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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond Gateway, February 15, 2003
To begin with, "Beyond The Blue Event Horizon" is a very good continuation of the Gateway series (although this does confine the book at times). The book is "hard" science fiction (emphasis is placed on getting the science of the story correct, unlike Star Trek's "phazers" and "warp drives"), although there's never a real feeling that this overpowers the story. The only exception to this is the last chapter which is basically an epilogue that reads like a physics book. But otherwise, the story is what drives this novel, and what a story it is! The book continues the adventure of our returning heroes Robin Broadhead and S Ya, among several other very unique, interested and well-defined characters (such as Wan or the "Oldest One"). Pohl does an excellent job of making these characters real through their problems, traits, flaws and strengths. However, the real reason I'd recommend this book is because of the way Pohl writes. He's very good at suspense, as shown in Gateway, and employs it better here. After every answer he gives you, he'll present two more questions. And EVERY chapter ends right when you're eager to find out more. In addition, the buildup for the story is brilliant, with pieces of the puzzle that are established early on in the book coming into play beautifully near the end. Finally, the reason Beyond The Blue Event Horizon received only 4 stars is that, as almost any sequel, it builds upon what was set up in Gateway (which definitely deserves five stars). There are times that Pohl seems to lean too heavily on the previous book to fill in any gaps (unlike, for instance, "Speaker For The Dead" which, although it's a sequel to "Ender's Game," it never fails to astonish the reader with new concepts and ideas instead of simply being an expansion upon Ender's Game). Overall, Beyond The Blue Event Horizon is an amazing book that is well worth the time. But not only that, it does something that only the best books can manage... it leaves you with a definite sense of satisfaction.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some neat ideas, but almost incoherent in its plotlines, July 5, 2006
To say this is a sequel to the award-winning (and brilliantly enjoyable) Gateway is both technically true and misleading. True, the main character is the same. Also true is the fact that it takes place in the same universe, more or less where Gateway left off. Unfortunately, this book reads like Pohl's notes for Gateway's background information, rather than a story worth telling.
That's not to say that the reading is not enjoyable - there are some neat parts to this book, and some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, you are left puzzled about what, exactly, Pohl meant to accomplish with this book. Without giving away any plot details, there are the following threads: 1. A the child of a Gateway prospector is marooned on a Heechee space station. 2. A group of astronauts attempt to capture the Food Factory. 3. Robin Broadhead, hero of Gateway, ponders how to rescue his girlfriend, trapped in a black hole. (but don't be fooled by the back-cover blurb, this is not a plotline so much as a "personality trait" of Robin - no attempt to made to rescue Klara). 4. Robin is sued by another prospector's next-of-kin. 5. A mysterious illness that decends on all mankind in 135-day intervals is investigated.
All these threads are intertwined, to be sure, but most of them are pointless. For example, the 135-day fever is explained, but nothing is done about it. When you read the explanation, surely this is the most important thing in the book! - how can this device be so powerful as to affect the entire human race? Similarly the lawsuit storyline - it's almost like a placefiller to allow time to pass and give Robin something to do while the astronauts explore the food factory and the space station.
The other big indication that this book was thrown together haphazardly is the structure of the point-of-view characters. He writes each chapter from someone's PoV, which is fine, but sometimes he uses 1st-person, other times 3rd-person. Both Robin and Hall are 1st-person narrators, but Hall then becomes a secondary character, and his sister-in-law becomes the PoV character (but she is not written in the 1st-person). It is only annoying (it's not confusing), but it makes the book feel like it was cobbled together out of entirely separate pieces.
Finally, I have a serious issue with a couple of physics points. His explanation of the Heechee fast-speed drive doesn't make any sense - even if you reduce mass of a ship to zero, you still cannot puch a massless particle faster than light (in a vacuum). Therefore, the fastest speed attainable by these Heechee ships should be the speed of light. Any trip to another star system should take 4 years or more.!
All of these complaints notwithstanding, the book is enjoyable to read, and there are some interesting sci fi ideas. It was not good enough to make me wish to continue reading any more of the Heechee saga books, however.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Even better than Gateway, February 10, 2009
First, the protagonists actually accomplish something. They manage to master the technology that was killing them in Gateway. You can argue that this then makes them too powerful in an uninteresting way, and in fact I don't like books 3 - 5 as much. Second, the McGuffin, where the Heechee went and why, is a real kicker.
Downsides: The fella from Gateway is still around. He was realistically flawed in that book, but he's not a hero. And there is an old ex-Nazi in the story, which to me throws the timeline a little off. Pohl has a thing about Nazis; see Starburst.
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