| Title | : | The Annals of the Heechee (Heechee Saga, #4) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0345325664 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780345325662 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 251 |
| Publication | : | First published March 12, 1987 |
The Annals of the Heechee (Heechee Saga, #4) Reviews
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I must confess, I liked this book enough to finish it but I am glad the series is finished. Robinette Broadhead is a dull, histrionic main character and this book contains waaaay too much lecturing and philosophizing. A lot of that is done through Pohl’s usual device in this series: the computer program known as Albert Einstein.
You would think that when Rob Broadhead died, we would be free of him as main character. Instead, he is uploaded into a computer environment and survives to remain the focus of the series. I do take issue with a stored intelligence being as moody, weepy, and “gloopy” as Pohl writes Rob—without the brain structures to support emotions, I just doubt that emotion would be able to run someone’s life so completely. But what do I know? We are so far away from being able to do this, that there isn’t any way of judging. And all this anxiety now seems to be pointless—Rob is basically immortal, still wealthy & influential, and has his lady love stored with him. His only worry should be maintaining the machinery that comprises his new environment and keeping up to technological changes.
And OMG, the astrophysics that gets booted around this novel! I never minded it from Arthur Clarke, who made it a part of the story without long info-dump interludes, but Pohl gives Albert way too much screen time. Although he keeps telling Rob that he’s “making it as simple as he can,” I get the sense that Pohl was enjoying giving little lectures and I really wish that his editor had been more brutal.
What I did enjoy was getting a better sense of the Heechee, although I have still never figured out where that name came from. Pohl introduces other life forms as well, the Sluggards and the Voodoo Pigs among them. I think he could have used some help with better names for his aliens and with making them more interesting and relevant to the story. Having said that, when we do finally discover life elsewhere in the universe, I wonder how much of it will be bacteria, algae, or coral-like? Not really something that we can interact with in a meaningful way. But this is fiction, and I persist in wanting interesting aliens (like in Brin’s Uplift universe).
What a contrast to the work of Arthur Clarke! Pohl’s work is sticky with emotion, while Clarke’s is cooly intellectual. Both Pohl and Clarke have humans dealing with vastly superior alien civilizations, but Pohl’s seems menacing while Clarke’s seem to be mildly interested (2001, Childhood’s End) to indifferent (Rendezvous with Rama). Clarke’s work left me longing to know more about these aliens, while Pohl’s left me dissatisfied that they had been so involved, and yet I knew next to nothing about them.
Book number 226 in my science fiction & fantasy reading project. -
(All quantities approximate)
Pages of interesting ideas, total: 15
Pages of interesting ideas not already presented earlier in the series: 2
Pages of plot or character development: 20
Pages of actual action: 10
Pages of Robinette Broadhead being annoyingly moody and whiny for no apparent reason: 120
Pages of poorly-explained cosmological theory to which everyone overreacts: 30
Pages of endless repetitive tedious repetition over and over again in a redundant and repetitive way which repeats itself many many many times again and again and again in case you've forgotten in the last two paragraphs since the last time it was repeatedly explained over and over about how Robinette Broadhead is not a "real" person, because he is "dead" and just "a string of bits in a computer" most of whose environment is "simulated" and who is not a "meat person" because you see he is "digital" and "machine stored" and experiences everything including many "simulated" things much much faster than "meat people" who unlike him are not "dead" and "machine stored" and are so very very very slow that he, who is "dead" and "a string of bits in a computer", can do hundreds and hundreds of things at the same time while waiting for the "meat people", who unlike him are not "machine-stored" and "dead", to get around to finishing a sentence (but instead just whines moodily for another five pages): 80
How many pages that feels like: 550
Huge anticlimaxes that end with a dull thud the series that started so promisingly with "Gateway": 1
(And as an extra bonus, constant uses of "gigabit" to mean "a huge amount of computer capacity"; which it may have been in 1987, but even then was pretty obviously not going to be for long, and is now roughly the power of a cheap smartphone (and not nearly enough to host a machine-stored intelligence).)
Oh, well! -
-
Frederik Pol je jedan veoma autentican pisac, ne tako lako svarljiv ali nedvosmisleno majstor zanra.
Naucna fantastika je prosto takva da pisci koji je se late ne mogu a da ne izigravaju proroke.
