Shipstar: A Science Fiction Novel (Bowl of Heaven)

Sequel to 'Bowl of Heaven', continues the story started there. A totally fascinating concept (an artificial "planet" the size of our solar system, driven through space by a "captive" star), the story (spanning both books) is well written, as always with Niven and his collaborations with other authors. Character development is "thick enough" for good science fiction, though a little "thin" if this were a more "conventional" genre of writing. The people are a huge part of the story, but there is also considerable impact on the story by the science (and technology) involved in describing the environment and how events do (or could) impact that environment. For me, this is all a nice "balance" of emphasis in contributing aspects of telling this kind of story. I've never met a Niven++ book I didn't enjoy in some way.

If you liked Ringworld then you will be intregued by this novel. The characters are introduced and the broad stage set for more thrilling tales against a bCkground of good science..... Oh boy whats next?

I'm usually a huge fan of Larry Niven because his story lines are intricately woven with scientific phenomenon related to space travel that you normally wouldn't think about, but this book seems to cast much of this aside in favor of meandering character development and increasingly imaginative alien races and technology. While I appreciate the scale and detail of the story the authors are trying to establish, it seems like they've kind of let their imagination run wild on this one. It's good, but not quite up to par with Niven's previous works, in my opinion, of course.

I'm usually a huge fan of Larry Niven because his story lines are intricately woven with scientific phenomenon related to space travel that you normally wouldn't think about, but this book seems to cast much of this aside in favor of meandering character development and increasingly imaginative alien races and technology. While I appreciate the scale and detail of the story the authors are trying to establish, it seems like they've kind of let their imagination run wild on this one. It's good, but not quite up to par with Niven's previous works, in my opinion, of course.

When I bought "Shipstar" and began reading it on my Kindle, I almost stopped and put it down. The beginning was very, very confusing. But I discovered that was because I hadn't read "Bowl of Heaven" and didn't realize "Shipstar" was part two of the story. I'm glad I kept reading it and in the end I enjoyed it very much. I enjoyed it so much that now I've purchased "The Bowl of Heaven" to read and the Whispersynch connected audio. There seem to be people who really haven't liked either book. I'm not one of them. Read "Shipstar", but only after you've read "Bowl of Heaven".

Possible spoiler. Overall an OK read. Some interesting ideas and generally well written, but I can't remember the last time I saw a book that was so clearly the next chapter of the previous book. Might be me, but I'm used to getting at least a little introduction and reminder of how we got here. None of that here, just simply the next chapter. I was also surprised that this was the end. It felt like the middle more than the first book felt like a first book. As a concept the origin of the bird like characters is laughable.

I said I wasn't going to even bother with this one after "Bowl of Heaven" But I caved in... Who knows maybe this part will be better. WRONG! I read both of 'em and was disappointed... I've seen Niven do very good collaborations before... but this isn't 2 of em..

Way to wordy! Could have cut a quarter of the text out. And WHY is it common practice now to always write a trilogy? What ever happened to a good SINGLE novel? Honestly, is seems like this book was really stretched out solely to prevent then ending from being written until the next volume.

First of all Greg Benford has no business writing SCI-FI. He should be writing Romance. He loves to fill his prose with flowery phrases that just take up space. Example " The velvet night caressed her cheek like a long lost lover that had come sneaking in from the darkness." What Drivel! And that's just a short example. How about something like "She turned her head, facing the wind." If you needed to demonstrate the wind was blowing.
Larry did you co-author this book out of sympathy? To help Benford get some credibility?
I first encountered Benford in the Foundation universe. What a waste of a book.
I bought the first one in this series not knowing that Benford was the co-author. I struggled through it and then recognized his style and looked at the cover. (can't just flip a e-reader over and look at it) Now things made sense as to why it was so hard to read (boring, boring, boring, boring....)
Fortunately in the first book Larry Niven seemed to have taken the lead with Benford dribblings.
The second fires off as straight Benford and I wasn't even able to endure the first chapter.
Thrice burned I am! And finally learned! If you see Gregory Benford's name on a books cover don't run away from it, run really fast, and keep you money clinched tight in your fist!

