| Title | : | Venus (The Grand Tour, #18) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0812579402 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780812579406 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 405 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2000 |
This is where Van Humphries must go. Or die trying.
His older brother perished in the first attempt to land a man on Venus, years before, and his father had always hated Van for surviving when his brother died. Now his father is offering a ten billion dollar prize to the first person to land on Venus and return his oldest son's remains.
To everyone's surprise, Van takes up the offer. But what Van Humphries will find on Venus will change everything--our understanding of Venus, of global warming on Earth, and his knowledge of who he is.
Venus (The Grand Tour, #18) Reviews
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Hard sci-fi pioneering space exploration at its very best!
Martin Humphries, a fabulously wealthy industrialist living on a lunar colony, passionately despises his second son, Van. Cruelly labeling him as "the runt" and bullying him relentlessly as a directionless, untalented weakling, Humphries blames Van for the death of his wife during Van's birth and, in fact, resents him for even being alive. Humphries' beloved eldest son, Alex, who Van also loved dearly, lost his life in the first manned exploration of the surface of Venus. When Humphries announces that he is terminating his son's stipend and that he is offering a $10 billion prize to the first person who recovers his beloved Alex's remains from Venus, it is quite clear that Van, who is without any other means of support, is being manipulated and forced by his own father into choosing a path that will likely lead to his death. The waters become muddied and the fight for that almost unimaginably large prize becomes a heated race when Lars Fuchs, a rock rat from the Asteroid belt and Humphries' long time corporate foe, announces he is also making a play for the prize.
Venus won't win any prizes when it comes to literary status. Nor does it convey any subliminal moral messages, political satire, mystical symbolism or any of those other things that deep thinkers often consider necessary for a novel to be deemed truly great. But if you're looking for a hard-driving plot with palpable suspense and superb hard science fiction supported by a wealth of current hard scientific fact, then Venus is a novel you'll want to read. Bova's ability to weave science seamlessly into a fast-paced plot is simply wonderful - orbital and celestial mechanics, plate tectonics, volcanism, planetary evolution, chemistry, biology, physics, aerospace engineering, rocketry and more. In fact, it's safe to say that Venus, with a hostile surface environment straight out of Dante's Inferno, is the major character in the novel!
But, let's take nothing away from the rest of the novel. Bova's characters, in a word, succeed! They evoke emotions in a reader fully ensnared in the action who will care about what happens. His heroes have their flaws and weaknesses but they're likable and they develop meaningfully over the course of the novel. His villains are despicable but they too evolve in an understandable human way. The dialogue is appropriate to the environment of a quasi-military space exploration vehicle. And the twist ending - well, suffice it to say that there is one! Let's not give anything away other than to say it will bring a smile to most reader's faces!
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss -
I've always seen Bova's books on the shelves in the bookstore, but I've never really had a desire to pick them up. The titles never really drew me in; the synopsis on the back of the books never really caught my interest--in fact, they hinted at plots which were very familiar within the genre written by other authors. Furthermore, I had a tendency to stay away from the veteran hard sci-fi writers (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, etc.) because their works seemed, to me, dated & out of touch with the changing times. Regardless, I have read some of their works & have taken an interest in reading others who I've never read before. Bova is one of those authors.
So where to start?
I looked into Bova's career as a writer of science fiction & found him to be exactly what I thought he was: a writer who aligns himself with the classical styles of the forefathers of science fiction. I then looked into what was considered to be his best works & discovered they were pretty much rated all the same--though some received harsher criticism than others.
It was when I noticed his novels named after planets & began to read about his series he has dubbed: "The Grand Tour"--novels which would take the reader into the future where Humans have begun to explore, mine for resources & colonize our home solar system. The idea of each book being a stand alone novel yet part of a great web--connected by each novels events & characters--captured my interest due to such a massive undertaking.
