7.2 /10 1 Votes
Language English OCLC 33948882 Originally published April 1996 ISBN 0-06-105207-8 Country United States of America | 3.6/5 Goodreads Publication date April 1996 Dewey Decimal 813/.54 20 Publisher HarperCollins | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (hardback & paperback) Pages 397 pp (first edition, hardback) Genres Novel, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction Similar Works by Jack McDevitt, Science Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ancient Shores is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack McDevitt, published in 1996. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1997.
Contents
Plot summary
The vast lake, Lake Agassiz, covered much of North Dakota, Manitoba and Minnesota during prehistoric times.
The story begins when farmer Tom Lasker and his son, Will, uncover a seemingly brand new yacht. Found on a landlocked farm, it draws tourists to the area. Max Collingswood, a friend of Tom's, tries to help discover the origins of the boat. Collingswood enlists April Cannon, a worker at a chemical lab who discovers that the yacht is made of an unknown material. In fact, it is a fiberglass-like material with an impossible atomic number (161).
Collingswood and Cannon discover something else on a nearby ridge which is part of a Sioux reservation. The Sioux assist in its excavation and examination. It turns out to a green glassy roundhouse-like structure, made from the same material.
Eventually, they gain access to it, revealing a dock for the sailboat, but no entrance for it. The discovery that the structure contains the means to access other sites not on Earth sets off a struggle between the Government and the Reservation for control of it.