Crashing Heaven

By: Al Robertson

Narrated by: Thomas Judd

A diamond-hard, visionary new SF thriller. Nailed-down cyberpunk a la William Gibson for the 21st century meets the vivid dark futures of Al Reynolds in this extraordinary debut novel.

With Earth abandoned, humanity resides on Station, an industrialised asteroid run by the sentient corporations of the Pantheon. Under their leadership a war has been raging against the Totality - ex-Pantheon AIs gone rogue.

With the war over, Jack Forster and his sidekick, Hugo Fist, a virtual puppet tied to Jack's mind and created to destroy the Totality, have returned home.

Labelled a traitor for surrendering to the Totality, all Jack wants is to clear his name, but when he discovers two old friends have died under suspicious circumstances he also wants answers. Soon he and Fist are embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not only their future but all of humanity's.

,p>But with Fist's software licence about to expire, taking Jack's life with it, can they bring down the real traitors before their time runs out?

©2015 Al Robertson (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

AIs as a rogue nation

Crashing Heaven is Al Roberston's debut novel. Set in a far future, artificial intelligences (AIs) run humanity, essentially replacing religion as humans align with the particular entities associated with their line of work or entertainment. Termed the Pantheon, the tale begins at the conclusion of a solar system wide war with a different AI cabal, the Totality, Jack a soldier, but former forensic accountant, who had surrendered to the Totality is repatriated back to Pantheon and proceeds to reinvigorate the murder investigation that instigated his current state. What he stumbles upon is crime, corruption, and manipulation on a grand scale, necessitating an assault on the Pantheon stronghold known as Heaven.

The sci-fi elements are mainly centered around digital / electronic / virtual reality, that comes off as William Gibson squared. AIs dominate the landscape with a blurring of the lines between human and machine intelligence. Even the deceased remain as digital versions known as "fetches" while virtual reality is seamlessly integrated with real space to create whole new environments. The dominance of AIs is taken for granted, but the underlying theme is that even AIs can succumb to petty, human foibles and turning important decision over to the new "gods" is no recipe for success.

The narration is excellent with a good range of voices and solid pacing.

Imaginative, fun, but sometimes confusing thriller

Crashing Heaven is kind of a future sci fi dystopia in which humanity lives solely in a space station after Earth is decimated. The station is ruled over by the Pantheon, AIs who exist in the virtual reality overlay called the Weave. Also out there are other AIs called the Totality. Jack was installed with a symbiotic "puppet" called Fist who was designed to fight the Totality. Only Jack surrended to them instead after discovering the war was unjust. When he returns to Station, he gets involved in a murder investigation that ultimately leads to him trying to discover which Pantheon God was responsible.

Ultimately the world is very, very imaginative and the story was very compelling. I didn't fully know what was going on most of the time though, so it could have helped to have a little more backstory and explanation. It took me a long while before I understood exactly what this puppet was, what the Weave was, what the Pantheon was, etc. The interplay between Jack and Fist was really fun and it was quite satisfying to see their relationship (and Fist's personality) evolve and grow through the novel.

The narrator did a fine job with all the voices and the reading, and his British accent added some charm to the reading.

The only thing I wasn't overly enthusiastic about (other than the confusing nature of a lot of the concepts) was the profanity. It's pretty much in every other sentence. It is amazing that centuries from now, people would be using the exact same profanity as today. Hmm.

Anyways, it was a fun listen and the story wrapped up in a nice, satisfying way. There were lots of heavy themes explored (what it means to die, how humans differ from AIs, how the digital world compares to the physical, etc.) and that was enlightening and interesting. And it was never really boring, which is a plus.

NOTE: I received this audiobook for free in exchange for an honest review.

Good Enough for a Second Listen

“Crashing Heaven” reminds me of the “Culture Books” by Iain M Banks who died in 2013. After he passed away, I thought I would never again encounter AI’s (Artificial Intelligence) with unimaginable intellect but also with unrestrained emotions that sometimes leads to disastrous consequences. (We all know very smart people who occasionally do really stupid things.) This is a buddy book that pairs a man with an AI as they investigate a mysterious crime. The human represents common sense and the AI represents both logic and emotion. There is action, technology and many tense moments.

Enjoyed it, but still not sure why!

First of all, Thomas Judd was a joy to listen to. I'll admit that sometimes a British narrator will hinder my enjoyment, but Judd was fantastic. He really nailed the evolution of the Fist Character, subtly changing his tenor as Fist became a fully developed entity.

The rest of the story is fascinating, but at times difficult to track. There is a ton of back story the listener is left to fill in themselves. I think I will give this another listen, and I have a feeling my rating will go to 5 stars as when I do. The world of virtual entities and The cyberpunk sensibility are well executed here, and I am anxious to try something else from Robertson. Particularly if it is read by Judd.

Very unique idea, story left a bit to be desired

I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, and I'll eventually re-read it. But it wasn't one of my favorites. The story was good but not as fast paced as I was hoping. But the idea of gods in science fiction is so innovative that I'll be thinking about it for a long time to come.

A meandering plodding story

The narrator tried really hard and succeeded for the most part in creating interesting characters but was limited by the poor prose the author provided.

I couldn't find myself caring about any of the characters or even the outcome.

Not As Advertised

This work was advertised as a “diamond-hard, visionary new SF thriller.” The work is not as described. It was more a fantasy tale with puppets and faeries overlaid with a skin of sci-fi techno babble of the computer programming sort. So we hear about such improbables as a “digital breeze”. Because the author is a Brit, we get all this up-to-the-second sounding techno babble, but the characters still use “torches” to light their way around dark places. No rules seem to govern events; things just happened. The writing describes rather than demonstrates and that is a very flat way to present a story. Characters were not believable and I found it hard to develop an interest in them, especially in the annoying Pinocchio character. The book’s reader is no Frank Muller. This reader has an annoying habit is separating the dialogue from its cue, to wit: “Look out!” - [pause] – “he shouted.” About half way through, I began to wonder why I was listening to the work, which never happens for me with a well-written novel. If you crave “diamond-hard, visionary” SF, then listen to “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson or “Altered Carbon” by Robert K. Morgan or “The Ascendant” by Drew Chapman, all available from Audible.

A great new author

If you enjoy Peter F. Hamilton, specifically the Greg Mandel series, you'll love this story. Hoping for more in the series and from this author.
Thomas Judd is a very good narrator.
Production could be been slightly better, the editor missed some repeats of spoken lines.