*** Spoiler Alert ***
If you haven’t read the book yet, best stop now.
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Heaven’s River – The Topopolis
I’ve seen a few comments that Heaven’s River is not sufficiently well described in the book, so I’ve put together this post to describe it in more detail.
First, let’s start with an O’Neill cylinder, something most people are far more familiar with. Think Babylon 5. An O’Neill cylinder, at its most basic, is just a large drum, rotating around its axis to create centrifugal pseudo-gravity on the inside surface. There are different designs for introducing light into the cylinder, but the one used in Heaven’s River is a fusion-powered light source on a structure that runs down the center of the cylinder.
That’s great, but possibly a little exposed. One good meteor punch and all the air drains out of the cylinder. And like Johanssen said in The Martian, we need air to not die. So stick a non-rotating shell around the cylinder, made of rock or other friable material, to absorb meteor impacts. We make it non-rotating and separate from the cylinder so that it doesn’t place a load on the cylinder. In order to keep the outer shell and the inner cylinder from touching, we place magnetic bearings in the gap.
So far, so good. But with a single cylinder, you can enter and exit through the ends, preferably along the axis where there’s no pseudo-gravity. With a topopolis, not so much. Think of a topopolis as an O’Neill cylinder stretched to a ridiculous length. After all, for any given diameter, a length of ten miles isn’t any more of an engineering challenge that one mile. Or a thousand miles. Or, as in Heaven’s River, a billion miles.
The last thing we do is connect the two ends of the billion-mile-long O’Neill cylinder, so that now you have a loop. In the case of Heaven’s River, instead of going around the star once at a distance of three hundred million miles or so, the structure goes around the star three times at a distance of one hundred million miles or so. There was no engineering reason for that by the way, I just thought it was fun.
But now you have a structure with no convenient ends to enter and exit through. What do you do? Well, the only thing you can do—enter and exit from the side. Of course, that’s easier said than done, because the cylinder is spinning at eighteen hundred miles per hour. And it’s sitting inside a stationary shell. So you have to go through the stationary outer shell, somehow accelerate to a half mile per second while following the curve of the inner shell, then somehow get in through the inner shell. That’s where the Spin Transfer system comes in. You land in one of the nine space ports on the outer shell and get into one of the Spin Transfer system vehicles. The vehicle accelerates along a track on the inside of the stationary outer shell until it matches speed with the inner shell, then the vehicle clamps on to and docks with the inner shell. From there, it’s just an elevator ride to the inner surface of the rotating shell.
Heaven’s River itself has a fifty-six-mile radius, and was built in sections of five hundred and sixty miles each. Think of the sections as individual O’Neil cylinders that got glued together during construction.
Each section has a barrier at each end, which is made to look like mountains, in order to preserve the illusion. The barriers are actually designed to close off the end completely in case of some kind of catastrophic blowout.
The interior of Heaven’s River has four main rivers running through it, each going in alternating directions. But because the Quinlans are semi-aquatic, the rivers were designed to meander, to have tributaries, feeder streams, and so on. This increases the available river and shoreline, which is the ideal Quinlan habitat.
The interior terrain has topography, i.e. hills, valleys, and so on. But there is no reason for the builders to have carted in and dumped a bunch of rocks and dirt to make those hills. In fact, the extra weight would just increase the engineering requirements. So the topography is baked right into the interior shell. You see something similar in Ringworld, where the protagonists are able to see a negative of the ringworld topography when looking at it from the underside.
This design creates empty space under the hills and mountains, which is a perfect place to put infrastructure, including administration and maintenance centers.
A couple of other points…
Like a ringworld, a topopolis cannot have a stable orbit. Technically, it isn’t really even orbiting. So there will be facilities for adjusting the trajectory. I didn’t bring this up in Heaven’s River because it wasn’t relevant to the story, but I would visualize some kind of magnetic levitation system that plays off the star’s magnetic field.
A topopolis ‘bends’. Riker and Bill get into this a bit in the book, but the basic point is that the bend is so slight that no expansion joints are needed and there is really no issue of material fatigue. Most structures in our real lives bend far more than that on a regular basis.
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Ok, question. There is a description of it twining like spaghetti, and also in a triple helix. Which I suppose could be a both situation, but spaghetti is not know for its organization. 😉 Now, Googling topopolis gives you two major variations. Loose loops (this seems to fit more with the spaghetti description?) and tight loops (which looks more like a old-timey phone cord). Which were you intending (if either)?
Author
Loose loops. This one is probably the best representation: LINK
There is no picture in your reply Dennis. The only thing I was struggling with was the non-joining of the ends. But now that I understand that it’s spinning like speedo cable in its sleeve I can see why that’s not a problem. It’s such a nuts concept. Brilliant. Only at Chap 17 heh.