Shipstar was a nice read but I had problems with the impossible physics of the Bowl.
Normally I can accept things as Faster-than-Light spaceships as they are necessary to write a book about interstellar contacts. But sometimes I can't stop thinking it is fundamentally flawed.
The Bowl is constantly accelerating but so are its contents so water, air and inhabitants don't feel this acceleration; the whole system is in free fall. The only remaining felt force is the centrifugal force and its direction is perpendicular to the axis of rotation. That means that the felt force is always skewed to the surface of the Bowl. It is a pity that Larry Niven lent his name for this book. Larry's physics are always right. His Ringworld could exist. The Bowl cannot.

I just finished reading this book and its prequel, Bowl of Heaven. I was a little underwhelmed, especially since Larry Niven can be such a fantastic author.

The first part of Bowl of Heaven was gripping enough to carry me through the rest of the pair, wanting to know how it turned out. The main character is awakened from cryosleep and is faced with a mystery that neither the onboard AIs or the skeleton flight crew is equipped to handle - a bowl-shaped structure the size of a solar system that is pushing/being pulled by a star nobody knew about (because it was behind the bowl). Supplies are running out, due to an unexplainable engine malfunction, so they wake up the captain and naturally decide to land on the Big Thing and check it out. Grand adventures ensue.

I kind of felt like this book was just, "Let's do Ringworld again, but different!" I'm pretty sure in a year, the only thing I'm going to remember are the giant bird aliens that use their rainbow feathers to communicate. Which is kinda cool, but not worth the two weeks I put into the books. The characters are believable enough, but flat. The Bowl is cool, but I got tired of repeatedly being told just how cool it was. (Especially since I read Ringworld not too long ago.) Throughout the book it sounds like interesting things are going on both on Earth and on the Bowl, but there are not many details given about either.

I'll confess, if there were a sequel I would probably read it. The planet everybody was going to sounds like it would be a fun book.

Sigh. The parts that are in the authors' areas of expertise are quite neat and interesting. The mechanics of the Bowl are original an imaginative. The way that the Bowl is set up to be managed is as well.

But... the story is rather repetitive, which the authors telling you the same thing multiple times. The authors also seem to have forgotten what the characters learned on several occasions, as well.

There is lot of speculation on how things evolved in the book, but unfortunately, not only is that speculation beside the point, but in many cases, it does not reflect current thinking by evolutionary biologists. The books would have been much better without this... and shorter.

The authors also state that evidence of a technic civilization over 100 million years ago would be wiped out by subduction. Uh, basic geology disagrees with that. Not all tectonic plates will subduct. Just think about it ()minor spoiler): if all tectonic plates subducted, then we would not have any fossils of dinosaurs or anything before them... but we do. and lots of fossils.... even going back to the pre-cambrian. Some of those fossils are amazingly detailed, allowing us to see the impression of the skin of animals.

Given that Gregory Benford is a university professor, i would have expected a LOT better; e.g., if he just attended some introductory courses at the University where he works, he would not have made so many BASIC mistakes.

The sequel to "The Bowl of Heaven", "Shipstar" by Gregory Benford & Larry Niven is a tedious novel that tries to fill in the history of the Bowl & explain its origins. With the crew of the Sun Seeker split up, the plot is in multiple pieces from things aboard ship to a member left behind who gets held captive to a team whose sole purpose is to explore the edge of the Bowl. Each step of the way, we the reader are taken on an at times very confusing journey to discovery just where the Bowl & its inhabitants came from. The book itself for the most part is very sound science fiction with a plot twist that I as a reader never saw coming about halfway through; however, I found it hard to read just because of the rotating plots & at time uneven flow. The book being broken down into as many sections as it is also hurts things since I feel like I was reading a television script with the end of each part being a good place to go to commercial. Overall a disappointing sequel which in theory should be the last book in this series although there is room for more if needed.

