Heaven's War

by David S. Goyer, Michael Cassutt

Overview

The competing teams of astronauts sent to explore the asteroid Keanu discovered it was, in fact, a giant spacecraft with an alien crew carrying a plea for help. A brave new frontier beckons. But it will come at a price. Without warning, the aliens transport small groups of humans to the vast interior habitats of Keanu.
 
Their first challenge is to survive. Their second: discover why The Architects—the unseen aliens controlling the asteroid—brought them there. The third: find a way to take control of Keanu. Because the ship is moving again.    
             
The Architects are going home...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425256190
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/25/2013
Series:	Heaven's Shadow , #2
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	1,076,934
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David S. Goyer is a screenwriter, film director, and comic book writer. His screenplays include Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Man of Steel.
 
Michael Cassutt is a television producer, scriptwriter, and author. His TV work includes The Twilight Zone, Max Headroom, and Eerie, Indiana. His novels include Missing Man and Red Moon.
 

What People are Saying About This

George R.R. Martin

Fans of hard SF delighted in Heaven's Shadow, a solid and engrossing novel in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlin…Now Heaven's War takes the story to the next level.—George R. R. Martin

From the Publisher

Praise for Heaven's Shadow

"David Goyer always delivers thoroughly imagined, minutely researched worlds, spun around the most outlandish premises."
Guillermo del Toro, director of Pan's Labrynth and New York Times bestselling co-author of The Strain

"Terrific...Cassutt and Goyer give Arthur C. Clarke a run for his money. Prepare to have your world rocked."
Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of Triggers

"May be as close as I ever get to an actual ride with NASA. But what a ride!"
Jack McDevitt, author of Firebrand

"In a fast-paced blending of Rama and The Right Stuff, Goyer and Cassutt offer a compelling yarn about first contact in the near future. Nobody 'does NASA' better."
David Brin, author of The Uplift War

"Reading this book is like riding a rollercoaster."
Booklist

Editorial Reviews

A solid and engrossing novel in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein.”—George R. R. Martin, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels

“Brisk and efficiently engrossing.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“The sort of work that can hold its own among the genre’s greats; the Clarkes and the Nivens and the Heinleins.”—The Maine Edge

From the Publisher

Fans of hard SF delighted in Heaven’s Shadow, a solid and engrossing novel in the tradition of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlin…Now Heaven’s War takes the story to the next level.”—George R. R. Martin

George R.R. Martin

Second part of an alien-contact trilogy, following Heaven's Shadow (2011), the brainchild of Hollywood A-listers Goyer (Batman Begins, Dark City, etc.) and Cassutt (Stargate SG-1, Max Headroom, etc.). In 2019, two competing space missions landed on Keanu, which turned out to be a vast alien vessel. Despite their advanced science, Keanu's Architects have a problem they can't solve and need humanity's help. Neither of these expeditions made much headway, so the Architects snatched up a random selection of people from their respective mission HQs (in Houston and Bangalore) and deposited them in Keanu to join marooned NASA mission commander Zack Stewart. So they must learn how to survive here and explore their surroundings in the hope of learning why they've been summoned. There are some complications: Some of those killed in the previous book don't stay dead, but return as "revenants" with a mental hotline to the Architects; and an alien, the Prisoner, trapped for hundreds of years, escapes and encounters one of the human exploring teams--but his motives are unclear. The action-adventure sequences, as the various exploring teams blunder from cliffhanger to cliffhanger, keep the pages turning at a good clip. And the rest, plot absurdities notwithstanding, would be far more likable if it had been less obviously designed for future movie-dom, with sound-stage interiors, screenplay-crisp dialogue, a steady drip-drip of revelations, the ticking clock (Keanu is departing for parts unknown), the occasional death and the teams selected for wide appeal from such stock characters as the young girl (Zack's daughter), the dog (a revenant), the crippled ex-astronaut, the dying black guy, the Chinese spy, the science fiction writer, the Indian guru, etc. Brisk and efficiently engrossing, and as substantial as bubbles.

Kirkus Reviews