Customer Reviews

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (Heechee Saga)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Gateway (Heechee Book 1) was a triumph in originality and depth. But it's such a sad fact for me that this sequel spoils the very name "Heechee" and everything I found exciting about the beginning of the series.

I don't know how Pohl could go from such an insightful book like Gateway, where he explored both psychology and space, to a book where all the male characters are hormonal perverts (both young and old). There was nothing nearly as epic as the basic storyline which was presented in Gateway. The only thing worth knowing in this book is the following: SKIP IT AND READ BOOK 3. While reading book 3, it will update you here and there as to what happened in this sequel (book 2), so you don't have to waste your time in reading book 2.

I give this sequel one extra star simply because it adds just a mystery or two more about the Heechee than what was left in Gateway. The sequel answers no questions, just piles on more mysteries.

Frederick Pohl disappoints us with this tiring bland SF sequel to his utterly transcendant "Gateway". In Beyond, Pohl goes to such great lengths to make his science accurate, his descriptions full, that he forgets the most important element: Story. The relevance of his exhausting scientific details kill the flow and are not justified by their importance. This is most true with his constant in depth explanation of the operation of the various anthropomorphized computer programs that help our heroes. These computer programs are neither interesting nor important, and Pohl gives no time to the most compelling plot developments and almost ignores he components that made Gateway such a triumph: The mysterious Heechee. Instead we are forced to contend with characters we don't have much reason to care about. Also, major plot developments occur that are completely implausable or glossed over. Pohl makes no attempt to explain them intead choosing to waste an entire chapter telling us how many megabits Broadhead's personal secretary allocates to serve him coffee. Reading this book is frustrating, irritating, especially for those of you thirsting for a fitting follow up to Pohl's self-proclaimed best book of his career, Gateway. If Beyond The Blue Event Horizon is as good as his other books can get, that's an understatement.

If you loved the first book in the series, stop, and look for another book by another author. This is nowhere near the level of the acclaimed "Gateway." I was expecting a continuance of the Gateway-enigma, but what I recieved were too many answers to too few questions. What irks me about science fiction writers is the traditional attitude they have about writing a series of books extending from a usually excellent first novel. Larry Niven and his "Ringworld" novels, comes to mind. Another is Arthur C. Clarke and his "Rama" series. There must be a deep-seeded fear of failure for these men, or maybe they have become too comfortable in their genre to really challenge themselves anymore. Whatever the reason, this book is another example of an author playing it safe by branching out from a singularly brilliant novel. The result for me was, for the most part, a thoroughly bland experience. Mr. Pohl is a good writer, so I won't slash this book too much, but it was a disappointment. There are many other books out there, most of which are much better than this.

I loved Gateway and couldn't wait to read this book. It was such a disappointment I intended to read no further in this series and am none too interested in reading Pohl again at all.

Beyond the Blue Event Horizon is the second in Pohl's Heechee saga which posits a future where humanity looks to alien artifacts and technology to assist resolving the complications of overpopulation. In this book the story revolves around a mission to discover the Food Factory, a Heechee space station that is able to manufacture food from basic elements. The crew sent to explore and secure this station is a family of an elder male with two daughters, and the husband of one of the daughters. During the three year voyage the younger daughter grows into a hormonal 14-year-old which creates a lot of tension between the two sisters, particularly since the 14-year-old sister, Janine, is trying out her female wiles on her sister Lurvy's husband Paul.

What they find at the station is not what they expected create interesting twists to the story. Meanwhile on earth the protagonist of the first volume in the series, Robinette, is involved in financing the exploration. However, in a horrible accident his wife is seriously injured and goes through a series of harrowing and possibly fatal medical treatments. It is interesting that in the last book the story was about the grief of the loss of a wife, and this second book has a central theme of healing of the wife along with the sexually driven desire of Janine on the spaceship to explore her sexuality. There is a strong Jungian theme of restoration of the feminine in these books.

On the whole this was an enjoyable sci-fi tale. However the story digresses sometimes into scientific explanations delivered in large indigestible lumps that detract rather than add to the story. The strengths of Beyond the Blue Event Horizon are the human tales and relationships, and the adventure of space exploration.

Beyond The Blue Event Horizon chronicles the adventures of Robinette Broadhead (from the first book), as well as some of his associates. In the book, we learn that Broadhead is now a pretty successful businessman and is married. Though he is happily married to S Ya (whom we learn about in the previous book), he still has longings for his long lost love, Gelle-Klara Moynlin. Further insight into the Heechee is gained, particularly from the introduction of a huge spaceship that can produce a huge amount of food, and thus satisfy humankind's hunger indefinitely. Pohl introduces some ideas that make this book an example of hard science fiction. As in the previous book, artificial intelligence is dealt with, though the artificial Sigrid von Shrink is abandoned for a new 'friend' for Broadhead. The plot is interesting, dealing with none other than the origins and fate of the universe, based on cosmological theories. The ending leaves some to be desired, but overall, the book must be read in the context that it is the second chapter in an ongoing series. If you are interested in the world created by Pohl that is Gateway, Beyond The Blue Event Horizon is a must read.

I can understand how variable are the responses of different readers shown here. 'Beyond' is stylistically different and lacks the emotional engagement of 'Gateway', but is genuinely impressive in terms of plotting and incorporating cosmology into an adventure/mystery/suspense story. I don't know if any other SF author had tried something on this scale / complexity before B.T.B.E.H.

If you loved 'Gateway' then you need to understand that this is not a repeat of that book's strengths. I felt a sense of disappointment because of that, but that was balanced by my admiration for how Pohl was able to pull off something that genuinly impressed me and he has my admiration for that. The point has been made that revealing the secrets of the Heechee technology and finally the Heechee themselves disipates the sense of intriguing mystery and awe. I agree up to a point. Pohl's explanations are very clever and imaginative and consistent and the satisfaction of learning them compensates for the loss of wonder.

I would recommend reading B.T.B.E.H., but I was increasingly disappointed with the characters and plot choices of the next two books in the series, depite there being brilliant concepts in both. Something happens half-way through the 3rd book (Heechee Rondevous) that just altered the resonance of 'Gateway' for me and I have to pretend that the first book and the 3rd and 4th occur in alternative realities, because it just impacted negatively on my experience of the orignal 'Gateway' otherwise.