Heaven's River (Bobiverse)

Just finished this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. As with the rest of the Bobiverse books, it combines a good concept with fun, witty writing and just the right amount of science. It's a real shame that the first reviews you'll see trash the book because of the author's decision to give Audible an exclusive release window before publishing the print and Kindle editions. Come on folks, artists deserves to make decisions on how to monetize their work. Anyway, enough of the business side of things, and on to the book ... About twenty pages into this book, I decided I needed to go back and read the first three to refresh my memory of Pavs, the Others, Bob genealogy, who is on which planet, etc. It was fun to go back and start from the beginning, even though I'd seen the ending. This fourth book picks up on the unsolved disappearance of Bender, whose absence persisted in defiance of Chekhov through the first three. Unlike the first three books, which spanned multiple stories across multiple worlds, the action of this fourth book is focused almost exclusively on one world. Of course, Ringworld was also limited to one world, so it's not much of a limitation. As with other books in the series, the writing is sharp, and authentic nerds will catch all kinds of references that zip by without the need for comment (i.e., they'll be missed by non nerds, but that's OK by all of us). This book gets a bit more into the philosophy of artificial life (a theme that was introduced in the first book, but then dispensed with quickly when Bob-1 looked into the abyss and decided "Still Bob"). I credit the author, who has a point of view, for treating the subject in a way that lets readers develop their own. This fourth book is devoid of the space battles that punctuated the first three; honestly, I didn't even notice the missing military sci fi element until I'd finished. The only downside is that I could see the resolution of the central mystery about ten parsecs away (as will anyone who remembers TOS 022). Despite the similarity of premise, the treatment was different enough that I still thoroughly enjoyed the book, and given the role Star Fleet plays in this book, I viewed the similarity as hommage. The last chapter makes it clear that the author plans to continue this series (yeah!) but the book does not end on a cliffhanger (double yeah!). By Book 4, it's hard for an author to write a book that's consistent with but distinct fro the first three. This author accomplishes the task. It's the Bobiverse, all right, but no sharks are jumped. By the way, if you haven't read Bobiverse 1-3, I'd recommend starting from the beginning. It's not strictly necessary, but you'll enjoy the book more if you understand the universe and the characters, so it's worth starting this journey from the headwaters.

So, the start of the series was fun but a little underwhelming in a few key (to me) ways. The characterizations were (and remain) fairly thin (although that's offset by the nature of the MC and other chars to an extent), relationships/interactions are pretty shallow and just to deliver plot points mostly, and the early plot didn't really do anything surprising or thought provoking w/ the premise; it was sorta like one of the newer streaming series (well done, but no 1984). I tend to read for relationships/interactions, and it's just not this author's strong suit, so that's a preferences mismatch. Someone who wants SF about hardware and action would be more pleased with this; preferences vary, and that's OK. I think this was, in some ways, the best of the series (which was, at least, always entertaining). He does a lot more with the premises, technology, philosophy, and personalities, rather than a simple "we went out, there were aliens". There are a (very) few funny bits, dialog is pretty good, and the chars stay in-char (they're just not super developed, but most are copies of Bob so...). I thought the chase sequence really dragged on a bit and could have been shorted with a summary in places, but it was ok. Overall, this final book raised my opinion of the series quite a bit.

With a dash of transhumanism, since the protagonist characters aren't biological any more. This book is the continuation of the first three, which concluded a story arc and seemed to be the end. With this one, the author reopens the Bobiverse for us. We follow the Bobs through their less-than-professional way of doing things as they clandestinely board an alien topopolis and interact with their inhabitants, some of which are convinced that the Heaven's River is the whole universe. Meanwhile, the Bobs have internal strife and a looming clash with the biological humanity comes to a head. Along with the aliens from the first trilogy, there's surely more to look for in the next books. Like the previous series, the author has researched physics and engineering really well. Aside from the single Clarketech that makes the story possible, everything is believable even to our current understanding of materials and science. That lets us explore along the author what the possibilities are for Humanity: transhumanism, megaengineering, interstellar colonisation, coexistence with aliens, etc. He does also bring up some of the current problems in our understanding of the Universe, like the Great Silence and the Fermi Paradox (I suppose that was inevitable as he had Isaac Arthur for a consultant, someone whose YouTube channel I also enjoy). Unlike the previous trilogy, this book spans only about a year of time. The viewpoint shifts across multiple star systems, but everything is real time and linear. That means we lose one of the characteristic writing styles of the first trilogy, which was the jumping around through time, which forced the reader to keep track of who was were and how much time had elapsed since. That was challenging, so this much is now much easier to read, which I hope means the audience can be bigger because the author deserves it. The book is also covered with trivia related to current sci-fi. Nothing that will take away if you don't know them, but like in Futurama, it'll make your reading that much more enjoyable if you do get the references. What I didn't expect were the references to Craig Allanson's Expeditionary Force series (check it out if you haven't yet). I guess the author is a fan, which the author and I have similar tastes. I can only approve. PS: with 10000 Bobs, surely they must have run out of unique names, right? Though don't call them Shirley.

Book number four of a four book space opera series. I read the well printed and well bound 600+ page POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency in 2020. I will purchase and read any future books in the series. "Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street." "Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the State. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling A.I. in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high, no less than first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target for sabotage. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty." Ah, space opera by the pound, cool ! It is a novel of deceit, deception, and betrayal. In other words, a typical space opera story. Heaven's River is a double wall torus surrounding a distant star, a partial Dyson Sphere. Almost a 100 miles wide and a billion miles long, it houses the survivors of a planetary war, a beaver like creature, as their planet is no longer habitable. Bob's descendants are now over 10,000 with up to 24 generations. Their physical AIs are up to 100 light years away from Sol. Each of the AI's is a little different from Bob due to replicative drift. Many of them have formed groups with wildly differing goals. And some of these groups are violent, especially about continued contact with human beings and other intelligent species.

This book added on well to the first three of the series; however, I felt it had too much of a focus on Heaven’s River. Considering it’s the name of the book, I guess I was forewarned and just didn’t give it enough attention. The continuing saga of Bob, Bill, Will, Howard, and friends took us on the search for Bender. The Bobiverse has fractured into some interesting groups. Anyone into gaming, will definitely enjoy the gaming group. Starfleet is a bit over the top, and I’m not sure how the Skippies got their name as I couldn’t quite figure out what they were supposed to have skipped. I’ve yet to figure out why, other than the Borg group, not a single other “Bob” has decided to change his face. The storyline dragged in places. It definitely didn’t need to go through so many towns and rivers and boats and hotels and sheriffs, etc, for me to know that the man made construct that the creatures lived in was a billion miles long. I got it…a billion, with a B. Something no one could cover in a single lifetime. Although, at times, the author made it seem like it would take a lifetime to get through with that part of the book. Once Bender was found, the return to get him out took even longer. The small chapters where someone else was focused on were a welcome relief and not provided often enough. Even the coffee drinking scenes provided a breather. I was grateful when everything finally came together in the end. One thing that will need to be done, with 24-25 generations of Bobs and various other replicants, is that a replicant government needs to be formed. It’s time. If not everyone, just the Bob group then. Some decisions should be discussed before being made. They should not be made unilaterally as the one that was made here. All in all, this was an enjoyable read. You should read the first three books in this series before reading this book. Otherwise, you’ll be clueless as to what is happening.

“Heaven’s River” is the fourth installment in Dennis E. Taylor’s Bobiverse series, and it doesn’t disappoint. The story kicks off with Bob searching for his long-lost clone, Bender, leading to the discovery of a massive topopolis inhabited by a unique alien species. Taylor’s knack for blending hard science fiction with humor and philosophical musings shines through, making for an engaging read. The exploration of replicative drift among the Bobs adds depth to the narrative, and the introduction of new alien cultures keeps the series fresh. If you’re a sci-fi fan looking for a blend of adventure, humor, and thought-provoking concepts, this series is a must-read. Five stars.

Book 4 of the Bobiverse universe is great! Couldn't put it down! The whole series is funny and interesting with the different points of view (from the different Bobs).

The first three Bobiverse installments serve up a fizzy cocktail of 4X space adventure, sci fi action and pop culture nerdiness, laced with a twist of philosophical undertones. The world building and plot elements never felt contrived, forced or bloated. Although clearly written as a good character with only modest character flaws (sort of like me), Original Bob never fell into the sanctimony trap (which I did - just ask my co-workers). In Heaven's River (HR), the series slams into a wall, like the alien soldier splatting against the viewport of the NSEA Protector after getting ejected from the airlock. The first three installments follow grand plot lines, taking decades to unfold over multiple timelines and plumbing the depths of interstellar space. By comparison, HR feels downright claustrophobic, focusing on two parallel and somewhat less-than-grand plot lines that progress in a linear fashion over a fairly short time frame (at least on the Bob time scale) in basically fixed settings. In one plot line, the Bobs search for Spock ... er ... Bender, while at the same time trying to solve the mystery surrounding an alien race living on a particular type of "megastructure" (about which you will learn more engineering and design principles than you ever wanted to know). The alien mystery follows a standard science fiction trope that any nerd worth his pocket protector should be able to guess before finishing his oreos and milk. The action consists mostly of swimming, sneaking around, running, sneaking around some more, more swimming, more running, capture, escape, running followed by some jogging, swimming underwater, another capture or two, escape again and big reveal. To add to the slog, the narrative becomes mired in excruciating detail ... the break-in to the megastructure was a particularly memorable instance of watching paint dry. The other plot line follows a burgeoning factional split in the Bobiverse. After a lukewarm attempt to establish some new characters and villains, the plot quickly settles into fairly standard "Avengers: Civil War" fare, with a smattering of Hyperion Cantos thrown in at the end. Furthermore, in this plot line, Original Bob begins to take on Buddha-like status, with characters measuring right and wrong by asking "What would Original Bob do?" By appealing to the higher Bob authority, the plot squashes some interesting character conflicts and moral questions simmering in the background and strikes me as a bit of a writing crutch. In addition to these "big picture" issues, HR suffers from generally lackluster writing and suboptimal creative choices. In the first three installments, the Bobs were deeply troubled by the mysterious circumstances surrounding Bender's disappearance, afraid that he "died" alone and unknown in some dark corner of the universe. Their sense of loss was a bittersweet coda to the Bobs' victory over the Others, compounded by the lack of closure stemming from the uncertainty surrounding Bender's fate. In contrast, HR reduces Bender to a mere macguffin to push one of the plot lines forward, just another recycled set of secret plans to the Death Star. Once charming, the pop culture references have become overdone, particularly those referencing Star Trek: TNG and D&D. I lost count of how many times the text described the changing design of the Star Trek uniforms worn by one Bob faction. If there was some deeper meaning to the state of Federation fashion, I completely failed to see it. The pacing is very uneven, with some scenes laboring for pages over a relatively minor plot point in excruciating detail while others breeze over potentially momentous events in the Bobiverse. The intra-Bob conflict feels contrived and is somewhat difficult to take seriously, given that one Bob faction's political philosophy is based entirely on the Prime Directive (sort of reverse Galaxy Quest or, for fans of the original series, "A Piece of the Action') while another faction is trying to create an AI along the lines of the Earth in Hitchhikers Guide (which, just in case you missed the analogy, is pointed out by one Bob's explicit reference to "42"). In sum and from a slightly charitable standpoint, HR looks like a transition from the early Bob Ages to mid Bob Ages, designed to set up the rest of the series. If so, HR could have accomplished this purpose in half the pages and taken a few more chances. At times, I felt like the author was trying to avoid some of the deeper questions raised by his world building. Perhaps, this is because some of these questions will take the series in a darker direction. The Bobs are basically immortal beings with unlimited intellect compared to humans. At some point (and probably pretty quickly), Bobs and humans will become unrecognizable to each other, probably with unpleasant consequences for everyone (especially the humans). The adoption of "ephemeral" and "bio" terminology hint at this outcome. But every time, the author goes near this unpleasant subject he drops it like a Hot Pocket just out of the microwave. So, for the completionists out there, HR amounts to decent Bobiverse snack that will tide you over the next (and hopefully) better Bobiverse meal. For casual fans, you could probably skim the book, just to keep up on Bobiverse current events.

Item arrived fast and in top condition, Can't ask for more!

Wollte nach der Bobiverse-Trilogie nicht aufhören, über dieses fantastische Science-Fiction-Universum zu lesen und war freudig überrascht, dass es da noch "Heaven's River" gibt. Das Buch setzt da fort, wo "All these Worlds" aufgehört hat. Anstelle des ständigen Location-Wechsels der Trilogie, wird hier aber der Fokus auf eine neue Welt gelegt. Vorsicht, Spoiler: Die Geschichte ist faszinierend, auch wenn sich das Katz-und-Maus-Spiel in der Topopolis mit der Zeit ständig wiederholt. Das Ende ist etwas überhastet, das deus ex machina ein bisschen zu einfach. Wem die Trilogie gefallen hat, der wird aber auch hier auf die Rechnung kommen. Bin gespannt, ob noch weitere Bobiverse-Bücher folgen. Wünschenswert wäre, wenn die ganze Konfliktsituation unter den sentient beings und den Bobs dabei ausgeklammert wird. Ich mochte v.a. den konstruktiven, innovativen Ansatz, der in der Trilogie stets gewählt wurde.

I loved this book and the entire series. It’s thought provoking, action packed and hard to put down. If you’re a sci-fi fan, this is a great read.

Le récit est plus linéaire que dans les précédant tomes. Il prend la forme d'un road movie, d'un river movie en fait, avec assez peu d'enchevêtrement avec d'autres lignes de récit. Le suspense est bien tenu. Une certaine tolérance avec la vraisemblance scientifique et technique est toujours requise pour bien apprécier l'histoire, mais cela ne gâche pratiquement pas le plaisir d'assister à l'aboutissement d'une saga que l'on quitte à regrets.

I think this book is a good continuation of the Bobiverse saga and shares all the good virtues of the rest of the series. It has lots of action, plots, interesting alien species... and interesting thoughts about the meaning of life, being human. In short good science fiction, hope there will be new Bobiverse books in the future.