A review by bigleoenergy
Heaven's Shadow by David S. Goyer

2.0

Another solid "meh" read for me. I think the synopsis is misleading/a bit spoiler-y because you don't find out until the end that the craft is looking for help, and it never feels like a desperate cry. I wish the mystery of what it was it and why it came to earth was maintained; I think I would have appreciated that more instead of waiting for what turned out to be the main plot to resolve in order to get to the Help us message.

There were parts that completely engrossed me and I wanted more of (mainly the crews having an emergency in space aspects), but the rest really left me disinterested. I simply didn't care about

a couple of dead people with ties to the crew somehow being alive

and I was left unconvinced by the crews' reactions to such a revelation. There were also too many things I felt could have made more compelling reading, but were dropped:

No one wants to talk about Natalia killing one of the revenants? The Pogo revenant sabotages the crew with only a weak explanation as to his motives. It felt like his only purpose was to get Yvonne to set off the bomb, which was such a missed opportunity for a frightening antagonist. All the news about the crews and their discoveries are being transmitted or leaked to the public, and there's no time given to how that would affect things on Earth...

There were just so many bits in this book that I found more interesting and wished had been explored instead of what actually happened.

And then I disliked the ending.

Zach is willing to abandon his daughter as an orphan, but oh, don't worry, it works out because she gets transported to Keanu??

I was left sighing deeply and rolling my eyes.

I'm not bothered by the time I spent listening to it, but now I have a craving for a book that takes place in space and has real tension.