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78th out of 144 books
—
28 voters
The Annals of the Heechee (Heechee Saga #4)
At last--the ultimate book in the renowned Heechee Saga!
Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all powerful alien race intent on the utter destructio...more
Advanced Heechee technology had enabled Robinette Broadhead to live after death as a machine-stored personality, enjoying his life by flitting along the wires from party to party with a host of other machine-people. But suddenly his decadent existence ends when an all powerful alien race intent on the utter destructio...more
Paperback, 341 pages
Published
April 12th 1988
by Del Rey
(first published 1987)
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Ciclo degli heechee
Ho finito poco fa di leggere il quarto ed ultimo libro di questo ciclo. Considerandolo nel complesso, la storia risulta essere molto gradevole e bella alla lettura, la fantascienza non � esasperata (come piace a me) e la fluidit� delle parole per come sono scritte (o tradotte) allettano la mia mente. Il primo libro, particolare, lascia alla fine un amaro in boca, del tipo: "e m�?!", "dove sta la fantascienza?!" Ma, anche se � un controsenso quanto star� per dire, � un amaro do...more
Ho finito poco fa di leggere il quarto ed ultimo libro di questo ciclo. Considerandolo nel complesso, la storia risulta essere molto gradevole e bella alla lettura, la fantascienza non � esasperata (come piace a me) e la fluidit� delle parole per come sono scritte (o tradotte) allettano la mia mente. Il primo libro, particolare, lascia alla fine un amaro in boca, del tipo: "e m�?!", "dove sta la fantascienza?!" Ma, anche se � un controsenso quanto star� per dire, � un amaro do...more
Originally published on my blog here in April 2001.
The Heechee series, which begins with Gateway, is a classic. It is very traditional science fiction, but the quality of the ideas and the writing raise it well above the commonplace. I remember reading the first three novels for the first time when this was published, which is when I bought it; for it to have left as strong an impression on me as that, I must have found it an inspiring read.
The other thing I can remember is that The Annals of th...more
The Heechee series, which begins with Gateway, is a classic. It is very traditional science fiction, but the quality of the ideas and the writing raise it well above the commonplace. I remember reading the first three novels for the first time when this was published, which is when I bought it; for it to have left as strong an impression on me as that, I must have found it an inspiring read.
The other thing I can remember is that The Annals of th...more
Nieco rozczarowujące zakończenie serii, zwłaszcza w pierwszej, nazbyt rozwleczonej, pierwszej połowie. Po raz kolejny Pohl wprowadza postaci, obdarowuje je obszernym, rozpisanym na wiele stron dossier, by potem wykorzystać ich w marginalnych - choć z wyjątkami - wątkach, a w każdym bądź razie wątkach, które znajdują nazbyt szybkie, niewspółmierne do żmudnego ich rozwijania i, rzekłbym, wymagające od czytelnika, pewnej dozy naiwności, rozwiązania.
Druga połowa zdecydowanie lepsza. Autor konsekwent...more
Druga połowa zdecydowanie lepsza. Autor konsekwent...more
It was an interesting book, but not nearly as good as the rest in the series. As other reviewers here have stated, the over-repetition of explaining how their "virtual" or "machine-stored" lives worked really got old and was unnecessary. It was certainly interesting and curious at first but didn't need to be re-explained and in the same manner so often throughout the book. Also, Pohl seemed to try to bring back more of the angst / ennui into the main character than was present in the last two no...more
I just finished this book and while I basically enjoyed it I did find it tedious and also full of Pohl's personality. The story is from a first person perspective of the primary protagonist, Robinette Broadhead, and exhibits his cynicism, optimism, religious beliefs, hangups, etc. The story concerns the assassins, the alien beings living in the klugelblitz, that intend to collapse the universe so a new big bang changes everything to their liking. On the way we follow three young people who are u...more
Tedious. Pohl take a valiant risk by introducing a huge chunk of astrophysics, but ruins it by foot-dragging aimed at keeping the reader "entertained". Of the Heechee series, this book stretches credulity the thinnest: the main character is a stored intelligence, psychic powers are a major plot point, godlike beings of pure energy who's origin predates baryogenesis living in black holes, etc. A good science fiction book tweaks one aspect of reality and explores the consequences; this book isn't...more
Mar 22, 2009
Chris Friend
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Nobody at all.
