(2015) A portal to other worlds is found in North Dakoa in the same story line as Ancient Shores. I guess the story is nice to read and I could follow it very well. However, not a very good story as things are just a little too simple for the enormity of what has been found. It is almost as if they have discovered a car that could go 120 MPH driverless. These people should have been either more excited about the Maze, Riverworld or the Space Station. Instead, it becomes routine and ho-hum. Even at the end when they discover that the portal also is a time travel device that shows the ultimate fate of the Earth their reaction is to shut it down rather than be excited at the possibilities.Amazon customer review: First, the praises - this book is relatively free of typos and grammar errors, the language (dialog and not) is tolerable, and the concept is inspiring.On the other hand, the writer has next to no descriptive talent (or maybe just no imagination) - there's very little prose devoted to what a place looks like or what it feels like to be there. That alone is bad enough in a sci-fi based around amazing places, but they also spend most of their time in a place that they're continually comparing to Earth (down to having similar wildlife). One difference they do cite is the color of the foliage (and even that is along the lines of "except for the color of the foliage, this could be Earth"), which is laughable, because if the author actually remembered to mention the color, I did not notice it. So we spend the majority of a book about exotic alien places on either Earth, or a place that looks like Earth except it has slightly different colors. Mind-blowing sci-fi here.The thing that really burned me up and actually had me yelling at my Kindle in frustration was how timid and fearful the entire book was - the majority of the characters are cowering isolationists who can't decide whether it's safer to blow the stargate up or just blow it up. They make wild assumptions about its effect on the economy and the military, and go on and on about the risks and the danger. Hell, one of the main characters is so cowardly that he ACTIVELY LIES to people to avoid going through the stargate because he might possibly be in some danger; he only ends up going because another character accidentally railroads him into it. Every time the book comes within shouting distance of something wonderful and strange, it shies away and hides behind page after page of caution and fear. There are other buttons on the transport network, but the only ones explored turn out to be non-starters. The characters come across actual bloody ALIENS, and then retreat because contacting a superior race might possibly be harmful or even dangerous to the human race. Almost every other chapter is another argument for why the exploration should be stopped. Finally, the characters beat a hasty retreat because they encounter another alien race that happens to resemble a devil...I wish I was kidding.Tantalus, according to Greek mythology, was condemned to stand forever in water that receded whenever he tried to drink, under a fruit tree whose fruit was always -juuust- out of reach. This book feels like that. Page after page of promise followed by retreat and disappointment.Science fiction is supposed to be about showing us new things, not hinting at them and then raving about how they'll surely destroy us if we look at them for even one second. It's also supposed to inspire thought, discovery, and exploration, whereas this book seems to want to inspire the opposite. It made me really angry to read, and I regret the time I spent on it. The author should be ashamed of himself.

Thunderbird by Jack McDevitt

Thunderbird (McDevitt) was a wonderful book, even better in my opinion than Ancient Shores (to which it is the sequel). Judging by reader reviews, however, many people evidently did not like it very much.

I have considered reasons for the negative reviews, and come up with the following possible explanations:
1. Neither Ancient Shores nor Thunderbird are particularly action-oriented, and Thunderbird arguably has the least action of the two.
2. Readers may have been hoping for more focus on the exploration of other worlds through the newly-discovered alien teleport system in the sequel, but the action remains tantalizingly limited and restrained. Precedence continues to be given to the reactions of ordinary citizens, the mass media and the government, as well as to the effects on the human psyche, rather than to adventures on other planets. But I did feel that the experiences at other locations in the universe were fascinating, and the final trip was suitably gripping as a climax.

I think Thunderbird will likely appeal more to those who enjoy relatively detailed and slow-moving stories, and to those who like thought-provoking and introspective science fiction. One of the attractions of both Ancient Shores and its sequel is that the humility and humanity of the author is evident in the narration and permeates the whole text. Thunderbird features a handicapped character who was based on Jack McDevitt’s own daughter, and becomes an integral part of the development of the story and its conclusion.

And the feelings of despondency naturally evoked by the ending are ultimately offset by a heartening development in the Epilogue.

In conclusion, I must say that I found Thunderbird to be a highly enjoyable and engrossing tale throughout and a worthy sequel to Ancient Shores. ( )

I like Jack McDevitt, I really do. I've read most of his novels and enjoyed them, but this one was really pretty bad. Wooden characters with shallow motivations and an almost non existent plot combined with groan inducing dialog, this book was near unreadable. The only reason it gets 2 stars is that I really like the stargate science fiction trope. ( )

If the first book, Ancient Shores, suffered as being mostly a prologue to another book, Thunderbird suffers by being a not very interesting follow-up and conclusion. A gateway to the stars has been found, with all kinds of mysteries behind it, and there are aliens, albeit not very alien aliens. But the book spends most of its time on a never-ending low-key debate about whether the gateway should be shut down as a danger to the economy. For some reason, there's a deliberate intent to raise the occasional threat but never have a major crisis. Given that plot is really all McDevitt deals in, this is a curious choice.

Not recommended. There's nothing to see here. ( )

I've read all his books, they are easy read fun sci fi. ( )