The Siege of Eternity

The Siege of Eternity is a close sequel to The Other End of Time. Its protagonists, agent Dan Dannerman and astronomer Pat Adcock, have been captured by aliens and cloned by a matter transmitter. They, or copies of them, have been returned to Earth with implanted alien technology. Slavery seems routine across the galaxy, so learning what the various alien species are up to is vital.

Siege has some middle-child issues. In a different publishing world, Pohl might have squeezed the sequence into a long one-volume saga. Since trilogies were the order of the day, the novel requires some slow repetition at the beginning and too many unresolved issues at the end. Pohl adds depth to the world-building by breaking up the narrative with news show more clips, a la John Dos Passos. They lighten the tone, but they also slow the pace. show less

In this story, after a team comes back from a "Spacelab" orbiting Earth, several more duplicates of the same people signal that they are returning as well. The first mystery is where they came from -- and then, what alien techology did they unwittingly bring back? They also bring back three aliens who have been sharing low rations of their own on the orbiting lab. Where did THEY come from? The newcomers inform the authorities that the lab is now packed with alien artifacts. The U.N. and various prominent countries wrangle about who should get access to alien artifacts on the space lab. Other groups argue that the aliens are angels or devils. Will the authorities go back to space and bring the food that the aliens need or will they show more question them to death first? And who's coming next? Heinlein would have made this come alive. For Pohl, it just plods. The book ends in a cliff-hanger, so if you care you can get the last book in the series to find out what happens next.

To be fair, this book is the second in a series and I have not read the first book. However, the characters failed to engage my interest and I struggled to finish it. Pohl seems to be a better science writer than science fiction writer. His boxed "news items" and theoretical asides seem to have more of his interest. At the end, the climax of the book seems to be delivering a lecture on tachyon theory and virtual subatomic particles. Two documents, one about the exciting developments in physics and one about diverse people dealing with aliens from space and a possible invasion by immmensely powerful and contentious "Beloved Leaders," would have worked better. show less

Several people return to Earth after a trip to a "deserted" space station with their memories blanked. Soon duplicates of them and some aliens come back too. They must fight an alien invation.