Shipstar: A Science Fiction Novel (Bowl of Heaven)

If you think you know your tech sci-fi stuff, here is a story to expand your imaginings. It is the only tech sci-fi that I've read that provides CAD modeling illustrations at critical technical concept junctures to describe what it would otherwise take a 1000 words to explain poorly. The story has the legs to follow in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama saga plus Stephen Baxter at his best. This kind of mental fodder entertainment is hard to find and it pops. The first installment of this story, The Bowl of Heaven, was badly panned by reviewers. I didn't read it because of the hammering. At first ... I wasn't getting in to Shipstar and was thinking the Bowl of Heaven reviewers had nailed it. Then about 50-100 pages in, it hooked me.Any sci-fi that pushes the boundaries of basic concepts gets my attention. Shipstar does that on many levels with theory made manifest, a crisp narrative, and reasonably well developed characters. The book is carried by the author's extrapolations into far future technology, the fringes of today's theoretical speculation.This is a step function change-up on the static dynamics of the Dyson-sphere or Ringworld-like constructs. Shipstar is an ancient, dynamically integrated sun and semi-sphere relic ... thus ... the `Shipstar'. The relic is propelled through the galaxy using the star as the engine. The Shipstar has magnanimously collected whole civilizations into its near-Earth habitable construct where there exists sentient rules and hierarchy. The relic has the surface area of tens of thousands of Earths and remains only sparsely inhabited by the relic's strange collection of 'adopted' life forms.The human ship that stumbles up on the relic is a deep space expedition that happens on the relic. The Earth ships flight path is ploteted directly to the Shipstar that's more or less half way to the final destination of the Earth ship.Physics, astrophysics, hyper-engineering, exobiology, antiquity, evolution, governance and behaviors are mashed up in a compelling read. This is techie sci-fi extraordinaire.5 Star excellent entertainment! I do hope the authors persevere criticism to continue the tale.

enjoyed book

This is a worthy sequel to Bowl of Heaven, with more plusses than minuses overall. One the plus side: The narrative kept my interest throughout; the science part of the story is strong, i.e. big, imaginative ideas, with a reasonable level of plausibility. I felt there were a lot of minuses, only a few worth mentioning (others fall into the nitpicky category, but exist nonetheless): Behavior of and human interaction with the Folk was not the way I would imagine it; the dialogue style used by the authors for scenes with humans and aliens was weak, even terrible at times; and, one of the stronger subplots through most of the book involved Cliff and his cat-and-mouse game eluding the Folk, which suddenly and unceremoniously fizzled out at the end....that part was a real let-down for me. Finally, I was hoping for (and pretty much expecting) the story to peak with a big showdown between the Folk and Sunseeker/Redwing, which did not happen. The whole reason for Sunseeker to fly into the jet and wreak havoc was to send a message to the Folk, which I assumed was set-up for a stand-off, which would have been great drama and fun to read...but alas, the authors introduced a new alien species at the end that diffused the situation, which I felt deprived the reader from experiencing a good ol' fashioned humans-outmaneuver-powerful aliens ending. I deducted a star from my rating for this reason alone, but liked the overall story enough to ignore my other complaints and give this read 4 stars.

Better than the first installment on this story. The editing is better, and the descriptive language is better, although still a bit wanting. The premise is that a ramscoop starship, traveling to a sun with a habitable planet named Glory, encounters a solar system sized artifact, gravitationally balanced with the thrust of an induced solar flare, driving the whole contraption through the galaxy.A cross between Larry Niven's famous "Ringworld" and a Dyson Sphere, the Shipstar, also referred to in the previous novel as "The Bowl of Heaven" carries as passengers a number of intelligent species, all held in servitude by the Folk, or Birdfolk.In the first novel, two bands of humans board the artifact, one immediately falling into the grasp of the Folk, then escaping, while the other party manages to avoid capture. This story describes the interaction between the humans on the run and the varied intelligences on the Bowl, many of whom chafe under the rule of the Folk.At times both derivative and imaginative, this story could be significantly better in the descriptions of the environment, for example, in a number of places, the position of the sun is referred to, relative to the placement of the protagonists, but a little thought makes one realize that it would be anincorrect placement. In other places in the book, there are mentions of places, alien species, and unique conditions that are not fully explained until later in the story. I understand that this is a standard science-fiction fare, requiring the reader to figure out what is going on (like any Philip K. Dick story), here it is a major annoyance, when the author(s) have already placed you in the action, but are leaving out relevant items- failing to build a mental picture.At least the book ends in a typical Niven fashion, leaving tantalizing hints of greater mysteries.