I read all the story line leading up to this book, but I found the efforts to make alien thought processes outside our own modes of thinking very distracting. I would have liked their motives to be more understandable to me. It grew tiresome at time for me. The tie-in to prehistoric Earth was too far fetched for my belief. The vastness of the dish, and the slow mode of travel makes for a plot that isn't resolved fast enough for my tastes, although it is a grand design, and probably follows closer to the science and advanced technology such travelers could manage (no jump to warp speed).

Tastily tuckerized Ayaan Hirsi Ali character, and I suspect some of Redwing is a shadow of Jerry Pournelle's son, or himself. This is hard SF at its hardest and most far-reaching, from dinosaur times to the farthest foreseeable future. The echo of God's reply to Job is Biblical.

Have you journeyed to the springs of fusion or walked in the recesses of the brittle night?

It's not Ringworld. The plot doesn't echo Dorothy in Oz. The war is horror, not adventure story. And the civilization of Shipstar is not fallen, but in its prime, intelligently dealing with problems and finding opportunities.

This should be a shoo-in for next years Hugo, but I suppose it's not political enough.

This is the second of a two book series; the first was Bowl of Heaven, but you needed think you need to have read BoH first.
I didn't and it made for an exciting read, as you are thrown into the action immediately. This is a first contact tale, with humans travelling on a long voyage coming across a strange object that is heading in the same direction as they are. The characters are interesting (both human and alien) and overall, I enjoyed the book.

Both Larry and Niven and Gregory Benford have written about huge objects in space like Larry Niven’s Ringworld. This time their Bowl of Heaven (paper) is literally bowl shaped with a huge living area and a sun that forces this Shipstar (hard from Tor) to move from star system to starsystem. Lots of intelligent beings have settled there. Alas for the human crew of a star ship Sunseeker and the still sleeping colonists intended for another world, the rules of the bowl want the humans to settle there instead of continuing to a world that has sent back threatening signals. These two grand masters of science fiction don’t disappoint even though the plot is mainly an excuse to show off the wonders. Wow!Review Published by Philadelphia Weekly Press.

I have been a Larry Niven fan for decades now, and provided you start with Bowl of Heaven, this will not disappoint. In my book, Niven has always been at the top of the list for hard Sci-fi writers. He is an idea-man, and his writing always contains a strong "wow!" element when it comes to thinking outside the box. That said, when I first picked-up Bowl of Heaven & started reading, I thought "OMG, is he really going to recycle Ringworld?" If you are a fan of Niven, that will be an unavoidable comparison. But the Bowl, and the story Niven and Benford weave around it are very different, and the "wow!" element is so much bigger and more impactful when you realize the size and scope of what's truly going on, before you are through the first volume you realize this is a very different story, with a very different artifact at its center.
Perhaps what Shipstar and Bowl really excel best at is exploring just how alien aliens really are. In this story, you are faced with aliens who do not think in any way at all like the human characters, are not motivated by even remotely similar things, and this inability to understand what the other really wants, what they are motivated by, drives much of the story. Even once the language barrier is somewhat breached, the two sides really have no clue how to communicate due to the insurmountable cultural differences, particularly on the part of the aliens, who despite being much more "advanced" show a complete inability to grasp what humans are all about.

I have read some of the other reviews, positive & negative. I can tell you as a reader, I want to be taken for a ride. I don't approach a novel as a skeptic, looking for ways and reasons to have my experience of the story ruined. I readily suspend my disbelief, and let the writer take me where he wants to go. As a consequence, I am probably less likely to be really critical than some readers. I can understand some people viewing this as a retread of Ringworld. Both featured spectacularly big artifacts, requiring technology and engineering feats so grand and profound as to challenge the longevity of the cultures which created them. But they remain very different stories, and I think Bowl and Shipstar represent a maturing of both writers, whose craft has unquestionably improved. And in particular, if you are a fan of Niven, I do not think you will be disappointed.

