Divergence

Heritage Universe #2

by Charles Sheffield

Following the planetary upheaval known as Summertide, the inhabitants of Quake come closer than ever to discovering who the Builders, the creators of incredible constructs, had been

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Audiobook, Adventure, British Literature, Novels

281 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1991

About the author

Charles 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.

Reviews

[Metodi Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Продължението на "Летен прилив" предлага на читателите си много вълнуващи моменти и определено надгражда добре историята!

Научаваме много за Строителите, както и за част от разумните извънземни раси, с които хората делят Вселената. Историята започната в миналата книга се развива плавно и това помага текстът да върви бързо.

Приключенията шеметни продължават без забавяне в "Превъзходство"!

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Eye of Gargantua is not a natural wonder of the stellar system. Because it is not natural."

Divergence is the second instalment in Sheffield’s Heritage Universe series, and is a sequel to Summertide. It is also a novel of ideas, and doesn’t spend a lot of time on characterization. The characters featuring here are, for the most part, carried over from Summertide so most of the introductions have already been taken care of.

This series is all about Builder artifacts, and not too much else. The Builders, of course, being an ancient, enigmatic and highly technological race that has disappeared from the Galaxy. I wouldn’t recommend reading Divergence if you haven’t read Summertide yet, since that will certainly be a bit of a disjointed experience. Everything is connected, especially as far as the search for the Builders themselves are concerned. If it feels that the pieces are being moved around the board without any clear resolution, it’s because the story continues in Transcendence. It’s also, probably, fairly safe to say that if you’re not partial to exploration-type Sci-Fi stories, you might not enjoy this as much.

I suppose, if it comes right down to it, I would argue that this story is too big to be told with the handful of characters being utilized. The stakes are enormously high, with themes like species genocide and the like. Also, it is sometimes hard to identify with these far future people. Responses and reactions often appear out of sorts (and just plain bizarre). For example: at one point the characters contemplate the exploration of a million-kilometer artifact. On foot. And lament the fact that it would take tens of thousands of years. (I seem to recall the same sort of thing happening in Marrow by Robert Reed – if memory serves?)

[She] emerged to an overhead dazzle of orbiting fragments and a cold, orange twilight.

It’s a pretty “visual” little novel at times. I’m not a scientist, so I sometimes understand just too little about the exposition to determine whether a novel should be classified as Hard Science Fiction or Space Opera. A lot of the astrophysics in here reads like it is legit, but I can’t offer a qualified opinion as to whether it is pop-science, proper-science or just-plain-made-up. The Heritage Universe features a rich extra-terrestrial lore aspect. Perhaps, to at least some degree, comparable to David Brin’s Uplift Universe. There are a number of races (or clades) and a very specific sense of historical context, or who-fits-where in the racial hierarchy. The story is even accompanied by “Universal Species Catalog” entries dealing with clade, or species, specifics.

Speaking of aliens: as far as the characters in the story are concerned, the aliens are often the more endearing, especially the Hymenopt, Kallik.

All in all, even though the series has its faults, I’ve found it interesting so far, and I’m curious to see what happens next.

Ahead of [her] in the open void sat a great space structure, agleam with internal lights, sprawling across half the sky, of a size impossible to estimate. [She] had the sense that it was huge, that those trailing pseudopods of antennas and twisting tubes of bright matter, spinning away into space from the central dodecahedron, were millions of kilometers long. Before she could confirm that impression, there came a final transition. Stars, galaxies, and stellar clusters vanished. [She] found herself standing on a level plain. Overhead was nothing. At her feet, defining the level surface itself, were a billion twinkling orange lights.

An observation: this passage encompasses the sense of wonder element of Science Fiction but it also underscores an inherent obstacle that some readers may have. This is an artifact, but more than that, it is an artifact that is lying about 30,000 light years above the Galactic Plane of the Milky Way. Or about 300,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers right up in the void between galaxies. The galaxy itself is about 100,000 light years across (1,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers). The scale of all of this is so astonishingly vast as to be completely unimaginable. There is really no way for the human mind to imagine what the hell this looks like. But we make do, because it’s awesome. And it stretches our imagination in ways that normal books can’t possibly do.

[Sushi (寿司) · Rating 5 out of 5]

*DLING DLING SPOILERS ALLERT*

Finalmente un Urania decente. All'inizio mi ha lasciato un po' sfasata ma si leggeva bene. Ovviamente è normale considerando che non ho letto il primo volume. Poi piano piano tutti i punti sono andati a posto. Mi è piaciuto che ci siano pure gli intermezzi con la spiegazione delle razze aliene. La cosa più complicata da capire è stata che Julius e Steven Graves sono la stessa persona. Infatti quando è iniziato il viaggio del gruppo Birdie, Tally e Graves c'era qualcosa che mi sfuggiva nei dialoghi ma poi arrivati su Glister alla ricerca degli altri una frase di Birdie mi ha fatto capire che sono la stessa persona. Sempre se ho intuito bene.
Avevo anche immaginato bene che i Phage erano gli Artefici e Colui che Attende non fa che confermalo quando racconta la storia. Sinceramente sono disposta a leggermi il primo se lo trovo visto che contiene la parte per cui Rebka odia Nenda e Atval e quello che questi ultimi due hanno combinato. E naturalmente se esiste anche il terzo.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divergence is a sequel to Summertide and is the second book in what became known as Sheffield's Heritage Universe series. It's an exciting novel of big ideas on a big canvas, exploring cosmology and -really- ancient artifacts and all manner of interesting large-scale physics. He doesn't take much extra time developing his characters, almost all of whom are soldiering on from the quake in Summertide and were introduced then, so I'd say it's necessary to read them in order. I thought it was a very challenging and thought-provoking story, good science fiction in the classic definition of the term. These books are probably Sheffield's best literary creation.

[York · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, but feels like it could be more...leaves me unsure on how to rate it...but settled for 3 stars....

[Scott Boyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pleasure of this book is in the world building. The amount of detail that went into crafting each alien species, their home world, culture, appearance, etc. is truly breathtaking. Throughout the book, there are encyclopedia-style journal entries about the varies races. While interesting to a certain degree, they’re also a bit overwhelming, with more information than a reader can realistically be expected to remember. There are even entries about species not included in the story… just for fun?
What isn’t fun is the story itself. The characters are flat and boring. With a few exceptions, they all act like robots. There is only one “embodied computer,” but the dialogue is so stiff and formal you’d think they were all androids. Everyone is very logical with full and proper reasoning behind all their actions (which they explain in excruciating detail to each other). Somebody save me! Maybe fictitious aliens talk like that, but humans don’t. Only Lewis Nenda (spelling? I listened on Audible) has any real personality. Everyone else feels like a clone of the embodied computer, E. C. Tally (sp?).
Similarly painful is the plot. The basic arch is utterly derivative of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the original Star Trek movie. A crew of unlikely companions is on the search for the Builders: the ancient race that predates all others and has ceded the universe with artifacts. So, naturally, they embark on a quest to find the Builders and question them.
Sure, it’s been done before, but you can always put a fresh, new, interesting spin on things, right? Wrong. After all the exhaustive world building, the plot devolves into an intergalactic battle royale. Even the utterly ridiculous set up wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the insipid logic behind it.
As explained in the story, the Builders are millions of years old. After struggling with the singularly difficult question as to the long-term future of the universe, the Builders decide they need fresh blood: a different perspective in order to provide new insights. However, rather than incorporate the uniqueness of all species, the genius Builders decide to make all the other aliens fight to the death until only one survives.
Anyone else see any glaring logical flaws in this plan (which, by the way, took the Builders millennium to come up with)? Hmm, for starters, why would you limit yourselves to input from just one species? As the saying goes, wisdom comes in many forms. More aliens = more chances of finding an answer. There are some lame excuses offered about the Builder’s “unique” logic but none of it passes muster.
Second, a death match… really? Just because one species can kill the others, doesn’t mean it has the best insights to help you solve “The Problem.” Maybe if there were tools and science involved, but this is just a bunch of aliens in on an empty space station… and, fight! Dumb, dumb, dumb.
There are other plot holes as well, like how a species of geniuses devolved into morons by thinking too much. Oh, and all of the Builder “science” is so over-the-top ridiculous it might as well be fantasy. At least try to give us a semi-plausible explanation for disappearing floors, gravity wells far in excess of mass, every alien race breathing the same air, and traveling 30,000 light years in the blink of an eye. Don’t get me started on the swirling vortex that sucks people down into an intergalactic portal. Call it what it is, a giant space toilet.

[William Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something about Sheffield that makes him hard to read. His characters are all okay, but they do and say things that are often hard to believe. His science is grand, though, and the settings original and interesting.

[Todd Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a bit more with this series, but after this one I think I'm outta here. While I would like to find out more about the Builders, I don't think I have the patience, and none of the main characters are compelling enough for me to remember their names or care about their futures.

