This book is actually 2 of Sheffield's books--Summertide and Divergence of the Heritage Universe novels. It's imagery is rich and unique, the characters very memorable. Poor E.C. Tally! I feel sure that in the 3rd novel of the series we will be hearing from him again; along with Louis Nenda's pet Zardalu. The breaks from the story, provided by excerpts from the Lang Universal Artifact Catalog (4th edition) and Universal Species Catalog, are ingenius, as well as wonderfully creative in their information. I wish there were a book on the debates of E.C. Tally and Julius Graves sentient mnemonic twin, Stephen. That would be fun. I thought it was fairly creepy the portal to "The One Who Waits" realm was in the stormy Eye of Gargantua. Eye of Lucifer, Eye of Horus, etcetera... I hope to learn more of Hans Rebka in the following novels. Interesting childhood he had... ( )

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/0671877917/0671877917.htm