Summertide

1990 novel by Charles Sheffield


First edition (publ. Del Rey Books)
Cover art by Barclay Shaw

Summertide (1990) is a science fiction novel by American writer Charles Sheffield, the first of his series of Heritage Universe. The story takes place millennia in the future, with humans having extensively colonized our spiral arm of the Milky Way and having encountered a number of intelligent alien races. Littered throughout the galaxy are hundreds of massive abandoned engineering projects built by a mysterious race, referred to as The Builders, extinct for three million years. An eclectic group of scientists and opportunists are descending upon one such artifact at a time when its surrounding environment is extremely dangerous to study an unusual phenomenon.

The novel includes excerpts from the Lang Universal Artifact Catalog (Fourth Edition), describing several Builder artifacts.

Divergence is the next book in the series.

Reception

Publishers Weekly states that the "'series stands on its own, even though many threads are left dangling."[1]

Kirkus Reviews calls it an "above-average space opera".[2]

References

  1. ^ "Summertide I by Charles Sheffield". www.publishersweekly.com. January 1, 1990. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
  2. ^ "Book Reviews, Sites, Romance, Fantasy, Fiction". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2022-07-03.
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Bibliography of Charles Sheffield
The Proteus Universe
The Heritage Universe
  • Summertide (1990)
  • Divergence (1991)
  • Transcendence (1992)
  • Convergence (1997)
  • Resurgence (2002)
Other novels
  • The Web Between The Worlds (1979)
  • My Brother's Keeper (1982, revised 1998)
  • The Selkie (1982) (with David Bischoff)
  • The McAndrew Chronicles (1983)
  • Between the Strokes of Night (1985)
  • The Nimrod Hunt (1986, revised 1993)
  • Trader's World (1988)
  • Brother to Dragons (1992)
  • Cold as Ice (1992)
  • Godspeed (1993)
  • The Mind Pool (1993)
  • The Judas Cross (1994) - With David Bischoff
  • The Ganymede Club (1995)
  • Higher Education (1995)
  • The Billion Dollar Boy (1997)
  • Putting Up Roots (1997)
  • Tomorrow and Tomorrow (1997)
  • Aftermath (1998)
  • The Cyborg from Earth (1998)
  • Starfire (1999)
  • The Spheres of Heaven (2001)
  • Dark as Day (2002)
  • The Amazing Dr. Darwin (2002)
Short fiction


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