Heechee Rendezvous

By: Frederik Pohl

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

After millennia had passed, Mankind discovered the Heechee legacy (an alien culture that fled to the relative safety of a black hole) - in particular an asteroid stocked with autonavigating spacecraft. Robinette Broadhead, who had led the expedition that unlocked the many secrets of Heechee technology, is now forced once more to make a perilous voyage into space - where the Heechee are waiting. And this time the future of Man is at stake....

©1984 Frederick Pohl (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

all fizzle, no bang

lacked the mysterious aspects which I enjoyed so much in the first two in the series. plot timeline felt off and didnt build much tension for me personally.

Heeche smeechee

I wish I could praise this work. I really do, but I can't do it, not honestly anyway. This sequel is filled with relentless story padding and annoying foreshadowing that tip off the reader early on that there's a multivolume sequel in the offing. The problem is by the time you wade through it, you're very unlikely to give much of a damn about the Heechee or any of the other of the story characters. Consequently, I'm done with it.

Essential listening

Enjoyable performance of 3rd installment in Frederick Pohl's timeless Heechee saga. Old school science fiction, no wizards / zombies.

Great production

Third in the series by the same narrator. Very enjoyable and the different voices really makes the story come alive

Still good

Usually I lose interest after the author spent most of their energy on the initial world building in the first book but the series continues to intrigue me.

Great book!

I very much enjoyed this one. I think it took a little longer to get to the Heechee than I wanted, but, the back and side stories helped develop the plit, immensely.

Finally, meeting the Heechee

Frederik Pohl’s Heechee Rendezvous is his third installment in his Gateway series. Charaters from the first two books are still around. Broadhead is dragged back when an old acquaintance arrives with a bizarre tale of a message from the Heechee. At the same time, the individual who grew up on Gateway is in the hunt but being his narcissistic self. Robin’s old girlfriend stuck in the black hole makes a comeback and together they learn the reason for the Heechee disappearance.

Pohl has fun with this story, including an AI deepfake to pull off a prison break. He was particularly insightful in terms of AI adopting specific personas as well as digital uplift. There’s also some background on the Heechee and the basis for their more recent disappearance that sets up the next installment.

The narration is quite good with excellent character distinction, although with a host of accents. Pacing is smooth.

The Payoffs Begin

The world of the Heechee Saga continues to progress at a brisk pace always growing, and in this Heechee Rondezvous things that I'd wondered about for the first two books begin to be answered. It seems like these aren't popular or common books, but they are fun and Heechee Rondezvous does not disappoint.

slow burn with rushed end

I have a feeling this was originally supposed to be much longer until an editorial mandate came down that it couldn't be more then a certain amount of pages. it has a very slow first 2/3rds wasting time with frankly irrelevant characters that i can see why they might have been there but it was never followed up on. then everything that was building up literally happens in the last 30 minutes of the audiobook and is told in a very abridged way. so much wasted time delivering a very weak payoff. haven't yet gotten the opportunity for the last book but I am assuming that this is by far the weakest link in the saga.

Good ideas in haphazard story with endless discussion

Third story in the series and far from my favorite. There are some great SF ideas related to artificial computer intelligences, black holes, manipulating the laws of the universe, etc. But the characters seemed to spend much of their time either in annoying personal conflicts or pondering what is going on. Even after it was revealed to the reader what is going on, some characters continued speculating about what is going on! Together with a somewhat haphazard plot line, it started to feel like a chore to reach the end. I am probably not going on to number four, which is disappointing having really enjoyed the first two.