World at the End of Time

Mind-stretching far-future saga involving castaway colonists and godlike alien plasma-beings, from the veteran editor, writer. New Mayflower, the second of three colony ships dispatched from Earth, heads toward planet Newmanhome with crew and colonists frozen stiff as "corpsicles." But things soon go wrong Several nearby suns flare unpredictably and push the ship off course. Later, Newmanhome's star inexplicably begins to accelerate, and the third colony ship, unable to catch up, is lost. Then, when their ship is destroyed by something hostile and unknown, pilot Viktor Sorricaine and his wife Reesa must freeze themselves in order to survive. Four hundred years later, they're reawoken into an icy, starving world (the sun has dimmed, since its energy is being translated into acceleration), then refrozen after another space disaster. Four thousand years hence, the sun has slowed down and brightened again, but (thanks to time dilation effects) the rest of the universe has died of old age; Viktor and Reesa still don't know why, or what's been going on. Meanwhile, in another narrative strand, readers - not the characters in the book - meet Wan-To, a plasma creature with godlike powers who inhabits stars, fears the competition of his offspring, and considers beings made of mere matter far beneath his mighty notice. Lots of tantalizing bits and pieces, but no shapely whole - the promised confrontation between Viktor and Wan-Tu (a disappointingly banal super-being) never materializes - Pohl concludes abruptly, seemingly with more than half his attention on a sequel. Inventive, then, and sometimes breathtaking, but often irritating and never very satisfying. (Kirkus Reviews)