I read Ancient Shores on my Dell Netbook. I used Adobe Digital Editions and borrowed the book from my local library. I have to say it was a positive experience. I've read books digitally before, much to the chagrin on my husband. He thinks nothing beats paper.
The book itself was good enough that I checked another book out from Jack McDevitt, Eternity Road. Out of the two I enjoyed the second better.
Ancient Shores is the story about technology and government. It starts out with a man and his boy finding a futuristic boat in their fields in rural, modern America. This boat is made of materials we haven't seen before, materials that our science is unable to replicate, but something to strive for. The boat was buried in the field ages ago when a lake was still in that area, like our own Lake Bonneville here in the Utah area. The book is filled with political strife and a desire to save the future of humans, and to not let government interfere. Some very famous men and women lent their likeness to Mr. McDevitt for the finale of the book. I was proud that I didn't hardly need the explanation of who these people were (I'm such a geek). The ending was complete and well written.
But Eternity Road on the other hand I loved! I'm not sure what I loved more, my ability to identify with characters in the book, or the thoughts of how our future would be if we had a major catastrophy that destroyed our existance. The book starts out with an excentric old man and his life. A virus or "plague" has destroyed civilization as we know it. There are only a few outposts of humans left. One of these areas is the "south" in North America. The area between Mississippi, Geogria, Alabama, Tennessee. People wonder at the "Road Makers" of old and what wisdom and knowledge they left buried with their deaths. The old man led a group of adventurers to find "Haven", a place where books were saved from destruction. Only he returned, and he was not very sane. Books are very prized, only a few survive. There are no working computers, no TVs, no cars. Life back at its basic. Yet these people want the knowledge of old, why/how people died in the "plague".
After the death of the old man, he gives one of these prized books to a little known woman. She is the sister of one of the adventurers that died on the first expedition. The son of the old man holds a grudge, this book was never before revealed.
She goes against her fiance and starts a second expidetion. They find a "dragon" and a "voice in a closet" on their way to find "Haven" and where this book came from.
It leads me to wonder, how will we be viewed if suddenly we all died and someone years down the road found our civilization?
