Voyagers, Ben Bova

Voyagers by Ben Bova is a sci-fi novel I picked up to listen to during the commute.  I really didn't know anything about this particular book when I picked it up, but I have enjoyed Bova's work in the past and I remember him as an editor of the magazine "Omni."

Started: 5/8/2013

Completed: 5/14/2013

Recommendation: Not recommended

Recommended By: Nobody

Words I looked Up:

scud -- Move fast in a straight line because or as if driven by the wind.

Review:

It turns out that this is the first book of a trilogy, but I have no interest in reading the remaining two novels.  I have a tremendous respect for Ben Bova but he is far from a good romance writer.  In and afterword, Mr. Bova described this trilogy as a love story, but the "love" part of the story was clunky and useless.  The romantic story was not particularly compelling and seemed to  be both awkward and uncomfortable to me as a reader.  The decisions made by the protagonist, Keith Stoner, seemed to be stereotypical and not the decisions of a real human being.  His actions were so robotic as to suggest that he no other choice every step of the way.  To my way of thinking, a romance is about making choices (both good and bad).  This reads more as a bad comedy fraught with mistaken intentions.  The backdrop of the Cold War was also rife with good guy/bad guy stereotypes leaving the background characters as flat.  Having said that, there were two characters who were really interesting.  The NATO scientist was extremely well developed and the nature of his story (describing it would be a spoiler) was really well conceived and portrayed remarkably well.  The evangelist was given short shrift in the book in my opinion and was a wonderful character to have investigated more, but he remained flat.  I think that including him in the book was a really good idea and helped round out the plot.  I think that addressing more of his story would have been very rewarding.

I would not recommend this book.  It is not really an interesting look at interaction with ET and the lugubrious romantic plot seriously detracted from the novel.

Jupiter, Ben Bova

Jupiter by Ben Bova is a book written in a series called "The Grand Tour" which has a book for each planet (and some asteroids).  I like the way that Ben Bova takes some science and mixes it with some "extensions" to come up with a really interesting twists for his novels.  By "twists" I mean moral dilemmas, not surprise endings.

Started: 1/19/2011
Completed: 1/27/2011
Recommendation: Gotta be a hard core SF fan to enjoy it
Recommended By: Nobody, I like Ben Bova's stuff and saw this at a yard sale


Review:


This is a book for the hardcore SF reader.  Lots of stuff is assumed, plasma drives, AI, nanotechnology, etc.  If these terms aren't familiar to you, well, the book uses them but doesn't explain them.  There are also several instances of wild hand waving that will frustrate anyone with a science background (aerodynamics seem to be largely ignored though frequently referenced, "scoop ships" get many references but seem to defy any sort of description, and while it is possible to reline with ceramic a running engine nozzle, there is virtually no form of healthcare for the crew anywhere).  The topics evaluated are very broad (if Radar from M*A*S*H was on a space station around Jupiter, what would he do?)  and range from the ethical to religious and off to scientific rather seamlessly.  Some of the science can be jarring (walls for video, but floors that display images are unusual) but the parts that are clearly speculative are treated that way in the novel and the questions that any one of us might ask are briefly addressed (what would it "feel" like if neurons were connected directly to feedback from an engine that was giving out?).  In general, I liked the book.  It was a compelling read, had simple and easy to understand characters.  It is basically a beach book and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.