Heechee Rendezvous

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Heechee Rendezvous
HeecheeRendezvous.jpg
First edition cover
Author Frederik Pohl
Cover artist Darrell K. Sweet[1]
Country United States
Series Heechee[2]
The Heechee Saga
Gateway trilogy
Genre Science fiction
Publisher Del Rey Books/Ballantine Books
Publication date
May 1984
Media type Print (hardcover)
Pages 311 (first ed.)
ISBN 0-345-30062-9
OCLC 9918277
LC Class PS3566.O36 H4 1984[3]
Preceded by Beyond the Blue Event Horizon
Followed by The Annals of the Heechee

Heechee Rendezvous is a science fiction novel by the American writer Frederik Pohl, published in 1984 by the Del Rey imprint of Ballantine Books.[1] It is a sequel to Gateway (1977) and Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (1981), and is set about two decades after the former. It has been cataloged as the third book in a 6-book series called Heechee[2] or The Heechee Saga[4] but Kirkus reviewed it as completing a trilogy[5] and a German-language edition of the three books was published after all six were out as the Gateway trilogy (Die Gateway-Trilogie, Munich: Heyne Verlag, 2004).[2]

Readers of Locus ranked Heechee Rendezvous third in the 1985 poll to confer the annual Locus Award for Best SF Novel.[2][6]

Plot summary

Robinette Broadhead returns in this novel, a married millionaire with health problems. However, he does not feel that he deserves transplants to keep him alive, still feeling guilt about his experience on a horrible journey to a black hole, many years ago. He still attempts to research more about the Heechee and their technology. At the same time, a madman named Wan attempts to search for his father within black holes, using stolen equipment and a Heechee ship. His probing is caught by a sentient race of slow-moving creatures who inform a Heechee patrol, sent out of their black hole to observe the state of the galaxy. Fearing that humans may alert a malevolent race of beings known as the Assassins, the Heechee patrol sets out to try to find out more about human achievements in space flight and whether or not the damage done by them can be undone. Wan's probing also releases Gelle-Klara Moynlin, a companion of Robinette on his journey to the black hole, from her two decade long entrapment, which for Moylin was really only several elapsed days. The journeys of these past and future friends of Robinette begin to converge, and in the end, humans finally meet the Heechee.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Heechee Rendezvous (first edition) publication contents at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Heechee series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 2014-12-14. Select a title to see its linked publication history and general information. Select a particular edition (title) for more data at that level, such as a front cover image or linked contents.
  3. "Heechee rendezvous: a novel" (first edition). Library of Congress Catalog Record. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  4. "Heechee Rendezvous". Worlds Without End (worldswithoutend.com). Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  5. "Heechee Rendezvous: By Frederik Pohl". Kirkus Reviews. Contemporary; no date in online archive. Retrieved 2014-12-14.
  6. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links