A Voice in the Night

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In the field of science fiction writing—a field that Jack McDevitt has worked in for 37 years—they teach us about world building. This is the art of crafting a new world where the story takes place. The world might be almost the same as our own, or wildly different; but the author’s task is to make the differences believable, consistent, and comprehensible, so the reader can better understand the challenges that the characters face.

I would say that Jack is an excellent world builder, but that doesn’t go far enough. Jack McDevitt doesn’t just build worlds, he builds histories.

Most good world building includes some measure of history. Your world isn’t just what it is when the reader enters the story, it’s also what happened before and how that shaped the “present” of the tale. But Jack takes that to the next level. When I try to explain Jack McDevitt’s work, the phrase I keep coming back to is “archaeological science fiction.”

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