I pulled this out to read after Wheelers even though I thought Wheelers was very poorly written. Apparently in the years between, they've learned to show-not-tell and have small immediate infodumps. The writing is much better.
At the end of Wheelers, two humans and a blimp set off to tell the universe that we are all made of the same stuff and must be tolerant of each other. Heaven starts 25,000 years later where their quest has turned into a strictly hierarchical rules-bound religion called Cosmic Unity. As the book progresses, we meet many other races and find that Cosmic Unity is enforcing tolerance -- by torture, if necessary -- as they "convert" each world. How can they be stopped? This is a fascinating story with a bit of anti-religous plot (and still some pun/wordplay). It can be read without Wheelers and I recommend it that way.
Tags: books
