Divergence (novel)
''Divergence'' (1991) is a science fiction novel by American writer Charles Sheffield, part of his Heritage Universe series. The book, the sequel to '' Summertide'', takes place millennia in the future when most of the Orion Arm of the galaxy has been colonized by humans and other races. Among the various star systems of this arm of the galaxy, a number of million-year-old artifacts have been discovered, remnants of a mysterious race called the Builders. The characters in this book start just a few days after the previous book left off to go in search of a newly discovered artifact. This book introduces a few new characters that become important throughout the rest of the series. The characters work together to discover a new theory about the origins and current condition of the Builders. During this process, they discover that an old menace to the universe, thought to be extinct, has been unleashed upon the Orion Arm of the Milky Way The Milky Way is the galaxy that inc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Divergence (novel) Book Cover
In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the outward flux of a vector field from an infinitesimal volume around a given point. As an example, consider air as it is heated or cooled. The velocity of the air at each point defines a vector field. While air is heated in a region, it expands in all directions, and thus the velocity field points outward from that region. The divergence of the velocity field in that region would thus have a positive value. While the air is cooled and thus contracting, the divergence of the velocity has a negative value. Physical interpretation of divergence In physical terms, the divergence of a vector field is the extent to which the vector field flux behaves like a source at a given point. It is a local measure of its "outgoingness" – the extent to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Charles Sheffield
Charles Sheffield (25 June 1935 – 2 November 2002), an English-born mathematician, physicist and science-fiction writer, served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society. His novel ''The Web Between the Worlds'', featuring the construction of a space elevator, was published almost simultaneously with Arthur C. Clarke's novel on the subject, ''The Fountains of Paradise'' - a coincidence that amused them both. Excerpts from both Sheffield's ''The Web Between the Worlds'' and Clarke's ''The Fountains of Paradise'' have appeared recently in a space-elevator anthology, '' Towering Yarns''. Sheffield served as Chief Scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation, a company that processed remote-sensing satellite data. The association gave rise to many technical papers and two popular non-fiction books, ''Earthwatch'' (1981) and ''Man on Earth'' (1983), both collections of false-colour and enhanced images of Eart ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Heritage Universe
Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset is a preexisting thing of value today ** Cultural heritage is created by humans ** Natural heritage is not * Heritage language Biology * Heredity, biological inheritance of physical characteristics * Kinship, the relationship between entities that share a genealogical origin Arts and media Music * ''Heritage'' (Earth, Wind & Fire album), 1990 * ''Heritage'' (Eddie Henderson album), 1976 * ''Heritage'' (Opeth album), 2011, and the title song * Heritage Records (England), a British independent record label * Heritage (song), a 1990 song by Earth, Wind & Fire Other uses in arts and media * ''Heritage'' (1935 film), a 1935 Australian film directed by Charles Chauvel * ''Heritage'' (1984 film), a 1984 Slovenian film directed by Matjaž Klopčič * ''Heritage'' (2019 film), a 2019 Cameroonian film by Yolande Welimoum * ''Heritage'' (novel), a ''Doctor Who'' novel Organizations Political parties * Heritage (Armenia) ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Summertide
''Summertide'' (1990) is a science fiction novel by American writer Charles Sheffield, the first of his series of Heritage Universe. The story takes place millennia in the future, with humans having extensively colonized our spiral arm of the Milky Way and having encountered a number of intelligent alien races. Littered throughout the galaxy are hundreds of massive abandoned engineering projects built by a mysterious race, referred to as The Builders, extinct for three million years. An eclectic group of scientists and opportunists are descending upon one such artifact at a time when its surrounding environment is extremely dangerous to study an unusual phenomenon. The novel includes excerpts from the ''Lang Universal Artifact Catalog (Fourth Edition)'', describing several Builder artifacts. ''Divergence'' is the next book in the series. Reception Publishers Weekly states that the "'series stands on its own, even though many threads are left dangling." Kirkus Reviews ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Orion Arm
The Orion Arm is a minor spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy that is across and approximately in length, containing the Solar System, including Earth. It is also referred to by its full name, the Orion–Cygnus Arm, as well as Local Arm, Orion Bridge, and formerly, the Local Spur and Orion Spur. The arm is named for the Orion Constellation, which is one of the most prominent constellations of Northern Hemisphere winter (Southern Hemisphere summer). Some of the brightest stars and most famous celestial objects of the constellation (e.g. Betelgeuse, Rigel, the three stars of Orion's Belt, the Orion Nebula) are within it as shown on the interactive map below. The arm is between the Carina–Sagittarius Arm (the local portions of which are toward the Galactic Center) and the Perseus Arm (the local portion of which is the main outer-most arm and one of two major arms of the galaxy). Long thought to be a minor structure, namely a "spur" between the two arms mentioned, eviden ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term ''Milky Way'' is a translation of the Latin ', from the Greek ('), meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies. The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy with an estimated D25 isophotal diameter of , but only about 1,000 light years thick at the spiral arms (more at the bulg ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Transcendence (Sheffield Novel)
''Transcendence'' (1992) is a science fiction novel by American writer Charles Sheffield, part of his Heritage Universe series. This book is the sequel to ''Summertide'' and ''Divergence (novel), Divergence.'' Plot After discovering new artifacts in the previous books, the team gets together again this time to search for the Zardalu unwittingly unleashed upon the galaxy during their previous adventure. This search leads them to the Zardalu Communion and the exploration of a huge space-time anomaly called the Torvil Anfract. The novel includes excerpts from the ''Hot Rocks, Warm Beer, Cold Comfort: Jetting Alone Around the Galaxy'', a sort-of travel book by Captain Alonzo Wilberforce Sloane (retired). The sequel to this novel is ''Convergence (novel), Convergence''. 1992 American novels Novels by Charles Sheffield 1992 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Del Rey books {{1990s-sf-novel-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1991 American Novels
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, 1991 Russian presidential election, elected as Russia's first President of Russia, president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet Union, Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, erupts in the Philippines, making it the List of large historical volcanic eruptions, second-largest Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruption of the 20th century; MTS Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa, but the crew notoriously abandons the vessel before the passengers are rescued; Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Flag of the Soviet Union, Soviet flag is lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the flag of the Russian Federation; The United States and soon-to-be dissolved Soviet Union sign the START I Treaty; A tropical cyclone 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, strikes Bangladesh, killing nearly 140,000 people; Lauda Air Flight ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Novels By Charles Sheffield
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the historica ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |