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Title: Transvergence by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0-671-57837-5 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (5 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: In Praise of Idiocy
Comment: Transvergence is the the combined edition of the 3rd and 4th books in the Heritage Universe series about a quest to find the "Builders" of a series of mysterious "Artifacts" left behind in our galaxy.
Perhaps the most aggrivating thing about Transvergence (and the "Heritage Universe" series in general) is that it is written with the craftsmanship of an eigth-grader's cribbed book report.
As before, our band of adventurers (some of whom are supposed to be the galaxy's best troubleshooters or super-human intelligences) manage to stumble blindly through a series of adventures, surviving by luck alone. Every character in the book survies to the end only with the help of various deus ex-machina plot devices. ("Hey, who left that ship there? Thanks Builders!")
The book also stretches suspension of disbelief beyond its normal limits as the protagonists - who are often separated by planets or entire solar systems - REPEATEDLY regroup by accident. It's almost as if the seven of them spent the weekend at a cabin together instead of separately running around the galaxy's spiral arm.
Logistical and intelligence problems aside, each of the two sub-books (like their predecessors) offer new explanations for the Artifacts (and the Builders' motivations) which contradict and/or invalidate the explanations given in the previous books. It's somewhat like a dadaist attempt at storytelling, because after the third explanation, you're not sure what to believe.
The worst explanation of them all comes at the end of sub-book #2 ("Convergence") in what is sure to go down as one of the great "WTF?" moments in sci-fi history. Without giving anything away, the book might as well have told us the Artifacts were decorations left over from a Builder office party.
That's not to say all is wrong with this book (even with its clumsy attempts at low-brow humor.) There are some neat ideas for the hard sci-fi buff to chew on, such as macroscopic quantum effects and the multiply-connected spaces inside the artifacts. It's just that all the interesting ideas are hampered by the book's flawed execution.
Rating: 2
Summary: Good imagination, bad plot
Comment: When I got this book I though "oh... spaceships and dangerous aliens, sounds good!" Sheffield has a lot of interesting ideas, but they don't fit together to form a coherent world. His heros are pretty stupid and survive purely on luck, as opposed to any kind of skill.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Heritage Universe
Comment: Agree this is an excellent series. Readers should also be aware that the first three books were published by Guild America books under the title "The Heritage Universe".
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Title: Resurgence (Heritage Universe) by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0743488199 Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Dark As Day by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0812580311 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Spheres of Heaven by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 067131856X Publisher: Baen Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Starfire (Bantam Spectra) by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0553577395 Publisher: Spectra Books Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Cold As Ice by Charles Sheffield ISBN: 0812511638 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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