The Spheres of Heaven

Rating:
Summary: a fine soap opera!
Review: Charles Sheffield is a mathematician and physicist and has been the past president of both the American Astronautical Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. He has also been the chief scientist of the Earth Satellite Corporation.

He also writes a dam' fine science fiction opera! A very fine read & something I enjoyed immensely. Science fiction is richer because of Sheffield's talent.

I'm looking forward to his next endeavor with baited breath. His background allows him to bring the concepts of science to light in a new & imaginative way.

Rating:
Summary: Spheres fo Heaven
Review: I first ordered Spheres of Heaven, not knowing it was a sequel, and subsequently ordered the first book, The Mind Pool. I was glad I did and was pleasantly re-introduced to science fiction after a long time away from this genre.

The Spheres of Heaven, continues (and evolves) with the adventures of Chan, and introduces a new character, the self effacing mechanical genius, Bony, who is ordered around by an incompetant and lazy captain whom you cannot wish enough bad things upon.

The book bounces back and forth between their two adventures in alternating chapters, forcing the reader at the end of each to want to race through the following chapter to pick up where they left off. This creates a self perpetuating "mad rush" of reading, making this book the quintesential "page turner"!

The supporting characters are well thought out and each is interesting enough to warrent their inclusion. So too, are the aliens. This writer even makes the computers and other technology interesting and vital characters in this book.

I'm back to reading sci-fi again, and I attribute this to the craftmanship apparent in Sheffeild's books.

Rating:
Summary: Spheres fo Heaven
Review: I first ordered Spheres of Heaven, not knowing it was a sequel, and subsequently ordered the first book, The Mind Pool. I was glad I did and was pleasantly re-introduced to science fiction after a long time away from this genre.

The Spheres of Heaven, continues (and evolves) with the adventures of Chan, and introduces a new character, the self effacing mechanical genius, Bony, who is ordered around by an incompetant and lazy captain whom you cannot wish enough bad things upon.

The book bounces back and forth between their two adventures in alternating chapters, forcing the reader at the end of each to want to race through the following chapter to pick up where they left off. This creates a self perpetuating "mad rush" of reading, making this book the quintesential "page turner"!

The supporting characters are well thought out and each is interesting enough to warrent their inclusion. So too, are the aliens. This writer even makes the computers and other technology interesting and vital characters in this book.

I'm back to reading sci-fi again, and I attribute this to the craftmanship apparent in Sheffeild's books.

Rating:
Summary: A little slow to start but well worth the wait
Review: Imagine being forced to accept a mission to an unknown place, where 3 previous expeditions vanished without a trace and being told you could not use violence in any form, even in self defense. Hard to imagine isn't it.

Sheffield's book takes a little while to set up the story but slowly builds the tension and steps up the pace until finally you are so into the book you suddenly realize you've been reading for hours and didn't notice the time passing. The story involves humans and three other intelligent species and their effort to investigate what is called a "link" to another star system. Who and what they find their is so intriguing that you can't help but pause and consider what YOU would do were you in their shoes and faced with the same situation.

The ending was very obviously written to allow a sequel but also written so that the book can stand on its own. An excellent adventure tale with none of the violence and destruction common to many other sci-fi novels currently on the market. A wonderful change and very fun to read.

I'm going to look into more of Sheffield's books now.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read.
Review: This is a sequel to The Mind Pool. I think it's better. It involves a scratch team of humans, each with unique capabilities and each flirting with the wrong side of the law, who undertake a hazardous interstellar trip that lands them in another universe confronted by hostile, militaristic aliens with superior technology. I good romp, to be sure. One of its themes is that the faults of humans (violence, greed, deviousness, etc.) are survival traits. Charles Sheffield has become one of my favorite authors.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable read.
Review: This is a sequel to The Mind Pool. I think it's better. It involves a scratch team of humans, each with unique capabilities and each flirting with the wrong side of the law, who undertake a hazardous interstellar trip that lands them in another universe confronted by hostile, militaristic aliens with superior technology. I good romp, to be sure. One of its themes is that the faults of humans (violence, greed, deviousness, etc.) are survival traits. Charles Sheffield has become one of my favorite authors.

Rating:
Summary: Chan Dalton's back.
Review: We're back in the "Mind pool" universe. Humanity's not allowed to enter any Link - the way to the stars, because of it's ability to think of and perform violence - even against sentient beings, a thing that is unthinkable to the STELLAR GROUP.

A lone link is opened for our race, apparentlly it is'nt controled by the aliens, but nothing thet goes through does'nt come back or sends any signals back. The stellar group calls upon the famed Chan Dalton to explore the link, in exchange for the lifting of the quarantine on humanity.

Besides his assembled crew he chances upon a single representative of each of the alien races, and that prohibits the possibility of dealing with whatever they find with any form of violence - even in self defence!

The book reads fast and is as flowing as any Sheffield product, but I must say thet the spirit of "The Mind Pool", with it's striking contrasts between human, tinker-composite, pipe-rilla and sellora's angel, was not reproduced in the same vivid action or dialogues. Still a good read, mind you, but I felt as if the tension thet was built was'nt released in a stisfactory way. I would recommend it read only after "The Mind Pool", for a more exciting introduction to this fascinating aliens and universe.