(The link does lead to a picture. It’s a very helpful visualization.)
I have read the other 3 Bob books ( us there a movie in the future) or a series ?
I cant quite get how the inside is spinning in relation to the exterior if its a connected loop .
Author
Not connected. There are magnetic bearings between the outside (non-spinning) shell and the inside (spinning) shell.
Ok, I may be missing something, but I’m a little confused about the elevator premise. If the outer shell and the inner planet are orbiting separately from each other how would an elevator system work to bring things down to the planet? Unless of course we are talking about something more like the floating pods closer to those seen in Arrival? No shaft more like a location sinked transport? Of course some of these concepts are a little past my education, so please pardon the confusion. Love your work by the way. Really gets me thinking.
It might help to think of each section spinning on its own. From an engineering perspective they probably would be designed that way for convenience of logistics and construction as well as safety planning in the event of major physical damage to a section.
The joints would be built over to provide an illusion of a fully connected surface but would spin themselves independently up to match thier neighbors.
Once that was done some degree of outfitting infrastructure could be done but the trains for example would likely be designed to snap off at the joint.
As for the overall rotation effect of the whole structure, you may be able to visualize it better with a cheap round hair tie. If you stretch it out, with a second person for four points of contact, you can then roll the hair tie in your fingers and if you 2 can stay consistent it also won’t knot up as you do it.
But, this is an imperfect analogy, each section is like a point of contact on that hair tie, it needs to be independently rotated in coordination with the other sections to get the whole thing to work in a “seamless” fashion. That can help you also to see the degree of artifice that is needed to build and maintain this thing.
Thanks Dennis, I’m sure that’ll help when I get a crack at the kindle edition. Can’t wait!
Thanks for the explanation, I stopped for a youtube learning session mid book to better picture the topopolis. I love the Bob series, can’t wait to hear what happens in the next adventure.
Thanks for that! Makes it easier to visualize!
I found the book brilliant and really was my favorite of the series. Sure life in a gas giant is fun or the helping of a Stone Age life form ‘evolve and survive’ was interesting but somehow the Quinlan story fascinated me. Picturing alien otters in a preindustrial society was a concept that was believable to me for some reason. Well done, even though this may be the end to the Bobiverse I hope it leads to another book of Bill or other Bobbbbs stumbling into another mess.
if you wanna see a more in-depth check out SFIA video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqs1iQlvV-g shocked you didn’t link it Dennis
Yeah yeah yeah. But who changes the lug nuts? Great book!
Not sure how the not moving outer layer may work. Think of a spring moving inside a sheath. The spring would exit the sheath, in this case the topopolis should move on the orbital plane and that complicates a lot construction precluding progressive building of segments. Unless the sheath moves as the interior. But that’s not how it is described on the book.
You are an incredible science fiction author. I’ve read (well, listened to) all of your books and LOVE how you fully develop ideas like this topopolis. You must spend an ungodly amount of time researching and thinking through the consequences of your design decisions. Also, I swear it’s as if you had studied my life and selected all of my favorite topics. Whether it’s talking about ST:TNG, Futurama, D&D, or the prolonged shoutout to Skippy the Magnificent (ExForce is super fun too!), your books always feel like hanging out with good friends. Thank you!
Thank you for the extra information. I really enjoyed Heavens River (as well as all the other books).
But it leaves me with a problem. I need more Dennis, there is an insatiable hunger for more now
This made my day to find a bit more detail about the Topopolis. Listening to the book while I drive has resulted in many rewinds as I try to wrap my head around this one. Thanks for sharing this!
Hi there! You might consider putting a small spoiler warning at the top of this article – my initial assumption was that this was a description of the book rather than the thing it’s named after.
I’m really looking forward to reading it!
Hey Dennis! I made a few 3d animations of the topopolis for Isaac Arthurs episode about continent sized space habitats. I put them on YouTube in May. Now they are getting a lot of views thanks to your books! Thanks! My name is Ken York and I am called YD Visual on YouTube.
What a great book! Thank you Mr. Taylor, I enjoyed it very much. I wonder how much you were influenced by the Riverworld Saga by Philip Jose Farmer. The term “scattering” , endless river system, etc?
Can’t wait for the next book of Bobiverse series…
Yes! I was thinking exactly the same… I initially thought – huh, cool twist (pun intended) on the Riverworld idea… which I read as a teen, some 30y ago. Then after the “scatterings” came up, I recalled reading a book called “To Your Scattered Bodies Go” when I was a kid, but couldn’t recall what that was about. Googled and had the penny drop moment that they were the same thing. From that moment forward , I was waiting for a Bob to do a shout-out it in their usual jokey-style as that’s not a coincidence…
I love it ! I just finished this book and googled your name and found this article. I had some issues with picturing this structure too, but now it makes more sense. I also found myself googling the paper clip problem and learned something else cool. Keep writing more books please! This book among others is keeping my mind off the world burning.
