Bowl of Heaven - Gregory Benford & Larry Niven

Bowl of Heaven

By Gregory Benford & Larry Niven

  • Release Date: 2012-10-16
  • Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy
3.5 Score: 3.5 (From 145 Ratings)
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Description

In this first collaboration by science fiction masters Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape), the limits of wonder are redrawn once again as a human expedition to another star system is jeopardized by an encounter with an astonishingly immense artifact in interstellar space: a bowl-shaped structure half-englobing a star, with a habitable area equivalent to many millions of Earths…and it’s on a direct path heading for the same system as the human ship.

 

A landing party is sent to investigate the Bowl, but when the explorers are separated—one group captured by the gigantic structure’s alien inhabitants, the other pursued across its strange and dangerous landscape—the mystery of the Bowl’s origins and purpose propel the human voyagers toward discoveries that will transform their understanding of their place in the universe.

At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Reviews

  • Thank you Earl C Grey

    2
    By Person 183
    I've read ring world and you're comment and thus read the book again thank you. :)

  • Great reads

    5
    By Atahualpita
    If you liked ring world you will love this. Great story and pretty solid science

  • Inventive and Wonderful (full of wonder!)

    5
    By Earl C Grey
    I can't understand the gripes some of the other reviewers had, that this Fantastic novel could've been 'shorter' (Really?! C'mon! ...As Mozart said, when told his Opera had 'too many notes in it' [paraphrase],"I used all the notes it required!" Bowl Of Heaven is Prime Larry Niven and Gregory Benford, about a Very alien avian species' audacious artifact: A Star-propelled half-Dyson Sphere (not a starship but a Ship Star! Yeah!!!) the size of Mars's orbit. Unlike Ringworld's collapsed civilization, Niven and Benford took the high road here, and wrote about a working alien civilization (and Boy is it alien!). The characters are wonderfully fleshed out and 3 dimensional, the world-ship itself SO interesting and intriguing... Bowl Of Heaven has all the hallmarks of a Great classic Science Fiction novel. It is the first half of a two-part series, and is the best SF novel I've read in years. I can't Wait to read the sequel (which I just downloaded, so Yay!: I don't have to wait! Classic Wonderstuff from two of Science Fictions' finest finest writers. 5 Stars. I truly couldn't put this down. An Amazing read!

  • Rip-off, part 1 of series

    1
    By Lt. O'Whora
    I enjoyed this book until the end or rather, the lack of one. It turns out this is part one of a series that ends abruptly without any resolution. Sort of like the cable cutting out in the middle of a movie. Very artificial and not at all satisfying. Apparently the authors and their publisher are far more interested in profit than good writing. Since this eBook does not stand on its own- it lacks any sort of ending- it should be priced much lower.

  • iBook version

    1
    By Sobmartin
    Pages 168-169 missing. The story was getting pretty boring by then so maybe that was ok.

  • Bowl of heaven

    2
    By Altinskater
    So slow and could have written this with half the pages to capture story and avoided the sequel.

  • Ringworld take 2

    2
    By DelgadoMan
    I was disappointed. It has echoes of Ringworld but without the originality of the first time. It was also veeeeery slow, with many repetitions of the same reverie: "continents the size of planets." We get it. it's big. Can we please move on with the story? Unnecessarily long - stretched to make more than one book? Won't be buying the next one.

  • Bowl of Heaven

    2
    By Dunkle5777a $
    Not worth the money

  • No doubt similarities to ringworld

    4
    By mduncanvm
    It's a fun read and has an interesting concept and ideas. I didn't get attached to the characters. It's all over the place in that department. Waiting for book two as this one just ends in the middle of nothing really.

  • Waiting for the next volume...

    4
    By Eosreis
    If you've looked up at the stars at night and wondered what else is out there, you'll enjoy the imagery created by these authors. This is a story about ingenuity, resourcefulness, and humanity. What hadn't we considered when we ventured out into the cosmos? I heard a review of the book on NPR, and I had to read it. Time well spent (went through it in less than a week).

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