From Publishers Weekly
Having mastered the big, sprawling adventure stories called space opera in books like Chindi, McDevitt extends the form in this feel-good SF novel that earns its hopeful conclusion. Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchens, heroine of several of McDevitt's previous novels, has had a full career as a space pilot and is now administrator of the government agency in charge of space research. Like most people, she's only mildly concerned with the long-range threat of the omega clouds, masses of energy floating through the universe that detect and pulverize artificial structures (and the intelligent creatures that live in them). After all, the cloud headed for Earth is 900 years away. This situation changes when a charmingly innocent young alien race is discovered just a few months before a cloud will obliterate it. Hutch has to juggle resources to save the cute creatures, at the same concealing the human intervention in order not to disrupt the alien civilization's development. The cloud's implacable threat keeps the action tightly focused, though the story shifts viewpoint frequently to show crowds of people committing themselves to different aspects of the mission. Part of the rescue effort involves spaceships and gadgets, but the most serious part depends on human intelligence and passion. McDevitt is very good at imagining strange challenges-and at picturing humans coping when things don't work out as planned. His characters succeed in imposing their compassion on the void. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The trilogy McDevitt began with The Engines of God (1994) and continued in Chindi [BKL Jl 02] concludes in a decisive confrontation with the omega clouds. Semisentient, coherent energy fronts, the clouds obliterate every civilization in their path, and one of them is projected to reach Earth in 900 years. It is much closer to destroying the Korbikkan civilization of humanoid sentients, one of just three other sentient races known to humanity. Can humanity afford to deploy the resources of scientific talent and weapons needed to save another race without putting its own existence at risk? Can a human rescue team save a whole world without letting the inhabitants know they are being saved? As before, McDevitt forges out of ethical dilemmas a plot as gripping as any action fan could want--not that it is lacking in action, hardware, and complex characterization. A felicitous concoction that rather recalls Gregory Benford's and David Brin's stuff, and surely will please their fans as well as McDevitt's. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
A civilization-destroying omega cloud has switched direction, heading straight for a previously unexplored planetary system--and its alien society. And suddenly, a handful of brave humans must try to save an entire world--without revealing their existence.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Omega is the aptly titled concluding volume of Jack McDevitt's epic science fiction Engines of God tetralogy (The Engines of God, Deepsix, and Chindi). Humankind has known about omega clouds for decades, but virtually nothing has been done to try to stop the monstrous civilization-killing galactic fog, which is due to pass over Earth in 900 years. But when an endearing alien civilization (nicknamed Goompahs) in the early stages of technological development is discovered right in the path of an omega cloud, the people of Earth simply can't sit around and watch the wobbly, floppy-eared humanoids be annihilated.

A rescue team is hastily put together and sent out to the distant planet. To complete their mission -- to destroy an unstoppable cloud and to save a civilization without the beneficiaries realizing it -- the Earthlings need nothing short of a miracle. As a team of linguists and scientists speeds towards the planet, newly appointed director of Academy operations Priscilla Hutchins must fend off religious fanatics and entrepreneurial parasites bent on saving and exploiting the Goompahs, while also trying to unravel the mystery of the omega clouds. When Priscilla's mentor, Harold Tewksbury, dies before revealing his theory of the omega clouds, she finds the answer in the unlikeliest of places.

Fans of truly epic science fiction owe it to themselves to read McDevitt's Engines of God series, which is comparable thematically to Isaac Asimov's Foundation novels and Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey sequence: addictively entertaining, thought-provoking, disturbing, and -- in the end -- deeply inspiring. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"For a quarter of a century, mankind has known about the existence of the malignant omega clouds. Huge waves of deadly energy, they seem bent on destroying any civilization they come across. Now, Earth itself is in the line of fire - though not imminently. An omega is headed toward the planet, but it will not enter the solar system for nine hundred years." Though research continues into the origin of the omegas and various theoretical scenarios for destroying them are suggested, there is no sense of urgency - until a Space Academy ship on a routine mission sends word back to Earth that the cloud has diverted to a previously unexplored planetary system. It is now aimed at a living pre-technological alien society, only the third such ever discovered - and it will reach the planet in a matter of months. Suddenly, the need to turn theory into practice becomes vital, as a handful of brave humans, scientists and military alike, undertake the task of saving an entire world without revealing their existence.

FROM THE CRITICS

The New York Times

McDevitt takes his time moving all the players in this drama into position. He handles the back story so adroitly that readers unfamiliar with earlier volumes in this series should have no trouble following the action. Finally, he provides a satisfying answer to the mystery of the omegas that is appropriately cosmic without straining credulity. — Gerald Jonas

The Washington Post

No one writing today is better than McDevitt at combining galaxy-spanning adventure with the genuine novel of ideas. This latest amalgam of hard SF and humanist concerns is McDevitt at his best, and that is very good indeed. — Bill Sheehan

Publishers Weekly

Having mastered the big, sprawling adventure stories called space opera in books like Chindi, McDevitt extends the form in this feel-good SF novel that earns its hopeful conclusion. Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchens, heroine of several of McDevitt's previous novels, has had a full career as a space pilot and is now administrator of the government agency in charge of space research. Like most people, she's only mildly concerned with the long-range threat of the omega clouds, masses of energy floating through the universe that detect and pulverize artificial structures (and the intelligent creatures that live in them). After all, the cloud headed for Earth is 900 years away. This situation changes when a charmingly innocent young alien race is discovered just a few months before a cloud will obliterate it. Hutch has to juggle resources to save the cute creatures, at the same concealing the human intervention in order not to disrupt the alien civilization's development. The cloud's implacable threat keeps the action tightly focused, though the story shifts viewpoint frequently to show crowds of people committing themselves to different aspects of the mission. Part of the rescue effort involves spaceships and gadgets, but the most serious part depends on human intelligence and passion. McDevitt is very good at imagining strange challenges-and at picturing humans coping when things don't work out as planned. His characters succeed in imposing their compassion on the void. (Nov. 4) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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