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Title: Heirs of Earth by Sean Williams, Shane Dix ISBN: 0-441-01126-8 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99

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Average Customer Rating: 3.44 (9 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Fabulous finale
Comment: What a fitting end! Although I felt the trilogy got off to bit of a rocky start with the first book, I loved the second book because it was filled with characters who you could relate to instead of the usual angst filled ones that you just want to knock some sense into. To this end, Dix and Williams were faithful to not falling into that trap.

This last book dealt with some pretty mind boggling issues fairly satisfactorily as far as I was concerned - although all humans but one wiped out and just engrams surviving of a few select humans seems a bit weird. But, as was pointed out - it was starting to come down to those who like their organic form and those that like the inorganic, so its entirely possible in this scenario that the human race was going to diverge down these avenues anyway! Loved the way that was put in the book. I also felt the bizarreness of the aliens they were dealing with was dealth with very very very well. This isn't a book that leaves you feeling cheated!

For really good hard core science fiction with a genuine plot and believable (but not necessarily loveable) characters, this is one of the best SF trilogies to come out in years. The only other author who is even remotely on par with this right now is Peter F Hamilton's Nights Dawn trilogy. Space opera at its best!

Rating: 5
Summary: Thought provoking and fully engages your imagination
Comment: If you are looking for a nice neatly packaged story that lays out all the answers for you, then this may not be the series for you. If, however, you are like me and love to have your mind challenged with an engaging story then you are in for another great ride from Dix and Williams.

While the story is packed full of wonderous alien culture and advanced technology, that is really not the focus of the story. Rather it serves as the backdrop for the characters. The real story lies, as most great stories do, with THE CHARACTERS. I found them all to be full of life and have very believable merits and flaws. For me, the story was about how these people were dealing with their identities as engrams and questioning if they are actually human or not while trying to stay alive long enough for it to matter. I absolutely LOVED the conversations between the human engrams and all the various alien cultures.

Like the Evergence trilogy and the first two books in this series, I could not put this book down. More than one morning came too soon because I had lost track of time and read far too late into the evening. To me, that is the sign of a truly GREAT story.

The concepts are presented in a Carl Sagenish format that engages your mind and places a huge sense of wonder. The conversations should send your mind reeling with the possibilities. I found myself wishing that I could be in the room discussing those possiblities with the characters.

I will concede that all the answers are not plainly given but when dealing with concepts so immense and beyond our scope of knowledge to do so would be an injustice. If you look closely though, Dix and Williams have given enough hints at what PROBABLY was happening. Perhaps we have not seen the last of this group of characters.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good sci fi character story or likes pondering the possibilities of other life in the universe. Dix and Williams do not present stories with typical endings and I find that refreshing.

Rating: 2
Summary: Painfully Disappointing Conclusion
Comment: When I wrote my review of "Orphans of Earth" (a great, if slightly flawed, read), I finished it up by stating: "Finally, I thought the pair has always been a bit weak on endings (and the conclusion of EVERGENCE provided clear evidence for that) which makes me fear how they wrap up this trilogy."

I wish I played the lottery with such a sure hand.

"Heirs of Earth" is terribly, terribly flawed, in so many aspects that 10,000 words would not be enough to list them all. Let's put aside the multitude of spelling and grammatical mistakes that already plagued the second book, but really 'shine' in the third; let's ignore that our heroes learn something important in one chapter, and promptly (and completely) forget about it for the rest of the story, leaving a plot hole that an eighteen-wheeler could drive through sideway; let's forget the out-of-character behaviours, the uneven rhythm, the tossing aside of quite a few scientific principles that were portrayed so deliciously real in the first two volumes... let's just focus on the conclusion.

As a writer, you can only achieve two objectives with your work: communicate an important, unique, insightful message (and create art) - or tell a gripping, exciting story (and create entertainment). At best, you get both.

At worst, you get "Heirs of Earth". Its message is neither particularly unique nor especially profound, but then, it is genre literature, so you do not necessarily expect art. But its conclusion turns the entire trilogy into an utterly pointless, meaningless, disappointing exercise in English. We do not get a resolution (merely an ending), we do not get a satisfactory explanation, and we do not even get a sense of fundamental, self-questioning wonder. What we get is an intentionally obfuscating exercise in writing technique - very skilled, to be sure - that is desperately trying to mask an emptiness, a lack of ideas and interest, and a final stroke of 'cleverness' that is so vacuous and lacking internal logic that one cannot help but feel their trust violated.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Dix are clearly very talented, very skilled authors. Regrettably, every one of their trilogies I have ever read were born in a spectacularly Big Bang - and died in a pitiful whimper - much like the Universe they write about, but without its grandeur. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. I am not certain I will trust them a third time.