Heirs of Earth

_Heirs of Earth_ by Sean Williams and Shane Dix is the excellent, exciting climax to the trilogy that began with _Echoes of Earth_. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it a satisfying end to the series, though there were some unanswered questions, perhaps unavoidable given the almost unfathomable and deeply alien nature of the Spinners and the Starfish. In fact, if I had any complaint about the book, it was at the end one never really truly understood what it was the Spinners and the Starfish - collectively known as the Ambivalence to the Yuhl - were doing. Sure, lots of theories were put out by Peter Alander, Caryl Hatzis, and the various engrams, but even at the very end (sorry if this is a spoiler) the reader doesn't know for sure. As I wrote, perhaps that is unavoidable given how vastly alien the authors made the Starfish and Spinners. That doesn't mean the story is not otherwise excellent. The bulk of the book centered around a desperate mission by Peter, several versions of Caryl (both the original, Sol, and two other engrams of her), and one of the Frank Axford engrams to seek out the Starfish, first to do battle with them with a fleet of hole ships and probes to gain intelligence, then to infiltrate one of their massive vessels and hitch a ride to the Starfish fleet, in hopes of communicating with them, passing information to them about a star system that they have reason to believe to be the Spinner base in hopes of ending their destructive path through the stars. Unsure if they can even get aboard, survive while there, find someone to talk to in the Starfish fleet (rather than be destroyed out of hand), and get the Starfish to believe them, it is a plan with a lot of "ifs," very bold to be sure, but their last, best hope for those engrams and Yuhl who were not fleeing the Starfish front, attempting what some among the Yuhl called the "Species Dream," of finding a permanent home on a planet, hopefully having successfully neutralized or avoided the Starfish threat. As in the second book, there were a number of surprises, particularly with regards to the Starfish themselves, the true nature of the Yuhl, and to the ultimate abilities of Frank Axford. While there was definitely an ending, the authors did leave room to explore the setting again. If they did, I would be interested in revisiting this universe. I really enjoyed the trilogy as a whole and would definitely recommend it to anyone.

What a fitting end! Although I felt the trilogy got off to bit of a rocky start with the first book, I loved the second book because it was filled with characters who you could relate to instead of the usual angst filled ones that you just want to knock some sense into. To this end, Dix and Williams were faithful to not falling into that trap.This last book dealt with some pretty mind boggling issues fairly satisfactorily as far as I was concerned - although all humans but one wiped out and just engrams surviving of a few select humans seems a bit weird. But, as was pointed out - it was starting to come down to those who like their organic form and those that like the inorganic, so its entirely possible in this scenario that the human race was going to diverge down these avenues anyway! Loved the way that was put in the book. I also felt the bizarreness of the aliens they were dealing with was dealth with very very very well. This isn't a book that leaves you feeling cheated!For really good hard core science fiction with a genuine plot and believable (but not necessarily loveable) characters, this is one of the best SF trilogies to come out in years. The only other author who is even remotely on par with this right now is Peter F Hamilton's Nights Dawn trilogy. Space opera at its best!

If you are looking for a nice neatly packaged story that lays out all the answers for you, then this may not be the series for you. If, however, you are like me and love to have your mind challenged with an engaging story then you are in for another great ride from Dix and Williams.While the story is packed full of wonderous alien culture and advanced technology, that is really not the focus of the story. Rather it serves as the backdrop for the characters. The real story lies, as most great stories do, with THE CHARACTERS. I found them all to be full of life and have very believable merits and flaws. For me, the story was about how these people were dealing with their identities as engrams and questioning if they are actually human or not while trying to stay alive long enough for it to matter. I absolutely LOVED the conversations between the human engrams and all the various alien cultures.Like the Evergence trilogy and the first two books in this series, I could not put this book down. More than one morning came too soon because I had lost track of time and read far too late into the evening. To me, that is the sign of a truly GREAT story.The concepts are presented in a Carl Sagenish format that engages your mind and places a huge sense of wonder. The conversations should send your mind reeling with the possibilities. I found myself wishing that I could be in the room discussing those possiblities with the characters.I will concede that all the answers are not plainly given but when dealing with concepts so immense and beyond our scope of knowledge to do so would be an injustice. If you look closely though, Dix and Williams have given enough hints at what PROBABLY was happening. Perhaps we have not seen the last of this group of characters.I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys a good sci fi character story or likes pondering the possibilities of other life in the universe. Dix and Williams do not present stories with typical endings and I find that refreshing.

Heirs of Earth completes a trilogy that successfully delivered exactly what I have alway sought from "hard sf": mind-expanding vistas of space and time, presented with surprising concepts. While it can't quite compete with Benford's Galactic Center series, the gold standard of literate hard sf, it has the great virtue of not making the reader wait ten years for all the volumes to appear. The chief deficiencies arise not from poor writing, but from one of the central premises, that of the multiply replicated "engrams". This made it difficult to keep the large cast of characters straight. While I found them believable enough, I often had a hard time rooting for them.But these are quibbles compared to the pleasures this series offers. And while most of the recent crop of sf has inspired only my indifference, I devoured each of these novels as it came out and couldn't wait for the next.

With volume 3 of the series arriving just in time, after I got the first two for Xmas, I was able to read the trilogy back to back. Therefore my review reflects the entire saga.And a saga it was. The authors have managed to instill in me a sense of wonder not felt since I read Startide Rising by David Brin.Alien lifeforms are truly alien, incomprehensible to humans. If the protagonists themselves can be called human. Broken engrams, nanotech-modified humans, which then get re-designed by a variety of aliens themselves. It raises the question, just what defines "human".The authors do provide the answer: the sense of racial self, a refusal to NOT be something special in an uncaring cosmos, never accepting defeat - and in the end "I think, therefore I am ... HUMAN".As another reviewer has commented on one of the previous books, the characters tend not to be very likeable. But, I found that it is possible to identify with them as their reactions to events and their environments and to each other are believable, even understandable as being the result of extreme stress.The action in the books moves along at a brisk pace, with frequent surprising turns of events. The climax of the saga is a breathtaking ride...... which then drops off to a quite unsatisfying denouement. I must agree with the previous reviewer who beat me to being the first one to write a review for this book: somehow the authors managed to paint themselves into a corner and they couldn't write themselves out of it. I suppose it's better than the many deus-ex-machina endings found only too often, but not by much.In the end I couldn't help but think "oh, I guess there will be a book 4 then, eh?" Or I wondered if the authors lost interest in wrapping up things, after the cosmic rollercoaster ride they had taken the readers along before.My scores would be 4 for Echoes, 5 for Orphans and 3 for Heirs, with an average of 4 stars. 3 stars for Heirs may be a bit harsh, but the ending takes away from an otherwise 5 star story.