Heaven's River | Release date and excitement
After two long years, Heaven's River, the fourth book in the Bobiverse series, is finally here! Okay, technically we're still a good three months away from its September 24th release date (E-book and paperback readers will have to wait even longer sadly, up until January 24th of 2021). But a firm publication date, a final title and an Amazon pre-order page are enough to get me excited and speculating about the novel's contents. I covered these theories both in video and written format, so depending on the medium you prefer you can either watch the video linked bellow or scroll further down to read my thoughts on Heaven's River.
Heaven's River | The Title
I'd first heard of the two squeals to the Bobiverse trilogy sometime in late last year. Back then they were both still known under the titles "The search for Bender, part 1 and 2".
I personally found those titles perfectly adequate. For one, they were very descriptive and to the point. When you saw them, you knew the books were going to center on the search for Bender. Now true, every good book title needs a bit of mystery to draw the readers attention. But Bender's disappearance was very well foreshadowed in the later half of the trilogy, so you've got the mystery aspect of the title taken care of as well. I'd found the titles so fitting, that I hadn't once considered they might change. That is until a couple of days ago when I stumbled into the Amazon sale's page for Heaven's River and found that was exactly what had happened.
So why the change?
Frankly, I have no clue nor was I able to find any information about the reason behind the change. My best guess is that it was a stylistic choice or maybe an attempt to make the title more cryptic.
What can we surmise from the new title?
Well, all the previous Bobiverse books had titles which tied into their plots, so why should this time be different. But apart from that, it's hard to say anything for certain, but I have some theories.
The first image I got after seeing the title, was almost like a literal river of Bobs heading in the direction where Bender went missing, almost like a mass migration. Why do I think this explanation makes sense? Well for one, all of Bobs's spaceships are HEAVEN vessels. So, if you liken a large movement of Bobs (which is very likely to happen in this novel) to a river, you have a river of HEAVEN vessels. Or in more poetic terms, Heaven's River.
My second idea to explain away the title, is courtesy of the audio-book's cover art. In it, at least to my eyes, behind the HEAVEN ship seems to be a depiction of some sort of straight, tubular super-structure. But, what if this construction only looked straight because it's illustrated from up close? What if the structure depicted in the cover art is actually ring-world (a mega-structure like the Dyson-sphere the Others were building, just in the form of a ring) constructed by some long gone civilization? In that sense you could look at it as a kind of "river" which endlessly flowed around its parent star. Plus, due to all the technological secrets it would hold and the living space it would provide, it would also be a sort of heaven for humanity (I'm just taking it as a given, that humanity will be in mortal peril again).
Heaven's River | Bob-1 in the forefront again
Another surprise which the blurb sprung on me, was the fact that Bob-1 would be leading the expedition to find Bender. I honestly though that role would fall to some other Bob. Maybe one of the younger ones who would be trying to rise up the Bobiverse totem-pole by finding the "long lost elder".
I'm not sure where I got this idea from. Maybe it was Bob-1's lack of presence in All These Worlds. Or maybe it was from the foreshadowing about Bender's disappearance, since I'm fairly sure Bob himself didn't show an interest of going on the voyage himself. Anyway, it'll be nice to have Bob-1 in the forefront again, he was my favorite Bob along side Howard.
Heaven's River | Civil War
Next let's take a look at what kind of relations we can expect between the Bobs. Now with how All These Worlds ended, we already know that tensions were at an all time high. But seeing language like "The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse's problems" being used in the blurb of Heaven's River, I'm pretty sure the Bobs are headed towards an all out civil war.
But the Bobs are such a friendly bunch! How could this happen?
Honest answer? Dennis E. Taylor just needs a convenient source of conflict to get the story rolling. At least until he can thoroughly foreshadow and reveal the new big baddies. And as much as it pains me to say it, a civil war between the Bobs is the only reasonable excuse for conflict he's got, after all the rest of the universe's problems were solved with the end of the last book. So, what do I think will be the spark to set of this powder-keg? Here's a couple ideas I came up with:
The later-generation Bobs loose all their humanity. Many times over the course of the trilogy it was hinted, that with each "cloning" the Bobs would change slightly. The Heaven's River blurb confirms this by explicitly stating that the later generation Bobs can barrel be considered as "true" Bobs anymore. At first I though that the interests and values of these younger clones had deviated away from Bob-1, but I think this is a red herring.