To pick which novel to start with, I decided to go with a planet which hasn't been represented in science fiction much: Venus. Every author seems to go directly to Mars or Jupiter but we don't see anyone taking a trip to Venus, Mercury, Uranus or Neptune for that matter. Good old Mars--the planet which is considered by many to have once been a lush & water-logged like our planet, Earth. There are countless sci-fi novels about Mars & Bova is one of those authors who is guilty of visiting the red planet within his Grand Tour--it gets old. Venus had always captured my interest when I studied astronomy & I felt I should start there.
I'll spare you the plot set up since this site will have it for you and others who have read this novel have provided it within their reviews as well. Let's get to the meat of the matter: Bova as a science fiction writer.
I found Bova's novel to be entertaining, full of hard science fiction, and it's setting familiar--like I've been here before. That's when I realized this book could have been written by Clarke--the familiar feel of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY & it's sequels permeated this book. The prose was superficial--no "wow" factor--and I found the characters to be die-cut from stock with no real depth to them. Sure, the main character is the 1st person narrator but I found him to be shallow as the rest of the cast. Nevertheless, it still held my interest to find out how the mission to Venus would turn out. There was enough action to keep you turning the pages but even the action didn't really have me on the edge of my seat--a little disappointing really--but the endgame is what kept me going. I had to find out the novels resolution. I also enjoyed the description of the planet and how it is still a mystery even though the book takes place in the future--Venus is ignored in real life exploration as well as in science fiction. Bova takes great pains to reveal the mysteries of Earth's sister planet and these are the passages I enjoyed more than most of the others.
Will I continue to read Bova? Yes. Will I read more of his novels within "The Grand Tour". Yes. I have my eyes on MERCURY and SATURN. Bova has revealed to me that he isn't the greatest writer of science fiction, but he's not the worst. He isn't too complicated in his presentation of science and this makes his novels less difficult to get through like so many writers of science fiction of today. Don't shy away from Bova. He won't bite. -
(june 2004) i can't believe i actually finished this. it was horribly written, and i barely cared about the hysterical characters--particularly the snivelling protagonist--to bother to turn the pages. still, the science (fiction) kept me reading til the lurid and quite predictable, comic book ending.
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Martin Humphries, a hedonistic and cruel billionaire lost his favorite son to the planet Venus. Alex's remains still lie somewhere on the surface of the planet. Martin offers a $10 billion prize to the person who goes to Venus and returns with his son's body. At the same time he cuts off his other son, Van, whom he detests. With no source of income, Van decides to go after the prize, having a ship built and gathering a crew. Since it's still his father's money paying for the ship, Van has to take a captain of his father's choosing. Then he finds out that there will be competition for the $10 billion as his father's hated rival Lars Fuchs is also going to Venus. After a disaster on his ship, Humphries ends up on Fuchs' craft where a revelation shakes up Humphries fragile world. Despite everything, he and Fuchs continue to search for the remains as they battle creatures they have discovered living in the sulphuric acid clouds of the planet.
For me, Venus was too much about the characters and their relationships and not enough about the planet Venus. I expected more science and got a soap opera. Another problem for me was that I hated all the characters. I didn't care whether any of them survived or not. Even the main character Van Humphries was whiny and unmotivated. He grew up some during the story but not enough for me to care about him. In the end I wished Venus had been more about Venus. -
I was shocked to find that Venus was part of a huge series, but read that I didn't necessarily have to read the other books in order to read the story. I agree because I had no issues with understanding what was happening; the author did a good job of world-building and explaining character backgrounds. However, after reading what the other novels were about I can't help but feel that I may have enjoyed it more if I had read more of the books set prior to the events of this book.