Samo odluka svakog pisca po naosob jeste koliko daleko zeli da ide u svojim predpostavkama, da li zeli da one budu vise bazirane na necemu tesko/nemoguce objasnjivom, kao sto je to religija, ili vise u domenu nauke, necega sto mozemo da pojmimo. Pol se opredeljuje za ovo drugo pa njegova masta predvidja i gura ljudski rod toliko daleko da od nas trazi da evoluiramo! Da se vinemo u dimenzije gde postoji misleca energija bez materije i gde je cilj preoblikovanje univerzuma. Preoblikovanje u smislu da se on podredi potrebama svojih, reci cu stanovnika, a ne da se kao sto je to slucaj sada mi prilagodjavamo kosmosu oko nas. U sve to su ukljucene inteligentnije rase od nas, neko od koga imamo dosta da naucimo, Medjutim i ako smo na dnu lestvice nas kao rasu krasi nesto sto zapanjuje ostale. To su brzina kojom ucimo i kojom se prilagodjavamo.
Albert, Zigmung Van Srink, Esi, Robert.... I pred sam kraj serijala moram da priznam da su sve ovo likovi koji ce ostati samnom.
Poslednja knjiga se zove "Decak koji je zeleo da zivi zauvek"
Mislim da cu joj prici sa vise opreza, ocekujem vise razgovora a manje radnje, jer sto vise znate vise i rezmisljate, vise i sumnjte a svet je sve vise u vama. -
Una vez terminada la saga, las sensaciones son muy buenas, y con eso me quedo. La historia global de los 4 libros es de las mejores que he leído. El protagonista, Robinette Broadhead, es un gran personaje que a pesar de sus miedos, inseguridades y sentimientos de culpa sigue adelante y hace lo que debe hacer.
La mezcla de ciencia y ciencia ficción se encarna perfectamente en el programa informático "Albert Einstein" que acompaña a Robin a lo largo de los libros. Que consiga explicar el Big Bang, el espacio de diez dimensiones o la historia del Universo de una forma amena y sin perder ritmo en la narración es de valorar.
Si concretamos en este cuarto libro, Pohl introduce algún hilo argumental que si desapareciera no afectaría en nada a la historia, pero son casos puntuales y, en general, consigue dar respuesta de forma satisfactoria a las grandes preguntas que se plantean desde Pórtico.
Una gran saga. -
1,5/5
Un horrible desenlace para una saga que empezó tan bien... Un libro tremendamente innecesario, escrito sin ganas, algo de lo que el propio autor hace continuas referencias a lo largo de la lectura. Sí, como suena. La historia tiene episodios de auténtico relleno que no vienen a cuento, es pretenciosa y fea como el virus del momento. No aporta nada, salvo para la economía del señor Pohl. Es una pena porque escribe muy bien y su prosa engancha.
La incertidumbre y ensoñación que Pórtico causaba en el lector nunca debió ser cortada... -
This is the fourth volume in Pohl's Gateway saga, and, much like the preceding book, Heechee Rendezvous, my reaction was mixed. It does move the story along in a somewhat unexpected direction, and his examination of cosmological phenomena is thought-provoking and poignant. On the other hand, the protagonist has been dead for quite a while now and maybe should be allowed to rest...? The virtual/cyber/post-human reality of Broadhead wore thin for me in this one, but the mystery of the Heechee and their opponents was quite engaging. It's a well-written book, but not as captivating as the original Gateway or Beyond the Blue Event Horizon.
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3.5
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Финалът на тази епична космическа поредица! Има още един сборник и един роман, но те са по-скоро бонус-тракове и не са релевантни за основния сюжет.
По-голямата част от основните персонажи са безтелесни, по една или друга причина, но това по никакъв начин не води до това да са по-малокръвни от останалите.
Усърдно подготвяният финален сблъсък с Враговете става жертва на изненадващ сюжетен обрат, който сам по себе си е добър, но е описан набързо и е в поне някаква степен антиклимактичен. Само и единствено заради него намалявям звезда!
Определено четвърта книга отстъпва като качество от предишните откъм сюжет.
Като цяло, макар и да не може да се твърди, че всичките четири романа са първокласни, като цяло поредицата е почти задължителна за всеки почитател на добрата космическа фантастика! -
Okay, so the second star is only because it ends the series and puts it (and therefore the reader) out of its misery.
