Shadow of Heaven

by Bob Shaw

1st New English Library 1970 paperback vg+ In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

125 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Bob Shaw was born in Northern Ireland. After working in structural engineering, industrial public relations, and journalism he became a full time science fiction writer in 1975.

Shaw was noted for his originality and wit. He was two-time recipient (in 1979 and 1980) of the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. His short story Light of Other Days was a Hugo Award nominee in 1967, as was his novel The Ragged Astronauts in 1987.

Reviews

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

2½. Mediocre Shaw effort with an incongruously amazing climax.

[Warwick Stubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bob Shaw was a bit of an ideas man, and he had some interesting ones, like 'Slow Glass' and twin planets that share the same atmosphere in The Ragged Astronauts. This story features great floating land crops existing on islands in the sky that are cultivated to feed the masses below who are crammed like sardines into apartment blocks. The story revolves around a reporter wondering where his brother is, and upon investigation, discovers him on one of these islands harboring a bunch of escapees from earth. Cool. Sounds like it could be interesting.

I had no intention of reading much more of Shaw after the last lot I had read, but YouTube's Bookpilled recommended Palace of Eternity. However, that book wasn't in the 2nd hand bookshop I walked into. This one was, and when I read the inside flap description, I thought immediately of the film Elysium, so was intrigued, and wondered if there might be a connection.

A similar setting, but details are very different. If Blomkamp had read The Shadow of Heaven, then he turned a basic concept into his own idea. But it's also easy to imagine him coming up with his idea completely on his own. In essence, Elysium is a metaphor for the rich living in flash buildings on top of a hill and looking down on the coughing and sick poor people in the streets below. Bob Shaw has no rich up there in the sky, just escapees from earth trying to take sparingly from the crops without it looking suspicious.

Yet, there's absolutely no tension in this book. There are fights, there's destruction, but all through it all I struggled to imagine the basic scenes. This is a revised text, yet Shaw does little to expand on details and imagery, leaving much of the expansion in info dumps and possibly extended plotting that does little to make the book more interesting. The book relies too much on macho fight offs to solve problems without any depth of thought in the brother-relationship. It's all very straight forward antagonism, very pulpy, and ... uninteresting. That's it. It's just uninteresting. I almost stopped reading. I did start skim-reading paragraphs though just to get to dialogue.

I do recommend Bob Shaw's short-stories. I read Cosmic Kaleidoscope many years ago and thought that two of it's short-stories could have been strung together to make quite a bang-up SF action movie. Can't remember which stories though.

[Mark White · Rating 3 out of 5]

On one level this falls into the genre of islands in the sky, teeming oppressed masses below type stories (think Elysium film) and TBH the resolution isn't great. On the other hand he was spot on with many predictions - google glasses, shoes with illuminated heels, degradation of farmland, fake news etc. And the floating world in the sky was pretty new in the 60s too. Sure it's a bit dated in places and Shaw misses a lot of implications of the technology he predicts. For example the crowded, smoke filled newsroom features screens and computer input, yet the reporters still file stories on paper. It is fast moving and taughtly written and has economically sketched but fully three dimensional characters, which is typical of Shaw's style. (The human story at its heart is about sibling rivalry.) To a large extent this compensates for its shortcomings but not quite enough, so only 3 stars.

[Kevin Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by an SF writer friend and I'm so glad he brought it to my attention. I was gripped by the concept, the story-telling, and the characters. The premise of an overcrowded world having to grow its food on vast structures situated way above the Earth's surface feels remarkably prescient (the book was 1st published in 1978) and the action takes place both above and below, with the central character finding himself trapped on one of the 'Land Extensions' as he searches for his missing brother. And 'action' is the right word, as the story unfolds like a thriller, with the final chapters moving at a breakneck pace. So I, too, will be happily recommending this book... it's a cracker!

[Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining and easy to read, I enjoyed it a lot. The concept of a secret society of claustrophobes who can never go back to live on land is pretty cool.

It is possibly quite dated (being from 1969) and does not pass the bechdel test in any sense. In fact one of the only interactions with a woman is the main character throwing her in the way of a gun as a distraction.

Might not be recommending it anytime soon but I enjoyed it

[Sid Isidro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. It's a small book but I had a hard time finishing the novel.

[Cyrix Instead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very tightly written and fast moving adventure, I had a lot of fun with this little story and the end is brilliant :)

[Jonathan Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shaw’s thriller set in the skies is a fun, quick read that shows his talent for a tightly woven story.

[Rog Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A ripping yarn of huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

[Druss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Enjoyed it. Lots of good ideas.

[Andrewcharles420 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post-salting of the Earth apocalypse, the world all lives at the oceans' edge, and farms and processes plankton for sustenance. A few plots of land are suspended on anti-grav platforms floating above the sea for robo-farmers to supplement the plankton. Some claustrophobic folks escape to the islands in the sky (Heaven), to live an open and free foraging existence. When a newspaper reporter discovers his half-brother has gone missing, he finds the trail leading to the sky islands... and sets in motion a plan to bring down the government and eventually populate the solar system.

I liked the cliffhanger suggestions at the end of chapters that are then entirely skipped over by the beginning of the next chapter, and the effects hardly even mentioned again (with barely enough info to suss them out). The 'ink-stained-wretch' reporter protagonist was also a fun trope for me to read, mainly because I follow a number of reporters' personal blogs and think news reporting is important.

There were a lot of 'are we really family' psychology issues between the half-brothers, which I didn't relate with. Weirdest element of this was main character marrying his half-brother's wife at the end of the book--roles for women were stereotypes: mother, daughter, wife-to-be. None of the characters was too interesting or well developed.

I don't think I have any other books by this author, so I'll not be reading him too soon... strangely (for my tastes) I think I'd like this author better as a short-story writer--I didn't see much character development but enjoyed the writing style otherwise.

[Chris Fellows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid Shaw which reminded me of Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants. For some reason I have owned this book for decades, never managing to read it through, but this time when I got to whatever invisible barrier I ran into before it just wasn't there. I am taking this as a sign that my tastes have changed or my standards have slipped, or something, so I should get stuck in and have another go at the many many books I own and have never gotten to the end of.

I liked the beginning best, before it got bogged down in action, and didn't like how the moral quandaries that loom large earlier in the novel are airily breezed away at the end.

[Philip Chaston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slight and uninteresting: not the best of Shaw

[SciFiOne · Rating 4 out of 5]

1979 grade B-

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the set up of this book, but the ending was disappointing. Film noir detective story set in a bleak post ww3 future.