Thanks, this helps visualize the structure. Quick question, how does it loop around the star? All along one axis or looping to make a star shape, or???
Why can’t I get the audiobook in IBooks?
I thought it was described pretty well, but since I wasn’t familiar with the terms I did a google search to confirm what I was picturing in my head. This book was awesome and now comes the obligatory demand for you to write faster because I want more. MORE!
PS thank you
Awesome! Thanks for this. One more question. Is the topopolis built around the old planet?
Author
No, it’s circling the sun.
You know I just started listening to the audiobook and have a love for these kinds of super structures. Thank you for posting this supplementary material, it really helps fill in some of the questions I had.
Just finished the audio version. Very well written. As a ‘recovering’ programmer (I haven’t written a line of code in anger in about 8 years), I thoroughly enjoy the technical aspects of your writing. Can’t wait for the next one!
Hey dude. I read your book recently. Huge fan of the series. What bothers me is one thing. The closest continuer theory states that if a bob clones himself, then shuts himself down before booting the clone- his “consciousness stream”(soul) will be transferred to the clone (assuming the clone boots first). Then, if the original matrix is booted after, it will acquire a new “soul”, or “consciousness steam”. In bob book one, i may be wrong, but he shuts himself down when his clones are being build after two (Riker) wakes. Logic dictates that since the other clones are all awakened before he wakes in his new ship, the next matrix activated after his sleep would hold the original bobs “soul”. Would that not mean Bill is the continued consciousness of the original bob?
Author
He shut himself down to take a backup, which isn’t really a shutdown so much as a suspension. But he’d be up and running again before restoring the backup into Bill & Co. There was also the transfer of his cube to a version 2 vessel, but that wasn’t until Bill & the others were up and running. So I don’t think there was actually ever an opportunity for soul migration there.
Makes sense, but to be fair I’ve always felt like Bill better matched the description of original Bob (loner, takes up an empty solar system to just tinker, but still has that CEO leader quality) than Bob who got really up close and personal with a lot of “strange” strangers. So it’s fun to imagine this alternative!
Dennis I love the whole bob thing! I
Read book one as a “junk” read on an airport to pass time!! Wow!! Got
The audio books and loves them all!! Waited years for the next one! And now heavens river. WTF!?? I was very disappointed with it,, you’re much more creative than that! I actually waited years for the next book in the bonaverse series!!d this thing about otters living in a modified Dysom ring is the best you did after book three??!!!. Guess we all have bills to pay. I paid good money for this book,, the next bob verse book,, I’ll wait till it’s free if I even read it. You let
Me down Dennis. Granted I’m not a published author like you,,,, “But yoh don’t have to be a chef to know the food taste like shit man. You let
Me down dude.
Warner. Books are sometimes written for pure entertainment and others make you sit back and think. I consider the pure entertainment books to be bubblegum books. Lots of flavour and no substance. The books that make you think are written with alot of insight and ideas and are focused on making people consider different ideas and situations. A book like that makes you sit back and go wow. I never thought about that. That is a great idea or different way of thinking of things. Heaven’s river makes you think, amongst other things, about evolution and control. Heaven’s river is not a bubblegum book. Stick with bubblegum books Warner. Be happy. Your comments let us all down.
Warner, were you on the beetle juice when you posted this?
To me, Heaven’s River is one of the best of his books, it’s just a little different from the Bobiverse because it is all about action, which also makes it more suitable for a movie than the first ones. I got a little bored with Earthside on the other hand because it’s just more of the same and mostly politics. So what? Not everyone can like the same things. That’s no reason for personal attacks. GSTFU.
Can you describe how the tram system works on Heaven’s River? I know you said it does something about wrapping around it, But I’m having triple finding it in the audiobook.
Thank you for posting this description. I listen to you books via Audible, and the one big disadvantage is being able to easily look back a few pages and re-read the a section for clarity. I found that to be the case with Book 4. Love the Bobiverse, and really enjoying going back to it with Heaven’s River. Quite by coincidence I just finished a re-listen to Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers, so finding your take on a similar exploration is fascinating. Like most of the posters above, I was having a really tough time envisioning how the loose spaghetti of the topopolis would work, let alone to extended Oneil’s tubes that make of the core. I’m no engineer, but I think the transitions between each individually rotating segments would be tricky. (Maybe it comes up in the book, but I’m only about a 3rd of the way)
Anyway… love your books!
If stream an Audible book via Amazon Alexa, you can tell the device “rewind [number] seconds/minutes/hours.”
There’s more Alexa commands you can use too.
https://www.audible.com/ep/audible-on-alexa-features
Any news on Earthside?
What I don’t get is: If it’s twisted, how can it rotate by its axis?
