War in Heaven
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Product Description
Book Description
VETERAN was a slam-bang dive into a violent SF future. Now things get serious.
Product Description
The high-powered sequel to VETERAN sees an unlikely hero make an even more unlikely return to take the reader back into a vividly rendered bleak future. But a bleak future where there are still wonders: man travelling out into the universe, Bladerunneresque cities hanging from the ceilings of vast caverns, aliens that we can barely comprehend.
Gavin Smith writes fast-moving, incredibly violent SF thrillers but behind the violence and the thrills lies a carefully thought out story and characters who have far more to them than first meets the eye.
Never one to avoid controversy Gavin Smith nevertheless invites you to think beyond the initial shock of what you have just read. But in the meantime? Another fire-fight, another chase another flight of imagination.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The second book in the series by Gavin Smith that continues his heavy military theme in a bleak Sci-Fi future. As with the first it's cleverly devised, the plot has an incredible pace and the character is attractive enough to perhaps be the person to guide the reader through alive to the final pages. Add to this some clever descriptiveness, cracking dialogue alongside some clever twists and it's a story that was satisfying as well as hitting that need to give you a real adventure.
Finally add to this a better product than the original for me (as most of the work for the set-up has already been done) and it was a title that I enjoyed reading. Great stuff.
Finally add to this a better product than the original for me (as most of the work for the set-up has already been done) and it was a title that I enjoyed reading. Great stuff.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
War in Heaven is the second book of a trilogy by Gavin Smith. The first of which is Veteran. If you liked the first book you will love the second. It carries on from where the first left off, although for those people who start mid sequence there is a few pages of catch up that allow the new reader to get the gist of what happened previously. It is also a useful recap for those of us who read the first volume a while ago and want to pick up on the finer plot points.
If you found the first book dark, which I did, then the second book is even darker. It is leavened by moments of humour, but even they are not for the faint hearted. The book is powerful, visceral and never lets up for an instant. It is like being on a massive, dystopian roller coaster, mostly where things go from bad to worst for the protagonist and his team.
It is brutal, bloody and heavy on the violence. There is no let up of pace and you really are committed for the whole thing. My husband read it in a weekend and loved it. I read it afterwards and thanks to the interference of children took longer which made things more disjointed for me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to read it as a whole like he did, as it is something you really need to immerse yourself in, the world that Smith creates is so total and very demanding.
If you found the first book dark, which I did, then the second book is even darker. It is leavened by moments of humour, but even they are not for the faint hearted. The book is powerful, visceral and never lets up for an instant. It is like being on a massive, dystopian roller coaster, mostly where things go from bad to worst for the protagonist and his team.
It is brutal, bloody and heavy on the violence. There is no let up of pace and you really are committed for the whole thing. My husband read it in a weekend and loved it. I read it afterwards and thanks to the interference of children took longer which made things more disjointed for me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had been able to read it as a whole like he did, as it is something you really need to immerse yourself in, the world that Smith creates is so total and very demanding.
Format:Kindle Edition
Firstly there is little point reading this without having read the first book 'Veteran' as this immediately follows on from that. In fact this and Veteran could easily be amalgamated into one (large) volume.
The single most important asset a book has is not the story, it is the ability of the author to write and Gavin Smith clearly can. Within this hard sci-fi genre there really is some serious rubbish around that I've been suckered into reading. Fortunately this isn't one of them. Gavin Smith writes with aplomb and excellent English which, suggests a real intelligence behind the book. I guess that is reflected in the price which is at the higher end of the Kindle sci-fi range - and to be honest probably a fairly good indicator of standards.
It's hard sci-fi in many ways like Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. However unlike Richard Morgan but retaining a definite adult style and content Gavin Smith avoids the grotesque which is sometimes used I feel just for a shock effect but not adding to the book. There's plenty of ultra violence, up-engineered humans and interstellar war, but somehow it retains a firm footing in Earth like reality. There is a very British feel to the book with many references to places in the UK and that makes a pleasant change from the US centric books of this type.
There is a cyberpunk thread running through both books as well. In fact the story relies heavily on the possible intertwining of the net and human life in probably the most plausible way that I've read so far.
Anyway without giving too much away we have the direct follow on from Veteran which has our merry band of surgically enhanced warriors heading into interstellar space to deal with the consequences of the first book's ending where the corporate bad dudes take over the colonies and start an internecine war. It is handled beautifully without becoming bogged down in maudlin introspection. The characters develop well and there is a perfect balance of tension, humour and interaction to make it all seem realistic.
If you like Hamilton, Richard Morgan, Asher and similar then this will definitely be the book for you. But read Veteran first.
The single most important asset a book has is not the story, it is the ability of the author to write and Gavin Smith clearly can. Within this hard sci-fi genre there really is some serious rubbish around that I've been suckered into reading. Fortunately this isn't one of them. Gavin Smith writes with aplomb and excellent English which, suggests a real intelligence behind the book. I guess that is reflected in the price which is at the higher end of the Kindle sci-fi range - and to be honest probably a fairly good indicator of standards.
It's hard sci-fi in many ways like Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon. However unlike Richard Morgan but retaining a definite adult style and content Gavin Smith avoids the grotesque which is sometimes used I feel just for a shock effect but not adding to the book. There's plenty of ultra violence, up-engineered humans and interstellar war, but somehow it retains a firm footing in Earth like reality. There is a very British feel to the book with many references to places in the UK and that makes a pleasant change from the US centric books of this type.
There is a cyberpunk thread running through both books as well. In fact the story relies heavily on the possible intertwining of the net and human life in probably the most plausible way that I've read so far.
Anyway without giving too much away we have the direct follow on from Veteran which has our merry band of surgically enhanced warriors heading into interstellar space to deal with the consequences of the first book's ending where the corporate bad dudes take over the colonies and start an internecine war. It is handled beautifully without becoming bogged down in maudlin introspection. The characters develop well and there is a perfect balance of tension, humour and interaction to make it all seem realistic.
If you like Hamilton, Richard Morgan, Asher and similar then this will definitely be the book for you. But read Veteran first.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent conclusion to Veteran
Having read Veteran I had to buy the sequel as soon as possible and was not disappointed.
The action sequences are numerous, some in flash-back as the central character... Read more
The action sequences are numerous, some in flash-back as the central character... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr BD
A good finale to the story, despite some minor issues.
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Published 6 months ago by A. Whitehead
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