What do you think?
Rate this book
Heritage Universe #1-2
Convergent Series
Renowned troubleshooter Hans Rebka vows to penetrate Paradox, a mysterious structure left by a powerful and ancient race, from which no one has survived intact and which harbors the galaxy's most terrible menace. Reissue.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
576 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1998
About the author
Charles Sheffield
219 books173 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Read
June 10, 2020As this book says, we shouldn't assume that aliens will perceive, understand and act in the same manner we would. So, we must take with a grain of salt the issues I raise about the story. Still, it's hard for me to find some of it plausible. On the other hand, SF writers are faced with the paradox: Aliens should be quite different, but make them too different and readers may find the story inscrutable. Strike the right balance for most people and someone like me may have my reaction.
Convergent Series includes two books which were originally published separately as Summertide and Divergence.
Summertide begins as a story about an approaching rare alignment of stars and planets which will cause disastrous convulsions to an obscure double planet. The double planet pair are linked by a millions-year-old vast alien artifact - one of a variety of huge artifacts scattered through the galactic arm left behind by "The Builders." As the book progresses, numerous plot and character threads develop. We're told that the scattered artifacts are showing new activity, and some of the characters have concluded these focus on this double planet. Some expect the "Builders" to appear there. Some are hoping to appropriate some new alien technology to sell.
We eventually find out the Builders decided they couldn't learn / accomplish some things over the course of millions of years. They concluded that they had one kind of mind, and three other species (including humans) were in the process of developing and would have a different type of mind. They thought this other kind of mind might be able to do what their minds couldn't. So, they planned to bring members of each of the three species (when they were ready) to an isolated artifact, and make them fight until only members of one of the species survived. They thought the "winner" would represent those which had the most of this different kind of mind, and would, therefore, be most likely to be able to help the Builders solve the questions which eluded them.
I felt there were various issues here. For instance, the Builders were willing to have the three groups fight it out with (1) 14 of Species A [which had the largest bodies], (2) 5 humans, and (3) 1 member of the third species [and in the story there are 3 other beings.] The exact number of each species doesn't seem planned by the Builders. This didn't seem a reasonable way to determine which species was the best. This seemed even less plausible as the Builders had been keeping in suspended animation the 14 Species A members after, long ago, the rest of Species A had been killed off by other species rebelling against Species A's aggressive expansionism. So, one might think Species A had already lost "the fight to the death." Furthermore, the Builders didn't make clear to the humans that this was to be an inter-species fight-to-the-death until the 14 Species A had already taken some hostages. Even the events leading to the humans being at the facility seemed convoluted. The astronomical alignment causes planetary convulsions, letting an asteroid-sized sphere to fly from the planet's interior. The sphere flies to a debris ring around a gas giant planet. Members of 2 species had to find out where the sphere went and search for it in the debris ring. In order to land on it, they must avoid a flock of large space animals that attack spaceships. Members of these species had to walk on the surface of the sphere so that the sphere's surface would become permeable and pull them inside. They then had to wander through the various levels within the sphere until they encountered a place that would talk to them and then force them into the transport system, which takes them through multiple stations before leaving them at the isolated facility. They're then left to wander around there before learning what is expected. The Builders couldn't have just abducted one of each species, put them a fight location, and tell them to fight it out?
Convergent Series includes two books which were originally published separately as Summertide and Divergence.
Summertide begins as a story about an approaching rare alignment of stars and planets which will cause disastrous convulsions to an obscure double planet. The double planet pair are linked by a millions-year-old vast alien artifact - one of a variety of huge artifacts scattered through the galactic arm left behind by "The Builders." As the book progresses, numerous plot and character threads develop. We're told that the scattered artifacts are showing new activity, and some of the characters have concluded these focus on this double planet. Some expect the "Builders" to appear there. Some are hoping to appropriate some new alien technology to sell.
We eventually find out the Builders decided they couldn't learn / accomplish some things over the course of millions of years. They concluded that they had one kind of mind, and three other species (including humans) were in the process of developing and would have a different type of mind. They thought this other kind of mind might be able to do what their minds couldn't. So, they planned to bring members of each of the three species (when they were ready) to an isolated artifact, and make them fight until only members of one of the species survived. They thought the "winner" would represent those which had the most of this different kind of mind, and would, therefore, be most likely to be able to help the Builders solve the questions which eluded them.