I love the way Greg Benford "almost" never creates new physics in his novels and tries to still with current theories in Astrophysics to write the parameters for his stories. I love the ring world series and marveled at the immense structures Niven creates in his books. The cast of characters and civilizations in both series are fantastics. Makes it easy, I hope, for yet another follow on novel. I would love to find out what after the "ShipStar" novel. I'd love to know if anyone makes it to Glory.

A fantastic read and human story for both "Bowl of Heaven" and the required follow on story in "Shipstar".

Please continue to write.

Servicable spacer. Some good character development, plot inventions and twists. Doesn't really explain how two teams of humans allow themselves to investigate an unimaginably huge alien space ship with what amounts to a week's worth of camping gear.

I have enjoyed the BIG ideas in this story. This is the second of two novels and I am not sure if it stands alone. Read "The Bowl of Heaven" first. The story is very attractive and fun. I don't know how to describe it without giving stuff away. A good fun summer read!

Jarring continuity errors and recycled ideas from both Niven and Benford make this and the prior book, a muddled read. Okay to get through a plane trip. It felt like there was a real issue with conflicting goals between the writers in terms of levels of technology, and character development and personality.

Poorly written and not very engaging, although maybe slightly better than the Bowl of Heaven. Characters are simplistic. Description doesn't make sense and is hard to follow, and plot has gigantic holes and action scenes that make no sense.

Shipstar is an exciting conclusion to the saga started in the Bowl of Heaven. The ideas are big and bold. Some of the concepts feel slightly reused from the universes of both authors. The assembly of characters and players make for an intriguing assemblage of vastly different world views. A totally enjoyable read, but not quite a 5 star read.

Shipstar (2014) is the second SF novel in this duology, following Bowl of Heaven.

In the previous volume, Cliff and Beth were attending the SunSeeker departure party. All the workers, trainers and managers were there. Yet Cliff was more interested in the view in the video wall.

The SunSeeker departed the next day. Beth was one of the last to join the cryo-sleepers. The watch crews supervised the AIs that handled the ship. They worked three year tours of duty and then awoke the next set of Watchers while they returned to the cryocapsules.

Then Mayra and Abdusa woke Cliff. He noticed that only one other capsule is cycling. So he was rather confused.

After massaging and medicating Cliff to full awareness, the Wickramsingh couple told him that they had not yet reached their destination. There had been a problem with the ramscoop reaching the proper velocity. And there was something to one side of their trajectory.

In this novel, Redwing is a human and Captain of the SunSeeker.

Cliff Kammash is a human biologist. He is a senior member in the science group. He is Beth's lover. He is also the leader on one landing team.

Aybe is a human general engineer officer. He is a member of Cliff's team.

Howard Blair is a human systems engineer. He is a member of Cliff's team.

Terrence Gould is a human member of Cliff's team.

Irma Michaelson is a human plant biologist. She is a member of Cliff's team.

Beth Marble is a human pilot and biologist. She is Cliff's lover. She is also the leader of the other landing team.

Tananareve Bailey is a human linguist. She is a member of Beth's team.

Fred Ojama is a human geologist. He is a member of Beth's team.

Lau Pin is a human engineer. He is a member of Beth's team.

Karl Lebanon is a human general technology officer.

Mayra Wickramsingh is a human pilot. She is a member of Beth's team. Her husband Abdusa was also on Beth's team, but was crushed by a very large spider.

Thisther, Phoshtha and Shtirk are finger snakes. Then have tentacles on their tails that can do delicate work.

Quert is a Sil leader. He is escorting Cliff's team toward safety.

Asenath is a Folk Chief of Wisdom. He is Memor's superior.

Memor is a Folk Attendant Astute Astronomer, one of the ruling class on the Bowl. She has recently changed into the female form.

Bemor is a Folk Contriver and Intimate Emissary to the Ice Minds. He is Memor's twin.

