[mooseboy84]

anyone here read be bova books? the only one ive read by him was venus, it was a enjoyable book, but fairly see through and predictable. i was thinking aboout ordering others from him, but from the reviews they seem like the same kinda blan story, just about another planet.

what other books of his are good, or scfi books in general.

[Erebus]

I quite like Bova's books and have read the moonbase novels, Moonrise and Moonwar, and a very different type of SF novel, Brothers, which I also enjoyed, as well a lot of his earlier works. I quite like his style and can certainly recommend him.

[SusF]

I've read most of his. My favorites are Mars and Return to Mars, and Moonrise and Moonwar.

His futures are not pretty, but they are convincing.

Susan

[eoghann]

Originally posted by SusF
I've read most of his. My favorites are Mars and Return to Mars, and Moonrise and Moonwar.


Yeah thats pretty much my favorites too.. with the exception that I haven't read Return to Mars.

I actually think I prefer Moonwar to Moonrise.. but I'm not entirely sure why.

[fortytwo]

Of the books of Bova I have read,Venus is one of the worst (in my opinion :) ) Mars and Return to Mars are both a pretty good enthralling read.I am looking forward to reading the two books about the moon (Moonwar and Moonrise)

42

[SusF]

The two new ones about the asteroid belt are very good! The Precipice and The Rock Rats. There are some carry over characters from the Moon books.

Susan

[milamber_reborn]

Moonrise and Mars are on my list of books I'll read one day.

[lemming]

Pretty much the only thing I've read of Bova's is The Exiles Trilogy (available in one paperback volume these days), but I'd recommend it highly.

Book one--set on earth, some very compelling scenes set in the rough part of a city. Don't quite remember what happens though.

Book two--a lot of scientists whose knowledge is considered too dangerous are banned from earth on a biiiiiiiig wheel-shaped space ship, if this didn't already happen in book one. The planet they were headed for turns out to be no good for human life, so they decide to keep going out into space rather than modify their children too much away from humanity.

Book three--the distant descendents of these scientists are reverting to savagery (some tragedy on the spaceship left a bunch of kids basically alone), but one of them reestablishes contact with one old guy who's left in the zero-g center of the wheel. With his help, they just might manage to make it to a new planet before the ship falls into a star.... but nope, I'm not giving away the ending :)

lemming

[Hobbit]

Yes, 'The Exiles' were originally published (in the UK at least) as 3 separate what would probably now be called 'Young Adult' books (or 'juveniles' to us oldies!).

If I remember right they were originally published in the 1970's, and in a combined book in the 1980's.

They are OK but not as good as some of his other work, IMO, though I definitely remember turning those pages!

[Hobbit]

From Ken Korczak in another thread (Which is the best science-fiction novel you have ever read ? ) but I thought people might be interested in the story here, and might want to make a comment here rather than in the other thread:

From Ken:
Please don't think me a shameless name dropper, but a couple of years ago I had the opportunity to have a conversation with SF legend Ben Bova.

He had come to Grand Forks, North Dakota, to give a lecture on "library sciences." Well, I went, and was shocked to find that I was one of only three people who showed up! So the lecture ended up being a 4-way conversation between us. I asked him, as former editor of Analog and Omni, what editors these days are looking for from new writer who want to break in.

He said: "Anything that really surprises me." I pushed him to get more specific, but that ended up being his main statement on the issue.

I pointed out to him that very little of the SF being published in Analog and other magazines today seems all that surprising to me, and he merely shrugged his shoulders.

I asked him who he likes to read today, and specifically if he had read Kim Stanley Robinson Mars books, (since Bova had written his own popular book "Mars" and "Return to Mars") and he almost seemed offeneded, and said: "I don't read anybody!"

Again, I couldn't get him to expand on why, but I gathered in further talk that he didn't like to be "infected" by other writers because he wants to keep his own stuff original and fresh.

Anyway, if anyone is intersted, I could tell a lot more about this fascinating talk I had with a true SF super star -- I'm not sure this thread is the right place -- I'm already off the subject!!!!!

Frozen Solid in Minnesota (It's 23 below with a stiff wind!)