemed more balanced than others by Jack McDevitt concerning the mix of space adventure and food for thought. Exploring a compact star cluster is a way to find many different results that are interesting from various points of view.
“The Long Sunset” tells a self-contained story but includes many references to the previous novels in the series. It’s possible to read it as a stand-alone novel but you lose something of the story of that future society and the protagonist Priscilla Hutchins. I recommend this novel and the entire series (if you can find the various novels!) to anyone who appreciates this type of story. It’s available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
