When the crew of the Sunseeker crossed the intergalactic void on route to the planet Glory, apparently a lush paradise, devoid of life and ripe for colonisation, they did not expect their path to intersect with The Bowl, a giant, galaxy travelling ship, containing a wild variety of alien life and overseen by The Folk. Their initial meeting does not go well leaving two shore parties on the run through an alien landscape, fleeing for their lives.

Shipstar (2015. 405 Pages) is the sequel to Bowl of Heaven, by Gregory Benford and Larry Niven and not dissimilarly, to Niven’s Ringworld series, deals with the encounter and exploration of a massive artificially created inhabited object. In this case, it is the Bowl, a device so massive it has to use a star as its propulsion.

Getting the negative aspects of the book out of the way first... Do not start here. Go and pick up a copy of Bowl of Heaven first, as neither writer allows the reader leeway in reading this as a standalone. I haven’t read the first book and so it took a good eight chapters before I felt I had a good grasp of what was going on. Little to no information is provided up front as to what had previously happened, leading to an experience not dissimilar to waking up in a room full of people you don’t know, speaking about non-contextual events.

The other aspect of the book which did not seem to be working well was having two authors. This threw up a number of problems. Firstly Benford and Niven have very different writing styles, Niven tends to be quite terse in his descriptions, whereas Benford will spend languid moments literally stopping to smell the flowers and describing the moment to the reader. More annoying was the repetition of information. At least three times one writer would come to the close of his chapter imparting a particular element of plot or characterisation, only for the exact same information to appear at the beginning of the next chapter.

Now that rant is out of the way, there were some good things about the book. I can imagine that the story will, by its nature, divide readers between those who wished to spend more time wandering through the wonders of this artefact and those impatient to carry on with the action. Whether the writers have achieved a good balance will very much be an individual choice.

The story is split so as to show three different perspectives on the on-going narrative. On the Sunseeker the crew, under their captain debate to nature of The Bowl and its strange inhabitants, especially The Folk who appear as great birds. Their purpose, most of the time was to provide action and exposition. On the Bowl, Cliff and his surviving landing party are being hunted by The Folk, allowing the story to give you a travelogue through the lands of the not so indigenous races. The third, and my personal favourite, thread follows Tananareve, who is captured by The Folk, thus providing their perspective on events as well as allowing readers to gain a greater understanding of their society.

I think the book will end up with a “I think I would have liked more of” feeling depending which of the parts of the story you are most drawn to. I found that the characters were well realised, but could have done without going on a ramble with Cliff and crew, as much of this information could have been worked in, in another way, but this just might be coming from the fact that I did not feel drawn to him as a character.

The pair have cleverly left the ending of the book open, tantalisingly teasing a greater adventure to come, I guess whether we see this will depend on the success of the first two novels. Ultimately, the book is a sequel not to be embarked upon unless you have read the first one.

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Charles Packer