The Shadow of Heaven - Bob Shaw

I've been reading Bob Shaw on and off for decades, but at the moment reading his books again serves as a kind of antidote for Cixin Liu. While there is no denying that exploring future science, technology and progress (or extinction) of humanity with a speculative hard science foundation is fascinating and relevant, Shaw isn't so rigorous about what science and physics is capable of, or indeed what is desirable. That's not to diminish Shaw’s writing as fanciful or pulp SF. Even his most outlandish ideas have a firm basis in reality or can be applied as being fairly accurate representations of the world we are beginning to see around us today. Most importantly, he considers the reasons why humanity can be pushed to develop dangerous technologies and considers the consequences. Even more importantly, he makes it thoroughly entertaining.

First published in 1969, there are any number of recognisable contemporary world situations you could apply to the subjects he writes about in The Shadow of Heaven; from GMO and pesticides to climate change, from big business corporations expanding to have power over (or above) governments, to global resources being insufficient for a population living in a world with fewer habitable regions. The Earth is plagued with a few problems along the lines we might more readily expect of our own future, as well as a few advances in technological innovation, the two often going hand in hand. Rather than treat these as dry dire warnings, Shaw starts out turning this into a kind of future- or neo-noir.

The problem started in 1996, which brought a World War III with a common yet unknown enemy to all, much like the impact of climate change starting to be felt now. Herbicides have been spread across the globe, destroying land and the ability to produce food, as well as making it uninhabitable for human life. Known as the Compression, it has pushed the population into tight living quarters on the coastal areas, where harvesting seafood is the only option, its production monopolised by a company called Food Technology Authority. There was however one early attempt to reclaim land by the big three nations, by creating huge floating rafts known as International Land Extensions or Iles, some 5 km above the Earth using anti gravity technology. These Iles are known colloquially as Heaven.

No one lives there, few have visited Heaven and no one would want to be isolated that far above the Earth. The work on the Iles is undertaken by robots working the only fertile patches of land high above the dust of the herbicides. That's the conventional wisdom anyway, but journalist Victor Stirling is mystified by the disappearance of his half-brother Johnny Considine and when his investigation reveals Johnny had a connection with a cult like conspiracy group called the Receders, Stirling finds himself on a stairway to Heaven so to speak. Finding a way off it will be more of a problem. The novel becomes more of an adventure as Stirling finds some unexpected secrets on the Ile, including a kind of hobo community, but Heaven is not exactly the paradise that most people think. 

As is often the case with Bob Shaw, you could be mistaken for thinking that he isn't really dealing realistically with the important topics raised, that he is a bit inconsistent in approach, that the ideas give way to small interpersonal and relationship problems, but the balance is actually maintained very effectively. The author has fun with imagining future technology and what might come with climate change, over-population and how these issues are likely to affect ordinary people, but he also recognises how politics and business are likely to react and continue to exploit any opportunity, even natural (or unnatural?) disasters. And as recent events with a global pandemic show, he wasn't wrong about that.

Reading notes: The Shadow of Heaven by Bob Shaw was published in 1969, but only first published in UK in 1978 by Corgi books. The copy I have is the Victor Gollancz, VGSF 1992 paperback.