In this story, Memor is tracking the primates through the mirror zone with small mobile probes. She orders her pilot to intercept them. She checks the primate starship, but it is not vectoring toward the runaways. Asenath calls to ask if she has caught the primates yet.

Beth and her crew follow the finger snakes toward an automated cargo drone. Tananareve is lagging behind. Her injured hip is bothering her.

The finger snakes reach the drone. Beth and her crew board it. Tananareve takes a look around and the drone leaves while she is looking elsewhere. Beth notices her absence too late to hold the drone. Phoshtha says Tananareve was sick and would slow them down.

Memor arrives shortly after the drone departs. Tananareve is recaptured by the Folk. Memor has to carry the sick primate back to the rocker ship.

Lau Pin contacts the SunSeeker from the cargo drone. Fred learns that the finger snakes are planning on stopping soon. Mayra says that the cargo drone can be launched for a rendezvous with the SunSeeker. She also says that the finger snakes want to come along.

Redwing orders a change in course so that the SunSeeker can pick up Beth's crew. Karl wraps the drone in a smart flex material to provide an airtight seal. The drone is connected to the SunSeeker through the seal.

The Folk have greatly damaged the Sil city where Cliff's crew have taken shelter. The crew is helping to clear the dead from the city. Everybody is dazed by the bombardment, the number of dead, and the apparently endless clearance tasks.

Many wounded Sil are leaving the city. Quert directs the team out with the wounded. Some Sil provide motor transport to the humans after they depart the city.

Quert leads them to tunnels deep within the skin of the Bowl. There the team sees the Ice Minds outside the skin. These creatures are helium based sentients.

Bemor uses Tananareve to contact the SunSeeker. He offers them a chance to be Adopted. Redwing refuses the offer.

This tale puts Tananareve into contact with the Ice Minds. She learns more about the construction and operation of the Bowl. She also learns about the Great Shame.

Asenath is a pompous fool. This is the last volume in the duology. However, numerous reprints by both authors are being offered on the store.

Highly recommended for Benford/Niven fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of Big Smart Objects, starflight, and a bit of romance. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

I think this was a great book and and (unexpectedly) better followup to the Bowl of Heaven. It continued to explore some deep and disparate topics (extinction of dinosaurs, colonization, our unconscious mind, etc.). I was sorry to see it end but it probably did leave open a new series on "Glory". A well written, fine science fiction novel.

I have been reading Larry Niven for a long time. I have always liked how he plugs science into his stories. Not the nonsense of Skylark of Space,where copper is the fuel source and you fly past Saturn in five minutes. He also works the idea of alien cultures and how they may have evolved. A good story should make you think.

Anytime a publisher puts a phrase like "written by two master story tellers" on the cover of a book you should put it down and walk away as fast as you can. What they are trying to do is give you fair warning about the piece of schlock they are trying to palm off on you. And that is the case with this book. I am a huge fan of Gregory Benford's writing but if he had much to actually do with this book I would be greatly surprised. It is chock full of one-dimensional humans with 1950's names like Cliff, Beth, and Irma, who have no back story; Big Bird type aliens; a Jim Kirk type captain (Cap'n Redwing!!); and a long boring trudge across Larry Niven's latest version of Ringworld. This is the sort of lazy effort writing that gives science fiction a bad name.

The reviews I've seen for Shipstar thus far are favorable, though with the caveat that you have to read Bowl of Heaven first. But the reviews of the first book are scary bad! Maybe it will be reprinted? In any case, I see new copies are available for $2.50 or so plus more than that for shipping. So I'll wait for this book to go into remainder before buying them, to read on the cheap _and_ find out for sure that there is an ending first.

The ideas are so interesting (it would seem from what I've heard). Hey, how about they release the text in Wiki format with Creative Commons, and let _us_ fix it up?!

(Stars required: I picked "I don't like it" as befitting my feelings for the situation, not necessarily for this text itself which I've not read)

I think this was a great book and and (unexpectedly) better followup to the Bowl of Heaven. It continued to explore some deep and disparate topics (extinction of dinosaurs, colonization, our unconscious mind, etc.). I was sorry to see it end but it probably did leave open a new series on "Glory". A well written, fine science fiction novel.