Author
You have to think of astronomical distances. The strand of topopolis bends perhaps one mile for every million miles of length. That’s a .0001% bend. Any bridge or building bends more than that in the wind.
So when they first enter the Topopolis and accelerate one at a time to catch up with the 1800mph inner shell, taking 4 hours to complete the drone shuttle procedure, how did they all end up at the same point, to enter the inner “elevator”.
1. Bob goes first stops at elevator.
2. Drone goes back to pick up Bridget.
But while all that is happening, is not Bob still moving at 1800mph away from static, initial entry point, now that he’s on the inner shell?
3. So Does the drone have to accelerate to 3600mph, then 7200mph to catch up to Bob?
4. And the last run…?
Thanks, love the books, but this bugged me.
Author
The topopolis takes a bit more than ten minutes to complete a revolution. So if they wait for the same point to launch, they’ll always be following the same flight path. There is, in fact, an optimal flight path that takes into account the drone’s acceleration capability so that they will hit the angular velocity just as they come even with the elevator platform. Please don’t ask me to calculate that!
Thanks for the amazing book, bit late but glad I am finally catching up.
Thanks for the reply, I was struggling with this part as well though I got that it was rotating around the axis. However, in my imagination, I thought the cylinder must be taking far more time for one rotation due to the scale (though radius and speed were mentioned in the book but I was lazy to calculate) So I imagined for 2nd trip, Bob would be standing a little far away from initial landing point on a circular trajectory and drone adjusted the trajectory accordingly. Also, in line with this theory, I imagined on Topopolis there must be complex elevator routes to compensate for that difference. But now after reading your reply I can breathe easily because somewhere it was nagging me that it can’t be that complicated else author would have explained that, lol.
Must say you explained Topopolis in every detail but people like us are asking these questions because the concept is relatively new to us and we want to imagine the amazing semi-aqua world like you imagined while making sure we are not missing anything.
Once again awesome work, it literally blew my mind!
Ah, I see my mistake, I was placing the O’Neill cylinder as if it rotated within the ENTIRE length, like an inner tube spinning with the tire stationary, but that’s not it.
It’s rotation is perpendicular to the entire structure like a millions of 2001 wheels connected, sort of.
So they are only rotating around the 56 miles not the entire length.
I know its got to be way tougher to write, but maybe sometime explore completely non human, analogue like aliens. Bat like pigs people, otter like, etc vs “The Thing” or you touched on a silicone based life form.
Be really rare and interesting to interact with something completely non human non biological.
Seems like our bias assumes life must be biological with alien variations of , essentially us, even though we try to make them “alien”, hair, eyes , blood, sleep, fingers, claws, teeth are still so similar to us.
Amazing, wonderfully enjoyable books.
Starting over, reading them to/with my kids.
Thanks
Chris
Boston
There are numerous prerequisites to intelligent life..
1. It needs to have big brains that can act creatively ad logically. This will mean that life needs to be of a certain size to be intelligent, humans use 30% of there energy to power there brain, that is why they are generally weaker than most primates.
2. It needs to be able to manipulate materials to create tools. This means having to construct and hone weapons, a rhino or dolphin would have no chance to construct the tools that makes life so useful. The ability to grasp things is useful for climbing, or prying open or pulling things like Dennis’s goriloids. In combat, digits will not increase your probability of survival in any conceivable earth scenario. Assuming carbon based life, which is reasonable as carbon has wonderful binding properties , important in complex information storage chains analogous to DNA. It is likely that evolution is a convergent property in which alien life forms fill roles similar to those on earth such as birds and trees. Considering this, I believe the most likely species to have digits is a primate.
Other and different species of intelligent life may exist that aren’t medium sized primates, however it is plausible that most intelligent aliens evolved with similar physical traits to humans.
I think you just need more imagination….. for instance, an amoeba shaped life form could temporarily form digits or arm like protuberances to manipulate objects and/or absorb them into the body and then using internal structures could use those digits or protuberances to manipulate the world around them….. in addition, we tend to think of single mind organizims when distributed intelligence is just as likely in an organism that lives more like a colony or grouping of conjoined life forms, so a linked group mind could be just as viable and in some cases could be more powerful than a single mind….. think of a life form that regrows individual cells that then learn from the other cells as it grows thus maintaining the overall memories and learning while continuing to regenerate itself. And as for carbon based life, there are all kinds of papers and interesting articles on non-carbon based life forms and what those might entail….. I think it would be very interesting if the Bobiverse books explored that type of life form as part of their continued exploration of space…. And who knows, the way Dennis has been writing about Guppi, I’m convinced that Guppi is a separate life form that is actually a historian from another part of the Universe who is watching how life is expanding and growing (lots of hints that Guppi takes interest in what the Bobs are doing just when something momentous is happening or a decision being made) so maybe he is artificial intelligent life that came back in time to see them develop into something that later creates them as a life form……
Dennis, I love your books, the ease with which you bring in credible science and terminology into your books….. please keep us up to date when you are starting your next Bob Book as I am an avid fan and have included you in every discussion with each friend I meet to convince them that the Bobiverse is the best SF I have read (which is a lot) because it is easily digestible, thought provoking and imaginative, but without having to swallow a bunch of unexplained tech….. excellent and can’t wait for more!
