Summertide

The Heritage Universe, Book 1

By: Charles Sheffield

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

It was just before Summertide, the time when the twin planets, Opal and Quake, would orbit closest to their sun, subjecting both - Quake in particular - to vast tidal forces. It was to be the most violent Summertide ever, creating something that only happened every 350,000 years.

Access to the unstable Quake was supposed to be prohibited, but some very insistent travelers were determined to make the trip. Professor Darya Lang, who studied artifacts left by the long-vanished aliens called the Builders, had a hunch that she might find the Builders themselves. Louis Nenda and the Cecropian Atvar H'sial had their own interests in Quake, and would do anything to get there. And Councilor Julius Graves was hunting murderers - if they were hiding on Quake, he would find them.

Planetary Administrators Hans Rebka and Max Perry had no choice but to go to Quake - risking their lives to protect the others - and to learn, just maybe, the secret of Summertide and the Builders.

©1990, 1991, 1992, and 1997 Charles Sheffield (P)2002 Blackstone Audiobooks

Great ideas

This novel has great ideas and really scratch that itch for ancient alien mysterious artifacts. It feels a little dated, but not too much. Since the whole concept of the novel is waiting for a specific event to happen, the whole plot can seem a bit unnecessary because you are just waiting for what is going to happen in the end. However, the characters are interesting in themselves and even though this novel is fairly short, it still gives a great sense of a much bigger universe and timeline.

Warning: End to the series is disappointing

If you could sum up Summertide in three words, what would they be?

Good but careful

Any additional comments?

Be careful, the book (and for the most part, the series) is good. But the ending to the series is pretty darn disappointing.

hard

This story was hard to carry through it it kept jumping and you didn't really know what was going on it wasn't until the last 3 chapters that I called a gifts of what was going on and then I got interested in it so I'm a read the next one

Intriguing and leaving you wanting for more...

Fortunately, this is only the first volume of the Heritage Universe series. There are three more. I wanted to listen to this book because it's a classic. And it is well deserved. We are left with enigma of the Others, until the end (will have to read the next book to know more about that) but something does happen -- not unexpectedly -- at the end. While the background and indeed the whole intrigue of the book is tapestried on the Artifacts left by an ancient and disappeared civilization, the whole story is really about these five or six characters that pursue the enigma by being at the right place at the right time, a fact noticed by only the experts or by chance for some. It is a very serious story, there is not much humor in it. It's elaborate, consistent (scientifically and literarily), and has a nice ending point that at once concludes the current story and opens vast possibilities for the next three volumes. However, I wouldn't recommend this book if you're not ready to listen to the next three...

In passing, I should mention another old classic that treats exactly the same theme with slightly different point of view, and is a LOT more fun, in that it's written very wittily and funnily. It's the Heechee saga by Frederik Pohl (Gateway, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon, Hechee Rendez-Vous, and Annals of the Hechee). Now those are books that I would treasure in audio format. If you've enjoyed that one, this Summertide will feel a bit austere and just a bit belabored sometimes. But it's still good science fiction.

Straight reading

I think this book could have used a different narrator. There was no real difference between character voices except gender which made it hard to follow unless one gender was speaking to another.
I gave up after chapter 3.

Hard Sci-fi

Many Sci-Fi Writers simply take everyday events and give them strange names, or name a planet after a town and tell an average story substituting "guns" for Lasers, etc.

This series of books is different. The author writes HARD sci-fi. He spends a lot of time describing (in detail) the technologies, aliens, etc.

If you like Hard sci-fi, this is an excellent series.. the narration is very good also. Each book is better than the last.

Actually quite good - recommended

I really liked this one. Style and story done a lot like Peter F. Hamilton's Pandora's Star, one of mny favorites. Good characters, especially the aliens!! Can't wait to download the next in the series!

Good Story and Good Reader

As a sci-fi fan of many years I found this book to be very enjoyable, easy to follow in the audio format, and an excellent story. I plan to get all four in the series.

Solid, interesting sci-fi with a hint of mystery

I found this to be a very engaging story. Everyone says it's "hard sci-fi" and I'll go along with that. It has the same sort of tone as Peter F. Hamilton's writings, so if you like his, you'll probably like this series as well - though Summertide is MUCH less long-winded and about half as descriptive as Hamilton's works (and, of course, half the length).

There are a lot of technical descriptions of space-faring ideas/inventions/activities, but none of it gets boring or overly complicated (and if you miss some technical detail, it won't harm your understanding of the story at all). I found that the characters were diverse and interesting. Are they as well-developed as they would be in a soap/space-opera book, no, of course not, but you can tell the difference between the main characters; and the motivations behind their behaviors are adequately differentiated.

There is a big chunk of mystery/suspense in here... like who are the Builders, what is going on at Summertide, who are the bad/good guys, what will happen to the "slaves", etc. I thought this added a nice dimension to the story.

I guess you could say the story in this book is wrapped up at the end, but you will likely have to continue reading the series as there are several "loose ends" left dangling. It's not a cliff-hanger ending, but isn't fully resolved either.

I didn't mind the narrator at all. There is no graphic violence and no sex or swearing. I have bought the rest of the series on Audible.

30 years old explains some but not all

Good story and well read but it's 30 years old but a couple of things that I had trouble getting past. one, you have advanced civilizations that travel from galaxy to galaxy but apparently left their cellphones at home. Seems the author couldn't conceive of video recording devices when today most of the people on our planet carry one with us all the time.
two, no one seems to carry weapons of any kind which would seem smart in unknown situations or planets and even when knowingly going into dangerous missions when you expect to find enemies, still no weapons, ship weapons but no personal weapons. the threat of a bigger, stronger enemy is completely mitigated by carrying even projectile weapons much less advanced weaponry an advanced civilization that has seen more than one war would have.
I guess these two things would have made the story a little harder to make work. it's not that big a deal in the first book so fortunately by the time it becomes glaringly obvious that the story would have unraveled if these things were introduced you have become invested enough in the characters that you can probably tolerate it. seems like the author just got tired of the story by the last book.