My reaction to reading this novel in 1997. Spoilers follow.

It occurs to me that this conclusion to the original Heritage trilogy is a metaphorical examination of humanity’s psychological reactions to the universe.

The Artifacts of the Builders serve as the symbol of the universe. Darya Lang, human expert on the Artifacts, and her band of humans and aliens try to, as they seek proof the dreaded Zardulu still exist (instead of being killed by their imperial subjects 11,000 years ago), make sense of their purpose and their origins. Like the origins and purpose of the universe being ultimately unknowable so too does Lang eventually find the Builders and the Artifacts. She and her party (Atvar H’sial and Louis Nenda to a lesser extent, rogues interested in money), at novel’s end disagree as to the purpose of the Artifacts.

The interrogation of the Builders’ sentient, artificial constructs reveals that each of the four have different ideas as to why the Builders created them and their artifacts, and it seems some have gone insane. Hans Rebka thinks the Builders still exist and are wary of other sentient races. Darya Lang finds the Builders indifferent (in a Lovecraftian sense) to man, their purpose unknown. The Artifacts’ ability to create a macroscopic “mixed-quantum-state being” is another example of cosmology (here multiple states of probability exist simultaneously, observable on a macroscopic level before they collapse) being literalized into metaphor.

I liked this book on several levels. Sheffield plays with chronology a bit as he splits characters up. Some of the chapters take place simultaneously, some out of chronological sequence (usually because the characters’ actions overlap the actions of characters in the preceding or succeeding chapters. I liked the interludes from a travelogue by the legendary Alanzo Wilberforce Sloane. It details some of the legends and wonders of the galaxy. I found the character of pilot Dulcimer, a Chism Polypheme, interesting. The search to prove the scourge of the Zardalu have returned to the galaxy was exciting. The Zardalu are scary, neat aliens, and I liked the scenes on their homeworld Genizer. Characterwise, I liked Louis Nenda haughtily and embarrassedly denying to Atvar H’sial that he cares for Darya Lang though he clearly does. I liked Kallik and J’merlia joyfully returning to servitude. Once again those clever, somewhat loveable rogues Nenda and Atvar H’sial land on top. The novel ends with them having convinced the surviving Zardulu they can’t win against humans and Cecropians and to bow down before them instead. ( )

The denouement is a chapter(+) too long. And there aren't any excerpts from the alien reference guide in this book, only excerpts from a space explorer's biography which I didn't like as much as the detailing of alien species; but, of course, no new species are introduced in this book, so I guess we didn't miss anything.

This installment has less "mystery" and less exploration of aliens/Builders... it's more an action book than a sci-fi exploration book (though the action all occurs on an alien planet). There is some hard sci-fi explanations of various techy things, but you don't really have to follow the science to follow the story.

All in all, it was my least favorite of the 3 so far (a 3.5 instead of a 4), but I will be reading the next (final) book in the series because the characters are interesting and fun to follow - and I'm curious what Louis and Ant will get up to... ( )