I am lookin for a hard copybook for heavens river. Is it available.
Author
Will be Jan 24th
Thanks for another great read. Just finished the Audible edition. Very satisfying.
Jim Bell NSW Australia.
Really have enjoyed all your books. Can you say anything about the Prometheus Expedition? I can’t find any reference to it in the proceeding three. Have I missed a short story or novella somewhere? Is that a thread for future Bob expansion? I listen to your books often. Thanks again.
Author
The Prometheus Expedition is a setup for a future storyline.
I’m about 1/3 of the way thru Heaven’s River and loving it. Quick question:
You mention that the structure is a few hundred thousand miles from the sun. But to be a billion miles long in 3 revolutions, it would need to be about 50 million miles from the sun. That would also make more sense in terms of a typical solar system. Am I missing something about understanding the structure of the topopolis?
Author
Where did I mention this? I can’t find it in the text.
You mentioned it in the description at the top. I saw that and thought you missed a couple zeros (or forgot to divide by two).
Author
Oh, I thought you meant in the book. Thanks.
Wait….what?! Prometheus expedition is a setup for anouther book?!!! Oh man….my goodness im so glad to hear you may still write more bob stories. Dennis this series has quickly become one of my all time favorites. You are nose to nose with Tolkien in my “fav series thus far”! Im absolutely captivated by the tales and even if it never does come to fruition know that youve brought some simple pleasures to a jaded old scifi fan 🙂
I love picking a random spot in any of the stories and sit at my bemch, listening to the bobs while working…it really helps the time fly.
Again, thank you so much for this wonderful adventure!
I’ve just finished listening to Heaven’s River on Audible – having binged through all the books in the series since I discovered it in October 2020. I hope I won’t have to wait for too long for Book 5.
I really love the idea of a species living in an artificial rotating object and it reminded me of one of my favourite science fiction books from years ago, Captive Universe by Harry Harrison. I wondered whether you had been inspired at all by this book? It’s a completely different story of course, but the discussions in HR about the Creation and whether the world is an artificial construct make an interesting comparison to those living in Harrison’s Universe.
Author
I don’t remember reading that specific book, although I admit I very well could have. But the idea of the species’ history turning into a mythology isn’t a new one. I vaguely remember a number of generation-ship novels where the occupants reverted to primitivism and developed a mythology about their world.
This is two years to late I’m sure, but the Children of Time series deals with this exact idea. Especially book 1 and book 3. The whole series is fantastic, and having listened to them alongside the Bobiverse series, they are stuck together in my mind.
OK, I still have an issue with how a hoop can rotate around the inner diameter which is a circle.
Also, I know you made it big, but surface-wise, it still must be further from the sun at the outer edge than at the inner edge. While this difference is slight it is real.
I have the same thought and can’t wrap my head around this. No matter the size of the circle, or how slight the bend is, it is not physically possible for a solid ring to rotate along the inner axis (not sure if that is the right term) without deforming. This drove me crazy while reading the book trying to figure out how it would work. I’d be very curious to hear if there is a reasonable explanation that I am just not grasping. Maybe if the individual segments were able to bend independently of each other as they rotated, and that slippage or movement was accommodated for where the segments came together?
Author
A steel bridge flexes far, far, far more every time a car drives across. Skyscrapers flex far, far more due to wind. All structures have to allow for flex. It’s a normal part of the engineering design.
Fantastic book, and Ray Porter is a blessing to listen to as always. I actually didn’t find visualising the topopolis all that hard (or inaccurate) from how it was described in the book, as in, I’m not sure I picked up any new revelations from reading this blog post.
But anyway – I have one lose end to query with you after finishing Heavens River, that is, why did ANEC-23 choose to destroy Bender in the first place when he showed up, instead of engaging in an opening dialogue first?
Author
Not having SCUT, the Quinlan patrol bots operate autonomously. Their job is to clear the system of debris, and that’s what they did. They did transmit a challenge, but Bob (and presumably Bender) didn’t know how to respond.
Thank you for this! I was able to visualize it pretty well in the book but this has been a great additional reference!
I can’t express how much I’ve enjoyed the whole series, and I think Heaven’s River was a brilliantly creative story and I’m so grateful for the experience. I hope you’ll continue to expand on the Bobiverse, it feels like there are just endless possibilities and plotlines to explore (I know that’s easy to say from the reader’s perspective, and a whole different ballgame for an author)!
