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Heritage Universe #1-3
The Heritage Universe
Collects three "Summertide" (0-345-36937-8); "Divergence" (0-345-36039-7); and "Transcendence" (0-345-36981-5). The ISBNs are present on the copyright page.
p. 1 Summertide [Heritage Universe] (1990)
p. 229 Divergence [Heritage Universe] (1991)
p. 481 Transcendence [Heritage Universe] (1992)
p. 1 Summertide [Heritage Universe] (1990)
p. 229 Divergence [Heritage Universe] (1991)
p. 481 Transcendence [Heritage Universe] (1992)
- GenresScience Fiction
724 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
79 people want to read
About the author
Charles Sheffield
217 books171 followersCharles A. Sheffield (June 25, 1935 – November 2, 2002), was an English-born mathematician, physicist and science fiction author. He had been a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronomical Society.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.
For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.
He was married to writer Nancy Kress.
His novel The Web Between the Worlds, featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel about that very same subject, The Fountains of Paradise, a coincidence that amused them both.
For some years he was the chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company analysing remote sensing satellite data. This resulted in many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, Earthwatch and Man on Earth, both collections of false colour and enhanced images of Earth from space.
He won the Nebula and Hugo awards for his novelette "Georgia on My Mind" and the 1992 John W. Campbell Memorial Award for his novel Brother to Dragons.
Sheffield was Toastmaster at BucConeer, the 1998 World Science Fiction Convention in Baltimore.
He had been writing a column for the Baen Books web site; his last column concerned the discovery of the brain tumour that led to his death.
He was married to writer Nancy Kress.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 3, 2012
I absolutely love this series. I dont know why there's such little mention of them here in America at least. The series is fast paced, has interesting characters, cool science, bad ass aliens, and is sometimes really really funny. It's not over the top funny like Hitchhiker (not that there's anything wrong with Hitchhiker), but its a rare treat for a science fiction author to inject humor into what is in reality a pretty grim plot. Nothing less than the fate of humanity is at stake here after all. I can't really recommend this series enough.
September 26, 2021
If you like the sound of something that feels like a cross between 'The Expanse', and 'Guardians of the Galaxy', then you should definitely give this underrated series a read.
While the story can get a bit technical at times, the humour and fun cast of characters more than makes up for that.
The Heritage Universe books are labeled 'Hard SF', and that is accurate, however, the story also has strong ties to Space Opera.
Over all, I think that any SF fan who has been into the genre for a while should check this series out.
While the story can get a bit technical at times, the humour and fun cast of characters more than makes up for that.
The Heritage Universe books are labeled 'Hard SF', and that is accurate, however, the story also has strong ties to Space Opera.
Over all, I think that any SF fan who has been into the genre for a while should check this series out.
April 13, 2021
With a busy schedule between work, writing, and attempting to maintain a personal life in between, I dove into the audiobook version of this series but found it a bit hard to get into at first. Maybe it was the deadpan approach of the voice actor with the material, or the overly technical nature of the narrative itself that made it difficult. But the first book concentrated so much on world building, it felt like the characters and plot took a backseat in favor of a textbook exploration of the reality in which they lived. Which isn't a bad thing, per se. Because it works in certain science fiction stories like the Ringworld series, or in a fantasy setting like Lord of The Rings. But in a narrative filled with non-humanoid characters - like Cecropians, Zardalu, and insectoid/human hybrids - it was easy for their characterizations to become buried under tons of exposition, technical jargon, and formality. So, it was not until the end of the first book where I was able to find a comfortable grasp of the overall storyline, enough to feel like I could become somewhat invested in the characters, plot, and their eventual development. Which eventually conveyed some level of warmth displayed within various character arcs throughout the series, once the reader avoids becoming lost in the excess trimmings of exposition and idiomatic details.
For hard-core fans of scifi with the patience for this type of complex storytelling, then The Heritage Universe would be up your alley. But for novice readers of the genre, I would recommend cutting your teeth into other works of fiction like Ringworld or the various works of Robert A. Heinlein, before tackling this beast of a storyline.
For hard-core fans of scifi with the patience for this type of complex storytelling, then The Heritage Universe would be up your alley. But for novice readers of the genre, I would recommend cutting your teeth into other works of fiction like Ringworld or the various works of Robert A. Heinlein, before tackling this beast of a storyline.
April 19, 2025
Felt like kind of a slow build, but it was very interesting. Characters you could like, and what felt like real science unknown. Definitely worth one time through, glad I read it.
October 8, 2020
This review of the “Heritage Universe” series includes the fourth and fifth novels, Convergence and Resurgence.
Charles Sheffield was a physicist who wrote a number of science fiction novels. The series concerning the Heritage Universe are some of his best known. The time is several thousand years into the future, after the “Great Expansion,” when a means of faster-than-light travel has been discovered (the “Bose network”) and humans have colonized much of the local Spiral Arm of the galaxy. In the process, they have encountered a number of other intelligent, space-faring races very different from our own. In expanding throughout the Spiral Arm, they (and the other species) discovered, scattered throughout the Spiral Arm, more than a thousand immense, seemingly indestructible engineering artifacts constructed by a vanished race known simply as the Builders. Nothing is known about the Builders, and the function and purpose of many, if not most, of the Artifacts, is also not known or at least poorly understood.
