Rating: 
Summary: A big let down
Review: As with most trilogies, the first two books prime you with many unanswered questions and build up to a glorious finale. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books. Well, the third installment in this series is a flop. It left me with a sense of despair in that it didn't answer many of the questions about the Starfish and the Spinners. It also created more (unanswered) questions. I get the feeling they're setting the scene for a fourth novel. I for one won't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Deal
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Many ideas, disappointing conclusion
Review: Heirs of Earth, the final volume of Williams and Dix's three book series, continues to provide big ideas, alien cultures, and a gritty "survive if you can" future for humanity. The human species is nearly extinct, both by its own mistakes (permitting AI technology to get out of hand) and by coming in contact with an alien culture inexplicably bent on destruction. No "true" humans exist. Only one modified individual is in her somewhat original body. Other "humans" are engrams (or copies of engrams), a computer simulation of a real person. Some of the engrams seem more human than others as they begin to break free of their programming or begin taking on more physical bodies. The authors provide a myriad of encounters with very strange alien species, all of whom are attempting to survive in a hostile universe -- there a hints that two warring species (collectively called the Ambivalence) may be both benefactor and annihilator. Unfortunately, the novel itself ends, apparently exhausted by its own innovative and interesting ideas. None of the various story threads are knotted at the end and the big concepts merely peter out. All in all, however, I would recommend the books to others. Williams and Dix have created a weird and awe-inspiring world and truly alien creatures and their philosophies.
Rating:
Summary: Wraps up the trilogy, but not all the questions
Review: I really enjoyed the first two books of this trilogy, and so I eagerly awaited Heirs of Earth, the final installment. When I finally got my copy, I read it from cover to cover in short order. But this was not necessarily because Heirs is an extremely engaging novel. On the contrary, I found that the momentum built up in the first two novels was most of what carried me through this one. Now don't get me wrong - Williams and Dix continue to display their very accesible writing style here, making Heirs an enjoyable read. And the story unfolds in a way that is pretty consistent with what went before. But the authors' attempts to convey the Spinners and Starfish as so far advanced as to be unfathomable by mere humans, while perhaps a valid approach to the story, is somewhat less than entertaining. After the third or so passage describing the hyper-advanced alien technology, I felt as if I was reading a child's primer on shapes and colors. To top it off, not only do we not get any satisfactory description of the characters' encounter with the aliens, we are left with no explanation as to their motivations or even what happens at the end to resolve the situation. Did I get the sense that we, as humans, couldn't comprehend what was going on? Yes. Did I find this interesting or engaging? Not really. If you've read the first two installments of the trilogy, by all means finish it out. You will want to find out what happens, as I did. But please set your expectations properly - you will be left with resolution, but very few answers.
Rating:
Summary: Wraps up the trilogy, but not all the questions
Review: I really enjoyed the first two books of this trilogy, and so I eagerly awaited Heirs of Earth, the final installment. When I finally got my copy, I read it from cover to cover in short order. But this was not necessarily because Heirs is an extremely engaging novel. On the contrary, I found that the momentum built up in the first two novels was most of what carried me through this one. Now don't get me wrong - Williams and Dix continue to display their very accesible writing style here, making Heirs an enjoyable read. And the story unfolds in a way that is pretty consistent with what went before. But the authors' attempts to convey the Spinners and Starfish as so far advanced as to be unfathomable by mere humans, while perhaps a valid approach to the story, is somewhat less than entertaining. After the third or so passage describing the hyper-advanced alien technology, I felt as if I was reading a child's primer on shapes and colors. To top it off, not only do we not get any satisfactory description of the characters' encounter with the aliens, we are left with no explanation as to their motivations or even what happens at the end to resolve the situation. Did I get the sense that we, as humans, couldn't comprehend what was going on? Yes. Did I find this interesting or engaging? Not really. If you've read the first two installments of the trilogy, by all means finish it out. You will want to find out what happens, as I did. But please set your expectations properly - you will be left with resolution, but very few answers.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing rush job
Review: I WANTED TO KNOW THE ANSWERS!
And I didn't get them. Nothing was explained or resolved satisfactorily, and I had to wade through very ordinary prose full of proofing errors to reach that conclusion. Characters behaved differently, issues previously raised weren't explored, and things were stated as fact that hadn't featured in the previous books. Infuriating concepts were dumped in at the last gasp in a futile effort to make sense of what had come before.
Please, please, please, Messers Williams and Dix, take the TIME to produce real quality with your next effort; quality like the Evergence trilogy.
What a let down!
Rating: 
Summary: Thought provoking and fully engages your imagination
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and fully engages your imagination
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous finale
Review: 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!
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