I have been reading Larry Niven for a long time. I have always liked how he plugs science into his stories. Not the nonsense of Skylark of Space,where copper is the fuel source and you fly past Saturn in five minutes. He also works the idea of alien cultures and how they may have evolved. A good story should make you think.

Anytime a publisher puts a phrase like "written by two master story tellers" on the cover of a book you should put it down and walk away as fast as you can. What they are trying to do is give you fair warning about the piece of schlock they are trying to palm off on you. And that is the case with this book. I am a huge fan of Gregory Benford's writing but if he had much to actually do with this book I would be greatly surprised. It is chock full of one-dimensional humans with 1950's names like Cliff, Beth, and Irma, who have no back story; Big Bird type aliens; a Jim Kirk type captain (Cap'n Redwing!!); and a long boring trudge across Larry Niven's latest version of Ringworld. This is the sort of lazy effort writing that gives science fiction a bad name.

The reviews I've seen for Shipstar thus far are favorable, though with the caveat that you have to read Bowl of Heaven first. But the reviews of the first book are scary bad! Maybe it will be reprinted? In any case, I see new copies are available for $2.50 or so plus more than that for shipping. So I'll wait for this book to go into remainder before buying them, to read on the cheap _and_ find out for sure that there is an ending first.

The ideas are so interesting (it would seem from what I've heard). Hey, how about they release the text in Wiki format with Creative Commons, and let _us_ fix it up?!

(Stars required: I picked "I don't like it" as befitting my feelings for the situation, not necessarily for this text itself which I've not read)

Honestly, the premise here is based upon a race of super-intelligent space-traveling DINOSAURS...... Are you kidding me? And "finger snakes" that are supposed to be what?? Cute? So corny I had to puke...seriously. I don't even know where to begin with this one..

This has to be the worst book I've ever read. Cliche characters, zero plot, laughable aliens, corny dialogue, its like a really bad Saturday morning Hanna Barbera cartoon. The authors even have the audacity to add an epilogue explaining the "science" behind this preposterous book...as if they spent so much time masturbating over the "physics" of the Bowl they completely neglected everything that actually makes a good book (plot, setting, characterization, etc etc). This is unacceptable for anyone, much less authors who dare put Arthur C Clarke's name in the dedication.....holy shipstar..

Hey guys how about worrying about writing a good book and not obsessing over gravity-waves or whatever meaningless details you seem to have spent all you energy focusing on (no pun intended). This book is so bad we don't care if there is a semblance of physics to the gravitational fields of the bowl, ONE THAT WAS CREATED BY SUPER SMART DINOSAURS.. Do you really think there is any point in making anything "accurate" based upon such an idiotic premise???? Its so moronic its insulting. And they honestly thin this is believable and even gee-whiz revelation the entire book seems to hinge upon. OMG my 10 graders write WAY more interesting, nuanced, realistic and believable stories not to mention better dialogue, action, "science" and all the rest.

There are a few decent renderings in the book, way too few to make it worthwhile caring and the graphs at the end??? Seriously? The authors think some pretentious physics equations thrown in at the back of the book can possibly make any of this trite, cliched nonsense of a book "realistic"or plausible?! Its just mind-boggling how dumb this book is, every cliche in the book, no plot, no characters worth a dime, no interesting anything. Cliched characters, dialogue, pathetic "action", zero plot to care about. It is insulting to intelligence be it human or extraterrestrial that this book was ever published.

I can't believe what a bad book this is and cannot even begin to imagine how much worse the first installment coud have been based on reviews here. Its so bad its laughable. And I have a pretty low bar for mediocrity.

After the disaster of the first half not going to waste my time or money. The whole thing should have been released as one book AFTER an editor had a wack at it. Shame on Mr. Benford and Niven and the publisher.