There is a story here and there are interesting characters, but both tend to get submerged under the relentless torrent of brutal, bloody violence. Gavin Smith may be trying to encourage his readers to see past this parade of schlock military set pieces, but I found the chase fight chase again sequences to be hard going. War in the digital world is an intriguing concept, and the Demiurge AI versus the bio-engineered 'God' from the first novel has bags of potential. But, the finer points and subtler concepts all come with what feels like a gun to the head, and as a result are less enjoyable than they could have been. Former special forces soldier Jakob Douglas, and his band of self-styled freedom fighters have battled their way into a position where dark secrets are exposed and the powers that be are enraged. Along with the religiously inclined portion of humanity, who aren't best pleased with the concept of a software God. While the intentions of Jakob and company may be for the greater good, winning friends proves much harder than influencing people. War in Heaven is as much about the counter-attack from the old guard as it is about progress for Smith's anti-hero posse, and this includes a handful of thinking man's plot twists. The problem here is that when the author decides it's time for exposition and introspection it comes across as shoe-gazing, where the main characters talk the plot and rarely reveal much of serious interest. As with Veteran, the style of War in Heaven feels like reading a first person shoot-em up, with dollops of ideas intended to make readers think. Ideas which, regardless of their merit, barely have time to flower in the mind's eye before the next wedge of violence hits home.

Those who find the sheer pace of Smith's work to be numbing, but still like the cut of his jib, may be relieved to learn that War in Heaven is the definitive conclusion to this tale. The all-action cyborg blood baths and AI carnage will tickle the right spots for some, while others may find them stifling and repetitive. As a sequel it equals the first novel, when judged on its own terms. What it does not do is address the issues of pacing and action fatigue which bedeviled Veteran. Indeed, War in Heaven continues the trend, and makes no apologies for that choice. As a rounded novel the book stumbles as if punched in the head, and almost fails, but if the author's main intent was to deliver more than the average bang for a buck, then he succeeds spectacularly.