Summertide

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

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.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

High Science Fiction - not for the faint of heart

Charles Sheffield believed in hard science and even harder science fiction. All of his stories are built on extrapolations from present day science to some future filled with incredible technological magic. Summertide is no different. The story itself will appeal only to those who enjoy technological fantasies, and if you are someone like that, then the mediocre performance of the reader will not trouble you. For all the rest, no matter who performed the work, you would find it wanting.
As for me, I strongly recommend it. When I have the time and the credit, I intend to get all four of these novels on CD (through Audible, of course).

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

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.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Great new sci-fi

A well crafted story with good characters and an original premise made "Summertide" a great read. This one made the miles go by so painlessly I hate to have to wait for the next segment. Without Audible I'm sure I would have missed this one and I'm very glad that I didn't.

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

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!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

GREAT SF

I liked everything about this book, the story is good, the author really knows his science, the reader was good - he gave everybody their own voice, and the pace is great - I never got bored while reading it. It is one of the very best books that I have read on on Audible. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

Barely tolerable

I've read this author's stuff before and enjoyed it, but this is just an awful mismash of sci-fi cliches. Flat characters, despite any potential they might have had, stilted writing made worse by the narrator's delivery and manufactured drama that's not at all dramatic. Plus, lots of odd quirks, like the fact that the characters are almost always referred to by both their first and last names (trust me, it gets annoying quick). The characters, although they're supposed to be experts in various endeavors, generally act in mind-bogglingly stupid ways. The same events presented from the viewpoints of two different characters are often different. Not just different viewpoints, but they differ in the details. And no one talks like the characters do. Not in real life. Not ever. Contrived, dull, and ocassionally even painful to listen to (especially the narrator's interpretation of one of the alien characters as sounding like an obsequious stereotype of a chinese immigrant). Take a pass.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Sheffield Should Stick to Science

If you like to read technical reports and scientific articles, you may like this book. However, if you like to read about characters and human emotions set within a scientific fictional future, you will not like this book. The charaters are portrayed as dichotomous (either/or) variables that respond to an environment that constantly needs to be analyzed. Sheffield tries to make his characterizations central, but fails and the reader is left instead feeling quite detached. To further the insult of this book, the narrator (G. Howard) seems to feel the same way. He reads as if he is cramming for a freshman's final exam--in Latin no less. Pass on this one.

6 of 9 people found this review helpful

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.

Excellent

Very good narrator, excellent book. Highly recommend for anyone that loves hard core science fiction.