Heaven's River

Bobiverse, Book 4

By: Dennis E. Taylor

Narrated by: Ray Porter

Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's Summary

Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by Audible number one best seller Dennis E. Taylor.

More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost.

But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore. Some of them oppose Bob’s plan; others have plans of their own. The out-of-control moots are the least of the Bobiverse’s problems.

Undaunted, Bob and his allies follow Bender’s trail. But what they discover out in deep space is so unexpected and so complex that it could either save the universe - or pose an existential threat the likes of which the Bobiverse has ever faced. 

Heaven’s River is the fourth installment in the blockbuster Audible Original Bobiverse series - which has sold more than one million copies.

©2020 Dennis E. Taylor (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

BOB-tastic!!! 🛸

-Okay... In all fairness, I’ve gotta admit that the first three BOBiverse books easily rank among my all time favorite audible books. I have listen to the complete series at least half a dozen times. I will also admit that I downloaded Heaven’s River the moment it became available and immediately put in a marathon listening session. So, with that said... NOT disappointed. At first I was skeptical on how to meaningfully continue the series (especially when the synopsis makes it feel like nothing more than a needless “Quest for Bender” follow up). I couldn’t have been any further off the mark. Even though the first section of the story primarily revolves around Bob-prime, the audience is quickly propelled into the realization that Bob’s distant clones aren’t just petulant children, but may indeed have their own legitimate point of view. As the listener, you really do begin to question who is right... and just because you’re familiar with a character doesn’t mean it is who you would naturally align with in the “real”. The story provides some very timely commentary on the validity of a dissenting ideologically in a fractured society. I will admit, at times I did feel the actual “quest” to find/rescue Bender was a bit of needlessly protracted time filler, but Ray Porter’s superb narration skills keeps the extended storyline tolerable. Ultimately, If you loved the earlier entries into the BOBiverse, then you will have no problem picking up with the rest of the moot and enjoying the ride. If one thing has been made clear to me with this book, it is that the BOBiverse has the potential for a series of never ending stories. Long live (I mean “clone”) Bob!

filler book

I really liked the last 3 books a lot but this one is no good. positive reviews are perplexing to me, buy it if you care about continuity more than story.
12h are just B-roll, running away scenes, nothing interesting happens like the maduro or the others or spaceships related. Main story is very isolated, imagine BoB running around in robot disguise. should have lasted 3h max. Background story is more bobiverse group related, author did not want to commit any decisions so minor events happen, get talked about and waved away,

As Skippy would say, five stars, duhhhh!!!

If you’re like me you got up early the day this was released and are already done with it. If for some reason you listened to the first three and are on the fence about getting the long awaited fourth installment, rest assured it is well worth the credit! Fantastic book Dennis and great performance as always by Ray!

The Bobiverse takes a turn

Dennis Taylor's "Bobiverse" series is a great sci-fi listen. Packed with humor, geek references, and thought provoking storylines, I have throughly enjoyed the series. For the most part, this book does continue on with that general theme, though it did feel that Taylor was left a bit adrift as to exactly where to take the story without the "big bad" of "THE OTHERS" to confront anymore. Instead, the story tackles the implications of the diverging clone personalties of Bob- the "drift" as he calls it. As personalities continue to drift farther and farther from original Bob, philosophical differences about interacting with sentients (or "ephemerals") becomes a major sore spot, as the Bobs try to decide what exactly to do with relative eternity.
Of course, most of this story is taken up with the search for Bender, which leads to a giant megastructure and a mystery about it's creation and creators. Needless to say (slight spoiler), the vast majority of the inhabitants are very technologically limited, which bring the mystery about how they came to be in such an impressive feat of engineering. Unfortunately MOST of book 4 is bogged down with the drudgery of using the "mannies" to try and infiltrate the technologically limited society to unravel the puzzle. It's an intriguing enigma that Taylor created and you obviously want the answers to the questions, but the book gets very bogged down in the minutiae of just traveling through and interacting with this civilization. So compared to the other books it's really quite the slog. There are similarities to the subplot with the Deltans, but unlike that subplot there isn't much diverging from this theme for most of the book, Where the Deltan life (particularly Archimedes') was interesting and interspersed with other plot lines, this is more of a drudge.
However I do have hope that the storyline will continue with more books, as the overall arc of the series continues to be a very interesting one. I'd have to give this book a lower score than the other 3 as it does drag on as I mentioned, but still I have no regrets about getting this book. I just look forward to the next one in the series.

Great Series, weakest addition to the series.

I loved all the previous books but this one lacked something and it is hard to pin point. It felt like the whole story was based on the divide between bobs but they spent so much time not exploring that. Is the longest book in the series and it feels like it shouldn't have been.

Anthropology ?