[Gilles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lu en anglais

Sur la piste des Constructeurs ! La chercheuse Darya Lang, grâce à ses indices, retrouve le vaisseau gigantesque, sorti de la planète Quake au moment de l'effet de marée gravitique, en orbite autour de la planète géante gazeuse Gargantua. Et bientôt d'autres personnes d'Opal suivent sa piste. le vaisseau géant, qui semble être un vaisseau de la race légendaire des Constructeurs, se révèle plein de mystères. Et, soudain, c'est la surprise. Les curieux ont activé le système de transport qui les transporte dans un artefact gigantesque à 30 000 années de la voie lactée. Et là, d'autres surprises les attendent.

Ici, on en apprend un peu sur les Constructeurs, leur apparence et leur science avancée. En même temps, on apprend que face à un problème insoluble, certains constructeurs ont régressé à un état quasi instinctif et ont perdu leur intelligence. Les Constructeurs ont donc décidé d'avoir un autre point de vue sur le problème et décident de mettre à contribution certaines races, dont les humains, qui ont atteint un niveau intéressant. Mais, il s'avère que ce n'est qu'une première sélection et qu'ils vont procéder par élimination pour n'en retenir qu'une seule.

Un roman qui permet de nous faire un peu sentir l'ampleur des réalisation d'une race hyper avancée. Comme on dit, ça fonctionne, mais on n'a aucune idée du mode de fonctionnement, un peu comme un téléviseur pour un peuple primitif.

Et comme je suis friand des idées et des concepts, j'ai beaucoup aimé.

Et hop ! on enchaine sur le tome suivant avec des extraterrestres vraiment très méchants.

[Matt Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

"One of the worst mistakes we can make is to think we understand alien thought patterns -- even when it's a familiar alien."

What a great piece of reasoning to run through an SF text: one I really wish the major SFF franchises would remember. It was the crux of Lem's SF work, and used for some aliens by Sheffield; the ineffability of the alien Builders and their AI artifacts call the shots here in Divergence. This is a good piece, weak in that it is only part of a multi-volume saga and does not stand alone. I found the first volume, Summertide, bright and intelligent in the Space Opera field, a good romp flush with the strengths of "Golden Age" SF and lacking some of the worst of the GA's conceits.
Divergence is worth a good 3.5 or so stars at first blush, but there's a chink in its plating: the cast of characters is winnowed down, yet the lone human female is LESS developed than in the previous novel despite more stage upon which to work. Sheffield's "dude-itude" trips him up here and Darya is less the driven academic and more the clingy blonde. Docked a star for that lost opportunity.
This is still worth a read, but it does seem to call for committing to the series.

[Florin Constantinescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Divergence begins pretty much immediately after Summertide, featuring most of the same characters, supposedly continuing to explore the plot from previous book, expanding 'ever outwards'.

Nope, no 'expansion' here. This is simply a clone of the first book.

You've got your rag-tag group of humans/aliens/robots simply wandering around on yet another bizarre artificial cosmic object. Plot is mega-boring, character development is non-existent, no sense of wonder is present. I am writing this a few days after finishing the book. I can't remember anything about what happened.

I am no longer curious what happens next. Stopping this series.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook:

Dark and atmospheric

The story picks up the pace very nicely, building effortlessly upon the premise developed in the first book Summertide. But this is a darker tale than its predecessor.

The narration is well suited and feels calmly authoritative throughout, and compliments the delivery of the science, although this features less prominently this time out.

The story repeats, and expands upon its successful formula, diligently crafting a close and atmospheric setting populated by a cast of diverse alien characters thrown together by circumstance and diverging self-interest. The pace is always carefully considered, slowly building the brooding intensity and then jolting the reader with single sentences. The alien protagonists are accurately described and easy to visualise, and the nature of the Builders and their motivations are further explored, although these are more complex than perhaps you were expecting. It all adds considerable depth and intrigue to a story that keeps you guessing,

The ending played well, though also presented an "oh my god" type moment, causing me to change the schedule of my book list to get to the next instalment ahead of time.

I liked it.

[AdamWho · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book is an improvement over the first book in the series.

Here we have more action, more settings and suspense. The characters are more filled out and their motivations are a little clearer.

However, it is clear that the author didn't know how to finish up the book because several of the characters completely changed their behaviors and motivations to tie things up. I am talking about villains suddenly becoming virtuous for no apparent reason, people who hated each other suddenly becoming friends and potentially romantically interested, again for no clear reason.

[Hannah Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm so torn about this book. It was in many ways way better than the first one and accomplished so much more than I expected. It changed hated characters into beloved ones. But then at the end it feels like it's trying to force a love triangle onto me that shouldn't be there and that I don't want. I'll hold off judgement until I read the third book. Overall besides that it built such a cool and comprehensive world and introduced an exciting new enemy for the team to go up against, really setting the stage for me to want to finish the series.

