Heechee Rendezvous

by Frederik Pohl

This is the third installment in Pohl’s Heechee saga, and even though the cover proclaims it as the “gripping finale”, there is another book in the series, which makes me very happy because I was not ready for it to end (a sure sign of a great book).

We pick up with Robinette Broadhead about 25 years after Beyond the Blue Event Horizon. He is even more sucessful, and Heechee technology has advanced the human race beyond anything anyone could have imagined. Gone are the random trips from Gateway where the prospector has no way of knowing the final destination of their ship, nor whether or not there will be enough power and provisions for the journey.

But Earth is still overly populated, and there are not enough ships carrying pioneers to off-world colonies to alleviate the problem. Terrorists attack with a temporary-insanity illness, and no one can find them. Robin struggles to cure all of the world’s ills while the Heechee come cautiously out from hiding.

This was an excellent book, and Pohl continues his easy writing style. Recommended.

One note: This book was written at a time when astronomers believed that quasars were galactic (i.e. local) sources. So there are a couple passages talking about someone flitting about the galaxy studying quasars (among other sources). However, now there is a general consensus that quasars are indeed extra-galactic sources, and are, in fact, one of the most distant sources in the Universe. So these couple of lines date the book.

Not that many people would notice.

Plus, there is still a small camp of astronomers who believe that quasars are local, so the pendulum may swing back the other way if more evidence mounts for that camp.