Heechee Rendezvous is the third in the series of Heechee novels by Frederik Pohl and so it follows the same character, Rob Broadhead, a man who, in the first novel–the often considered classic Gateway–made his millions from the Gateway, a space station filled with alien ships that can take a man anywhere in the universe, the problem being that you don’t where that part is or if you’ll survive the trip. He made his riches but in the process left the love of his life to die. The first is excellent, perfectly setting up a sense of intrigue and mystery about the Heechee, the unknown aliens that have created Gateway but come the second book he starts to explain things in far too much detail. Part of the first book’s elegance was that so little is known about the Heechee but once he starts explaining stuff it ruins the illusion. Yeah, it’s all part and parcel for sequels to start giving answers to the question but that’s why the first book was so good, because we didn’t know very much about them and to then not only explain them but to show them interacting with others of their kind, that kinda ruined it for me.
Problems from the second book are still here in the third. I had so many questions relating to the second book that just weren’t answered and neither are they answered in this one, but I did get answers to questions that I didn’t want to know the answer to, something that proved annoying.
Pohl is a good writer and this does touch on greatness at time but it never really reaches the height of the first in the series.
