Just Finished Ben Bova's Jupiter

[Phalanx]

I read Ben Bova's Jupiter on the plane and in the car on my trip to Arkansas. I enjoyed it so much that I went to Half-Price Books yesterday and picked up Saturn, Venus, and a collection of his short stories.

Jupiter is about a young astrophysicist, Grant Archer, who is selected by the powers-that-be to go spy on the scientists working at a research station around Jupiter. An uneasy power balance is maintained between the evangelicals in Europe, America, and the Middle East who control the political strings and the international organization that provides the fuel for Earth's fusion reactors. The evangelicals in America call themselves the "New Morality" and want to know why some of the scientists orbiting Jupiter are hiding a research project even from their fellow station residents.

Grant finds himself in the middle of the struggle between the New Morality's zealotry and the station director's equally ardent search for evidence of intelligent life swimming in the world-spanning ocean deep beneath Jupiter's violent clouds. His loyalties to his religion, his scientific credentials, and his wife back on Earth are all tested and it is interesting to see how he reconciles them all. I must admit to seeing quite a bit of myself in the protagonist. :)

Is anyone else familiar with Ben Bova's work? If so, any recommendations? I must definitely recommend Jupiter to sci-fi fans who enjoy writing in the style of Clarke or Heinlein.

[Jonathan M]

Yeah, I've read a sizeable chunk of his grand tour.

Didn't like the Moon books (all that racist stuff about Quebec) or the Rock Rat ones (which reminded me too much of that David Eddings in spaaaace series) but I think his grand tour has some excellent stand alone novels.

It's either Venus or Mercury that's really good, with the guy who falls out with his father and then gets in with his father's arch rival.

Bova's interesting as he's essentially writing 1950's SF in the 00's. No subtexts, no clever stylistic stuff just books built around action and some nifty technology.

[Phalanx]

Yeah, I've read a sizeable chunk of his grand tour.

Didn't like the Moon books (all that racist stuff about Quebec) or the Rock Rat ones (which reminded me too much of that David Eddings in spaaaace series) but I think his grand tour has some excellent stand alone novels.

Yeah, from what I could see of the synopses, neither of those series looked too interesting.

It's either Venus or Mercury that's really good, with the guy who falls out with his father and then gets in with his father's arch rival.

That looks to be Venus. It's about a guy whose brother died trying to land on Venus and whose father hates him for surviving. He then takes up his father's prize challenge to recover his brother's body.

Bova's interesting as he's essentially writing 1950's SF in the 00's. No subtexts, no clever stylistic stuff just books built around action and some nifty technology.

Yeah, that's definitely the impression I got from Jupiter. Just some good "classic"-style sci-fi written from a more modern perspective. I'm a pretty big fan of Clarke, too, and Bova definitely seems to be strongly influenced by his style. I also enjoyed Bova's homage to Clarke's A Meeting With Medusa in his description of Jupiter's atmospheric fauna.

[ShannonA]

Wow, I haven't looked at Ben Bova in years, but now he's got an almost 20-book sequence of science-fiction set in a specific future history!

I'm sold. I just need to choose which one to get from the library first.

[Jonathan M]

Yeah, that's definitely the impression I got from Jupiter. Just some good "classic"-style sci-fi written from a more modern perspective. I'm a pretty big fan of Clarke, too, and Bova definitely seems to be strongly influenced by his style. I also enjoyed Bova's homage to Clarke's A Meeting With Medusa in his description of Jupiter's atmospheric fauna.

I think the similarities should be filed under the fact that Bova's a bit old fashioned. I'm not sure if Bova is influenced by Clarke... I think he writes a bit like him because everyone of that generation writes a bit like that but I think Clarke tends to look at very different sets of issues to Bova. Similarities with the stuff actually in the books is partly down to the fact that Bova's never been an ideas man as such, rather he picks up ideas had by other people and develops them in new directions.

That's why you see him making a fuss over ideas such as nanotechnology, space elevators and orbiting power stations.

The Rock Rats series is an interesting example of Bova's style as it's a series of books without a strong idea to hang on. So you have the slightly melodramatic plots and the larger than life characters and the easy morality but because he's not exploring an idea the books fall flat.

[ShannonA]

Well, based on the comments here, I picked up Venus from the library on Wednesday, and started reading it today.

I'm about 80 pages in, and I'm in love.

Jonathan said that Bova was writing 1950s stuff, and that's both right and wrong.

On the one hand you have the lean writing, the hard science, and the sense of adventure and discovery.

On the other hand, however, you have some level of detail, and superb characterization, neither of which you'd be likely to find in a 1950s book. And both of which are great adds.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to picking up more of the Grand Tour next time I'm by the library.