Rating: 
Summary: Not a "LEGACY"...better the second time around
Review: A fitting sequel to "Legacy", just not as good. Of course "Legacy" is easily a "10", possibly my favorite book of all time. I have to admit that I truly looked forward to this book and that eager anticipation contributed to my disappointment after my first reading. It just wasn't as good and didn't fulfill my expectations. A couple of months later, I re-read both books. "Children" was much better this time. The mainland environment is vividly described. The plot and storyline are fairly straight forward although the ending is muddied somewhat when trying to figure out what happened between Aaron and the grendel . I'll go back to Avalon again. Recommended
Rating: 
Summary: Beowulf's Children
Review: A very large disappointment both as a sequel to "Legacy" and being written by Niven and Pournelle. The description of inheritance of aquired traits among the colonists surprised me as you can generally count on Niven and Pournelle to keep the science at least not obviously wrong. The book describes raising children from frozen ova in a manner would have resulted in a collection of sociopaths making the book totally unbelivable. Weird for the sake of weird is no substitute for a plot. In "Destiny Road" Niven wrote about contact being lost with the Avalon colony. I took that as an apology for what he knew to be an appallingly bad book.
Rating:
Summary: Beowulf's Children
Review: A very large disappointment both as a sequel to "Legacy" and being written by Niven and Pournelle. The description of inheritance of aquired traits among the colonists surprised me as you can generally count on Niven and Pournelle to keep the science at least not obviously wrong. The book describes raising children from frozen ova in a manner would have resulted in a collection of sociopaths making the book totally unbelivable. Weird for the sake of weird is no substitute for a plot. In "Destiny Road" Niven wrote about contact being lost with the Avalon colony. I took that as an apology for what he knew to be an appallingly bad book.
Rating: 
Summary: Can a sequel surpass the original? Yes.
Review: Beowulf's Children is a rare book. One of the few cases where
the sequel not only lives up to the original (Legacy of Heorot), but
in my opinion surpasses it! The plot doesn't break much new
ground... stranded space colonists confronted with terrors they
never expected on their adopted world. What makes this particular book
so special (ranking it up there with his other masterpieces like
Lucifer's Hammer) is his talent for creating wonderfully real
and intricate characters. If you think Beowulf's Children can't
be this good, I guess you'll have to read it and find out!
Rating:
Summary: Confusing title
Review: Beowulf's Children is known as 'The Dragons of Heorot' for those of us not in the US (or presumably Canada). Beowulf's Children makes more sense, but confused me because I thought ti referred to Beowulf Shaeffer.
The best part of the book is the more detailed description of the Avalon ecology. Jack Cohen has worked overtime.
Steven Barnes' contribution is a descripton of a generation gap on another planet.
Wait till you see the new kinds of grendels
Rating: 
Summary: Ho Hum!
Review: Books by the Pournelle/Niven team are generally among my favorites in the SciFi genre. Unfortunatly this is one of their few real "duds".Written as a sequel to Legacy of Heorot , the colonists planned investigation of the mainland from the island based colony started out as a great basis for a story. The "old Grendel" (obviously mutated) interaction with the exploring colonists borders on the absurd. My first thought after finishing the book was "why did I even bother--what a disappointment"! I really enjoyed the first book "Legacy of Heorot" , but this second volume is but a pale shadow of a good first effort.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: From my favorite authors I expected better. They've tried to spice the work up by loading it with more sex than anything else they've done but this only made the rest of the text seem even paler and duller. I kept reading, thinking surely there's a pony in here, somewhere. After The Gripping Hand and now this I'll get their next work from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Legacy of Heorot: The Sequel
Review: Having just finished this over the weekend I would give it a thumbs up, with some reservations. First of all it is a sequel and best read after the original. The story line works well although it does get sidetracked in spots with sex not having a great deal to do with the story (nothing new for Niven). More importantly the book offers some interesting ideas and is very imaginitive on it's own. Not Ho-Hum Sci Fi at all. Fans will ready it anyway and I would recommend to those unfamiliar with Larry although some of his other books are better. I'd recommend The Mote In God's Eye, Ringworld, and Dream Park for example but if you have already read those then these two books are worth checking out as well. They are above average reads even though they may be a bit below the level of some of the other works by the author.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but an interlude...
Review: I am a big fan of Niven/Pournelle/Barnes, however this book really was nothing more than a long and only somewhat entertaining interlude in the Legacy series. I was extremely disappointed with the ending and it was even more disappointing not to find another sequel. If this is truly the end, don't bother. If there is ever a final book to finish a trilogy, this book may be worth reading to get to the end of the story, but as it is, it leaves you hanging with a lousy ending with more new questions than answers. It was so disappointing that it almost makes me sorry that I started the series. I really hope that the authors will come up with a fantastic book that really closes everything up, but since it may never come, I recommend anyone considering this book (plus Legacy) to wait to buy it until (if) a final sequel comes out - otherwise you will be as disappointed as I am.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but an interlude...
Review: I am a big fan of Niven/Pournelle/Barnes, however this book really was nothing more than a long and only somewhat entertaining interlude in the Legacy series. I was extremely disappointed with the ending and it was even more disappointing not to find another sequel. If this is truly the end, don't bother. If there is ever a final book to finish a trilogy, this book may be worth reading to get to the end of the story, but as it is, it leaves you hanging with a lousy ending with more new questions than answers. It was so disappointing that it almost makes me sorry that I started the series. I really hope that the authors will come up with a fantastic book that really closes everything up, but since it may never come, I recommend anyone considering this book (plus Legacy) to wait to buy it until (if) a final sequel comes out - otherwise you will be as disappointed as I am.
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