Review by CTookie -- Heaven and Earth by Arturo Riojas

[CTookie]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Heaven and Earth" by Arturo Riojas.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Heaven and Earth is intended to be an allegory for the modern age. Through the book, we follow a host of characters – of both alien and earthly origin – as they explore and confront separate but complementary crises threatening the future of their worlds. Opening on an alien spacecraft, the Regnellach, the reader is first introduced to the mission of the alien race, the Treretumians, to assess the status of humanity and its environment. Moving to Earth, we then meet Olga Ramos, Cuauhtémoc Gavilán, Sam Robinson, and Dr. Billy Ruben Welch, an intrepid group of scientists pulled together by a mysterious conference and who must follow the bread crumbs in their respective fields of research to uncover the true danger to humanity.

There can be no question as to the care and thought that the author, Arturo Riojas, devoted to the creation of a detailed, fully fleshed-out alien world. Every other paragraph involving the Treretumians presented a new factoid or story about their culture or personal background. About halfway through, the significance of the alien names hit me, and I couldn’t stop grinning as the inside jokes reappeared in the text. There are some genuinely funny moments, notably from the alien Egroeg and the human Gavilán. The research put into the writing of the book shines through, and the nuggets of fact in Riojas’ descriptions made them both picturesque and informative.

My main concern with the book, and the reason I cannot give it three or four stars, is that it did not read like a story. Rather, it came across as a dissertation with paragraphs of plot inserted to try and make it more palatable. Thirty pages, found in the concluding appendices, were dedicated solely to the author’s online correspondence with various individuals about cadmium and healthier eating habits. Riojas is didactic in his approach, and while the portions of the book intended to be educational were certainly so, this style leeched into his storytelling, turning scenes of tension and adventure into a subdued and slightly detached play-by-play. I found myself distracted by the intermittent pictures included with the text, and I longed for a moment when the teaching would end and the adventure would begin.

I was left with the impression that the book really wanted to be a non-fiction guide to better health or a modern critique of the global disservice to safe food. As someone who opened the book after finding it in the sci-fi/fantasy section, I felt somewhat misled. The plot felt secondary and subservient to the presented information about cadmium poisoning, and while I can fully appreciate Riojas’ intention to convey his message as clearly as possible, I would have preferred it in a scientific paper rather than presented as a story.

I admire the way science fiction can be used to reflect on the folly of the past and the potential of the future. However, for me, Heaven and Earth came across as a textbook, even in the midst of character conversations. If you do not mind tangents, and approach the book with an understanding that it was written to convey a specific message, then you may be able to take the fact lists at the end of each chapter in stride and find value in the characters' recitation of those same facts, occasionally almost word-for-word. I found myself mired in the redundancies and constantly craving a return to the tantalizing possibilities presented by the spaceship from the opening scene. I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.

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Heaven and Earth
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