Polaris

Polaris, Jack McDevitt, Ace Books, 2004

Set in the far future, the spaceship Polaris takes a group of rich passengers thousands of light years away to watch the destruction of a sun by another star. The ship never returns. The nearest rescue ship reaches it six days later to find the ship undamaged, but drifting...and deserted. The destruction of the sun wiped out any planets or moons that could have sheltered the ship's passengers.

Nearly sixty years later, the ship has become a legend. The fate of the crew has been the subject of books, TV documentaries and even a yearly convention, which brings forth all sorts of theories. Antiquities dealer Alex Benedict, and his assistant, Chase Kolpath, manage to acquire a few personal items that came from the ship, for their rich clients, just before the rest of the collection is destroyed in a mysterious explosion. The clients report visits from equally mysterious people who want to buy the items for astronomical sums of money. A couple of high-tech assassination attempts convince Alex and Chase that this is not just another rich collector at work. Someone is looking for something among the Polaris items, and that someone knows just what happened to its passengers.

As Alex and Chase get closer to the truth, it becomes clear that everything revolves around a scientific breakthrough made by one of the passengers. A method had been found to not just stop the aging process, but actually reverse it. At minimum, this would force radical changes on humanity, including, for instance, a near ban on any new births.

This is another well-done piece of writing from McDevitt. It is nice and thought-provoking, along with being a really good mystery.