Benford, Niven and Tor received a bit of a critical lambasting for "Bowl of Heaven", the first half of this novel-in-two-pieces. First of all, there was the problem that the first book was released without much mention that it was only half a book - many people were annoyed to reach the end of "Bowl of Heaven" without reaching the end of story. Secondly (and more importantly in my view) there was a real problem with inadequate proof-reading and poor continuity - times and distances changed constantly, characters were in two places at once, that sort of thing.So you'd think that, with the second volume still in preparation when the first was published, there would have been a concerted effort to sort out the continuity problems. They're still there, though, albeit less florid. The dimensions and design of the Bowl of Heaven are still oddly mutable, and the timetable for its flight rather handwavey; characters display knowledge on one page that they don't actually find out until a few pages later.And there are gross inconsistencies with the first book. One (the reclassification of Wikramsingh's Star from F9 to K2) is accompanied by a bit of retconning to undo what was clearly an error. But the second book also writes in a journey that didn't take place in the first book, and introduces a feature of the underside of the Bowl of Heaven that was clearly not present in the first book.Here and there, new plot elements are whacked unceremoniously into place. It's time to get this bunch of people back to the starship, there's a need for a way of communicating with these aliens ... bang bang, done, let's move on. Elsewhere, characters keep telling each other the same stuff over and over again, in case we didn't catch it the first time. And other plot elements simply peter out inconclusively - both books refer constantly to the human subconscious mind, contrasting it with the Undermind of the Folk, but then, well, nothing much happens that particularly relates to that. (It does provide one neat pun, however, which only really works with the American spelling of "storey". Benford refers to the subconscious as the "understory" of the conscious mind.)I'm left wondering what on earth happened - Benford and Niven usually just aren't this careless, and just don't mess up their plotting this way. It feels rushed - like two authors collaborating against a deadline they couldn't comfortably meet, a book being shoved out before it was entirely ripe.On the upside, we explore more of Benford and Niven's "Big Smart Object"; some characters, particularly the starship captain, turn out to be more interesting that we thought; there are more aliens (albeit strongly derivative of Niven's Outsiders and Benford's Starborn); there's some good descriptive language (mainly from Benford) and some good action scenes (mainly from Niven, to judge from the very disparate writing styles).But it could have been so much better, with more time and tighter editing.

Many reviewers have vented their spleen at Larry Niven and Greg Bendford's two-volume epic, Bowl of Heaven and Shipstar: sloppily written and edited, no initial warning that you're going to have to buy the concluding volume, too much like making it up as they go along (though all novelists and not a few non-fiction writers do that), etc.I grant all that. But this is a rollicking adventure story on the hugest possible scale. The "Shipstar" is literally a ship driven by a harnessed star, the ship being a modified Ringworld (Niven's most famous set of stories) with a motor. Earthlings bound for a star system named "Glory" bump into the Bowl and need to stop. Explorers end up being hunted by an aristocratic class of giant bird-like aliens. The primates fight back, but the conflict only reveals even huger forces at work.I had to smile at the theological undertones--"gone to Glory"? There's even a reworked speech from aliens to humans that mimics God's reply to Job in the 38th chapter of the eponymous biblical book. As usual, these scifi authors don't find God anywhere, but that's what happens if you think that God is the Supreme Alien.But this opus is really a great big fun outing, off to show that there is always more mystery than knowledge, even quoting at one point Anaïs Nin to that effect. As usual, there is virtually no eroticism in Niven's writing, so I suppose Bendford added the Nin quote. Desire for this duo is for transcendence and sublimity, in the contemplation of the wondrous universe in which we live and move and have our being. Even if Bowl/Shipstar is a failure, it is a magnificent one.

There was no sign this was the second part of a story, so when I started to read it I thought it had started with a flashback, but would soon go back to the start of the story. Perhaps if I had read that fist half the story would have made sense, but I kept thinking I had read this story before in another Niven book, because it all seemed to follow the story of so many others, but with less actual content (i.e. the plot so far hinges on one member of a group becoming separated from the rest).For some reason all the characters' names but one appear to be easily forgotten and none of the them have sufficient 'meat' to be cared about. I failed to follow the story as it swapped from one viewpoint to another because the 'story clock' appears to slip back and forth; also when two groups appear able to communicate with each other they fail to do so, leaving each other to be surprised by a development.Perhaps if I hadn't read lots of Niven's other stories I'd be impressed, but I have and I'm not.

This pair of books are in my top fifty collection, a Niven/ Benford collaboration is bound to produce some thing special and different. The human players in the two tales are very believable, enjoyable and easy to identify with. These two books can be enjoyed by any one with an imagination, no requirement for understanding of the physics/ engineering of the bowl is necessary to enjoy and be entertained as a reader.Please enjoyRobin

I'm not sure how much of this story is down to Larry Niven. It had too much technical description for my taste. Also, I didn't know it was part of a series, and I think I should have read the earlier book first. It was obvious that a lot had happened to the protagonists earlier that I didn't know about. Good setting, interesting aliens.