Thanks for that!!!! Makes it a lot easier to visualize the structure….
Maybe I missed it, and this may sound cold, but why were the Bobs so concerned about saving Bender?
Author
Only Bob-1 was really focused on it. The rest were more or less going along with the adventure.
I just finished the audiobook of *Heaven’s River* and as always I am impressed with how Ray Porter seems to be the perfect voice for your style. It’s always a double pleasure when an author and a narrator click, like it is when an author and an illustrator seem to enhance each other’s work. The Bob series has been great, and I enjoyed *The Singularity Trap* just as much. I have heard other writers talk about how happy they are when the right voice is found for their books. I imagine you must be very pleased.
We started with Outland on audible (I really like Bill and Monica), and moved on to Bobiverse. I play audio books at night and my kid (who is 10) is really picky what books to play, and he adores the Bobiverse. He likes that Rikers name is William (because my kids name is the same), and he likes to pretend he is a Bob and what kind of VR he would create for himself (usually some kind of Indiana Jones temple, filled with treasure), ha.
Wonderful description. I have to say that the Spin Transfer System took me a couple of passes to understand, but once I got it, I could see that it was a well considered solution to a very plausible problem. Someone should make something in Blender.
On an unrelated note, there was a passing mention of Space Dragons in chapter 6. Considering how portable a replicant matrix is, I hope that wasn’t just a throwaway joke. That concept has a lot of potential to through hilarity and technical challenge into the mix. That, and you KNOW Bridget will want one, at least to use as a Manny.
Man… The whole time I was reading I kept thinking I was brilliant for having a “twist” in mind: that Bender had in fact created and built Heaven’s River for the Quinlans, in order to rescue them from a dying planet. (Similar to what the other Bobs had done for Earth, and the Pav). I kept thinking that the destroyed Heaven vessel was a red herring (that it had simply been discarded when Bender upgraded to a newer one), and he’d spent the past hundred or so years making unique advancements in superstructure research, materials construction, and automation, making his tech distinctly unique from the other Bobs’. I fully expected Bender to be the administrator.
Boy was I glad to be wrong. The idea of an AI tossing the Quinlans back to a pre-industrial age was a far more interesting mystery to unravel. It was a great mechanism to explore the cultural and societal effects of life in a superstructure, rather than just the physical. Though the physical challenges for what was effectively a heist, were also fun to experience!
Wth man, are you alive? I’m waiting on you. For some odd reason, you’re the only author who resonates with me, And I’m starting to go into withdrawal!
Author
Sorry, I have had an insane spring. We moved house, and my wife ended up in the hospital for emergency surgery (unrelated to the house). I haven’t been writing anywhere near as much as I should.
I read about this on your status of things page. Really sorry to hear about it and you have all our sympathy. I do hope your wife has got through her surgery and that you’re starting to be comfy in the new house.
Regarding the writer’s block – I can’t empathise very well, not being a writer, but I do know that when I get in a ‘can’t-get-on-with-my-life’ block (a little bit like depression), then just doing one small thing (emptying the dishwasher, sorting the laundry etc) can lead to me doing quite a lot of small things and gets me out of the general funk quicker.
In any case best of luck with it – we’re all huge fans and look forward to your next work whenever it comes.
Hi Dennis! Thanks for your awesome books. My favorite is the Bobiverse, but I also love the Singularity Trap. The Others are awesome bad guys! I have a couple questions…
1. Ray Porter is awesome. Have you ever met him? Have you two become friends?
2. I assume that the spin on the topopolis is fast enough that the centrifigal force overpowers the stars gravity, correct? So “up” for people living in the topopolis is facing the star, right?
3. While I understand the importance of having the topopolis rotating around the star, wouldn’t the heat build-up be huge?
Author
1. I’ve not met him. I would have in 2020, as I was planning on heading down to Calif, but COVID skewered that.
2. ‘Up’ is towards the center of the strand. The topopolis ‘orbits’ the star just fast enough to stay in place, so there’s no net effect on the inhabitants.
3. There are heat radiators on the dark side of the strand. That was mentioned in passing early in the book.
I just (a few moments ago) finished Heaven’s River after also having binged the preceding novels, which I got to after Outland. Great work! I’ve been a huge sci-fi fan all my life (I’d read “Dune” six times before I graduated high school.) These novels capture my imagination as much as any series I’ve read, including works of Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin. I agree with earlier comments that Ray Porter is amazing.
I was intrigued by conversation between Hugh and Bob regarding the “soul” whereas if a consciousness container is deactivated and duplicated, the first to switch on would be inhabited by that soul and any duplicate vessels would spawn a new one. It’s similar to an idea I’ve had playing around in my head for years (that I don’t think I’ll ever write into a story since I don’t see myself becoming an author). I have some plausible explanations about how that mechanism might work, but I won’t share it here for fear of unduly influencing your line of thought. Suffice it to say that I hope that you expound on the topic in future Bobiverse novels.