Droning, pedantic, and genuinely uninteresting enough to warrant such a long production, this book really doesn't provide enough to validate its existence. If the author would remove the number of times he makes a big deal out of the fact that things for a machine-stored intelligence aren't real, but rather electronic constructions in a computer system, the book would be half as big, twice as enjoyable, and tolerably paced. But instead, the author insists upon redundantly making a big stink out of the same stupid concept with nearly every turn of the page. (Which I here feel compelled to phrase as: every "turn" of the "page" because I was listening to an audio book. But that's the thing…it was irrelevant. So is most of this book.)
While it's admittedly not quite so annoying as the "Sidebar" habit Pohl formed in Book 3, it was sheerly a dull and underwhelming writing style that caused this book to fail in a big way. Unfortunate, really, as many of his ideas were interesting. Poor guy just thought they were *really* interesting and therefore should be explained upteen-bajillion times in one volume.
Skip this one. Ask someone how it ended, and move on with your life. It'll save you a ton of trouble. ("Ton" here being used in the metaphorical sense, because with the actual weight of paper....) -
Tedious. Pohl take a valiant risk by introducing a huge chunk of astrophysics, but ruins it by foot-dragging aimed at keeping the reader "entertained". Of the Heechee series, this book stretches credulity the thinnest: the main character is a stored intelligence, psychic powers are a major plot point, godlike beings of pure energy who's origin predates baryogenesis living in black holes, etc. A good science fiction book tweaks one aspect of reality and explores the consequences; this book isn't all that good... It ends unsatisfactorily and pointlessly. A very direction disappointing for such a promising series.
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-Traca final.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. Robinette Broadhead disfruta de su nueva existencia exprimiéndola todo lo que puede. La vigilancia del kugelblitz ante la posible llegada de una amenaza continúa, pero no ha sido todo lo diligente que debería por diferentes razones. Humanos y Heechees tratan de desarrollarse en conjunto e incluso de convivir en determinados entornos y situaciones. Último libro de La Saga de los Heechees, aunque hay algún otro ambientado en el mismo universo pero en otros momentos anteriores.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/... -
Al igual que el segundo libro de la saga, me ha parecido redondo.
Un libro que cuenta con una gran variedad de historias y escenarios de principio a fin, que se mete de lleno en temas metafísicos humanos y astronómicos, que cuenta con personajes variados y en los que profundiza de forma magistral.
Me encanta la evolución de Robin y cómo, sin embargo, el síndrome del impostor le acompaña durante toda la saga, haciéndolo más humano y más creíble.
También es destacable una similitud con Asimov en darle un toque a personajes con los que inevitablemente te encariñas, y un mimo a las historias que pasan de ser aparentemente sencillas a explotarte la cabeza, y eso siempre es de agradecer.
Recomiendo muchísimo la saga porque sin duda ha sido sublime, y creo que Frederik Pohl tenía un verdadero don para escribir.
Continuaré con Los exploradores de Pórtico (relatos) y El muchacho que viviría para siempre (relato también de este universo). -
I started reading this before I realized it was #4 in the Heechee series. I actually have an earlier(I think) installment, but I'll continue anyway. My edition is hardbound sans dust jacket from 1987. So far old pro Fred Pohl is showing himself to be sort of an old fart prose-wise. He's one of those "you see" people. Stuck back in mid-century usage. I wondered about the description of home-bred chess masters in Wyoming playing multiple simultaneous games in city parks in Wyoming. Seems unlikely, but I guess maybe in Casper/Cheyenne/Laramie it MIGHT have happened.
Got a bit further in last night and I'm beginning to get a whiff of what some of the reviewers have complained about. There's been a whole lot of looking back blah-blah and not much going on. The history IS interesting and I haven't read the earlier books, but still: LET'S GO! WHILE WE'RE YOUNG! This IS sci-fi isn't it? The personality of Robinette is also off-putting in the excessive doses we're getting so far. He's in love with his old-fart sensibilities. A curmudgeon, but not particularly loveable or even interesting. Story and ideas are all in classic sci-fi. We've been getting a lot of ideas, but not a lot of story, other that the look-back stuff. I assume it'll kick in at some point.
