Customer Reviews

Heaven

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Heaven," by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, is a science-fiction novel of ideas. Its philosophical themes include the mimetics of religion, quantum-mechanical entanglement, and the ecology of mind. But this is no dry academic exercise: it takes the reader on a wild ride with an exciting plot, psychologically plausible characters, and a galaxy full of truly amazing aliens. If you are looking for well-written speculative fiction that tickles your brain cells, you'll really love this book!

HEAVEN is about religion & ecology. Reminiscent of how the Spanish conquerors of the Incas & Aztecs decided that it was much to the Indians' benefit to be killed to save their immortal souls. Stewart's & Cohen's far distant future saga is the story of one such war, & how the parts are definitely fragments of a greater wholeness.

Rebeccasreads recommends HEAVEN as a riveting & enthralling science fiction story & like no other place you've ever imagined!

At the beginning of Heaven, a group of characters of various species are about to confront an unknown threat, a religion that presents itself as benevolent but leaves clues that it may not be. The religion, Cosmic Unity, with its centralized authority and its emphasis on the sacrifice of individual comfort for the greater good, has some similarities to both the Catholic Church and Communism. In Cosmic Unity's zeal to convert all sentient species in the galaxy, they have on occasion commited huge acts of violence against species that resist. Their version of the Golden Rule involves inflicting what they "know" to be in other's best interest, rather than what others would want for themselves. The authors blame these acts on church members' adherence to a virulent and flawed "memeplex" (as they call it), rather than on personal ethical failings, which could be argued either way.

The characters are likeable but not much time is spent on character development. The authors' strength is imagining the biology of many different species that could exist in the galaxy. Their weakness is in imagining different kinds of psychology. It doesn't make sense that a religion started in part by humans would appeal across such a wide spectrum of life forms while humans' closest relative, Neanderthals (rescued from Earth by sentient ships) would be the strongest holdouts. It is also not believable that so many beings would tolerate a religion where they are kept in the dark as to what the central authority is doing. The authors want to present the idea that "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" when it could as easily be in this case "power corrupts".

Despite a failure of believability it's hard to totally dislike a book which has, halfway through the story, a scene in which a squid lost in a desert meets a sentient pond and they discuss the mind-body problem.

An interesting second full-length fiction outing by the duo of Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, showing the same inventive form and easy style of their previous novel Wheelers, the Science of Discworld books that they co-wrote with Terry Pratchett, and their popular science works on chaos theory and alien evolution.

In Heaven the squid-like inhabitants of No-Moon are peacefully enjoying sailing their oceans and trading with visitors, blissfully unaware that the memeplex of Cosmic Unity has decided that their world is next to receive the bounteous Good News of peace and universal tolerance. At this point the real dominant intelligence of No-Moon takes a hand...

A skilled mix of character-driven and broad scale space opera, Heaven is full of the science-backed invention that has become a hallmark of the authors. Recommended.

I have just finished this book in a week - a far better read than wheelers, the authers last book.

Full of very interesting aliens - a real plot with some nice twists.
The science works, reminded me of reading David Brin's uplift series.

As someone from the UK who has recently moved to the US the authers take on religion is _great_. I found it thought provoking!

Can't wait to see the next installment.

A spacial Jihad of a non-benevolent Cosmic Unity religion hits the world of Nomoon where a reef-coral intelligence rules. The resulting struggle brings together a band of races that resist being told what to think or believe by others. Things like an intelligent pond ecology and an aware galaxy turn the tide for some pretty alien thinking.
For a novel that takes place as much as 14 generations in the future
in a far area of space with Neanderthals as main characters,it is in the English tradition of hard science fiction that Clark started.
About the best science fiction that I have read lately. Some very strange ideas are brought up here.

I just finished reading "Heaven" and was amazed at the depth of thought contained in it! Philosophical ideas can become ponderous and novels of this kind give flesh and bones to esoteric ideas and concepts. I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. Anyone interested in astrobiology or epistomology will have a field day with this book. Oh, its also highly entertaining and at times very amusing concerning our species arrogance.The "Querists' Fallacy" defined in this novel in worth the price of admission.GET IT AND READ IT,THEN REFLECT ON IT!

What can you say about sentient ecologies, that walk! Or juxtaposing ethological [if not cosmic] empathy vs. memetic programmability? You can, for one, say it was well worth buying the book. Why do I rate it only 3 stars? Primarily because the writing felt stilted, perhaps, somewhat over-edited. It seems the authors are collaborating on a baseboard; having some script program logically piece all of the wonderful concepts together. In short, the plot seems to be a straight forward means of illustrate the concepts depicted, & very little past that. Characters, while developed, seem like gravy or frosting, almost besides the point. It's very by-the-book composition, if you will. Emotions, prominently negative in some sections, are at times illicited in contrived ways. They are also immediately human recognized emotions, many founded in relatively modern cultural mores. I guess the other reason I did not enjoy the book as much, was because the authors, for all their scientific novelty, touched on one of my pet peeves: unapologetic anthropomorphism in aliens, esp. concerning motivations, perceptions; and communication. For same reasons, I don't like most of Star Trek, i.e., humans in makeup, aka "aliens" that interact via the possibility of the [magical] "universal translator." To be fair, one major idea in the book, is an Institutional (perhaps Civilizational) drive toward sameness, or interchangability of living parts, on all levels of hirarchical existence. Perhaps then I was hoping to find diamonds in a sapphire deposit. Well, I do love hard SciFi, and this book, like those of Asimov and Clark and Baxter, fits the bill. It just wont be as memorable to me, I fear, for reasons mentioned. Nonetheless, if you like Steve Baxter's books, and love the interplay of fantastic, even far fetched, ideas then have no fear in ordering it, you'll most likely like it.

I was beginning to think real science fiction, the sort that is based on science, had died with Isaac Asimov. It just got better. This is a h-ll of a good read.