Again, thanks for the rides. Looking forward to Earthside. I’m off to purchase The Singularity Trap.
Hey, so I’ve read most of your books and you always have the most interesting concepts and ideas. I was wondering if you had any literature that you take inspiration from for all these ideas, or any other ways of expanding your knowledge on these types of things.
Ps. Saw the picture you mentioned in the comments, and it kinda blew my mind. You should get some more art fashioned around it, it’d look pretty cool.
OMG Where do I start! I know I am among legions who wish for this ride to never stop! I am so happy to have stumbled upon the Bobiverse books on Audible in 2020. I listen to all four book constantly. I bought all four books on Amazon, too. Twice. A friend really needed a diversion so I gave him my books and bought another set for myself. I’m guessing we all needed a diversion these last two years! the texture of my life could have been so dull had I not found the Bobiverse. Thank you, a thousand times.
I have one nagging question, one that I have been trying to suss out myself while listening and reading along. ( it works for me because of my Dyslexia is easiest to manage when I listen while I read) I am wondering if Skippies is a reference to something I am unfamiliar or if it’s an acronym or what? I love the ” Replicative Drift” concept. It’s bringing diversity into the Bobiverse while also providing possible conflicts in future books. Gotta love those divergent characteristic! We Are All One, it’s just difficult to tell after millions of years. Love it all!
Author
‘Skippies’ is a nod to Skippy in Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force series.
I just listened Craig Alanson’s Expeditionary Force book one and caught that, especially when “Beer Can” was mentioned too! I figured it was a reference to another series, but not which one.
Hey Dennis! I was wondering, and maybe I missed it earlier on in a discussion, but I saw you mention later last month that you singed a deal for at least two more “Bobs”. I am so excited! Do you have any idea how long that process would take/when we fans could expect the next one? I’m Going through the series over and over wondering what’s gonna happen next!
New reader in the Bobiverse and I’m loving it!! I read all 4 books in like a month or something. And now, I’m patting myself on the back a little bit because I visualized the topopolis exactly as your extended description here (*pat* *pat*), so great work describing it. Can’t wait to read more of your stuff, I already signed up for the newsletter!
p.s. can I make one small request? It bugs me when blog entries only give month and day of post. I got all excited when I read a few posts back that you were working on a new Bobiverse book until I realized you must be talking about Heaven’s Gate and that the post must’ve been from several years ago 🙁
I have a question about the Quinlan appearance. First, I was introduced to your Bobiverse series over the course of the last year and I absolutely love them. VERY different from most stuff I see out there and you have a fantastic sense of humor. Plus all the nerd references are awesome.
Ok, my question. So your description of Quinlan physiology has me perplexed. It is really hard for me to pin down an exact image in my head. I find myself, especially when reading about the individual eye movements, imagining something more akin to Sid the Sloth from the Ice Age movies. But then at times I just imagine a 6ft tall river otter that can talk. Do you have a sketch or drawing or something that closely resembles how you imagine the species appears?
Author
No sketch, no. My artistic talents are actually rated as a negative number. When I enter the room, other artists become less talented 🙂 .
Sid the sloth is actually a good reference. Quinlan eyes are a little more to the side of the skull than an otter, allowing for a wider field of view. And with independent eye movement, they can watch more broadly around them. It’s a result of them being in the middle of the food chain rather than an apex predator.
I agree, not to be mean, but I don’t think the covers you chose show don’t the civilizations or alien races. They do show the Bobs centrally but also only their ships. Maybe commission an cover artist (I assume you already have judging by your comment) to go into more detail about the species that play such an integral part of the story. Great story though and the picture does fit after all. I just think there is some artistic potential missed there.
You may want to check this out:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bobiverse/comments/me1pgw/bobiverse_miniatures_wip_feedback_wanted/
Any updates on new content? I love your stuff! And I feel for your blocks! (I hope to be writing full time soon)
How did you imagine the sky illusion to work? Especially their night sky, I think there’s a comment near the end about how the Quinlans see an accurate copy of their home planetary starsape? The passing remark that they go to bed early and don’t have much street lighting is convenient to avoid having to see the night sky dotted with the lights of other villages 56 miles overhead. Still the night sky illusion is even trickier when you figure it has to look the same from any radial angle around the cylinder…
Author
It’s briefly mentioned that a diffuse hologram is projected onto the sky. It hides the central shaft and views of the far side during the day, and projects constellations at night.
Funny the first time he encountered the Quinlin cop, I pictured Wally the walrus from post WW2 woody wood pecker cartoons.
Thanks for your attention to detail and the entertaining storylines.
