Summertide
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Set more than four thousand years in the future, Summertide introduces a galaxy widely populated by humans and a variety of intelligent aliens, all of whom live in the shadow of the vanished race known only as the Builders. Nothing is known about the Builders, but the gigantic artifacts they have left behind - many of them still hardly understood - dominate the areas of space in which they are found. One such is the double-planet system of Opal and Quake - the former covered in water, the latter in desert - connected by a Builder device called the Umbilical. It is to this system that a variety of humans and aliens come, ostensibly to witness Summertide - the annual tidal wave which sweeps across Opal.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This promising first installment of the projected Heritage Universe series stands on its own, even though many threads are left dangling. In A.D. 6219, mankind has spread across the galaxy, discovering two other star-traveling races and 1236 artifacts, from three to 10 million years old, left by beings known as the Builders. Now one person from each race has detected clues that might lead to another artifact, or perhaps even to the Builders themselves. Conflicts among the three races fuel most of the plot. Wishing to keep the findings secret, their respective governments provide only covert aid--a device Sheffield ( Between the Strokes of Night ) may have employed to justify the small size of his cast, six members of which will clearly be the main characters in future series volumes.
