I've always wanted to read Ben Bova's grand tour novels, but haven't out of being overwhelmed on not knowing where to start. Any suggestions on what order to read the books in (chronological, publishing order)?
Does anyone mind posting a list of the books in the order that they should be read?
Thanks!!
From Bova's Official Site:
There is no absolute need to read the novels in any particular order.
1. POWERSAT (Tor Books 2005)
2. EMPIRE BUILDERS (Tor Books, 1993)
3. MARS (Bantam Books, 1992)
4. MOONRISE (Avon Books, 1996)
5. MOONWAR (Avon Books, 1998)
6. RETURN TO MARS (Avon Books, 1999)
7. THE PRECIPICE (Tor Books, 2001)
8. JUPITER (Tor Books, 2001)
9. THE ROCK RATS (Tor Books, 2002)
10. THE AFTERMATH (Tor Books, 2007)
11. SATURN (Tor Books, 2003)
12. TITAN (Tor Books, 2006)
13. THE SILENT WAR (Tor Books, 2004)
14. MERCURY (Tor Books, 2005)
15. MARS LIFE (Tor Books, 2008) *NEW! ! !
16. VENUS (Tor Books, 2000)
and... TALES OF THE GRAND TOUR (Tor Books, 2004) contains stories that span much of the timeline of the Grand Tour.
Of course, there will be more to come.
Thanks for that!!
Looking at the Grand Tour descriptions, they look extremely interesting (near future type books...still exist in a world familiar to us but with some sci-fi thrown in). Any other similar authors I can look at as well? I'm building a reading list.
I've always found Fantastic Fiction to be a great place to look for similar authors and build a reading list.
For example, at the bottom of Ben Bova's FF.com page, they list these authors whom visitors to Bova's page most often looked at as well:
Greg Bear
Kevin J Anderson
Arthur C Clarke
Poul Anderson
Marion Zimmer Bradley
Orson Scott Card
Robert Heinlein
Terry Brooks
Ray Bradbury
Piers Anthony
Isaac Asimov
C J Cherryh
Stephen Baxter
David Weber
Gregory Benford
The list is searchable, and each author's page lists all of their novels as well as other works and even sometimes has specific books by other authors that they have recommended in the past.
Hope this helps.
Just as a hobby I've tried to piece together an approximate chronology of the Grand Tour books. He never, that I have found, lists an actual date in them which is why I found it sort of interesting to try. Everything is mentioned somewhat obliquely.
Dan Randolph addressing the Moon governing body:
"Halleys comet will be here in only a few years....."
Jane Scanwell, 52nd president of the United States (gives a range of dates if you assume no assassinations, deaths in office etc.)
Other times it is one book referring to events in another one. I've written on many pages of my books and put marks to make it easy to go back and find these clues. One thing though, even Ben Bova seems a bit confused as to the chronology. On his web site somewhere he claims that 'Venus' takes place the latest in time, yet in 'Mercury' they talk about the events from that book as being in the past.
No matter its fun, and as far as hobbies go relatively painless.
I think "Empire Builders" must come after "Moon War", because Saito Yamagata is still running Yamagata Industries and is only 50 years old.
Wow, I had forgotten about this old thread. I have not read too many of the newer books like Aftermath or Empire Builders so I don't know where they are supposed to fit in other than very generally.
Well all the timelines I can find, including the one one Ben Bova's website put "Empire Builders" first, but it just doesn't seem to fit there.
This might be a little off topic but as I haven't read anything by Bova I was wondering if he qualified as a "hard" Science Fiction writer. Most of his books seem to be anchored in our own solar system; no FTL travel, Warp drives, or "Wormholes" (so I assume anyway). So how does Bova's science measure up? His books are slightly dated but not by too much. I'm wondering if I should give some of his books a try.
The Dueling Machine by Ben Bova
http://librivox.org/the-dueling-machine-by-ben-bova/
psik
Definitely hard Sci-fi, he does his research. That said, Empire Builders, at times seems a bit dated because it heavily reflects the views of the time in regards to Global Warming.
More-so with Privateers and Communism, but that's more of a social divergence.
Grand Tour (Mars, Jupiter, Moonrise, Asteroid Wars, etc.) is hard science fiction, some of his other works are a bit more fantastical, but are based on extrapolations from the present day.
Well worth a read, I'd suggest Mars as a starting point, it's the one that got me hooked, an it could just about still happen.
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