Infinity Beach

Infinity Beach is a science fiction novel written by Jack McDevitt.

In the future, many worlds have been colonized, but no alien life has ever been discovered. The starship Hunter was one of many that set out into space on a search for intelligent life. With its trip cut short by an engine malfunction, the crew returned home and sadly announced the failure of the mission. Then two of the crew members vanished off the face of the earth, and a third was killed in a massive, unexplainable explosion that also wiped out an entire village.

Years later, Kimberly Brandywine — sister to Emily Brandywine, one of the mysteriously vanished Hunter crew members — discovers evidence that all is not what it seems. Why did the Hunter send a message announcing "We struck gold" before returning to announce failure? What still haunts the site of the explosion, leading to whispers of ghostly shapes and disembodied eyes floating in the night? With all of the original Hunter crew dead or missing, Kim's search for the truth about what happened to her sister won't be an easy one. But she will not stop until she uncovers the real story of the Hunter... because something happened out there, in the blackness between stars, and something was brought back.

Provides examples of:
"People always believed they lived in a crumbling world. They themselves were of course okay, but everybody around them was dead downhill."
 * Absent Aliens: Despite the many worlds explored, not so much as a microbe of alien life has been found.
 * Antimatter: Presumed to be the cause of the mysterious Mt. Hope explosion.
 * Bavarian Fire Drill: How Kim and Solly.
 * Designer Babies: Cloning is commonplace
 * End of an Age: Discussed at various points.


 * Faceless Eye: The Shroud
 * Fictional Document: Like many of Jack McDevitt's works, each chapter starts with a quote. Some are from real works, and some are from fictional documents.
 * First Contact
 * Go Mad From the Isolation: The Severin Shroud

"The interest was generated not by the reason for the experiment, but by the fact that we've demonstrated we could trigger a nova. Consequently, the Institute's public information group decided to concentrate on that aspect of the story, and the benefits the human race might eventually derive from the capability. Unfortunately, no one could think of any."
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hidden in Plain Sight:
 * Improvised Weapon: A microwave
 * Intangible Man: the Shroud
 * It's for a Book: Kim uses this as an excuse to question Tripley's ex-wife.
 * Just Think of the Potential


 * Lilliputians
 * Saw It in a Movie Once: Solly's explanation for his idea of blowing the Shroud out the airlock.
 * Shout-Out: To The Maltese Falcon, Alien, and The Purloined Letter
 * Signature Style: A decades-old mystery revolving around someone suddenly acting in a way contrary their entire life's work (in this case, the Hunter crew falsely reporting failure despite previously wanting more than anything to find life)? Classic McDevitt.
 * Subspace or Hyperspace: Hyperspace is used for FTL travel and communication
 * Thrown Out the Airlock: Attempted against the Shroud. Doesn't work.
 * Title Drop: Both of "infinity beach" and of the novel's original title, "slow lightning".
 * Virtual Ghost: One of the applications of AI