Past half-way last night as the thing just drags on. There IS a plot beginning to emerge here but we're still mostly stuck in Robin's tedious and endless yak-yak of background material. Nothing new here - other reviewers have noted the same thing(s).
- Are we seriously to believe that Robin is ignorant of the big bang stuff???? I've read about it ... why hasn't he? Still, Albert's narration is interesting. I am quite impressed with all those astrophysicists who figured out all this stuff.
- The Essie-speak continues to be annoying. Sounds more like some oriental pidgin-English than a Russian accent.
Got close to the end last night as various plot threads come together. It looks like this will wind up with 2.75* and be rounded up to 3*. I don't want to give it a 2* rating so I'll focus on the strengths, such as they are.
- Yikes! A bit of Pohl-racism shows up, albeit of the milder variety.
- Harold, a little kid, exclaims "What the Devil!"????? More fuddy-duddy lingo in the mouths of little kids.
- Is the threat of child molestation/murder upon cute little Oniko necessary? We get it Robin/Fred ... those bad guys are REALLY bad!
Finished up last night as Fred P. brings the Big "G" onto the stage and then can't even give him the last word - sheesh! Ultimately this book is all about Fred Pohl. aging master sci-fi author and curmudgeon. He simply puts on the mask of our "hero" Robinette Broadhead. The kids, the most interesting part of the cast of characters, disappear abruptly ... "see ya!" and we end rather inconclusively with all that Ben Casey/Dr. Zorba/Sam Jaffe incantation: "Man, Woman, Life, Death, Infinity" ... plus some awesome tuna salad on rye, Beethoven, and Bach. I wonder if the author suffered himself from "gloopiness"? I bet he did! I wonder if he had a childhood breakdown a la Sneezy? Or was it Harold?
- another mildly racist bit turns up -
La saga de los Heechee de Frederik Pohl, fue una de las saga de ciencia ficcion que mas me gusto y disfrute mucho de leer.
Con esta utima entrega, atravese por muchos estados de animo diferentes mientras la leia. Cuando comence con ella, aun persistia en mi, la sensacion de que la saga habria tenido un final estupendo con el tercer libro. Es decir, la humanidad finalmente viajaba por la galaxia a placer; cuando el cuerpo de las personas no podia seguir adelante, la mente era preservada y la vida se abria camino en su siguiente etapa evolutiva; Robinette Broadhead era inmensamente rico, vivia junto a su querida esposa Essie y la humanidad por fin habia conseguido hacer contacto con los miticos Heechee, quienes venian en paz, para ayudar, acompañar a la humanidad y para compartir con ellos toda la sabiduria que poseian. Como si esto fuera poco se le daba cierre a la historia central de "Portico", Broadhead finalmente se encontraba con Klara y aclaraban todos sus asuntos pendientes para poder seguir adelante. El hecho de que no hubieran podido reunirse mientras Broadhead era un ser de carne y hueso, le daba tambien un toque nostalgico al fin de la historia entre ellos. Se dejaba de esta manera a los dias de Portico como lo unico "real" que habian tenido entre ambos, el florecimiento de su amor y luego el tragico desenlace. Sin lugar a dudas hubiera sido un cierre de saga memorable.
Quedaba pendiente pues, el misterio que envolvia a la antigua y poderosa raza de seres que se habia retirado al Kugelblitz y que amenzaba con volver a salir, para erradicar toda otra civilizacion inteligente que hubiera aparecido desde su ultima incursion. Tal y como lo habia hecho tantas otras veces en el pasado remoto, al tiempo que moldeaba el universo segun su mejor conveniencia. Pero esta cuestion, era un problema a muy largo plazo que podria haber quedado como una incertidumbre del futuro, para que ambas razas, tanto Humanos como Heechees, tuvieran que afrontar juntos algun dia.
Cuando aborde "Los anales de los Heechee", tuve la impresion de que el libro probablemente no iba a estar a la altura de sus predecesores. Es que como dije anteriormente la historia habria tenido un cierre magistral y ademas el tema que se intentaba abordar aqui me parecia demasiado ambicioso. Seguramente no iba a colmar mis expectativas.
