The Barnes & Noble Review
From the authors of the science fiction thriller Wheelers comes Heaven, a chilling cautionary tale of a species-transcendent religious movement (known as the Church of Cosmic Unity) that is spreading across the galaxy, espousing its philosophy of universal equality and acceptance -- with hellish consequences.

XIV Samuel Godwin's son Travers, a zealous (and naïve) follower of the Church of Cosmic Unity, has hopes of moving up the ecclesiastic hierarchy. When Sam gets the opportunity to become a lifesoul healer, he jumps at the chance to be able to spread the philosophy of peace, love, and tolerance to ignorant unbelievers. As part of his training, Sam must visit one of the dozens of Heavens -- planets where the entire population has become spiritually liberated -- to fully understand the religion and its highly confidential discipleship procedures.

Second-Best Sailor is a polypoid -- a male, squidlike creature whose female counterparts resemble a coral reef. The females, or reefwives, are collectively known as the reefmind, a highly intellectual mass-brain capable of awe-inspiring contemplation. When a fleet of Cosmic Unity missionaries appears near their aquatic planet, they must somehow defend themselves -- or become one with the fascist monoculture.

Heaven ranks up there with other recent consciousness-expanding novels like The Light of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter; Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt; and Robert J. Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax trilogy (Hominids, Humans, and Hybrids). As disturbing as it is breathtaking, this ambitious and profoundly moving novel is everything science fiction strives to be: thought-provoking, entertaining, and, ultimately, enlightening. Paul Goat Allen