
Summertide
The Heritage Universe, Book 1
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Narrated by:
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Geoffrey Howard
About this listen
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 AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Great ideas
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If you could sum up Summertide in three words, what would they be?
Good but carefulAny 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.Warning: End to the series is disappointing
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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.
Hard Sci-fi
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Actually quite good - recommended
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Good Story and Good Reader
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hard
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World building is great
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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.
Intriguing and leaving you wanting for more...
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I gave up after chapter 3.
Straight reading
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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.
Solid, interesting sci-fi with a hint of mystery
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