Greg Benford and Larry Niven Launch Party for BOWL OF HEAVEN in San Diego

Description

In this first collaboration by science fiction masters Larry Niven (Ringworld) and Gregory Benford (Timescape), the limits of wonder are redrawn once again as a human expedition to another star system is jeopardized by an encounter with an astonishingly immense artifact in interstellar space: a bowl-shaped structure half-englobing a star, with a habitable area equivalent to many millions of Earths...and it's on a direct path heading for the same system as the human ship.  A landing party is sent to investigate the Bowl, but when the explorers are separated--one group captured by the gigantic structure's alien inhabitants, the other pursued across its strange and dangerous landscape--the mystery of the Bowl's origins and purpose propel the human voyagers toward discoveries that will transform their understanding of their place in the universe.

About the Authors

Gregory Benford is a professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, and was Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University. and in 1995 received the Lord Prize for contributions to sciences. His research encompasses both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. His fiction has won many awards, including the Nebula Award for his novel Timescape. Dr. Benford makes his home in Laguna Beach, California.

Larry Niven is the author of multiple New York Times bestsellers, both alone (The Integral Trees, The Ringworld Throne) and in collaboration with Jerry Pournelle (The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Footfall). His Known Space series, from which the highly successful Man-Kzin Wars books derive, is a landmark of modern science fiction, rating favorable comparison to Heinlein's Future History series and Asimov's Foundation series. Winner of a Nebula award and five Hugo awards, SF legend Niven remains among the foremost writers of the new century.