Towards the end of the last book we saw that younger Bobs were starting to refer to humans as "ephemerals" because they couldn't identify with them any longer. What if this state only got worse as the generations went on, until finally they were mindless machines closer to Guppy than a replicant. What if these later Bobs weren't driven by thought or emotion, but rather the strict guidelines Faith tried to enforce on Bob-1 back on Earth. Maybe, this ridged programming would even make them see the "true" Bobs as a threat to their mission and as enemies of Faith
To illustrate, imagine every Bob being a glass (yes, like the ones you'd drink water or juice out of). Also, for this example we're going to pretend that orange juice represents an entities humanity, while water will represent a purely analytical, machine like thinking. Now lets take Robert Johansson, the human. In this strange beverage-orientated world, he would be represented by a glass filled to the brim with pure orange juice (100% humanity, 0% machine). After he gets run over, his being or soul gets copied and transferred to one of those cyber-cubes. But we've already established that the process isn't perfect. For the sake of this example, lets say that only 90% of his humanity gets transferred with each replication. So, if we then look at Bob-1's, he only gets nine tenths of original Bob's orange juice and the last tenth gets topped up by water, "diluting" his humanity (90% humanity, 10% machine). Now if you continue this process, generation by generation the Bobs have less and less orange juice and more and more water. In fact, by the 24th generation they only have 7% of their humanity left, a chilling thought.
Now I really hope this isn't the option Dennis E. Taylor goes for. God knows that the sci-fi genre is already filled to the brim with mindless, blood-thirsty AIs, who descend on their particular fictional universe like a galactic form of cancer (The Replicators in Stargate, the Borg in Star Trek...). Although if he does decide to head down this road, I'm sure Dennis E. Taylor will put enough of a spin on the concept to prevent it feeling stale.
A perhaps more interesting, albeit riskier idea, would be a political rift within the Bobiverse. Let's say that the older Bobs notice that repeated replication causes their kind to degrade (something similar to what I described earlier) and in good faith they decide to impose a ban on replication for higher generation clones, since they are the most at risk.
The ones affected would, of course, see this action as an attempt from the "old guard" to suppress the younglings. Maybe they'd even see this as a replicant form of eugenics program. And naturally, they would rise up and attempt to banish the older Bobs, painting them as egocentric and conceited, perhaps even supremacist.
Why I like this idea so much, is that it totally avoids there having to be a truly malicious and antagonistic side to the conflict. Each side would fight for something they believed to be positive (a healthy Bobiverse on one hand and freedom from suppression on the other). This would be hear-breaking to read about, if both sides of the conflict were shown in full.
But, I doubt we'll see something this dark from the Bobiverse series. I'm not sure the publishers would be happy about such a drastic change of tone. One can still hope I guess.
Honestly when I considered that we might see Bobs fighting Bobs in three months time, I was a bit put off by the idea. Just didn't sit right with me. But over these past few days I've grown more fond of it and honestly I'm really looking forward to seeing what Dennis E. Taylor came up with. Although I'm sure that despite a conflict, the Bobs will pull together in the end!
Heaven's River | Civilizations
This doesn't really get mentioned anywhere in the books blurb, but I decided to add it anyway. Alien cultures and civilizations have played such an important part in previous books of this series that I sincerely doubt they'll get left out with this installment.
Since the Bobs are presumably going to be doing a lot of traveling, I wonder how the civilizations introduced so far will be tied into the story. Obviously we won't be seeing the Others again. Mostly because they were blasted into oblivion, but also since it would be far to cliche narrative-wise. So then, let's look at the ones which can make a reappearance.
Humans
This is pretty obvious, but I'm fairly certain we'll see humans making a reappearance in Heaven's River, but in what form I have no clue.
Because of the one hundred year time-jump from the last novel, I'm guessing that all the survivors of Earth will already be dispersed across a large number of colonies in different star systems. The colonies will also have had plenty of time to become self sufficient, so I don't see the Bobs holding their hands any more. Maybe they'll all have caught up with Vulcan and Romulus and have a constant space presence. Although that could open the door for possible tensions or even full scale wars between the colonies, especially if they get involved on both sides of the conflict between the Bobs.
Apart from that, I could see a sub-plot dedicated to the reclamation and popularization of Earth. Personally I think it would be a fascination project for the Bobs to undertake. Although with the civil war happening and the journey along Bender's trail, the Bobs might not have the time or resources to dedicate to the fallen blue marble.
Pav
Even though these meerkat people decided to have the Bobs stay out of their rebuilding efforts in the last book, I think we might get to see quite a bit more of these hectic creatures with this book.
Why you ask? Well, a hundred years is quite a long time. In that time, even without the Bobs's help, they could have restarted their civilization and made significant strides in the scientific fields. Last time we saw them, they were at about a 1920s level of technological development, so in theory might already be a fledgling space faring civilization. And with that fact, there's countless ways Dennis E. Taylor could integrate them into one of the novel's sub-plots, or hey, even the main plot!
Deltans
From all the previously introduced civilizations, I'm most conflicted about whether I want to see the Deltans make a comeback.