Recommended to Chris by:
Nobody at all. (Gee, wonder why.)
Okay, so the second star is only because it ends the series and puts it (and therefore the reader) out of its misery.
Droning, pedantic, and genuinely uninteresting enough to warrant such a long production, this book really doesn't provide enough to validate its existence. If the author would remove the number of times he makes a big deal out of the fact that things for a machine-stored intelligence aren't real, but rather electronic constructions in a computer system, the book would be half as b...more
Droning, pedantic, and genuinely uninteresting enough to warrant such a long production, this book really doesn't provide enough to validate its existence. If the author would remove the number of times he makes a big deal out of the fact that things for a machine-stored intelligence aren't real, but rather electronic constructions in a computer system, the book would be half as b...more
Intriguing book. I haven't read any other Heechee books, so a little dubious about whether I started with a loss or a gain.
Pohl does a great job with the characters. Sentient beings appear to be destroying the universe for their own purposes and human and Heechee are left wandering the universe trying to find out why. I found this book entertaining and an easy read. It left me staring up at the night sky for nights on end philosophising existence.
Pohl does a great job with the characters. Sentient beings appear to be destroying the universe for their own purposes and human and Heechee are left wandering the universe trying to find out why. I found this book entertaining and an easy read. It left me staring up at the night sky for nights on end philosophising existence.
Well, I'm throwing in the towel on this book and series. I just don't care about any of the characters, and have lots of other books I'd rather read. From what I saw on wikipedia, (view spoiler).
So hooray for me--one more instance of OCD overcome!
So hooray for me--one more instance of OCD overcome!
It was a toss-up between three and four stars, because I really enjoyed some of the ideas that are put forward towards the end - but, as one of the other commenters has pointed out, it lacks that delicious sense of mystery that set apart the first two books in this series for me. And for slightly too large a large proportion of the book, not much happens.
For some reason, this book took the longest time for me to get through. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it, because I did enjoy it quite a bit, but it was just a slow one for me to read. I liked getting a final resolution to who the Foe (or Assassins) are and a good wrap up of all the loose ends. If you've read the other books in the series, you really do need to read this one for completeness.
I really enjoyed the first two books in this series. They were some great science fiction. The third one wasn't bad either. This novel, on the other hand, was a bit tedious at times. In one part, Albert spent several pages explaining the Big Bang theory. In another part, the main characters were just killing time on a trip across the galaxy, and nothing of consequence really happened. These are just two examples. "The Annals of the Heechee" does neatly tie up many of the loose ends from the prev...more
Not that good. Bit disappointed actually. By far the least good of the Heechee books.
Final book in the Heechee saga... Wraps up all the loose ends, nicely.
6
The main protagonist is called Broadhead so I'm a little biased in rating this book.
Take all the things you loved about the first two Heechee novels, remove them, and you get the fourth book in the series. Admittedly, I still appreciate the details Pohl includes about the Heechee race, but I'd had enough of Robin Broadhead one book ago. He's not a sufficiently compelling character to warrant such a focus.
Definitely a weak point in this series. It lacked the grip of its predecessors.
I can't get enough of this universe Pohl has created!
I kept going this far. It was all right.
May 23, 2013
Harlan Limajliew
added it
May 23, 2013
Alex P
marked it as to-read
May 22, 2013
Kennethcomer
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Tarfein
marked it as to-read
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Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor & fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited "Galaxy" magazine and its sister magazine "IF", winning the Hugo for "IF" three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.
More about Frederik Pohl...
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