Basic Information
Heaven's River is the forth and most recent addition to the Bobiverse series, written by Dennis E. Taylor. The novel was released in audiobook format on September 24th, 2020 while the ebook and paperback are slated for release on January 24th, 2021. Heaven's River clocks in at a whopping 17 hours or about 200k words in length, which is double the length of any of its predecessors.
Structure and Story
If you're a veteran of the Bobiverse books, you'll be very familiar with the general feel and structure of this latest installment. For one, Dennis E. Taylor again makes use of several point-of-view characters throughout the novel, with each being assigned it ofn specific narrative theme. The prose also hasn't changed much from the last book, consisting entirely of a first person, past tense style of narration. The only real departure from the established structure of the Bobiverse series is the books length, which is double any of the previous books.
In terms of genre, Heaven's River still falls into the adventure sci-fi category like the rest of the series. Although this volume also brings a sort of spy thriller spin to the Bobiverse formula. Many beloved characters from the previous books make a reappearance in Heaven's River, most notable of which are Bob-1, Bill, Garfield, Riker, Howard and Bridgett. Of course, it goes without saying that other already established Bobs are present as well, just in a smaller role. And naturally you'll also meet several new Bobs throughout the book's length as well as a couple new non-Bob characters. As was hinted in the novel's blurb, Bob-1 retakes the spotlight in Heaven's River with practically 60% of the book dedicated to his point-of-view. One thing that really caught me off guard about Heaven's River was its general thematic direction. It was known in advance that the novel would center around the search for Bender, so I kinda expected it to be more space exploration focused. But in the end we got a story more similar in tone and theme to Bob-1's Dealtan subplot from the previous books.
Sub-genre Breakdown
Sub-genre wise Heaven's River is quite similar to We are Legion, Bobiverse book 1. The three largest components of the novel's sub-genre composition are drama, action and historic elements. The drama oriented portions of the novel are largely dedicated to the socio-political interactions between the Bobs and the two space-faring civilizations within their domain, so humans and the pav. While also dealing with the rapid social changes happening within the bobiverse itself. Action on the other hand more or less sticks to the same formula which has thus far worked very well. It covers all types of action ranging from land, sea, space all the way to cyber-space. Although with Heaven's River expect this ratio to be skewed in favor of land and naval based set-pieces. And as mentioned before, the historic elements have a large prevalence due to the Dentan-esque subplot in the novel. As with the previous books, this in most part deals with the technological, cultural and socio-political development of pre-space fairing civilizations.
As far as less prevalent sub-genres are concerned, you'll run into quite a bit of comedy as with all Bobiverse books. There's also a few romantic elements, simply due to the presence of Howard and Bridgett. The philosophical aspect of Heaven's River is also more pronounced than in the last two sequels. These segments for the most part tackle the subject of replicant drift and also answer some really important questions about replicants themselves which have largely been held open to interpretation all the way from the start of book 1. World-building also makes a reappearance and is for the most part focused on the pre-space fairing species subplot mentioned above. Unexpectedly, Heaven's River also features a couple fantasy focused chapters. These really aren't representative of the novel as a whole, but since they do pop up those two times I had to induce it in the review.
Ratings and Conclusions
This is my fifth post about the Bobiverse series, so it would be accurate to say I'm a big fan of Dennis E. Taylor's work. But even if I put my Bobiverse fandom aside for a moment I still think Heaven's River is an overall amazing book. The novel's story hits the ground running with the actual search for Bender beginning not 10 minutes into the book. The style of storytelling is consistent with the previous installments, so you find yourself immersed in the story from the moment you hit play, while also introducing new ideas to keep the experience feeling new and fresh. During my read the plot felt well thought out, leveraging both previously established as well as new plot-points. By the end I was satisfied how the different subplots concluded, and the book left plenty hanging threads to ensure more additions to the series in the future.
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