Heaven's River: Bobiverse, Book 4

I found this book to be an excellent addition to the series. Do yourself a favor and read the entire series.One issue that I feel compelled to mention about this book is how Star Trek’s “Prime Directive” was interpreted and used in this book. I feel that as fans of Star Trek, the Bobs would have known this… The Prime Directive was a plot device used to great effect by Star Trek writers to explore the moral implications of interfering in the development of a civilization by introducing technology before the civilization was ready for it. In Star Trek TOS, Kirk violated the prime directive almost as often as he engaged in horizontal inter species diplomacy. Star Trek TNG violated the prime directive more often than Q showed up. The Bobs would have known this and would not have used the Prime Directive in the literal fashion that they did.That is my only issue with the book. Sorry for the rant.

I really didn't expect the way this story went. I thought the Bender search would be less than interesting but I grew to love it!

Wonderful world building, engaging rhetoric, and just plain fun for all of us nerds out there. Live long and prosper.

If you're someone likely to read this book, you'll for sure relate to the protagonist. It's a fun romp through some of our treasured big think sci fi tropes, with more than enough uniqueness to keep it interesting.The stories unfold well, and the writing is both engaging and smart without being smug. I'll absolutely be reading more of the author's work.

...this book stands distinct from its predecessors. It primarily focuses on Bob, alongside some parallel storylines, albeit with less development compared to the earlier books.This book acts as a sort of epilogue to the initial trilogy, delving into the fate of the Original Bob, the other Bobs, humans, etc., and exploring new challenges in the universe crafted by the series.If you were a fan of the original trilogy, this book is a must-read. However, anticipate a shift in writing style and narrative pace—it's decidedly slower and more detailed than its predecessors. I rate it 4 stars; while it doesn't quite match the brilliance of Books 1 and 3 (my favorites), I still found it enjoyable and engaging.Spoiler Alert: This book leaves more open-ended than Book 3, suggesting the likelihood of future additions to the series.

Just finished this book. Thoroughly enjoyed it. As with the rest of the Bobiverse books, it combines a good concept with fun, witty writing and just the right amount of science. It's a real shame that the first reviews you'll see trash the book because of the author's decision to give Audible an exclusive release window before publishing the print and Kindle editions. Come on folks, artists deserves to make decisions on how to monetize their work. Anyway, enough of the business side of things, and on to the book ...About twenty pages into this book, I decided I needed to go back and read the first three to refresh my memory of Pavs, the Others, Bob genealogy, who is on which planet, etc. It was fun to go back and start from the beginning, even though I'd seen the ending. This fourth book picks up on the unsolved disappearance of Bender, whose absence persisted in defiance of Chekhov through the first three. Unlike the first three books, which spanned multiple stories across multiple worlds, the action of this fourth book is focused almost exclusively on one world. Of course, Ringworld was also limited to one world, so it's not much of a limitation. As with other books in the series, the writing is sharp, and authentic nerds will catch all kinds of references that zip by without the need for comment (i.e., they'll be missed by non nerds, but that's OK by all of us). This book gets a bit more into the philosophy of artificial life (a theme that was introduced in the first book, but then dispensed with quickly when Bob-1 looked into the abyss and decided "Still Bob"). I credit the author, who has a point of view, for treating the subject in a way that lets readers develop their own. This fourth book is devoid of the space battles that punctuated the first three; honestly, I didn't even notice the missing military sci fi element until I'd finished. The only downside is that I could see the resolution of the central mystery about ten parsecs away (as will anyone who remembers TOS 022). Despite the similarity of premise, the treatment was different enough that I still thoroughly enjoyed the book, and given the role Star Fleet plays in this book, I viewed the similarity as hommage. The last chapter makes it clear that the author plans to continue this series (yeah!) but the book does not end on a cliffhanger (double yeah!).By Book 4, it's hard for an author to write a book that's consistent with but distinct fro the first three. This author accomplishes the task. It's the Bobiverse, all right, but no sharks are jumped.By the way, if you haven't read Bobiverse 1-3, I'd recommend starting from the beginning. It's not strictly necessary, but you'll enjoy the book more if you understand the universe and the characters, so it's worth starting this journey from the headwaters.

I enjoyed the entire storyline and heartily recommend taking the ride. Can’t wait for the next addition to the saga. Fingers crossed that it’s soon!

Read it voraciously, i encourage you to plunge in the bobiverse.

I loved the previous books, but couldn’t finish this one. After the initial chapters the author got lost in unecessary descriptions and boring plots.

Truly a tour de force, fitting denouement to the series, kept me turning pages, brilliant world building, thoughtful moral challenges, enough action but no gratuitous violence. Well worth a read.

Consigliatissimo

„Der Weltraum, unendliche Weiten." ist eigentlich das Motto der bekannten TV-Serie und in dem Roman gibt es viele Anspielungen auf diese und andere SciFi Werke. Ansonsten hält dieser Roman das Versprechen, was der neueste Ableger von Star Trek macht. Fremde Welten, Kulturen und Geheimnisse, Intrigen und das Ganze in einem in weiten Teilen physikalisch korrekt dargestellten Universum.Ich hoffe auf eine Fortsetzung.