Y eso mismo fue lo que senti del libro durante los primeros capitulos. Como que no me lograba atrapar del todo. Por momentos, se hablaba sobre personajes y sitios del pasado, se narraba sobre lo que habia ocurrido con ellos y se revivian escenas de otros libros, de Portico inclusive. La trama se ponia emotiva, me provoco un dejo de nostalgia y me gustaba que asi fuera, pero a la vez, tenia la sensacion de que se estaba estirando la historia de manera innecesaria y no veia por ningun lado que el libro tomara un camino especifico. No es raro que asi pase en el comienzo de los libros, pero en este caso me parecia que todo era demasiado lento, el autor divagaba mucho cuando se ponia a hablar sobre cuestiones triviales y los capitulos iban pasando sin aportar gran cosa.
Algunas de las historias que se cuentan, aunque no llevan a nada concreto que tuviera que ver con la trama principal, resultan de lo mas interesantes, sobre todo la narracion acerca de los primeros encuentros entre los Humanos y los Heechees y por supuesto la historia detras de los viejos conocidos de libros anteriores. Como comente anteriormente, se torna emotivo en algunos pasajes. Creo que lo que menos me gusto del libro fue que se dedicaran capitulos enteros, bastante grandes en algunos casos, a explicar cosas que eran sencillas y ya conocidas de libros anteriores. Relatandolo de una manera extensa y rebuscada, que lo unico que conseguia era hacerme fastidiar. Por no mecionar que cuando comienza a ponerse interesante, se va por las ramas con algun tema secundario de manera recurrente. Esto no pasaba con los libros previos.
De todas formas no son todas palidas, debo decir que leyendo este libro logre comprender por fin de una manera muy grafica, algunas cuestiones fisicas que nunca me habian terminado de cerrar del todo, si bien siempre las habia aceptado como validas. Por ejemplo el concepto de espacio de multiples dimensiones.
Mi estado de animo pues, fue variando a lo largo de los capitulos, a veces me ponia nostalgico, a veces me interesaba lo que se estaba discutiendo, otras veces me aburria y me fastidiaba. Nunca dejaba de preguntarme cuando se iba a encaminar la trama de una vez por todas. En un momento llegue a pensar que el libro iba a ser rematadamente malo y senti lastima, porque la saga me habia gustado mucho y no veia la necesidad de cometer semejante crimen con ella.
Finalmente, cuando se llega a la mitad del capitulo 13 aproximadamente, el libro comienza a tomar color. En este punto, todas las historias que se estaban contando en paralelo, que no eran pocas, comienzan a mezclarse poco a poco y convergen en una sola, en donde todo gira en torno a la cuestion principal que seguia pendiente, "el enemigo". Debo confesar que el trato que Pohl le dio al asunto me dejo de lo mas impresionado, lo abordo de una manera que me parecio muy realista, a diferencia de lo que habia esperado, y creo que este es uno de los puntos mas fuertes que tiene el libro y hace que valga la pena leerlo.
De aqui hasta el final la mayoria de los eventos que se habian venido desarrollando en paralelo cobran sentido como un todo, la trama se torna bastante mas directa y resto del libro se lee en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. Como nos tiene acostumbrados Pohl, el desenlace de la historia toma por un camino que es inesperado y que provoca que el lector tenga que replantearse todo lo que se habia venido manejando respecto al enemigo, desde libros anteriores.
Personalmente considero que la saga tiene un gran comienzo en "Portico", que el climax de la misma se alcanza en el segundo libro "Tras el incierto horizonte", siendo "El encuentro" tambien un libro de cinco estrellas. En "Los anales de los Heechee" la saga vuelve a bajar, pero la sensacion que me queda luego de leerlo es de que resulto ser mucho mejor de lo que habia pensado en un principio. Creo que esta a la altura de "Portico" o inclusive un poco por encima de este. -
6/10. Media de los 13 libros leídos del autor: 7/10
Si por algo es famoso Pohl es por esta saga, la de los Heeche. Admito que me costó un poco entrar en ella, pero una vez que te haces a ese mundo con naves con destino preprogramado pero desconocido, aventureros a ciegas, recompensas o muerte en la distancia, la cosa es la leche.
