Summertide

The Heritage Universe, Book 1

By: Charles Sheffield

Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard

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

World building is great

The story was pretty good, but the world building is where it is at. I want a book of just descriptions of builder artifacts.

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.