A Talent For War - Softcover
A Talent for War is a science fiction and mystery novel by Jack McDevitt,[1] the story of a search by Alex Benedict, the protagonist, to discover the nature of a mysterious project Alex's uncle had been working on at the time of his death. This investigation leads deep into the history of a war between human civilization and a neighboring alien civilization and challenges the foundation mythos of the current human government. The story is set in our universe approximately 9,600 years in the future (approximately 11,600 C.E.). As is made clearer in McDevitt's later Alex Benedict novel Seeker,[2] during the course of recorded history, human civilization has spread through a substantial part of the Orion Arm of our galaxy. The novel is concerned with two time periods - the present of the principal viewpoint character, Alex Benedict, and a period approximately 200 years before his time, which is viewed through back-story. In the millennia since Neil Armstrong, McDevitt tells us, humanity discovered the ruins of one alien technological civilization, and encountered one that at the time of the story is alive and thriving, the Ashiyyur. The sphere of Ashiyyur worlds is described by the author as abutting the worlds of human civilization along the Perimeter - first contact was made at least several hundred years before the time in which the back-story is set. McDevitt conceives the Ashiyyur as being at approximately the same technological level as humans, and in fact humanoid - bi-laterally symmetrical, bipedal, larger than average for human, of two genders, descended from predators, and interested in the same kind of real estate as humans. Most significantly for the story, they are also incapable of audible speech without mechanical aids, and are nicknamed "Mutes" by humans as a result. The Ashiyyur are telepathic[3] and have evolved a society based on that form of communication.
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About the Author:
Jack McDevitt is a former naval officer, taxi driver, customs officer and motivational trainer. He is a multiple Nebula Award finalist who lives in Georgia with his wife Maureen.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherKinnell
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 1870532090
- ISBN 13 9781870532099
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages320
- Rating
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A Talent For War
Published by
Kinnell
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
Used
Soft cover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. SIGNED by author on title page; there is very light wear around the spine corner edges of the book and jacket; the jacket has a mylar sleeve. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 139779
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US$ 60.00
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A Talent For War
Published by
Kinnell Publications
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
Used
Paperback
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Signed by McDevitt at the title page. Maroon boards, very good with light rubbing to edges, bump to front corner of spine foot. Spine square. Binding sound. Dust jacket very good with light edgewear including slight crumpling to front corner of spine foot. Foxed to textblock edges. Interior unmarked. Signed. Seller Inventory # BBS-2017581
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A Talent for War
Published by
Kinnell Publications, Ltd, London
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good+. First Edition. First British and first hardcover edition, light lean, tiny ding to top edge, small light scuff to bottom edges, and mild sunning to spine and edges. Otherwise a tight, Very Good+ copy in like dustjacket, which is faintly sunned, and has a hint of wear to the spine ends and corners. Jacket is in Mylar. Seller Inventory # 37112
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US$ 75.00
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A Talent For War
Published by
Kinnell, London
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. 1st ed/1st pr, SIGNED by the author on the title page. This book is square, solid, and plausibly unread; the boards are solid and unblemished, and the dust jacket is sharp and in a protective Brodart cover. No price clippings, no remainder marks. You'll be compelled to shout "Beam me up, Scotty!" with Shatnerian élan once you have this book in your hands! NOTE: Evidence of dusty-smudgey handling to the sides of the pages, and a cinnamon-dusting of foxing all around. Also: to the edge of the back board, about two inches from the bottom, there is a bump which also bumped the last few pages just a bit. Jacket has three micro-dots of foxing on it. Signed by Author(s). Book. Seller Inventory # 035553
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A Talent for War
Published by
Kinnell, London
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
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Hardcover
First Edition
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Book Description Hard Cover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. Danny Flynn (illustrator). First UK Edition. 310pp. 8.1 inches. Grape-coloured buckram, gilt titles. Unused unread book. As new with light bump top of spine, tiny hint of bump to tiny part of base edges. Faintly foxed fops, scattered faint fox speckles to other edges. Internally pristine, no owner's marks. In fresh bright jacket, art by Danny Flynn, as new with tiny creasing at top of spine, faint light surface shelfwear. The First UK edition, preceded by Ace pb and a US bookclub edition. Scarce. 480g. (Science Fiction, Space Opera) Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # C16175
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US$ 90.18
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A Talent for War
Published by
Kinnell Publications, Ltd, London
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Signed
Quantity: 1
Seller:
Rating
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Good+. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. First Edition. First British and first hardcover edition, signed by McDevitt on the title page, the book has a shallow skew to the binding, very slight wear to the spine ends, very faint sunning to the spine and head, and a hint of minor smudging to the edges of the text block. Otherwise, this is a solid, tight and sharp, Very Good+ copy in an unclipped, Near Fine dust jacket, which has faint sunning to the spine, and a touch of wear to the upper corners. The jacket is wrapped in Mylar. Seller Inventory # 108373
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A Talent For War
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Book Description paperback. Condition: Acceptable. Acceptable. book. Seller Inventory # D7S9-1-M-1870532090-2
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US$ 161.10
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A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt (First Edition)
Published by
Kinnell, London and Boston
(1989)
ISBN 10: 1870532090
ISBN 13: 9781870532099
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Hardcover
First Edition
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Fine. First Edition. A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt (First Edition) A beautiful unread copy. Three-Quarter Leather. First Trade Hardcover Edition. One-of-a-kind. Unique ""founder's copy"" of first trade hardcover edition (preceded in hardcover only by an American book-club edition), and first British edition. (The statement of printing on the copyright page is incorrect, the British hardcover edition precedes the British paperback edition.) Bound-up from the first sheets supplied to the publisher from the printer. This copy was specially bound for the founder of Kinnell Publications Limited, in three-quarter tan Morocco (goat skin) with gold lettering on a red Morocco lettering-piece, gold stamping, raised bands, and top and fore-edge gilt. This copy, and this copy only, has a colophon. This copy then is the first copy of the first trade hardcover edition and the first copy of the first British edition, in a unique and handsome binding. With a signed letter of provenance from Kinnell's founder A.E. Cunningham. BOOK. Seller Inventory # HCS11469-1
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US$ 950.00
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