Ultima entrega de la saga Heeche y este ya no, no está a la altura. Una pena. -
"I think I should review a little at this point." I never want to read that sentence again. Too much of this book is rehashing things that have already happened in the three prior Heechee novels, albeit from newly expanded perspectives. Other parts seemed like paste-ups of unused background material Pohl might have developed while writing the earlier novels. There is a story in there though, mostly set in the vastly sped up cybernetic world into which Robinette Broadhead was uploaded after his physical death. But I kept asking myself - but if they can do X, then why aren't they doing Y? So, sad to say, I have to admit that Pohl has not really thought through the consequences of the technologies created in the last two Heechee books. He should have stopped with Gateway and Beyond the Blue Event Horizon.
In this book, Pohl reveals the nature of the threat of the "Foe" (formerly the Heechee's "Assassins"), and so I feel the story is at an end. Apparently, there are a few other works set in the Heechee universe, but I don't think I need to seek them out. -
Es evidente que, en su conjunto, esta última entrega no está a la altura de las anteriores. A pesar de que el final de la novela y de la tetralogía resulta efectivo y acertado, el desarrollo es bastante irregular, con una acción que tarda en despegar y unos personajes que ya han perdido la gracia. Pero por cerrar la tetralogía vale la pena leerla.
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M'ha sorprés com sempre els homes i dones reaccionem igual davant de les societats diferents a les nostres, com sempre som i serem xenofobs i sempre ens considerem superiors, i sempre hem d'acabar amb tot hom que és creua en el nostre camí. Frederik Pohl acaba fent un anàlisi de la societat humana, a través de la recerca dels Heechee i ens possa davant del mirall i ens deixa amb la nostra miseria espiritual i la nostra hipocresia... i el poc que mereixiem anar més enllà de la terra que ja em malmès... per tenir accés a més coses i espais que malmetre i més gent amb la que matar-nos... realment Pohl fa una crítica àcida i dura del nostre món i no deixa pedra sense bellugar. M'agrada i el recomano, cada un dels llibres, i la saga en general, perquè es carrega la nostra societat a nivell polític, econòmic, social i cultural, i li treu els colors a tots els nivells. I ho fà amb una trama ràpida i trepidant que ens convida a seguir llegint.
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5.5/10
I almost quit after reading about 30-40% of the book, just because I couldn’t stand Robin, the first person narrator, and his whining about how slowly “meat people” did things and how many things he (and others like him) could do in the space of a second, or a fraction of a second. Really, the reader understands it after the first, second, or third time, so stop repeating it!
The second half of the book picked up in terms of more plot movement and ended up being quite good (I read the last 40% in one sitting!). But what a slog to get to that point! -
I think coming into a story in the fourth book of the series, made it harder to get into and enjoy right from the beginning. Plus the style of the writing which exhibited a vast amount of showing and not telling made it harder to enjoy. It was almost like a journal that took some time to get used to. We are given a vast amount of information that isn’t needed in the story. Although this does help us form the bonds of the characters.
Once I felt that I was getting into the plot of the actual story I felt like the book moved to a much better place. We got to explore and experience the universe at large, and when I say universe I do mean that. Since the book is a classic Sci-Fi adventure piece, we are given the thematic elements of a Space Opera with augmented humans, advanced Artificial Intelligence, and space travel.
I couldn’t help but see the similarities between this book and other well known Sci-Fi works, like The Matrix, I am Robot, Space Odyssey 2000.
When we first open in the book the characters Robinette and Elsie are preparing for a lavish party. But this no ordinary party, the party is in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the settlement of an asteroid. Now you may be thinking so what is so special about that? Well let me tell you, you see Robin and Elsie were part of the original settlers of the asteroid, putting them well over 100 years old. They can do this by storing their essence as Machine People. They were digitized and it allows them to “live forever”. They can eat, drink, and party as much as they want with no fear of repercussions. And believe me, they do. Plus due to their billionaire status, they can rub elbows with the upper echelons of society. Thus they gain a vast amount of influence and power. The first few chapters give us an understanding of how our MCs, remember the party-goers both of the meat and non meant verity. We are given a lot of history of the start of the colony, space exploration, and the contact with non-human life.
The alien species called the Heechee are shown to be great explorers of the galaxy. Having sought out intelligent life, the Heechee worked to study and interact with being they felt they could. But out of the three species they understood to be intelligent, humans were the only ones to be able to talk back. Thus once the human race was able to form the necessary tools to begin space travel, they discovered the remits of the Heechee fleet and the two were the two able to meet. Using a complicated system of ancient Heechee technology the two races learn to co-mingle.
