Editing Jack McDevitt (section)

== Themes ==
With ''[[The Engines of God]]'' (1994), McDevitt introduced the idea of a universe that was once teeming with intelligent life, but contains only their abandoned [[Cultural artifact|artifact]]s by the time humans arrive on the scene. The main character of ''The Engines of God'', pilot Priscilla Hutchins, has since appeared in seven more books, ''Deepsix'' (2001), ''Chindi'' (2002), ''Omega'' (2003), ''Odyssey'' (2006), ''Cauldron'' (2007), ''StarHawk'' (2013), and ''The Long Sunset'' (2018). The mystery surrounding the destructive "Omega Clouds" (which are introduced in ''The Engines of God'') is left unexplored until ''Omega''.<ref name="omega_comments">{{cite web|title=The Author Comments: Omega|url=http://www.sfwa.org/members/McDevitt/Omega-Comment.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927184103/http://www.sfwa.org/members/McDevitt/Omega-Comment.html|archive-date=September 27, 2007|access-date=May 2, 2007}}</ref>

McDevitt's novels frequently raise questions which he does not attempt to answer. He prefers to leave ambiguities to puzzle and intrigue his readers: "Some things are best left to the reader's very able imagination."<ref name="omega_comments" />  The [[SF Site]]'s [[Steven H Silver]] has written about this:

{{quote|McDevitt has a (probably unintentional) tendency to give the impression that his novels will go in one direction and then take them in a different direction.  Or possibly his background is so well thought out, that throw away lines, or subplots, or minor characters, have enough information behind them to make the reader want to see their story as much as the main plot of the book.  While slightly annoying, this is, I've decided, a strength of McDevitt's writing since it shows the depth of his created worlds.<ref>{{cite web|author=Silver, Steven H.|date=1989|title=''A Talent for War'' by Jack McDevitt|url=http://www.stevenhsilver.com/talent.html|access-date=July 19, 2013|publisher=[[SF Site]]}}</ref>}}