Hi Dennis,
Let me start off by saying that as an AI software engineer, I absolutely love and appreciate your attention to scientific accuracy and profession details!
One thing about the androids that I kept wondering though: how come Bob, Bill & Co never thought of frame-jacking to concurrently control the other androids? Given that the Bobs are able to “think” at ms speeds, and the scut connections are nearly instantaneous, I feel like Bob should have been able to do this. Thoughts?
Regards,
M. Hennessy
Author
I make reference several times in the book that Bob is only able to frame-jack a small amount without losing the connection. It’s a macguffin, but it has precedent. In all the books, Bobs can’t maintain VR connections when time dilation is too high. So it’s a synchronization thing.
Any plans for a sequel to Singularity Trap? I wish he was cut loose from his puppet strings to the AI. It would make it more of an adventure.
I wish the book will be translated in France. I loved the 3 first ones. SF with humor, a great mix ! 🙂
Hey Dennis, I was enjoying a bottle of Laphroaig when suddenly Roadkill dropped.
Thank you for ruining my night. But seriously, I’ve listened to all your audiobooks, please keep using Ray Porter as your voice, as I imagine your voice to be like his now. Sorry if I have sent this message several times now, I am quite drunk.
I hace followed you since the first Bob book and fell in love instantly. You’ve forced me to autobuy all your books, which is no small feat. This is my show of support for you, however small it may be.
I love your work. I have a question though, when did you first begin writing?
Author
I started writing in 2014 and put my first self-published book (the first version of Outland) up on Amazon in January 2015.
Glad you are still alive
https://www.echovita.com/us/obituaries/oh/springfield/dennis-taylor-16718438
Because I thought this might be you except you did a status update a couple days ago.
Rereading the series and have a pointless question…any significance with the number 56? Radius, diameter-notices variants of the number pop up. Thanks!
Author
The diameter/circumference were set based on the gravity I wanted vs the land area, so 56 was not a goal value, it just worked out that way. The length is 10x the circumference because the Quinlans have a version of metric, so they made the proportions that way on purpose.
Hi 🙂
I love the bobiverse series. I always listen to it when I’m doing chores or sometimes even when working. I listened the first part at least 10 times if not more. Partly because of Ray Porters voice but mainly because of the riveting story. I love the concept of replication.
I have one question that’s constantly nagging me since I first listened to Heavens River.
How is ANEC’s “brain” working. In the book its mentioned that the communication in the topopolis is limited by light speed. Makes sense at these vast distances but how would one AI be able to work over these long distances, how would the computation be possible with light speed lag?
I’d imagine there being a “server” of sorts in every segment where ANEC could ‘slip in’ or where a part of its consciousness would reside in but wouldn’t that mean that there’s more than one ANEC?
Author
Think of doing something with your left hand, something else with your right, while watching TV. You really only concentrate on the TV, letting your reflexes take care of the stirring the coffee and putting the toast in your mouth. ANEC would probably ‘schedule’ his attention based on priorities, but in the end there’s only one will and one consciousness.
I imagine that the operation of a megastructure would be hard for ANEC. Even with some sort of scheduling.
Maybe “consciousness-sharding” or “sub-consciousnesses” would be a better idea.
What do I mean by that: There would be one primary ANEC and several sub-ANECs where the main ANEC could ‘slip in’. These sub-ANECs would continuously sync their data obviously. As an analogy, the main ANEC could be the “scheduler” and the sub-ANECs could be the worker-threads. main-ANEC thus wouldn’t be a real AI, just a “link” to the most fitting instance (like when ANEC visits a moot, a new sub-ANEC “process” would be spun up).
Now imagine one of those sub-ANECs going rogue and severing the link to the scheduler and stopping to sync data… Could be an interesting (admittedly nerdy) short story ^^
I’m a software engineer myself so I overthink stuff like that.
Why wouldn’t they just upload Bender? This didn’t bother me on the first read but it did in the second.
Author
For several reasons. First, they didn’t have the equipment to do so, or the bandwidth to transfer a backup. Second, that would upload a copy of Bender, while leaving Bender still there, a captive, and subject to eventual insanity from sensory deprivation.
But wasn’t destroying the matrix a proposed solution to both of those problems. This didn’t bother me on my first read, but on the second it did, lol.
To the bandwidth part: they have been controlling their mannies with that bandwidth, didn’t they?
Anyways, you gave me a lot of joy with your books, thrilled for the new one.
Maybe you were inspired by k-maps???
How thick is the interior and exterior shell material? what is the radius of the false sun? Lastly, can you go into a bit more detail on the elevator system?
[…] containing a massive habitable volume. (If you want a detailed description, Dennis E Taylor has a post on it on his blog – beware spoilers for Heaven’s River!). The discovery and exploration of the topopolis is […]