So the Bowl of Heaven. I took a chance on this one. I mainly pick out books by first their cover art and then the title. Then i look at the back or inside the jacket to see a little more about the story itself. This one the title seamed interesting. The back of the book got my attention i'll give it that. So i went ahead and bought it. I won't lie i enjoyed the book, but I think it was one of the longer stories I've read to date, not including The Order omnibus since that was three books in one.
I was very aggravated in the beginning. I was like, "Did i skip a chapter somewhere?????". However once I got passed the first parts where they are still on Earth, everything was good. So this book is basically about, from what i understood in the obscure beginning, we've outdone ourselves on turning back the clock on Earth. Pollution amounts and other bad things have been reduced to the point of matching centuries long gone. But the technology came too late (Lost in Space anyone, yes the remake). So the crew has this last hazzah on Earth the night before they are launched into space to head to a planet found light-years away. A planet that might mean humanity's salvation as they can no longer live on their original planet for generations to come. Tons of people are on this ship, but it is run on a skeleton crew (think Pandorum). But one of the main characters a biologist is revived from cryo because the current crew is stumped by a discovery deep in space. A structure the size of which everyone has trouble wrapping their head around. and with in this structure a star. But this star not only gives off light and heat, it is used as a propulsion system pushing this enormous entity (the size of galaxies) through the universe. So what do the humans do? Hey, lets board the dam thing thats large enough to fit millions of Earths within it's borders. Crazy humans... Anyhow a landing crew sets out to explore and of course, THINGS GO WRONG! But isn't that when the fun starts too? Of course there are tragedies along the way, you can't win all the time. So the landing crew gets visited by the, what we assume at the time is, indigenous inhabitants of this giant structure, and wouldn't you know it they are larger than humans! Part of the crew is in a tent of sorts attempting to gain access to the structure, the other part of the crew is milling about taking readings from outside and stuff. The crew outside gets scooped up by a strange tank/trash collector looking thing. Yes operated by this new alien species. The other half breaks through and gains access to the structure. They bolt past the large beings, who all happen to look like an evolved form of birds. This group, spends their time on the run learning the hard way about vegetation and creatures that live on this ginormous land. The crew that were kidnapped are taken to a holding area and a form of dialect is established between them and the new species. The humans are studied and shown things that are safe to eat. They are educated and shown off to on the marvels of these bird folk's technology and accomplishments. Not everything is shared. They aren't taught about how the bowl came to be or what their purpose is. I loved how this book had two story lines, the captives and the fugitives. The fugitives later hook up with a race of, i believe cats, that are inspired and start a small rebellion aligning themselves with the humans. The captured group eventually stages a jailbreak and goes on the run as well. but they are gifted with the knowledge that has been passed down to them by the aliens. This group eventually makes their way into one of the large cities and recons areas learning more about the bowl and about their captors. The book is really drawn out in the sense that it does not really skip time. Or at least it doesn't feel that way. A lot happen every day with one group or the other. I will be buying the next book, because what Bowl of Heaven does so well is tick you off. It ends on... well.. you'll just have to read it to find out. Known as a "hard science" novel. It does that very well. I found myself at times feeling like an idiot unable to follow the "logic" in their calculations and estimates prior to boarding the bowl. All in all Gregory Benford and Larry Niven did an okay job in my opinion. I need to know what happens next.
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