There is simply one reason why I keep going back to Jack McDevitt whenever he puts out a new book—the man writes consistently entertaining and thought-provoking science fiction novels involving a host of interesting characters and thoroughly developed plots. So it was no surprise to me when I recently picked up his latest paperback, OMEGA, and found more of the same.

OMEGA takes place in one of McDevitt's more familiar settings—the "universe" of Priscilla 'Hutch' Hutchins and the Academy of Science and Technology, better known simply as the Academy. Hutch is a little bit older now, and has left piloting behind for the job of Director of Operations at the Academy. All of humanity knows that the Omega Clouds are out there, great civilization killing space-borne storms believed to be either semi-sentient and malevolent or artificial killing machines set loose upon the universe by some crazed unknown entities to destroy any signs of intelligent life. How do they do it? Very easy— they look for hard angles and geometrical shapes in mass quantities that could not form naturally. In short, signs that a race of beings had advanced enough intellectually to form societies and build cities. And then they go after that society and try to destroy it. Plain and simple...and very deadly.

Up until now, humans hadn't been able to do much to save any civilization that seemed to be in the path of an Omega Cloud on the hunt. We had arrived at some of these places quite late in the past, seen the dreadful remnants of mass destruction and devastation, but never early. Until now. Of course, research into the Omega Clouds was continuing, we were tracking them, we knew where some of them were heading, we even knew that one was on its way toward Earth— plodding inexorably through the cosmos on its way to our side of the Milky Way with a predicted arrival date nearly a thousand years in the future. Over the past generation or so, no one had been overly concerned about this. After all, we would all be long gone by the time it got here and surely someone would find a way to destroy the Earth-bound cloud long before it ever got here. That much seemed easy enough to take for granted but there were many scientists out there who disagreed. They could just as easily point toward some of the more advanced civilizations who we knew had been nearly wiped out by an Omega Cloud and who surely had just as much foreknowledge about the wicked thing's approach as we did now.

In the middle of all this, a research expedition scouting out what was in the path of a particular Omega Cloud discovers a small civilization of intelligent beings living along a very small stretch of land on an Earth-like planet. Although they don't seem very technologically advanced, they live in cities, enjoy the arts and are a fun-loving bunch of beings. When pictures were beamed back to Earth of these beings in action on the surface of their planet, they are adoringly dubbed 'GOOMPAHS' after the characters of a very popular children's show that they greatly resemble. Soon Hutch finds herself in the middle of an all-out effort to help these beings avoid being decimated by the approaching Omega Cloud while keeping our presence and existence hidden from the Goompahs.

Ok, that's enough to catch your attention. This is where the book takes off and McDevitt takes the reader on an exhilarating ride through the greatest emergency relief effort in human history. With a cast of likable characters, many Goompahs among them, and the amusement park attraction atmosphere of roller coaster twists and turns, McDevitt got me hooked early and kept me hooked right until the end. He spent the time to build Goompah culture for the reader, to make us understand their literature, their philosophy, their religious beliefs. He made them 'Human' for the reader so that we could begin to feel compassion for their plight.

It is a sure sign of a great author when readers can find deep emotional responses being invoked toward fictional characters. Even greater when some of those characters are alien beings. This is a story of great heroism, of great sacrifice and of humanity's triumph in helping out our fellow galactic inhabitants. McDevitt handles it all with great ease and I found myself flipping the pages quickly and long into the night.

And then it hits you, right at the end, what the book was really about. You see, the Goompahs were like characters from a children's show to we humans. They were cute and rounded and liked to have a good time—singing and dancing and frolicking their days away. Food was plentiful, there wasn't much stress and the land provided more than enough to feed the wants and desires of everyone. So we helped them, we did everything we could to help them and we felt very good for having done so. However, once it was all over, once all of the highs and lows had been experienced, one of the humans who participated in the entire ordeal looks back on his efforts and reflects by writing in his journal: "But I wonder what we would have done had they been barbarians. Or looked like insects."

And there it is, folks. The very reason why I continue to read Jack McDevitt's work. He told a great story, full of triumph and sorrow, death and rescue, and then summed it all up by asking these two simple questions—did we do it because it was the right thing to do? Or did we do it because we thought the beings we were saving were cute? When you get right down to it, we humans tend to get much more emotionally attached to cute and cuddly things like puppies and kittens than we do when we are, say, confronted by a cockroach in the cupboard. Usually, those two situations result in very different responses. But, if we take both of those situations and put them into an intergalactic First Contact With An Alien Species context, would we rise above our initial reactions of disgust and go all out to rescue a civilization of Roach Aliens? Or would we lower our eyes, shiver in revulsion and simply hope that we never have to suffer such a dreadful demise as wave after wave of destruction reaped havoc across their world while we did nothing?

Tough questions and quite important ones. Even now, after considering them for a time, I find myself in no position to decide just how humanity would react in such a situation. Shameful? Maybe...but one could only hope that we would rise above our pre-disposed notions of disgust when confronted with giant insects and lend them the same type of help as we would to beings with sad and sorrowful puppy-dog eyes or a cute and cuddly appearance. Think about it...because that's what I did once I put down this book and, I'm sure, it's the exact type of response that Jack McDevitt was looking for when he penned the thought-provoking ending to OMEGA.

Synopsis
After almost half a century of exploration, the Academy has finally found a true living civilization. It is advanced in many ways, but it is fragile and still in the very early stages of technological development. The bad news is that we found it because an omega cloud is headed its way, and we are now confronted with the problem that once overwhelmed the Monument-Makers (in The Engines of God): Find a way to perform a rescue. And do it without letting the locals know we're there.

While a reinforced team tries to work a miracle, Priscilla Hutchins, now director of Academy operations, seeks to solve the puzzle of the age: What are the omega clouds? The answer, she suspects, might be found in an art gallery in Georgetown.

Omega is the final book in the four-novel cycle that began with The Engines of God, and continues through Deepsix and Chindi.