I'm writing this on April 25, 2000. Last reading: 1 day ago

This novel included about the most plausible rendition of interstellar spaceflight in the near Earth future that I've read. An advanced civilization had abandoned an asteroid/space station millions of years ago, and vanished. The ships still work. No one knows how they work. No one knows who the "Heechee" were, what they thought, why they left, why they took almost but not quite everything...

The descriptions of the pioneer spirit were great. The use of lines of code, newspaper classifieds, mission reports, etc. were highly effective. The computerized psychiatrist was probably the best character. How they exploited alien technology seemed right on the money. The occasional science lessons were quite good, and every astronomical statement made was consistant with known science (except for saying that they accelerated to "near light speed" without time dilation effects... but it's unknown alien technology, so that's not too bad...)

But then there were the problems all too common in novels of that era. Gratuitous sex. Complete acceptance of drug use. Overpopulation as the primary problem of the world. And the analysis of dreams and personality was way too Freudian.

But perhaps the biggest drawback was the conclusion. It seems like the author thought of an extremely dramatic situation, and decided to write a novel about it... figuring that the conclusion would work itself out. So he invented a world in which that situation could happen. And started writing, and developing the world. And the writing got more and more interesting, with many good characters. But then the ending eventually had to happen, and it just fell... flat. Some interesting, clever aspects, but not quite sufficiently conclusive.

The scientific accuracy, the sense of exploration, and the humanness of the characters carried the novel to the point where I reccommend it. But the significant problems make it only barely so. If you have a strong interest in astronomy and spaceflight, this will likely appeal to you. But if gratuitous sex, drinking, drug use, etc. bother you, avoid it.