The Voices of Heaven
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Book Overview
Barry di Hoa had the good life on the Moon: steady work and the love of a good woman. But a rival slipped him a mickey, and he next awoke aboard Gerald Tscharka's ship as it neared the colony planet, Pava, eighteen light-years away. Pava was the frontier, complete with earthquakes, primitive conditions and hard physical work. The local "doctor" wouldn't treat Barry's little manic-depressive problem without medicine from the Moon. And the Millernarist colonists, who thought suicide was cool fun, didn't thrill him. Then he made friends with the leps. The large, caterpillar-like, odd-speaking gentle beasts were helping the humans to fashion a life on their planet. In their strange way, they knew things about Pava that might make the difference in the colony's survival. He started to believe he could really enjoy life in this fragile paradise. Except Tscharka was up to soemthing bad, something that would change eveyrthing. Barry knew only he could stop the mad captian, and the captain knew it, too. What neither knew was whether Barry could be manic enough to do it.
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0812535189
ISBN13:9780812535181
Release Date:July 1995
Publisher:Tor Books
Length:352 Pages
Weight:0.40 lbs.
Dimensions:1.0" x 4.2" x 6.8"
Related Subjects
Contemporary Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction Science Fiction & FantasyCustomer Reviews
1 rating
Interesting and very grounded
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
I was mostly satisfied by The Voices of Heaven. As science fiction novels go, it was highly accessible. In fact, its central story and themes could have fit easily within other genres, though the futuristic element is rendered easily and plausibly.The story is basically one that could easily be adapted into a novel about a European colonist in the Americas - with Native Americans being substituted for the alien Leps. Pohl writes masterfully within the voice of his intelligent but often clueless narrator. The author has a real gift for rendering characters - even fairly unsympathetic ones - as real tangible human beings. The character of Tscharka is particularly well-done - we do get a sense of his positive attributes, though they are not frequently displayed.At its core, this is a novel about what people need in life, about religion, and about dislocation. As science fiction novels go, it is readily concrete and not at all disorienting or confusing. The storyline is consistently engaging, but not always tense.I agree about the audio narration of this book - Johnny Heller does a fine job as the narrator.
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