When Heaven Fell eBook William Barton
Download As PDF : When Heaven Fell eBook William Barton 
Decades ago, the Earth was attacked by dinosaur-like Kkhruhhufft mercenaries in the employ of the cybernetic intelligences known as the Master Race. Humans fought back as best they could, killing a few hundred thousand of the deadly warriors, but went down to defeat in the face of almost eight billion casualties. Still, it was impressive they could kill so many Kkhruhhuft, and human survivors were recruited to the mercenary corps. Now, Athol Morrison, soldiering for twenty years in the service of the Master Race is coming home...
When Heaven Fell eBook William Barton
"When Heaven Fell" came out in the 1990s and explored many of the darker themes of space opera and its tropes. The narrator is a human soldier who enjoys a life of comparative privilege as a result of his service to the "Master Race," sentient computers that claim to have evolved from non-sentient "poppits," frog like creatures with a hive mentality. At some point lost in deep time, they decided to traverse the galaxy and enslave a number of sentient races in an empire the spans countless star systems. Humanity fought them when they arrived and lost, very badly, losing billions of people and generally being crushed. Now they are a slave race of the Masters but have proven themselves valuable as soldiers, which helps explain how the narrator finds himself in this position.Barton has created a rich but dark world, and provides his character with a major ethical dilemma that forms the meat of the story. One major complaint is that this feels like it could be the beginning chapter of a much larger, more complicated story about power relationships and how they change and yet stay the same. That's not the story that Barton chooses to tell, however, and leaves us at the start of a new life chapter for the narrator, which could have served as the opening to a sequel but, alas, did not. Still recommended.
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When Heaven Fell eBook William Barton Reviews
This book starts out good and has some good material but ultimately fails the test of being an all around good sci fi novel. I was so excited as the story built and Athol(the main character who is a human mercenary of the Master Race) returns to his native USA. He is led around and sees the desolation and there are some flashbacks of war. He eventually discovers a small resistance cell his ex girlfriend leads him too. This is where the book loses you. You think he is going to join his fellow humans in a revolt but he just rats them out. The last half of the book is similar to the first, just accounts of battle here and there.
The sexual imagery in this book is very graphic and while not disturbing I think it is out of place in a sci fi novel such as this. A little is ok but this is downright pornographic. He bangs his old girlfriend dozens of times, and it gets old reading about it.
Most of the accounts of battle are similar to Starship Troopers which is an outstanding sci fi/political novel everyone should read. There isn't much of a plot in When Heaven Fell, just random stuff. It has no coherence as a story, just a collection of loosely associated events. Pick up some better sci fi
Dune
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow
One of my favorite books, not often I want to own a hard copy of a book but this one I wish I coukd find a hardcover version to hold onto, love it that much!
This story is one of the best - and grimmest - representations of an alien occupied earth I've read, with the main character growing up post-Invasion and now a solider in the employ of the alien Master Race. The aliens are also really - alien. However, there is a lot of graphic sex. Really a lot. And then some more. Post invasion human society is also very unpleasant for most. And violence - the Master Race is big on genocide by its mercenary armies. But hey, there is a market for this, if the success of Wool or 50 Shades is anything to go by - and this book is 10x better written than Wool. Makes Altered Carbon look like a feel good romance.
If you're already a Barton veteran, definitely check this one out. If not, I recommend When We Were Real. It's a similar story done better than this one. When Heaven Fell is good on the basics, easy to like for someone who gets Barton's overall style, but not easy to love the way some of his other work is. Athol Morrison is a hard character to like, and he is somewhat passive. Obviously Barton intended this, but still it's not ideal. He treats women rather nastily, overall. Barton characters always think with their dicks, but they usually have a shred of decency which I felt Morrison lacked. And yes, I thought the sex in this book was too much. Too much in terms of quantity, that is. Barton is always pervy, which is fine and can serve a purpose, but if you were to excise the sex scenes from WHF the book would lose about 1/3 its length. I started skipping the scenes. But the book is good overall, don't get me wrong. Just not his best work.
Many invasion novels start before the invasion -- this one is good because it picks up the story years later, with the human race turned into slave / mercenaries.
This S-F genre ( post invasion ) has some great works in it.
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard
A Hymn Before Battle - John Ringo
The Puppet Masters - Heinlein
The Forge Of God - Greg Bear
If your favorite S-F is Star Wars, Star, Trek, or Dr.Who -- then Barton may feel shockingly adult-themed (in every way from sex to philosophy.) His books are not for everyone but if you like the sound of that -- they can be refreshingly different.
While his critics sometimes say his work is too dark or sexual, I think his worlds are interesting serious science fiction. Barton's ideas are often bleak, poetic and emotional. His stories usually feature tragedy, loss and (later) minor victories of redemption. Barton books always have a lot of IDEAS in them -- which is one thing S-F can do well.
If you prefer sanitary heroics -- try John Ringo or David Weber. If you like fiction adult and darker, try Barton.
"When Heaven Fell" came out in the 1990s and explored many of the darker themes of space opera and its tropes. The narrator is a human soldier who enjoys a life of comparative privilege as a result of his service to the "Master Race," sentient computers that claim to have evolved from non-sentient "poppits," frog like creatures with a hive mentality. At some point lost in deep time, they decided to traverse the galaxy and enslave a number of sentient races in an empire the spans countless star systems. Humanity fought them when they arrived and lost, very badly, losing billions of people and generally being crushed. Now they are a slave race of the Masters but have proven themselves valuable as soldiers, which helps explain how the narrator finds himself in this position.
Barton has created a rich but dark world, and provides his character with a major ethical dilemma that forms the meat of the story. One major complaint is that this feels like it could be the beginning chapter of a much larger, more complicated story about power relationships and how they change and yet stay the same. That's not the story that Barton chooses to tell, however, and leaves us at the start of a new life chapter for the narrator, which could have served as the opening to a sequel but, alas, did not. Still recommended.
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