Inverarity is not a Scottish village

Ancient astronauts and the end of worlds.

Humans call them Monument-Makers. An unknown race, they left stunning alien statues scattered on distant planets throughout the galaxy, encoded with strange inscriptions that defy translation. Searching for clues about the Monument-Makers, teams of 23rd century linguists, historians, engineers and archaeologists have been excavating the enigmatic alien ruins on a number of planets, uncovering strange, massive false cities made of solid rock. But their time is running out.

Earth's ravaged environment is quickly making it unlivable, and colonizers want to begin terraforming these abandoned worlds for human habitation. Only interstellar archaeologist Richard Wald and starship pilot Priscilla Hutchins are convinced that uncovering the secrets of the monuments may hold the key to survival for the entire human race.

( Not quite hard, not quite soft SF )

Verdict: The Engines of God is a perfectly good SF story, it's just not a very new or thrilling one. It was a decent read but did not hook me on the series; the Monument-Makers are too much like every other instance of this trope I've seen, and the scientist main characters were bright and heroic but flat.

Also by Jack McDevitt: My review of Going Interstellar.

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