The Archimedes sub-plot was for me the most appealing aspect of the whole Bobiverse trilogy, even though it's a bit off-genre in comparison to the rest of the trilogy's theme and content. So naturally a part of me is itching to find out what they've been up to since All These Worlds. Have they mastered flint-working yet? Have they tried their hands at smiting or other types of metal-working. Is Bob-1 perhaps still playing "Sky god" and helping them advance as a species? And there's a bunch more questions I'd like answered.
At the same time though, this sub-plot had a really satisfying and heart-felt conclusion with Archimedes's death. He was a beacon of what Deltans might one day become, a curious and knowledgeable people. But without him, that future is still many centuries hence.
So in truth, I really don't the Deltans to have huge role in Heaven's River. I just don't want to risk having my fond memories of Archimedes, Arnold and Buster ruined by a half-assed attempt to shoehorn them into this sequel. Although a quick drop by their planet would be nice, just to see how they're doing.
Apart from these already established culture I also expect Heaven's River to introduce several more alien lifeforms into the mix. Here's a couple categories that I feel are likely to make an appearance:
Interstellar Empire
On their journey to follow Bender's trail, the Bobs are sure to encounter at least one or two large space fairing civilizations. These will probably be of a similar technological level as the Others, but not quite so overtly aggressive. Their existence will likely enable the Bobs to accelerate their search for Bender through diplomacy and trade. Although at the same time, they might also start a fight once they learn that the Bobs aren't quite as biological as they first seem.
Mysterious elder civilization
This is such a staple of the sci-fi genre, that I'm honestly surprise that it hasn't popped up in the Bobiverse sooner (although who knows, it might never pop up at all). Anyway, I think that what the Bobs discover out in deep space is some relic of an ancient long-gone civilization. This will probably take the form of some mega-structure like the ring-world I mentioned earlier or maybe even some inner/inter-galactic faster-than-light transportation system (something like the mass-relays in Mass Effect). This last one could even explain why Bender vanished seemingly without a trace and at the same time it could bring a lot of distant threats to humanity's doorstep.
Lower level civilizations
I bet there'll be at least one new low level civilization introduced with this book. Just so we can watch another Bob messing with their cultural and scientific development. We've already covered a stone-age level civilization (the Deltans) and a decently modern one (the Pav), so this next I'd guess will likely be close to the classical roman period, the middle ages or maybe a civilization at the height of their information age.
Heaven's River | The Big Baddie
Up until now the Bobs have had to deal with murderous Brazilian replicates, slimy and underhanded political players, as well as an all consuming, alien hive-mind swarm. So, what kind of existential threat will they face this time? Well, to quote a well known History channel presenter: "Aliens."
But what kind of aliens?
Whatever they might look like, one thing is certain. If Dennis E. Taylor wants to make them interesting, they'll have to be smarter, more powerful, determined and evil than the Others. That's just an inevitable fact of storytelling.
Apart from that I have three main suspects:
The mysterious elder civilization I mentioned earlier
Now what usually happens when a protagonist goes poking around abandoned places? They wake up long dead spirits (or their equivalents) hell bent on making the protagonist pay for his transgression, of course!
In the case of Heaven's River, the Bobs might end up waking up one of these elders from deep stasis. Or, the ruins might have some safety system built in, which activates if someone gets too curious. Whatever it may be, watching the Bobs fight against something light years ahead would be a blast.
Whatever civilization eradicated the above mentioned mysterious elder civilization.
I mean this eventuality is pretty self explanatory. If you find a fresh carcass in the woods, you can be sure that the predator isn't far away. And why would that be any different on a galactic level. I don't think I need to go any deeper than this, since it's basically the last option all over again, but with a different facade.
A mechanical self replicating swarm
This is another one of those staples in the sci-fi genre. Yeah, I know I've already mentioned this eventuality in the Civil War section, but I'm gonna do it again anyway. Why? Because only like can defeat like. In all honesty, no biological species can really touch the Bobs as a collective. Sure, some biological might pop a Heaven vessel here or there, but in the end that's all pointless. If push comes to shove, the Bobs could just go dormant for a million years or two somewhere in deep space, and whatever biological they were facing would be long extinct by the time they woke up. The only way to even the odds, is to give the other side this same ability by making them very similar in nature to the Bobs themselves.
Thanks for reading!
Well that's about it for my theories and speculations on Heaven's River. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you did, consider sharing it with a friend who's just as excited about the next installment of the Bobiverse series as you and I!
Should you be interested in snagging a copy of Heaven's River, Bobiverse book 4, you can do so HERE. This and all the other links featured in this post are Amazon affiliate links, which may earn me a commission should you make a purchase through them. This is of course at no added cost to you, but it does help to support me and what I love to do. If you don't feel comfortable with this arrangement, feel free to circumnavigate the affiliate links by visiting Amazon's website independently.
Also, I'd love to hear what theories you might have about Heaven's river, so leave those in the comments bellow or sent me an email to the address at the bottom of the page.