We also looked at an advanced artificial intelligence cleaver named Albert Einstein. This was probably my favorite character in the whole book. He was snarky, intelligent but also compassionate and caring. With a few simple commands, he was able to provide anything for his masters, from a beach house with little fruity drinks, to advanced astronomical theories. I think the thing I liked the most was that he could explain the science behind the big bang theory that made it easy for one to understand. This is great for a reader that might not have the understanding of those theories, and even the ones that do will understand it better.
The third set of people we are given to look at. Is a newly formed friendship between three adolescents; One human girl, one human boy, and one Heechee boy. Having already known each other the human boy and Heechee boy are tossed into unknown territory with the addition of the girl. It is a nice break to get to see how they interact with each other. And how their lives are changed when they are sent back to earth, they must each try to find their way in the new environment, school, and planet, while also staying together.
Finally over the times together the Heechee cultures teach the humans to fear a race they call the Assassins. The assassins are a formless void that works to devour the rest of the universe. As a formless void, it is unable to vocalize, materialize or visualize any sort of demands or endeavors, thus making it the perfect enemy. How can you stop something that has no face, voice, or mind? I felt like this is a great existential question that gave the characters something to strive for.
Overall I did like the book. It gave a nice view of the crises one might face if they were to be able to live forever and how that would affect the people and places one interacted with. The look at the scientific theories, law, and practices was a nice way to understand them and figure a way they could be taught to those who might not understand them. The author did his research into the topics. While we did get several classic Sci-Fi Tropes, we were also given some great twists and turns. I gave this one four out of five stars only because of the beginning. Once we got into the main body, and the plot advanced along it did save it.
I would recommend the book to anyone that likes classic Sci-fi stories, especially those who like the idea of augmented humans, space travel, artificial intelligence, and the combination of human and non-human species. -
I found this 4th book in the Heechee Saga quite entertaining. Although many parts of the book are either teaching basic astronomy or repeating earlier events, it's all done in light fashion. "The Annals" also contain quite a lot of speculation about uploaded human brains, a subject getting more and more topical. Although I read The Annals 30 years after it was written the ideas and tech described seemed quite up to date.
Perhaps the book gets a bit too long overall but its light reading. Although no classic this book is a nice example of SF tickling your mind. Well done Fredrik Pohl! -
I ended up getting through this one pretty quickly, and I think the book benefited by reading it in fewer sittings. The final book of the Heechee series takes place a few decades after the previous one and the major difference is that the main character is already dead at the start of this one. However, this being science fiction in the future, that's no problem for our protagonist and he now lives in cyberspace along with many other people who have uploaded their consciousness to continue his marriage and adventures.
Pohl touches on a few of the issues this sort of life would have throughout the book. Primarily, the individuals who live through computers rarely interact with "meat people" (aka normal people) due to how much time passes in gigaspace between every word a meat person says. Property rights are also somewhat confused now, and for individuals married to a meat person but living in cyberspace, the meat person will often create a doppelganger of his or herself to live in cyberspace while the meat version is out in the real world.
That's the backdrop for the world as Robinette Broadhead and his gang of real people, cyberpeople and computer programs try to solve the problem of the "foe" or the "assassins" who are rearranging the universe to allow beings of energy to thrive instead of the current matter based people. The humans and Heechee are working together on this issue, and that includes digital humans as well. The supporting characters include three kids (two human, one heechee) who get drawn into first contact with the Foe, two former terrorists who escape from jail during a power outage, and just about every other major character from the prior books also makes a cameo.
One thing that really set this book apart from the prior books was the extensive science. This book spends a ton of time on explaining big time scientific concepts in layman's terms. I actually really enjoyed these parts, and learned a lot about both the Big Bang and 9 dimensional geometry. The supporting characters were also a bit less annoying than in prior books, or if they were the same level of annoying they were utilized less. The language Pohl uses in the book, as well as the motivations of Heimat, one of the terrorists also made this book feel a bit more adult than the prior installments.