Sheffield populates his novels with an assortment of human and alien characters, all with their own qualities and quirks. Each novel takes place in, around, or in the vicinity of, one or more of the Artifacts, which have been given evocative names like Cusp, Elephant, Flambeau, Glister, Paradox, Sentinel, Serenity, and the Torvil Anfract. A common thread that links all the books in the series is the exploration of one or more Builder artifacts. Each exploration reveals new and previously unknown facts about the Builders and leads the characters to speculate about the nature of the Builders and their current whereabouts. Each book ends with a very different conclusion based upon the newly discovered evidence. (According to the Sheffield's comments in the prefaces to the books, he did not plan out the entire series in advance: Each book led to the next, and in the end, even he couldn't decide what the true nature of the Builders was.)
Both the plotting and the characterizations are a bit uneven, even though Sheffield's characters are often quite entertaining. The main strengths of these books are the Artifacts, the Builders and the alien races. These elicit the same feeling of “awe and mystery” that one gets from the monoliths in Arthur C. Clarke's “Space Odyssey” series, and from the Overlords in his Childhood's End. The Artifacts and the Builders in particular are superior accomplishments of imagination.
The problem is that the more one thinks about the plots of the books, the more plot holes become apparent. A number of crises in the books were precipitated by the characters' foolhardiness in rushing into dangerous situations without taking along the obvious equipment, namely, things like cameras, computers, walkie-talkies, body armor, weapons, or even flashlights - the kind of survival gear any stay-at-home bookworm who’s read a few Tom Clancy novels would know about. Even though the books were written in the 1990s before some of the more remarkable high-tech inventions of the 21st century became common, a sci-fi author should be able to imagine these things.
I could go into a lot of detail about the books, but instead I refer the interested reader to the Wikipedia article about the Heritage Universe, which is a good summary of the plots, characters, and things inhabiting the series.
In conclusion, this series is well worth reading for lovers of science fiction, although it must be said that the quality of the books tends to decline a bit from the first book to the last.
Charles Sheffield was a physicist who wrote a number of science fiction novels. The series concerning the Heritage Universe are some of his best known. The time is several thousand years into the future, after the “Great Expansion,” when a means of faster-than-light travel has been discovered (the “Bose network”) and humans have colonized much of the local Spiral Arm of the galaxy. In the process, they have encountered a number of other intelligent, space-faring races very different from our own. In expanding throughout the Spiral Arm, they (and the other species) discovered, scattered throughout the Spiral Arm, more than a thousand immense, seemingly indestructible engineering artifacts constructed by a vanished race known simply as the Builders. Nothing is known about the Builders, and the function and purpose of many, if not most, of the Artifacts, is also not known or at least poorly understood.
Sheffield populates his novels with an assortment of human and alien characters, all with their own qualities and quirks. Each novel takes place in, around, or in the vicinity of, one or more of the Artifacts, which have been given evocative names like Cusp, Elephant, Flambeau, Glister, Paradox, Sentinel, Serenity, and the Torvil Anfract. A common thread that links all the books in the series is the exploration of one or more Builder artifacts. Each exploration reveals new and previously unknown facts about the Builders and leads the characters to speculate about the nature of the Builders and their current whereabouts. Each book ends with a very different conclusion based upon the newly discovered evidence. (According to the Sheffield's comments in the prefaces to the books, he did not plan out the entire series in advance: Each book led to the next, and in the end, even he couldn't decide what the true nature of the Builders was.)
Both the plotting and the characterizations are a bit uneven, even though Sheffield's characters are often quite entertaining. The main strengths of these books are the Artifacts, the Builders and the alien races. These elicit the same feeling of “awe and mystery” that one gets from the monoliths in Arthur C. Clarke's “Space Odyssey” series, and from the Overlords in his Childhood's End. The Artifacts and the Builders in particular are superior accomplishments of imagination.
The problem is that the more one thinks about the plots of the books, the more plot holes become apparent. A number of crises in the books were precipitated by the characters' foolhardiness in rushing into dangerous situations without taking along the obvious equipment, namely, things like cameras, computers, walkie-talkies, body armor, weapons, or even flashlights - the kind of survival gear any stay-at-home bookworm who’s read a few Tom Clancy novels would know about. Even though the books were written in the 1990s before some of the more remarkable high-tech inventions of the 21st century became common, a sci-fi author should be able to imagine these things.
I could go into a lot of detail about the books, but instead I refer the interested reader to the Wikipedia article about the Heritage Universe, which is a good summary of the plots, characters, and things inhabiting the series.
In conclusion, this series is well worth reading for lovers of science fiction, although it must be said that the quality of the books tends to decline a bit from the first book to the last.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews