Heechee Rendezvous was published by Ballantine/Del Rey in 1984, and it is the volume in which the Heechee saga’s central mystery is resolved. The Heechee did not disappear — they retreated inside a black hole, hiding from the Assassins: ancient energy beings from the era before matter condensed, who regard matter (and the matter-based civilizations that arose from it) as a contamination of the pure energy universe that preceded the Big Bang.
Broadhead, now elderly and facing his own mortality, is drawn into the confrontation between the Heechee and the Assassins. His consciousness is eventually uploaded into the Heechee’s computer network — a transformation that raises the question of whether a digital copy of a person is the person or merely a simulation. Pohl handles this question with characteristic intelligence: Broadhead’s digital self has all his memories, all his personality quirks, all his neuroses (including his tendency to avoid unpleasant truths), and the reader is left to decide whether this continuity is sufficient for identity.
The novel’s scope is cosmic — the fate of the universe depends on whether matter-based life can coexist with energy-based life — but its emotional core remains personal: Broadhead’s relationships, Broadhead’s fears, Broadhead’s stubborn, complicated humanity.
Collecting Heechee Rendezvous
First edition (Ballantine/Del Rey, New York, 1984): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $10–$30
- Paperback first printing: $5–$10