Bowl of Heaven

Nov 10, 2012 Tamahome rated it 3 of 5 stars

pg 111/412: Very traditional, Ringworld or Rendezvous with Rama-like sf novel. Should take me only 10 hours to read. Has got plenty of science, space, and aliens, but it's not bogged down in it. None of that singularity stuff.

pg 215/412: Hey, I'm halfway though. I just might finish this thing. Although it's more of a jungle story now that they're on the inner bowl surface. But there's still some interesting science that comes into play. A cool thing about this environment is different areas have...more

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Dec 26, 2012 David rated it 1 of 5 stars

Four problems with this book series:

1. Each book should stand alone as a story - but this book is just an introduction that sets up the situation. And a pointlessly looooong introduction at that.

2. Ridiculous Action - A colony ship with thousands passengers and the captain decides to drive it up a dangerous plasma stream because its fun and faster? A ground crew is sent to INVADE the first ever encountered, clearly inhabited, alien ship with no recon or communications? And so on. Its impossible...more

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Dec 27, 2012 J. rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: own

This book had a good beginning. It had a lower rating than most of the books I listen to, which made me nervous, but I needed my space sci-fi fix. The pacing was good, especially compared to the last few space books I've read, which were by Alastair Reynolds with his almost unbearably slow set ups.

I should say the pacing was good right up to the point that Larry Niven/Gregory Benford dozed off and forgot to write an ending. Seriously. The book just stops mid-story with nothing resolved. Don't re...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Ric rated it 3 of 5 stars

Scenario: There's a strange megastructure artifact in space, and some curious folk want to take a look-see. The premise, quite a well-traveled science fiction road, recalls favorites such as the ring of Larry Niven's Ringworld, the cylinder in Arthur Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama, the sphere in Bob Shaw's Orbitsville, the pipes in Alastair Reynolds's Pushing Ice, even the hole through the planet in Benford's own ~~Tides of Light~~ Furious Gulf.

The basic elements are the discovery, the trip, the entr...more

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May 20, 2013 Clay rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf-fantasy

I just don’t get this: Why does a respected publishing house like Tor need to mislead consumers into buying a book – in this case, “Bowl of Heaven” (Tor, $25.99, 412 pages) – by never once mentioning anywhere on the jacket that it’s the first of a series? What’s the point? Do they think that fooling readers is going to build customer loyalty down the road? Or do they just not care that the investment from a buyer triples when it’s a trilogy?

And in any event, this Gregory Benford/Larry Niven coll...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Libby rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the first installment in a series. As such, it suffers from being the intro chapters. The authors have to feed us a lot of information, here, and the story takes the back seat. As a reader, I want to know THE STORY and I get cranky when I don't get it. The authors repeatedly hint at a lot of fairly intriguing story lines but we haven't really followed them yet. This pussy-footin' around the plot line lost at least half a star right there.

This novel does rate high marks for its imaginativ...more

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Feb 27, 2013 Tim Hicks rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Disappointing.

First because there's no indication it's #1 of 2, and Tor has to be aware that many of us don't read reviews before reading the book.

Second because of the many errors pointed out by others -- although I admit that perhaps half the errors were simply from putting the wrong character's name in.

A good editor would have caught the errors, and also spotted the parts that dragged and meandered and added nothing.

Cliff and Irma? Clumsy and unnecessary. I'll bet the publishers made them...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Matthew Baker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Author Larry Niven is a member of a three-writer collaborative team-up responsible for one of my favorite books of all time: THE LEGACY OF HEOROT. Along with authors Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle, Niven helps to shape one of the greatest series’ in science-fiction history. So when I heard he was teaming up with another legend in science-fiction, Gregory Benford, to create another new series, I knew I had to give it a look. Although BOWL OF HEAVEN is not perfect, it is an exciting and fun jau...more Author Larry Niven is a member of a three-writer collaborative team-up responsible for one of my favorite books of all time: THE LEGACY OF HEOROT. Along with authors Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle, Niven helps to shape one of the greatest series’ in science-fiction history. So when I heard he was teaming up with another legend in science-fiction, Gregory Benford, to create another new series, I knew I had to give it a look. Although BOWL OF HEAVEN is not perfect, it is an exciting and fun jaunt into first-contact territory.

When you have two icons of science-fiction working together like this, you know you’re in for a treat. The combined minds of Benford and Niven give readers a wonderful, mysterious scenario and then plunge them deep into the heart of its intricacies. Only two masters such as these could offer such depth.

As expected, the writing in BOWL OF HEAVEN is smooth and fluid, with strong wording and sentence structure. The prose is strong and flows at a perfect pace with a fine voice and plenty of spirit. The story itself is presented well for the most part and moves at a nice clip. I do see some inconsistencies with continuity in regard to the plot, however; I will not go into full detail because this might actually be on purpose. My gut tells me there will be future volumes in this universe, and they could potentially explain what happened in this one.

The characters are fleshed out nicely, and there are no stereotypical science-fiction cliches within them. This is of particular note because stock characters seem to abound in the genre these days. Originality, even within the cast, is extremely important in a market that is overrun with new authors trying to carve a name for themselves.

BOWL OF HEAVEN is entertaining on many levels, and I highly recommend it to fans of science-fiction. Benford and Niven are two writers who have navigated the story-telling waters for many years and their expertise shines in this collaborative debut. Give this one a look for sure.(less)

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Dec 09, 2012 Steve rated it 3 of 5 stars

I usually don't read series books; I am not reading enough as it is to add more books to the books-to-be read list . But I've been a Benford fan forever (Niven, not so much), and I think (hope) there's only a single book left after this one.

A starship from Earth, whose crew is mostly asleep, encounters a large, strange object. Like Niven's Ringworld, it's a ring around a star, but this one is shaped more like a bowl. Millions of miles across, it has a hole in the bottom of the bowl, through whic...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Veronica rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, sf

I have not read either of these authors' independent work, so I cannot make any comparisons in that regard. I liked this book well enough to probably be suckered into waiting for the next in the series. However, I didn't buy this one (Go SPL!) and I won't buy the next one either because while I enjoyed Bowl of Heaven well enough to want to read the sequel, the books weren't that great. The main issue I had was the book's repetitiveness, its hollow characters and some obvious plot holes/mistakes...more I have not read either of these authors' independent work, so I cannot make any comparisons in that regard. I liked this book well enough to probably be suckered into waiting for the next in the series. However, I didn't buy this one (Go SPL!) and I won't buy the next one either because while I enjoyed Bowl of Heaven well enough to want to read the sequel, the books weren't that great. The main issue I had was the book's repetitiveness, its hollow characters and some obvious plot holes/mistakes (discussed below).

The basic premise is that Earth sends out a spaceship that will take the best and brightest scientific minds to the nearest (millions of light years away) habitable planet, Glory, so that they can terraform it and make it human-friendly. Everybody gets frozen for the journey except rotating teams of pilots. Cliff, senior officer and biologist supreme gets woken up early. There's a big thing in the sky and the pilots don't know what to do about it. You'll get plenty of description of this thing, so I won't go there except to saw that it's a bowl with a hole in the middle, and it seems to be the size of our solar system. Running short on supplies, of course, the newly awoken captain and a few others brought out of stasis decide to make contact. Chaos ensues, the humans are on the run, the place is kind of like Earth but way more weird and not really like Earth at all, etc. Let me repeat that last bit a few hundred times: the place is kinda like Earth, but not. It's weirder, really weirder. Did you get that? It's weird. And it's HUGE. Let me repeat that a few more hundred times. It's beyond human comprehension how HUGE it is! And the aliens, yeah, they're weird too. Like Big Bird. No really. And let me repeat a few hundred times that according to the Big Birds, humans are sooooo primitive and stupid and helpless and ridiculous. And yet so elusive and tricky and hard to catch!

Look, I'm geting pretty tired of this Ascendency of the Human Race thing, where no matter how advanced or more capable the aliens humanity encounters, humans still prevail due to their scrappiness, their smarts, their humanity, or even worse, their capability to love (here's looking at you The Host). The Bird Folk created in this series could be genuinely interesting, and they clearly have a complex hierarchy and political system that would be really fun to explore, especially considering how the book ends, but they are stunted by the authors' need to show that human beings are always better than anything else that's out there. Unfortunately, it's nearly impossible to really give a shit about any of the human characters because there are no real characters. There are more like character types, and maybe because they're all scientist-types, almost none of them show any sort of emotion (I'm qualifying that statement in case there was some incredible subtlety that a mere casual reader like myself might have missed or not been smart enough to *get*). Due in large part to this, the entire book has the same narrative tone, even though there are at least 5 different character viewpoints. The only one that is distinctive is Memor's, and that's because she's the alien dripping with scorn for the humans.

Remember that scene in Jurassic Park (out in 3D soon?) where they're in the car and the T-rex breaks through the wires? Well, it come out on level ground on the right-hand side, if you're looking at the cars. In a scene shortly after, there is a huge drop on that same side that some of the characters face. It was a small thing, but fairly easy to have corrected. Similar things happen in this book, most noticeably with Beth's group at the beginning. This seems to happen in part due to the multiple-view-points narrative construct. So we first see the main action of landing on the Bowl through Cliff's eyes, the other main character. Then, after the split, we see some of that same action through Beth's and there are discrepancies, but not the kind that come from post-modern-fractured-narrative style. Straight up discrepancies. One of the reviews on Amazon claimed that this book read more like an unfinished draft because of such basic mistakes, and while I wouldn't go that far, there could have been more done to make sure the narrative views aligned and were consistent with one another.

And yet. I give this book three stars because it was fun to read. I liked it and sped through it pretty fast. The basic on-the-run-narrative trope works well enough here, though it ends with no resolution whatsoever. I personally didn't mind that much, probably because I wasn't horribly invested in it enough to shake my fist in rage at the authors and damn them for not publishing the sequel until June 2013. Whatever. If I remember that then, I'll put in on hold at the library. If not, well, it won't leave me sleepless and wondering. A mediocre sentiment for what promises to be a fairly mediocre series. (less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Burgoo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

In the midst of their voyage, a troubled colony ship encounters a strange object, a bowl shaped structure half-enclosing a star, with a surface area many times that of the Earth. The ship’s crew decides to investigate, both out of curiosity & in hope of restocking their dwindling supplies. Of course the landing party encounters problems, with half being captured while the other half are hunted across the Bowl.

Early in their adventures, a group encounters a large animal emerging from water....more In the midst of their voyage, a troubled colony ship encounters a strange object, a bowl shaped structure half-enclosing a star, with a surface area many times that of the Earth. The ship’s crew decides to investigate, both out of curiosity & in hope of restocking their dwindling supplies. Of course the landing party encounters problems, with half being captured while the other half are hunted across the Bowl.

Early in their adventures, a group encounters a large animal emerging from water. Amazed, they realize they are viewing a dinosaur. In a nutshell, that’s my reaction to Bowl of Heaven. For better or worse, it reads much the same as a hard SF novel from 30 or 40 years ago.

The strength of the book is the artifact itself. An immense, self-propelled shipstar (yes, that is the phrase that is used) created from repurposing the mass of a solar system. Extensively modified, it is home of seemingly hundreds of species and ecosystems. Benford & Niven develop the Bowl in great detail and apparent scientific rigor. Fans of SF built around BDOs are sure to enjoy the descriptions.

Benford & Niven provide insight into the people and culture of the Bowl via the use of Memor, an Astronomer of the Folk, as a POV. Memor is tasked with observation and interaction with the captured colonists. We learn about the Folk as she contrasts the colonists with herself and her people.

Given the chase/escape plot of most of this book, the story zips right along. The colonists race from one danger to another, with their explorations providing an opportunity for the reader to discover and explore the strange world of the Bowl along with them. It’s a simple devise, but in this sort of novel, where the location itself is the primary interest, it works wonderfully
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Unfortunately, while the object is so loving developed and described, the same cannot be said for our human protagonists. Their side of the story is told primarily through the POVs of 3 crewmembers, Captain Redwing, Cliff Kammash, & Beth Marble, both biologists. All three are little more than thinly constructed pieces of cardboard that function more as plot devices or as opportunities for exposition. Who are they? What are their motivations? By the end of the book they were just as enigmatic as they were at the beginning.

In fact, by the end of the book, I seemed to have as many questions as I did upon the start. Why were there no military or security personnel on the ship? Were all the colonists primarily technicians of one sort or another? Did they really expect to force their way into an alien artifact and not encounter any aliens? Shouldn’t someone have mentioned that at the staff meeting so that they could plan for it?

Your enjoyment of Bowl of Heaven is going to be directly related to how much you enjoy certain types of hard SF as written 30 years ago. Be forewarned, this is only the first half of a duology, with the second portion expected next year.
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Oct 02, 2012 Paper Droids rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collaboration between Larry Niven and Gregory Benford is a clear example of exceptional science fiction writing. The quality of this novel comes as no surprise, considering the authors’ respective positions as masters of science fiction. Both Niven and Benford, well-known for their focus on hard science fiction, do not disappoint with Bowl of Heaven, which pays sharp attention to the logic, logistics, and wonder that would accompany such a discovery.

The reader often feels immersed in the st...more

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Jan 11, 2013 David Hill rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the blurbs on the back cover says "My only complaint is how long I'll have to wait to see how it all turns out." Yes, this is the first book of a new set, and it ends without any sort of conclusion. This is another "odyssey" book, where we follow characters through strange lands. The strange land they're navigating through is half a Dyson sphere, so it's a bigger place than that in Niven's Ringworld.

In some senses, the aliens are a bit stupid. For example, at one point our heroes basicall...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Denise Eggleston rated it 4 of 5 stars

I just finished reading “Bowl of Heaven” by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. It should be noted that I won an advanced reading copy on Goodreads.com First Reads program. I recommend this book, but with certain reservations. I’ll get to those in just a few paragraphs.

The “Bowl of Heaven” opens with a party on Earth. The crew and builders of a star ship are celebrating the incipient launch of the ship. In it, the crew, except for a rotating cadre of watchkeepers, will sleep for hundreds of years w...more I just finished reading “Bowl of Heaven” by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven. It should be noted that I won an advanced reading copy on Goodreads.com First Reads program. I recommend this book, but with certain reservations. I’ll get to those in just a few paragraphs.

The “Bowl of Heaven” opens with a party on Earth. The crew and builders of a star ship are celebrating the incipient launch of the ship. In it, the crew, except for a rotating cadre of watchkeepers, will sleep for hundreds of years while they fly to an Earth-like planet called Glory. The main character, a biologist named Cliff, is rudely awoken from his long chemically-induced slumber. Captain Redwing and a few others are also awoken.

Their ship has approached an anomaly, a bowl-shaped object with a captive red-dwarf sun. The bowl is immense; the size of a solar system and inside the bowl is an unimaginably-sized territory. They find a land of lush forests, deserts, rivers, and seas. They decide to explore the bowl they nickname Cupworld.

The explorers end up divided on this new world. One group is captured and studied by immense bird-like creatures. The other group escapes into Cupworld and is chased by its inhabitants. The rest of this volume is about the experiences of each group with a bit about Captain Redwing hanging about the sky.

That’s basically the story and I hope I’ve avoided spoilers. Now for the reservations. The book is very close to Larry Niven’s “Ringworld” concept. Cupworld and Ringworld are two immense constructions surrounding captive suns. Each world is based on the fictional concept of a Dyson Sphere built around a sun (the actual concept is the more practical satellite rings around a sun and not a construction the size of solar systems).

Each book has its protagonists dealing with the natives of the constructions. Each construction is almost inconceivably old.

The books are not identical though and “Bowl of Heaven” is enjoyable on its own terms. In some ways, "Bowl of Heaven" is more philosophical (and I mean that in a good way) than "Ringworld." But, if you’ve read any of the “Ringworld” books, you will not be able to get the echo out of your head.

One other reservation; the book ends with a note that a second volume will soon be released. Arrgh. I want to know what happens to Cliff, Captain Redwing, and all the others. I have to wait. Sigh.
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Oct 20, 2012 Gerhard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

With Old School, Hard SF like this, the characterisation is not that subtle: 57% into the Kindle version, we get this gem: "Ayaan was an Arab woman who dressed in deck uniform like everyone else, but occasionally at dinner wore a stylish veil and glinting emerald earrings." Cannot forget the bling.

At 85% we get this wince-inducing moment: "Long silence. Terry glanced at Aybe, and Cliff suddenly remembered that one of them was gay. Which one? For the life of him, he could not remember. Damn! All...more

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Jan 30, 2013 Ron Arden rated it 3 of 5 stars

I didn't realize this was the first book in a planned series until I was nearing the end and realized there was no way the story would conclude in 20 pages. It ends abruptly, too abruptly. I did enjoy this interesting world that reminded me of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series. Some of the characters were a bit stereotypical and some had little to no interest for me.

The story begins with a group of scientists, technicians and assorted others who board a large spaceship for a 500 year journey to a...more I didn't realize this was the first book in a planned series until I was nearing the end and realized there was no way the story would conclude in 20 pages. It ends abruptly, too abruptly. I did enjoy this interesting world that reminded me of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series. Some of the characters were a bit stereotypical and some had little to no interest for me.

The story begins with a group of scientists, technicians and assorted others who board a large spaceship for a 500 year journey to a distant planet. Everyone except for a rotating small crew is in hibernation. A few hundred years into the journey (although it's unclear because first they say they lost contact 80 years ago and then its 100), two crew members wake up some of the senior scientists because they have a problem and they may have a solution. The problem is they are going slower than they thought. At their current speed, they will run out of food 50 years too soon. They noticed what appears to be an artificial structure very close to a star they are passing, and it may hold life and allow them to resupply.

Two landing parties are sent to the surface of this world. It's more like someone constructed a small solar system, complete with a star, but the whole place acts like a large planet enveloped in a spaceship. The teams arrive and are soon captured by creatures that look like 10 foot tall birds. The humans are treated more like specimens than the top of the food chain, as they are on Earth. The natives of this place come from many planets and star systems. The beings that run it are the aforementioned birds who are in somewhat of a caste society. They are far more evolved than the humans, or so it appears.

The natives assimilate different species through genetic engineering and behavior modification. They plan to assimilate the humans except one group escapes. The second group eventually escapes and now the natives have decided they are dangerous and must be destroyed. At this point, it's a hunter versus hunted story with the two human groups living off the land and adapting as best they can. It appears that even though the humans appeared at first to be less evolved, perhaps there is more here than meets the eye.

There were some odd parts of this book and I wondered if an editor may have taken the day off before publishing it. There is one place where the same character appears to be in both landing parties at the same time. First in one and then later in the other. There are other places where first the story says one thing and later something contradictory. Since two authors wrote the book, I wonder if they first decided on one situation and then one changed something without telling the other. Odd.

It will be interesting to see how the second book is when it comes out. I'll probably read it to see how the story progresses, but I hope the editing and characters are a little better.
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Dec 01, 2012 Bradley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, science-fiction

For the first time, Gregory Benford and Larry Niven team up for Bowl of Heaven . The first human expedition to another habitable planet takes them across interstellar space, where they encounter an object somewhat like a Dyson Sphere--only this one encompasseshalf the star instead. With their ship malfunctioning, and survival questionable, they investigate the 'bowl' in hopes they can re-supply for the remainder of their journey. Instead, half the landing crew is captured by the aliens, and the...more For the first time, Gregory Benford and Larry Niven team up for Bowl of Heaven . The first human expedition to another habitable planet takes them across interstellar space, where they encounter an object somewhat like a Dyson Sphere--only this one encompasses half the star instead. With their ship malfunctioning, and survival questionable, they investigate the 'bowl' in hopes they can re-supply for the remainder of their journey. Instead, half the landing crew is captured by the aliens, and the other half is running for their lives.

The beginning of the novel is quite promising. The send-off for the mission and introduction to the characters is revealing, and the authors set a brief pace. In what seems no time at all, the Bowl is encountered, and the entire plot to this point is mesmerizing. Once the crew is split up, however, things take a turn for the worse. The pace is slow, plodding, and repetitive. Niven and Benford attempt to keep readers interested by jumping to different viewpoints, which--though revealing some plot points--rarely does much to ramp up the story. There's more frustration here than satisfaction, as just as tantalizing details are given, it seems the reader is whisked away to another viewpoint. It's clear by the end of the novel that either everything has to be revealed very quickly, or that the story isn't over. The last page indicates that another volume, Shipstar is due out, which will hopefully resolve the story set forth in Bowl of Heaven.

Fortunately, it's an intriguing story, and there are hints that the resolution may be worth waiting for. Unfortunately, the pace of the novel is so slow that it may be painful to read through another, just to learn if it was worth it. It's already clear that this is likely a story that could have been told with a single volume, rather than splitting it into two.

Nevertheless, Bowl of Heaven is worth the read. The characters are well-drawn, and the alien civilization is foreign enough to be believable. The sheer scale of the engineering involved is quite incredible, and will hopefully be explored further in volume 2. Niven's influence is immediately apparent, and traces of the Ringworld books appear all over. Benford's ability to bring complex, alien viewpoints to life is also on hand, to make the Bowl's inhabitants aloof, yet relatable. Bowl of Heaven is most certainly a mixture of the two authors' strengths--but their weaknesses also combine here to dramatically drag down the pace of the story.

With no current date or information about the second volume, Shipstar, readers will have to wait--and ponder--until they are rewarded with the second half of the story. Will it be worth the wait? Only time will tell.(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Tom Gregorio rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent book, didn't realize until the last page that it WAS the last page, something one does not catch when reading e-books!

In a nutshell, this is a hard science fiction, first alien encounter, constructed world saga of the best kind. If I hadn't already read the Ringworld series I probably would have given this a fifth star, too much of the story was derivative or predictable. The plot moves along, different perspectives are provided (including alien), and the provided diagrams helped make...more

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Oct 31, 2012 Wolfgang rated it 3 of 5 stars

Larry Niven just isn't what he used to be.

Okay, it's hard to live up to "Ringworld" standards with every book you write. But for the past decade Larry's been relying more and more on collaborations for his books, and the results are not always as good as this reader would like.

"Bowl of Heaven" falls into that category on the "worse than usual" side. Don't get me wrong, it's a fine book when taken all by itself. But if you've read "Ringworld" (and if you haven't, for heaven's sake run out and rea...more

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Sep 22, 2012 William Bentrim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bowl of Heaven by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven

In spite of the title, this is not a dish of death by chocolate ice cream. In some what stereotypical Niven fashion, a starship comes upon an immense artifact (ala Ringworld) on their way to explore a new planet.

The artifact is a shipstar, no typo, a ship being powered by a star full of new sights, strange creatures and great adventure. In spite of the comparison to Ringworld, the book isn’t just Ringworld warmed over. The premise is somewhat simi...more

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Jan 13, 2013 April rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a good hard science book. I am not that type, so just tend to skim the physics rationale and follow the plotline, which in itself is interesting. It starts off slowly, with a crew flying to a new planet far away...trouble ensues and the main character Cliff gets awakenened early from coldsleep. Turns out that their path is thrown off by a giant planetoid-like sphere. They decide to stop their for supplies and (SPOILER ALERT) meet up with an alien race. I had trouble getting into the ali...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Paul Lunger rated it 3 of 5 stars

Gregory Benford & Larry Niven's "Bowl of Heaven" is a complex story of space exploration that tries to redefine the wonders of the universe as we know it. The book revolves around the crew of the SunSeeker who are headed toward the planet Glory in an attempt to make contact with other species outside of our own. When the ship encounters an unexpected world in a "bowl" things change from there as the exploration of what this bowl really means along with the consequences for humanity itself. B...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Donald Cook rated it 1 of 5 stars

Larry Niven's offerings often, since after the Ringworld series, have shown weakness in editing. It's always the same thing: events are written in one way, and then within about a page appear in rewritten form later.
But this book is so rife with error as to migrate a nuisance into a deep embarrassment. A character is captured by aliens @ p. 104, then reappears, patching up a wound at p. 106. This is the point where I got really tired of the sloppiness, not the sole example. Not to mention that...more

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Jan 28, 2013 Dave rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book was a major disappointment.

I'm a fan of co-author Larry Niven and was looking forward to some "big idea" science fiction similar to his Ringworld or The Mote in God's Eye, which he co-authored with Jerry Pournelle. I've read little by the other co-author, Gregory Benford, who also writes "big idea" science fiction but whose prose I don't like as much.

Unfortunately this book's editor should never have allowed it to be published in its current condition. It badly needed another couple e...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Ronald rated it 2 of 5 stars

I just finished reading Bowl of Heaven by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford, I have read and enjoyed both of these writers work. I consider Niven one of my favorite authors. I liked Nivens’s last book and so thought to give this one a chance. While not either author’s worst work, this book has issues, several issues that take away from my enjoyment of the book.

First nowhere does in on the cover or description does the book mention it is the first book of a series. If I had known it was part of a s...more I just finished reading Bowl of Heaven by Larry Niven and Gregory Benford, I have read and enjoyed both of these writers work. I consider Niven one of my favorite authors. I liked Nivens’s last book and so thought to give this one a chance. While not either author’s worst work, this book has issues, several issues that take away from my enjoyment of the book.

First nowhere does in on the cover or description does the book mention it is the first book of a series. If I had known it was part of a series I would have waited for more of those books to have been published. Despite being the introductory book in the series there seemed to be a lot of repetitive padding and stretching of the story as if there was a target number of pages to be reached and not a point when the story was done.

Second the book felt as if it was written by two people with little or no effort made to find out what the other had already written. There are a couple of times when a human discovers something interesting and the reader gets a full description only to have that same discovery recounted by the same person in the next chapter.

Third, a colony ship sent to an unknown world hundreds of years away was sent without colonists trained for military or police work. They did give the untrained colonists side arms like in any bad science fiction story. The crew also seemed to lack anyone with any training or interest in first contact with an alien race. I would go so far as to say I could have advised these fine people how to handle this situation and all I have done is read books and watch movies. Seriously they just sent down a shuttle with no idea where to land and then panicked when their landing spot was not what was expected. The authors and characters both seemed to have forgotten at that point that they were in a space craft in low gravity where they could just fly to a better landing spot.

Fourth, aliens! They could have been cool aliens! But the aliens seemed to be mostly ignored. The alien point of view often felt more like padding than anything moving the plot along.

Anyway, the book is not as bad as this review might make it seem. I did finish it after all, there are just issues.
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Dec 05, 2012 Zilverzurfarn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been trying to pinpoint what genre this is, and it suddenly hit me: It's the Flash Gordon genre! (Sorry, I just had to add that to my review)
Was expecting more from a killer Bee. Rather unimaginative, no mind bending concepts (other than in scale) and not much science either. More of an adventure set in a somewhat odd environment. If this ever made it to the silver screen, I'd see it as a Saturday double feature matinée followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
I put this together...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Timothy Finucane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Seems there are quite a few low ratings for this book on GoodReads.com; I think this just shows me to be a bit old-school when it comes to my sci-fi. I rather liked the book and didn't mind that it didn't try to cram in more singularity kinds of stuff.

The book sets the story in a quasi Dyson sphere (only 1/2 of a sphere) with lots of different aliens and eco-systems. The science explored here ranges from realistic interstellar flight to evolution and brain science. While the story has plenty of

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Jan 30, 2013 Will Maddox rated it 1 of 5 stars

Well, the first portion of the book got my attention and reeled me in. That was pretty much it. The rest of the novel truly sucked. I mean, truly, truly sucked. The main characters discover this spaceship that's using a star to power it, which means the space ship is truly massive, like the size of a solar system. Ok, this could be interesting. So they land at the front door and these giant chicken type aliens come out acting all friendly, then suddenly attack and start taking people prisoner. O...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Nick Cato rated it 5 of 5 stars

Benford & Niven, two masters of "hard" scifi, kick off a new series dealing with the starship SunSeeker, launched from earth for a light-years-long journey to a mysterious, newly-discovered planet that has been named 'Glory.' But when fuel concerns bring the mission into question, the ship's captain allows a chosen few to be awoken from their sleep chambers to help deal with the problem.

The crew then discover a gigantic, bowl-shaped artifact on basically the same course as themselves. They d...more Benford & Niven, two masters of "hard" scifi, kick off a new series dealing with the starship SunSeeker, launched from earth for a light-years-long journey to a mysterious, newly-discovered planet that has been named 'Glory.' But when fuel concerns bring the mission into question, the ship's captain allows a chosen few to be awoken from their sleep chambers to help deal with the problem.

The crew then discover a gigantic, bowl-shaped artifact on basically the same course as themselves. They decide to gamble a shuttle and see if they can get help. Husband and wife biologists Cliff and Beth lead the expedition to the odd man-made planet that turns out to be 100-times larger than earth.

Super intelligent, ostrich-like aliens (called Astronomers) run the planet. They capture Beth and five others while Cliff and another four crew members manage to escape. Each person is a specially skilled scientist or engineer and both groups rely on their skills to survive on this oddly earth-like new world.

Benford & Niven pack this tale with an abundance of thought provoking scientific possibilities and deep philosophical ideas while keeping the suspense level high and introducing us to countless alien life forms. Some sections of the Astronomers contemplating man go on for a bit too long, but are entertaining nonetheless.

While there are many characters, the authors keep things tight by focusing on a few. I found Cliff's issues to be the most interesting; besides being thrown in charge of the expedition, he begins a "utility" affair with fellow biologist Irma and is first to friend a cat-like species of aliens who are also trying to get off the artificial planet. SunSeeker's captain, 'Redwing,' is like an old fashioned sea captain who's as tough as nails, smart in ways his scientific crew isn't, and is quite likeable despite his hard-edged ways. He keeps this futuristic story ground in the past and gives the ship a familiar feel.

BOWL OF HEAVEN is a smart, monster-filled scifi romp that promises great things to come. Book two, 'Shipstar,' can't get here fast enough.(less)

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Feb 23, 2013 Bruce rated it 2 of 5 stars

I am not sure how these two got together, but based on this book the collaboration does not work. Simply put, this book is disappointing given the capabilities of both authors. It reads entirely like a first novel that gets rejected often enough for the author to learn from his shortcomings and write a publishable second. The first novel then sits in a box somewhere in an attic until the author dies and the marketplace is hungry enough to regurgitate that first novel on an unsuspecting public. S...more

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