Paperback, 632 pages
English language
Published Jan. 24, 2021 by Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency.
More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate—whatever the cost.
But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.
Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe—or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has never faced.
This was a super fun book like all of the others. Less of an emphasis on big metaphysical questions or anything, but lots of conflict around being part of an emergent society and all that.
For some weird reason Dennis forgot how to write for the first few chapters and the last few chapters, but the rest of this long book is just plain excellent. It's it fourth in the Bobiverse series, and the style is completely different, but it's still a good book anyway. If you wanted more of the same, you'll be disappointed, but the book is so well written you'll forget your were expecting something else.
Meandering
It would appear that utopia is an unstable state.
The Bobiverse lives on in Heaven's River and as a fan of the trilogy I enjoyed this story. However, there was something lacking from making this a four star read.
Perhaps the search for Bender was a little drawn out in the beginning? I enjoyed the anthropology aspects from the initial trilogy by exploring new worlds and biomes through the eyes of someone on the ground. Having this happen again bordered on repetitive. The topopolis and Quinlans are unique locales and occupants but this "new world being explored" narrative would be tiresome if it repeats book after book.
It felt like there was very little else going on in the story outside of searching for Bender, and maybe having some shift in story focus occur earlier would have helped. When the bubbles of civil war did appear this was a pleasant …
It would appear that utopia is an unstable state.
The Bobiverse lives on in Heaven's River and as a fan of the trilogy I enjoyed this story. However, there was something lacking from making this a four star read.
Perhaps the search for Bender was a little drawn out in the beginning? I enjoyed the anthropology aspects from the initial trilogy by exploring new worlds and biomes through the eyes of someone on the ground. Having this happen again bordered on repetitive. The topopolis and Quinlans are unique locales and occupants but this "new world being explored" narrative would be tiresome if it repeats book after book.
It felt like there was very little else going on in the story outside of searching for Bender, and maybe having some shift in story focus occur earlier would have helped. When the bubbles of civil war did appear this was a pleasant contrast to the Quinlan/find Bender story.
It was a full-on post-human civilization, and would be a utopian dream, except for the issue of replicative drift.
Taylor continues to push the boundaries of the Bobiverse by introducing theoretical technologies and reaches the hot topic of replicative drift. Taylor does a wonderful job of taking thought experiments and playing them out in the stories. With different iterations of Bob to play out the parts it offers a wonderful opportunity to settle in for topics that are theological and existential.
the wonderful thing about knowledge is that you can give it away and still have it.
In the end this is a worthy update to the Bobiverse story and Taylor continues to leave opportunities to explore this ever changing universe that the Bobs find themselves in.
Slow start but towards the middle it took up pace to eventually rival the third book in the series. Looking forward to more books set in the universe!
More of a 3.5 but I'm going to round it up to 4 as it's a really easy read
I love this universe,this book feels a less innovative though!
Finally dug into questions of identity--what makes a person? The lens gets wider as the Bobs argue amongst themselves and the universe splinters into more divergent views
New alien species was interesting. Nothing groundbreaking...but enjoyable
Very happy to see the continuation of the series. Very fun read.
"utopia is an unstable state"
~~~
More Bobiverse stories, I was so excited!
Only I'd probably enjoyed the book a lot more if I'd reread the previous books.
In the 2 years after I read those I forgot a lot, and this book made me feel it!
A lot of reference back to previous story points and characters that the book didn't really helped explain.
Heaven's river is an enjoyable story but didn't spark the joy of the first 3.
I guess this story is a bit of a transitional book after the first trilogy and sets up a new universe with different factions and politics inside the Bobiverse. They almost start to feel like humans YUCK!
I love the Bobaverse Novels. They are not high art, but they have an enthusiasm for space exploration sci-fi that is catching.
When an author resumes a series after he's completed a trilogy, het tends to have a number of books planned out and in many cases this results in novels that are meant to be read sequentially and lack a clear ending.
I'm glad to say that Heaven's River is a standalone novel.
There is no reason to wait for the next few books to be out before reading it.
I was so excited when this came out that I dropped the other book I was reading. It certainly didn't disappoint. If you've read the rest of the series, then there's really not much to say about this book. It stayed on track, delivers everything you would come to expect from the bobiverse: humor, intrigue, exploration of exotic space-lands, political tensions and the odd space war. In general, the same excellence as the last installments.
The focus on rescuing Bender made the story perhaps a bit myopic for a universe of Von Neumann probes; which was acknowledged by a number of elder bobs throughout the story, many of which are gearing up for a second expansion of the borders of known space. That's perhaps the only missing aspect of the standard tropes one comes to expect from the bobiverse in this book.
The internal bobiverse conflict was, at least to …
I was so excited when this came out that I dropped the other book I was reading. It certainly didn't disappoint. If you've read the rest of the series, then there's really not much to say about this book. It stayed on track, delivers everything you would come to expect from the bobiverse: humor, intrigue, exploration of exotic space-lands, political tensions and the odd space war. In general, the same excellence as the last installments.
The focus on rescuing Bender made the story perhaps a bit myopic for a universe of Von Neumann probes; which was acknowledged by a number of elder bobs throughout the story, many of which are gearing up for a second expansion of the borders of known space. That's perhaps the only missing aspect of the standard tropes one comes to expect from the bobiverse in this book.
The internal bobiverse conflict was, at least to me, fairly transparent - although the motivations for the conflict remained hidden to me until the discussion at the conclusion. If you read this review before the book: knowing who caused the struggles does not detract at all from the thrill of the story.
A masterpiece, yet again. Well done Dennis!