I felt there were various issues here. For instance, the Builders were willing to have the three groups fight it out with (1) 14 of Species A [which had the largest bodies], (2) 5 humans, and (3) 1 member of the third species [and in the story there are 3 other beings.] The exact number of each species doesn't seem planned by the Builders. This didn't seem a reasonable way to determine which species was the best. This seemed even less plausible as the Builders had been keeping in suspended animation the 14 Species A members after, long ago, the rest of Species A had been killed off by other species rebelling against Species A's aggressive expansionism. So, one might think Species A had already lost "the fight to the death." Furthermore, the Builders didn't make clear to the humans that this was to be an inter-species fight-to-the-death until the 14 Species A had already taken some hostages. Even the events leading to the humans being at the facility seemed convoluted. The astronomical alignment causes planetary convulsions, letting an asteroid-sized sphere to fly from the planet's interior. The sphere flies to a debris ring around a gas giant planet. Members of 2 species had to find out where the sphere went and search for it in the debris ring. In order to land on it, they must avoid a flock of large space animals that attack spaceships. Members of these species had to walk on the surface of the sphere so that the sphere's surface would become permeable and pull them inside. They then had to wander through the various levels within the sphere until they encountered a place that would talk to them and then force them into the transport system, which takes them through multiple stations before leaving them at the isolated facility. They're then left to wander around there before learning what is expected. The Builders couldn't have just abducted one of each species, put them a fight location, and tell them to fight it out?
December 3, 2017
The first book contained a couple of artifact descriptions that really wet my appetite for this series, but it unexpectedly ended up pretty bland. I'm not sure why, I just know I can't get excited about reading the final two books, so I probably won't.
February 11, 2020
Interesting until the end , but if you set up a big reveal its hard to know where to go.
November 7, 2008
Well,
I got this because i had read the two previous books, and it was entertaining. The book took a long time to get going, and there was a lot of character development, but it wasn't that satisfying. And then there is the build up to the grand awe inspiring finale and it kind of loses it's steam. i liked Daria's rivalry with the new Character, but while I would likely submit to sex with the trollop character because she is so stunningly beautiful, i found her to be rather unnecesary to the universe shattering plot. And I guess all the characters started to get old by the third book. I love character development, but they just seemed to move sideways and I don;t feel like we learned much new about any of them or had anything change our feelings about any of them. Especially the alien characters. Zardelu were not very scary, for having terrorized the spiral arm for millenia and Secroprian seemed a bit mundane too, for being arrogant masters of ther section space. I did always Like Gemalia and the Hymenopt (forget her? name) And while the resolution was reasonable i hate it when EVERY main character from different parts of the galaxy co-incidentally are teleported to the same location that happens to be the climax of the book.
And there was so much that wasn't explained. I mean the whole "each species has to fight it out for the builders to determine who is fit to rule the spiral arm thing, just got abandoned in this book
I would actually give this 2 stars but being a sci fi fan, for old times sake I gave it three, as the whole series was interesting, and a good diversion.
I got this because i had read the two previous books, and it was entertaining. The book took a long time to get going, and there was a lot of character development, but it wasn't that satisfying. And then there is the build up to the grand awe inspiring finale and it kind of loses it's steam. i liked Daria's rivalry with the new Character, but while I would likely submit to sex with the trollop character because she is so stunningly beautiful, i found her to be rather unnecesary to the universe shattering plot. And I guess all the characters started to get old by the third book. I love character development, but they just seemed to move sideways and I don;t feel like we learned much new about any of them or had anything change our feelings about any of them. Especially the alien characters. Zardelu were not very scary, for having terrorized the spiral arm for millenia and Secroprian seemed a bit mundane too, for being arrogant masters of ther section space. I did always Like Gemalia and the Hymenopt (forget her? name) And while the resolution was reasonable i hate it when EVERY main character from different parts of the galaxy co-incidentally are teleported to the same location that happens to be the climax of the book.
And there was so much that wasn't explained. I mean the whole "each species has to fight it out for the builders to determine who is fit to rule the spiral arm thing, just got abandoned in this book
I would actually give this 2 stars but being a sci fi fan, for old times sake I gave it three, as the whole series was interesting, and a good diversion.
January 13, 2016
Good until about 3/4 of the way through…then it turned into AI or something equally over the top and bad. They discovered the secret of these weird alien artifacts, and met the Superior Race who built them, and it's all philosophical and total bullshit.
Read
April 14, 2008Science Fiction
September 26, 2010
Pretty darn good.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews