The Voices of Heaven

by Frederik Pohl

An interstellar thriller by the author of Gateway takes unlikely hero Barry di Hoa to a new world, where a colony struggles, with the help of intelligent indigenous aliens, despite too few supplies from Earth and too much religious zealotry.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Novels

347 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1994

About the author

Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

Reviews

[Alex Drozd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic. I'm surprised to see it's not very well remembered or liked. Sure, it's a bit slow, but aren't all books of high quality? There's a lot to think about here: religion, ethics, the hardships of building a colony world, and how much of a struggle it would be to understand an alien species, much less coexist with them. The characters are also developed well, and the plot has several good twists. What more could you want?

[Devero · Rating 2 out of 5]

Un romanzo di SF di frontiera, con alcune buone idee, dove un ingegnere si trova ad emigrare, controvoglia, sulla colonia di delta pavonis. Qui alla frontiera vedremo come la colonia umana si rapporta con gli alieni senzienti che abitano questo giovane pianeta, continuamente squassato da terremoti.
Nel complesso due stelle e mezza.

[Punk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Fiction. Humans have colonized the inhospitable world of Pava, but they still have to worry about budget cuts back on Earth and their own lack of resources. I've said it before, I will say it again. Pohl: excellent at science fiction; bad at people. His human characters spout cliched, boring dialogue, and their motivations are shallow and have no real emotion behind them, but his talent for world-building keeps me reading. He writes technology that comes with consequences, alien lifeforms that are truly alien, with alien thoughts and alien bodies. He straddles the line between science fiction and speculative fiction, because he's got spaceships, but he also addresses their socioeconomic impact. So, in the end, what you've got here is thoughtful SF. This book isn't as far-reaching as some of his others. It's more self-contained, concerning itself with the perils that come with colonizing a planet that's not quite ready for it and the sentient alien bugs that already live there. Religion is also a major player in this book, but it suffers from the same bland, emotionlessness as Pohl's humans, and really isn't used to its best advantage. Mostly this is a story about pioneers. In space! I liked it.

Three stars for fantastic world-building and awesome alien bugs.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pohl's native alien "leps" are probably one of my favourite alien races in modern scifi literature. And the colonizing of the planet Pava makes for an interesting plotline, as does the religious tendencies of the colonists. But I tend to agree with an earlier reviewer that, while Pohl does well with alien cultures and other worlds, he doesn't do as well with humans. He does well enough to make a good story, but the human characters and dialogue and motivations don't resonate enough to make an exceptional story.

[Shawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for it’s good fare: straightforward plot, simple, single point of view. It’s about religion, pioneering planet Pava, mingling w/ETs. The leps are pretty interesting, they go through larval stages, caterpillars to butterflies (this reminded me a lot of “Embassy Town” by Mieville for the resemblance and otherworldliness) and their capacity to communicate (& commune) w/people pulled me along (the piggies from “Speaker for the Dead” also were canny in their social behavior). I didn’t get bored, nor did I feel confused, I enjoyed Pohl’s “World at End of Time” & “Gateway” (excluding Heechee seqs) and he has a knack for having an average-joe voice sometimes that I like. His hardness on technology & innovation are solid, it satisfies the scientific appetite for most.

The meh: Pohl writes about “making love” alot, I get the feel of an army man Joe come home to his wife Daisy. Works from Le Guin or Nicola Griffith are contrasts: when I read Pohl, his characters are often driven by emotions, sexual or jealous or greedy, the plot, w/all the futuristic travel & comm, is held together by 20th century societal mores and norms.

I understood the economy of travel from earth to Pava but I didn’t really get how that colony could be there and remain unsupervised, by the military or higher powers. It seem like that too bad priests were running willy-nilly, and it was like a Jim Jones suicide cult, (“Splinter” is a novel with similar cult-like, End-Times thread), and the whole time I was wondering why nobody was around studying these wonderful creatures and learning more, or just being more resourceful on a new planet, it seemed like the plot changed a lot on Barry, who strangely, is manic depressive and psychotic!

I thought it was funny how Barry got tricked into ending up on the planet, but I was also like, shouldn’t the freezer system noticed that there is the wrong person in there? I read this for it’s simple story, it was easy for me to follow and I really appreciate that with his works in general, but at the same time, he doesn’t go deep enough for me on certain philosophical, societal, or even militant issues. I liked Joe for his novel “Forever War,” and also the sequel, because it gave a real gritty perspective that incorporated aforementioned issues. Pohl doesn’t talk about what the heaven of Muslims or Buddhists, et. al we instead get a limited view ala Southern such-&-such Church, too easy to jab criticism at. I appreciated the point that red-hot zealots aim for martyrdom and that this is foolish and wrong, but I wonder how some other writer could’ve blown my mind with this one. But then again I didn’t expect anything super deep, I got what I wanted out of this, solid story with no glaring holes, and some likable characters, that’s all!

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

review of
Frederik Pohl's The Voices of Heaven
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 29, 2012

Reading this was just what the doctor ordered, not that I'm likely to follow doctor's orders. In other words, I started reading this yesterday b/c I was dreading working on a review of a much more problematic bk & b/c I wanted to actually enjoy something. & I DID enjoy it. & that's why it was "just what the doctor ordered" b/c I really need a fucking break.

Anyway, Pohl is possibly a writer whose work wd've seemed just a tad too easy to me a few decades ago but now I'm glad for it. I wdn't call The Voices of Heaven a 'masterpiece' but it was well-conceived & well-written enuf to keep me completely engrossed.

The problem w/ writing a review about it is that I don't want to create spoilers by addressing the plot too much but that's really what there mostly is to address. Basically, there're thrills & spills, there's nefariousness, a bit of Jim Jones, quite a bit of commentary re religion (hence the title), a nice depiction of an 'alien' society that smacks a little of 'anarcho-primitivism', all sorts of plot-propelling goodies.

The thing is: I read this bk to be entertained, to be stimulated, for its escapist value & I got exactly what I wanted to out of it.. &.. now.. that I'm trying to write the review of it, I'm probably right back to where I might've been 30 yrs ago: it just ISN'T ENUF, even tho I almost gave the bk 4 stars. I LIKE Frederik Pohl!! But I ultimately want MORE out of EVERYTHING than just escape &, oh well, I'm not going to get it out of fiction. But I'll still READ FICTION in preference to going crazy from frustration w/ the 'real world'.

[Chris Peters · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good one from Pohl, with some pretty interesting ideas. Barry di Hoa gets drugged by a rival who has eyes on Barry’s girlfriend—and stuck in a cryo chamber in a colony starship, heading 18 light years away. So when Barry comes to, he’s got to deal with life on a colony planet that he isn’t prepared for, he’s got to deal with medical issues that the colony isn’t prepared for, and he’s got to deal with alien race-relations that no one is prepared for. While also dealing with religious zealots who feel that life is so full of sin that the best thing you can do is kill yourself.

Also, he’s lost everyone and everything that he knew—even if he goes back, it’s going to be 50 years later. Man.

Good read, but it’s a little dated. Not the science or space stuff—that’s pretty current and believable. But the SOCIAL stuff is a little cringe at times. A bit sexist, and there is seriously a point where Barry says “I guess we’d call him severely retarded these days.” So you do have to put it in context of when it was written.

It sort of falls apart at the very end due to some seriously quick wrapping-up, but still pretty fun.

[Bradford D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent and intelligent commentary on man's religions and finding a sense of purpose in life. It's only drawback is that I felt I was ahead of the story quite a few times and had to wait for the narrative to catch up to me. It really only surprised me twice, and if I had been trying to guess the plot in advance, I could have predicted those two times as well. It is inventive, dramatic, respectful of science and well worth reading.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining listening 🎶🎶

Another will written British 🏰 relationship adventure thriller novel by Fredrick Poul. I was expecting a space opera adventure thriller which it was not. Give it a try it may work for you. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening to Alexa read books 📚. 2022 👑

[Luís Baixinho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review no segundo volume.

[Elar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little adventure story - you get aliens, religious nuts, space travel and new world expansion.

[Brian Gaston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average Frederik Pohl which is still pretty good.

[Regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites. I kept waiting for it to pick up but it never really did. I did not like the human characters much, but I loved the insects!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read. Interesting reflection on how an alien culture would view mankind. Ending was a bit disappointing.

[Mitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is shockingly boring.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept- ending was a bit flat.

[Syacelion · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dated by now, but still decent sci-fi fare by SFWA Grand Master Frederik Pohl. Worked well enough for me as an audiobook to listen to while doing sports, without having to invest too heavily into it.
The problems of the human colony were reasonably realistic and interesting, I liked the aliens. There were hints of details that could have been expanded on, to further develop the sentient aliens and their non-sentient relatives, their culture and their planet's ecology at large. This could have been a promising setting for quite a bit more, so it felt a bit of a letdown how quickly the story rushed through its plot and to its predictable conclusion. Still, along the way there were a couple of minor moments that raise it to almost 3.5 stars, including the little twist at the very ending.
So if you've never read anything by the highly accomplished, extremely prolific Frederik Pohl, go and read 'Gateway', or indeed why not 'The Voices of Heaven'?

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pretty much like any book that has to do with colonizing a new planet. The author's thinly disguised parody of religion is a bit much, but everything else is great: the story, the narrative structure of the book, the complex characters, and of course the planet itself.

Without giving away any spoilers, I do want to point out the structure of the narrative. The story is a first-person account detailing events that happened in the past. Each chapter involves a new period of time in the life of the main character, or a specific activity he engaged in, or the circumstances around something that he learned. Often he's asked a question, or asked to go into detail about a particular subject, and that will start off a whole new chapter. It's very interesting and engaging.

[Marianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Moon-dweller hijacked and forced into becoming a pioneer on a planet plagued with earthquakes. Each chapter starts as a dialog between an alien and pioneer.

The book has some interesting situations and the story is okay, but I feel like it's ultimately a bit shallow and some aspects aren't as explored very satisfactorily, particularly given the length and compared to some of the other scifi out there.

[Ramoths Own · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book, it was really pure science fiction that was easy to read and very fascinating. I like stories that are set off earth and this one starts out on the moon. I liked the description of life there.

The story continues on another planet where he has many things to come to terms with and where we are introduced to a different life form. I have always liked Frederick Pohl and can honestly say that I have never been disappointed by any thing that he has written.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather disappointing, as there's little of the verve I was expecting -- this reminded me somewhat of Arthur C. Clarke's later books, in that it's pretty much a travelogue of a future setting, with an occasional reference to an actual story. Written well, but ultimately rather boring and unmemorable.

[George Ouwendijk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not his best work perhaps, but still an interesting story. The religion angle made it very compelling for me, plus the moral issues it raises. I found it to be very relevant to the claims made by many religious believers today about "absolute truth" and their attempts to take over the political realm.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonestown-ish religious fanatics on a colony planet 25 light years from Earth, with talking caterpillars for company. Not one of Pohl's best, but an entertaining read.

[David]

Interesting

[Katie Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found it a bit slow to begin with and missing some meat in places but overall a decent interplanetary novel about setting up human life on other planets.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, but nothing groundbreaking.

[Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Frederik Pohl, you will like this. Who wouldn't want to have a Lep as a friend?

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book more the second time around.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very good. The premise - a guy telling his story to some aliens to explain humans, was not very believable, and also I didn't really relate to any of the characters.

[Howard]

4