[amazon_link id=”0765328410″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][/amazon_link]Title : Bowl of Heaven
Author : Gregory Benford and Larry Niven
Genre : Science fiction
Publisher : Tor
Pages : 416
Source : Netgalley/Publisher ARC
Rating : 2.5/5

A human spaceship, the SunSeeker, on it’s journey to a planet called Glory, comes across a strange object – a large bowl-shaped “ship/planet” cupped around a star, moving in the same direction as the human spaceship. Running out of fuel, and hoping to get some from the habitable-looking “bowl”, Captain Redwing decides to send out an investigative party. On the bowl, the party gets split into two. The group headed by biologist Beth Marble gets captured by the native aliens – large bird-like creatures with colorful plumage. The other party headed by Beth’s lover Cliff Kammash manages to keep on the run, encountering many different life forms on the unusual curved surface.

The birds apparently are the creators of the bowl, and top dog among the many species which they have captured and “adapted” to the earth-like environs of the bowl. The humans are the newest “alien” species, a rather aggressive and independently thinking one, and the birds are in the process of deciding whether it might not be best to kill the troublemakers once and for all, rather than try and domesticate them. The natives attempt to understand the psychology of the humans via their distinctly developed “underminds” (akin to human subconscious), and the book gives us their point-of-view from the perspective of Memor, the chief bird investigator. Beth and Cliff also share in the narration, but they do little more than run around trying to escape capture and potential annihilation.

This book is the first collaboration between hard sci-fi heavyweights Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape), so expectations are high. The book unfortunately falls way below them. There is little sci-fi here; most of the book is devoted to the description of local flora and fauna, and the anthropological structures of the native bird society. There is also human drama – emotional thoughts about love, bonding and friendship; mores human drama and less sci-fi.

Overall, I’d describe this book as tiresome; I finished it by sheer force of will. The writing was not cohesive, and the events in the book got repetitive. I enjoyed descriptions of the “bowl”, the great structures built by the bird-people, and their societal norms – the expression of emotion via a change in plumage color was particularly interesting – but they were so often submerged in the non-sci-fi thread of narration that it watered down the pleasure. I do enjoy innovative descriptions of foreign worlds and their inhabitants in sci-fi heavy books; “Bowl of Heaven” unfortunately was sci-fi in name only. It read like it was written by a non-scifi writer – “Indiana Jones” propped up by a thin science fiction construct. Plus I didn’t get to know the humans in the book well enough to like them, so wasn’t invested in their well-being or their story.

A sequel to this book, Shipstar, is promised. While I hope that that is better than this, I’m not sure I’ll be lining up to read it.