I would like to say at the beginning I was looking forward to this particular release. About halfway into the book I became irritated by the Keystone cop approach to this story. Chapter after chapter, the lack of focus became overwhelming. The main theme of heavens river became a anthropological mess. All human attributes made the story ridiculous. It’s one thing to have Bob spacecraft ,virtual reality ,and another thing to understand why the author would abandon the more science fiction attributes of The first three books. As with most of these long extended series, the final two chapters leave so many possibilities I can’t even count them. All the new players were never flushed out and The soap opera approach to ridiculous situations took over. The author chose not to push the Bobaverse forward, but rather took us down the path of a very long and tedious anthropology book.

Only 3 hrs in .. I will be up again until 2 AM...

Got B4 today - immediately hooked. Story is shaping up to be as complex as any other, Ray Porter is doing a GREAT job, the Bob's have really developed a disparate society. Can't wait to find out what the Mega Structure is!

Thanks for the reference.

I love these books, the narrator, everything. But what I really love is when the author makes a reference to one of my other all time favorite books, I can't help but love these series even more.

Quest to Keep Bender's Matrix Dry*

*Yeah, that should be the title.
After the brilliance that was the first 3 books, this one falls flat. Hell, it barely registers as passable Sci-fi.
There were a couple interesting story arcs but they never matured. Most of the book involved running away from bad-tempered "beaver creatures" while keeping some electronics from the drink. Ultimately the solution is wax paper and lots of scurrying. Quite a let down from SCUT, SIDAR and railguns.
I want my money back Taylor.

A good addition to the series

I am a huge huge fan of the first three Bobiverse books, so of course, I pre-ordered a copy of book four here. I listened to it beginning as soon as they released it at midnight. This book is slightly different from the first three in that most of the whole book centers around the one main storyline, instead of getting to see small stories here and there thru the eyes of different Bobs like in the first three books. Good thing the main storyline is a pretty good one, then. While I don't think this is my favorite of the 4 books, I think it is a fine entry into the series. I always have thought that you could write endlessly in this series, given that the Bobs are immortal and that the Universe is a big place! I hope this isn't the last time the Bobiverse calls out to Dennis to write some more into it. And what can be said about Ray's performance that hasn't already been said? He always does an amazing job. My favorite narrator on Audible still, after quite a few years of being a fan of audiobooks.
If you are a fan of the first three, don't hesitate to re-visit the world of the Bobs!

Going to be short and to the point.

This was thoroughly underwhelming and disappointing.
Not a scratch on the first three books.
I had this on pre order.
So i was excited when it was released.
Humor is gone, excitement is gone. The story, mehhh.
Sorry.

Hope there is another Bobiverse to come😁

This is a book I, like many others, have been waiting for.
It is just great. Different somewhat from the previous book with one strong story thread and not many side threads, but all the better for that. Dennis has obviously taken the time to produce a good, to me, well written story. Lots of sci-fi history references and some modern as will.
I do think you have to have read the previous books to get the full benefit but it is stand alone whilst the previous 3 were really one long book.

weaker than the original trilogy, but still decent

suffers from the curse of all sci fi... there needs to be more new and better tech and I think that we lost something on the way. I missed the broad parallel stories coming together as per the original trilogy, with this one being mainly focused in one location. not bad, but I doubt I will return to this book again despite listening to the original books a few times

Huge Step Backwards

I have no idea what book the people who rated this 4 & 5 stars were listening to but it was not this one. I have listened to this series many times over and looked forward to this book very much but I can safely say that this one is by far and away the worst of the series and as a whole, it lets the series down. I wont spoil anything for anyone who wants to listen to it and make their own minds up but for me, it failed to answer anything at the end, the story lacked so much, it didn't really get going like the others and it felt like the writer had lost their way towards the end and just made up something they thought would make an ending to keep everyone happy.....it failed badly. some nice references to other notable books and tv shows which was a very nice touch but still not enough to make it a good listen. such a shame they took it in this direction.

Fabulous return of the BOHHHHB!

Brilliant, but can't believe I waited so long for the return of the Bob's & then I finished it in one day! (sob!)
If you're a fan of the first 3 books, then you won't be disappointed, loved it, loved it, loved it!!!

Expected more

This book failed to fully explain its big concepts or fully explore its main themes. It turned into a long and repeated fat otter hunt. Fat otters who seem to live very human lives, so much so it’s almost as if the author couldn’t be bothered to give this alien species its own culture and just gave them ours.

I am a few hours in

Already it's exactly what I wanted this book to be, I haven't finished no, but I can already see that this is yet another excellent addition to this series and to Dennis E. Taylor's incredible list of books.

Not enough sci-fi, a little mediocre.

Too much anthropology, mystery and discovery became another deltan/paath storyline and the bobiverse politics isn't very exciting, too PG. The potential was there, Ray Porter was fantastic as always but the hard sci-fi has become a space opera for children.

Not my Jam

Nice continuation

New arc. look forward to see what comes next.
This story could have got tired but the world building just gets better and character development is as always superb. Nice conclusion as well ;-)

Surprisingly, it's the best one yet!

It's fun, exciting, interesting and high concept.
It's very much like the other books in the series, but it's longer and better.