Last weekend I began and finished Jack McDevitt's The Engines of God.

This book is what I would classify as a "science fiction wonder" book.  It seems (to me) to be very similar to Arthur C. Clarke's "Rama" series (in particular, Rama, the first book).  In both books, we follow a team of scientists (xenoarcheologists in the cases of The Engines of God) as they try to puzzle out the meaning and purpose behind some alien artifact, under the pressure of a very tight timeline (in Rama, because Rama was leaving the solar system; in Engines of God, because the world was about to be destructively terraformed).

In McDevitt's novel, the alien artifacts come in the form of beautiful, alien Monuments, seemingly seeded at random throughout various lifeless worlds, along with odd, seemingly unrelated, ruins on alien planets.  This book is not about answers, but rather the whole journey and process of finding answers.

The characterizaton is very strong, I feel, at least for the main characters, and in fact the prime source of conflict is based on interpersonal opposition and agendas.  In other words, humans cause most of their own problems.  :)

The ending is rather open-ended, though I doubt there will be a sequel.  It's one of those "We'll never know for sure" sorts of conclusions.  If you feel the need to have everything explained and wrapped up at the end of a story, this book isn't for you, but if you like a lot of character study and immersing yourself in an ambience of mystery and wonder, I'd say give this book a shot.