Per Wikipedia and Goodreads there're a few other short stories and/or novellas tied into the Heechee universe, but as a conclusion to the series this was just fine. I'm not likely to hunt down the other material, but if I were to stumble across them at a used book store I'd probably pick them up. Although this is probably Pohl's most famous work, out of the other books I've read by him I'd put Man Plus and The Other End of Time as my favorites. The former because it was a well written, quick story and the latter because it made me feel a lot better about life after death. -
Oh boy, what a disapointment.
What started as a series with some great and gran ideas and likeable (if never quite deep enough) characters devolved steadily into a boring, badly written mess of repetitions and desperate attempts to build up some interest.
Robinette, never the best-developed character you've ever seen in a book, is reduced to a whining mess constantly (CONSTANTLY) whining about how slow meat-time is and how many milliseconds it takes to do stuff IRL. Countless references to the (drumroll) GIGABIT SPACE is so silly and tacky... I mean, even in '88, when this was published, 100-odd megabytes were easily (if not cheaply) obtainable, so why would Pohl stick with the GIGABIT SPACE as if it's something so vast you can't comprehend it is beyond me.
The rest of the cast is pretty much a set of placeholders with no depth whatsoever, whereas the children side story is totally useless and only serves to fill some (quite a few) pages.
As for the plot? After meandering for a few hundred pages without advancing it much (unless you count several pages of skippable theological and existential crap) you come upon the ending which amounts to... nothing. I'm sure I won't remember it a week from now, helped by the fact that it's both the most uninspiring end to a 'saga' you could imagine and also only takes up a couple of pages.
What a disappointment, then, from Pohl. What a big, fat waste of time. -
It was an interesting book, but not nearly as good as the rest in the series. As other reviewers here have stated, the over-repetition of explaining how their "virtual" or "machine-stored" lives worked really got old and was unnecessary. It was certainly interesting and curious at first but didn't need to be re-explained and in the same manner so often throughout the book. Also, Pohl seemed to try to bring back more of the angst / ennui into the main character than was present in the last two novels. It worked excellently in the very first book of the series and made it incredible, but it really just wasn't necessary anymore. I could see using a little of it again just to make a point about "virtual" life, but overall it's just been overdone in this series by now. I did enjoy the couple of extended scientific explanations and they were interesting, but honestly I felt like they were mostly a bit too dumbed-down and ended too soon for the sort of significance they held within the plot.
Overall it was interesting to continue the story, but it all felt like it was over-hyped without actually enough substance (in plot events) behind the significance given to them by the narrative. Definitely don't start with this book, but if you loved all the previous ones in the series and want to know how it "ends", then this will satisfy you. -
Pohl is lucky that myself, and no doubt other readers who have lasted this long are still firm believers and fans of the Heechee universe. Compared to the first book 'Gateway', 'The Annals of the Heechee' pales in comparison. It has none of the excitement and danger, very little of the mystery and suspense. But in terms of a continuation of the series - it does serve it purpose.
This book takes us deeper into the idea of 'the foe' and who they are. Pohl is still weaving an expert SF narrative here although at times an unnecessarily convoluted one. I spent a lot of my time during the book, theorising for myself who the for are and how things would end, and you can ask nothing more of a SF novel than a great storyline and material to ponder over. -
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
--Below information added approximately a year after original reading--
Pohl finishes the story. It is much more Heechee Rendezvous than Gateway.
Pohl did was he was supposed to; structurally he described and revealed and filled in and completed the series. I just didn't like who the aliens were, what they were doing, or how they interacted. It is probably one of those "It's not you, it's me" things where I'm dissatisfied because everything didn't turn out along my personal preferences. This is definitely one where I could understand and respect the opinion of someone who loved it. I didn't. -
Perhaps Pohl should've ended the Heechee series with a longer "Heechee Rendezvous". As it stands, the remaining cool ideas that he had in mind for a conclusion of the series seem to few too fill up a whole novel (short as it is).
We're getting some cool details on the nature of the 'foe' and some nice closure to the remaining Heechee mysteries, but you will need to be patient and slog through some boring and pointless scenes of dialogue about AI's and godhood.
Glad to be over... or is it?... -
Every time I finish a saga like this, I find myself in awe to the respective author's imagination. All the original concepts, the worlds and events imagined are nothing but incredible. And Pohl's Universe has not just all the above features but much, much more...
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