[Gary Giberson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story continues to develop with Divergence and the detail in Charles' writing truly brings the story to life. As I read chapter after chapter the thrill of what's going to happen next continues to pull me in. There is a bit of a love story starting to take shape but there is so much more to the series. The author's scientific background makes the plot seem believable as real theories are tested and know science used to analyze elements of the story. I'm looking forward to #3 and #4 in the series.

[Maddalenah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure of what I think of this books. There are interesting bits, but the characters are kind of shallow and the writing is not as fluid as it could be, and it often gets far too technical for a fiction book. I'm still curious enough to keep reading, but it's not my favourite Sheffield.

[Woolstar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The galactic boogiemen are back and the builders turn out to have more in common with the romans. Still humans and their allies figure out a way not to be turned into lunch, and only the robot loses his head.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent and interesting space opera.

[Penny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Endless detail and repetition ... Iv'e read the 1st one, and half of this, but I give up.

[Sharon Blauvelt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third of the book was a little slow setting up the plot but after that it was really exciting which is typical of most books.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

WE are sorry but the answers are in another castle. Lot of build up with very little answers

[Steve Mahomet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting ideas and really like the biological interludes. The plot just gets stuck for me . Dnf 60 in.

[S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many unanswered questions, but unlike the last cliff hanger , this is less urgent. Still great world making, surprisingly narrow minded decisions from a supposedly superior intelligence

[Steve Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sequel to Summertide. In their efforts to contact the long past Builders, a group meets instead another long lost civilization.

[Bill Hohl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Second book builds nicely

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The science here is magnificent.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a solid follow up for the first book. Now I need to read more.

[Blaise Carland · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. I’m a fan of the BDO genre. Did it change my life? Nope. Still a good read.

[Nicatel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Secondo romanzo del ciclo dell'"Heritage Universe": più che una nuova vicenda ambientata nello stesso universo, è in pratica lo stretto seguito del primo romanzo del ciclo, "Quake, il pianeta proibito" (che Urania ha pubblicato quasi vent'anni fa).
E' molto opportuno procurarsi "Quake" e leggerlo prima di dedicarsi a questo. Non so quanto sia pienamente comprensibile "Un mondo per gli Artefici", che inizia "in medias res", senza una conoscenza degli eventi pregressi, che nella trama vengono accennati solo per sommi capi.

Romanzo scorrevole, classica fantascienza spaziale tecnologica, con qualche ingenuità che lo avvicina quasi ad un juvenile.

Del ciclo dell'Heritage Universe Urania ha pubblicato anni fa anche il quarto romanzo, "Punto di convergenza": non mi è chiara la motivazione che spinge una collana di fantascienza a pubblicare le opere di un ciclo a casaccio e nell'arco di due decenni, comunque prendiamo quello che viene e speriamo che prima di altri vent'anni vengano pubblicati anche il secondo e il quinto romanzo.

La quarta di copertina - come troppo spesso succede su Urania, quasi a mostrare un leggero disprezzo per l'intelligenza dei lettori - pare scritta da qualcuno a cui è stato sommariamente accennato il contenuto del libro, ma che si è ben guardato dal leggerlo davvero.
Inoltre la biografia interna dell'autore sembra quasi copiata e incollata da un volume precedente, perché parla di Sheffield come se fosse ancora vivo, mentre è morto nel 2002 (come giustamente scritto nella quarta di copertina).

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Divergence (1991) 293 pages by Charles Sheffield.

Book two of the Heritage Universe. This picks up immediately after Summertide. Hans Rebka and Darya Lang travel to Gargantua to look for what must have been a builder artifact that came out of Quake. They are joined by Killik, a hymenopt, and J'merlia, a Lo'tfian, who hold out hope of finding their masters Louis Nenda and Atvar H'sial, a Cecropian. Meanwhile the fourth alliance is wondering why Julias Graves hasn't returned from Opal, so they send E. C. Tally, an embodied computer, to find out why the councilor is still in the Dobelle system.

Throw in Bridie Kelly, who is drafted into piloting Councilor Graves to Gargantua, and the story follows those nine characters, putting obstacles in their way (such as the phages that seem to be common around builder artifacts), giving some information about the builders, and finally getting the whole group together on Serenity (another builder artifact) with an even bigger problem to solve.

A lot of the suspense comes from trying to figure out the who and what of the builders. It's a bit of a balancing act of the reader getting weary, and Sheffield holding that one more tidbit in reserve. It didn't work as well as it could--for me--because I didn't have enough contiguous hours to read. It still came out as an enjoyable read.