I liked this book, but I didn't find any of the characters interesting and at times the plot was quite predictable. The focus of the story seemed to shift suddenly during the last chapter of the book which left me feeling a bit confused. I'm sure it would have made more sense if I had read some of the other novels. Also, the MC had some racially insensitive inner thoughts as well as a little bit of fat-shaming. I was really craving a space opera, but this was all that I had on my shelf to satisfy my hunger. It filled my belly up a bit, but just didn't leave me feeling satisfied. -
I am not entirely sure why some readers disliked this book -- It's got a great plot, well developed characters, and is overall a great read. Are there better books out there; sure, but this is a great book in it's own right. It's like a really well made B-movie, a bit cheesy at times, but overall great entertainment. Just suspend some disbelief and enjoy the ride, it is fiction after all. It's a good book to take on a ride or on a trip, it will make the time fly by.
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Just finished my first Ben Bova book. Even though it’s nearly 20 years old, I actually really enjoyed it. I don’t want to give away anything but I really liked the directions Bova took the story. I’ll definitely return to The Grand Tour series in the near future! A solid 4 stars! Overall, it was fun, light, and well paced.
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Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #457.
Luke and Juliane discuss the reasons Venus by Ben Bova feels so dated, despite being written in 2000.
https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/1858 -
Playboy takes his father's bait of a 10 billion dollar reward to claim his bother's ashes from the hellish surface of Venus. Very entertaining. I wanted to read more Ben Bova (I read this 20 years ago="retro reviews") and I think I will.
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Memory is such a tricky thing. It golden-hues the gilded. It makes serious mistakes. Like thinking all those grand names from the past are still grand.
About ten pages into this, I was ready to toss it across the room. With some astonishment, because this was Ben Bova, Ben freakin’ Bova! one of those grand names from my scifi obsessed youth, up there with Heinlein and Asimov and Clarke and what the heck? It was terrible. Poorly written, ridiculous plot, even more ridiculous stock characters: the wimpy petulant spoiled brat who Becomes a Man; the eeevil and cruel CEO of a murderous ruthless space conglomerate; the not-so-love interest; and a pirate. Yep, a pirate. Exactly the kind of puerile nonsense I would have loved at the beginning of the space age when silly puerile books thrilled all of us geeks. Had to be a mistake, so I gave it an additional fifty pages and, man, throw it across the room already...but it's Bova! Bova! That’s like throwing Asimov across the room! So I kept going.
Should have thrown it across the room.
Van Humphries is the wimpy puffball spoiled brat son of Martin Humphries, the eevil CEO, who hates Van for inexplicable reasons that become explicable towards the end but are so ridiculous it makes you laugh out loud. At any rate, Van’s brother, Daniel, who Martin loves in exactly the opposite intensity he hates Van for reasons that will also become laugh-out-loud explicable later, dies on an expedition to Venus and Martin offers ten billion dollars to anyone who can go down there and collect the remains. Yes, Martin is that rich. Inexplicably, Martin then cuts Van off from his allowance and lifestyle, so wimpy, incapable, soft and fatally-diseased Van (pernicious anemia. Which makes no sense. You’ll see why), decides he’ll take up his father’s challenge. Ridiculous enough for you?
Hold my beer.
Every five pages or so the book reminds you who is who and why they’re going to Venus and why Venus is dangerous and how much Martin hates Van and Fuchs the pirate hates Martin and everyone hates each other except the inexplicably all- Asian crew which can’t speak English, but they do hate Fuchs and, later. Van. For inexplicable reasons. I guess the only way to turn what should have been a six or seven page story into a 300-plus novel is keep saying the same things over and over. And over. Only a 12 year old in 1966 could appreciate this mess. Or someone whose memory is failing.
Like me. Somehow, over the decades, I converted Bova into a master of the craft when, more accurately, he is a master of the edit, selecting stories for, and cleaning up, the pulps and the anthologies I loved back then. Still got my original copies of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. That’s where I really know him from. Not where I thought I knew him from.
Which is why we should never, ever convict someone solely on witness testimony. -
Venus by Ben Bova is part of the author’s Grand Tour series, which deals with the exploration of the planets in our solar system. Venus is the nearest planet to Earth and about the same size as Earth. However, it is closer to the Sun than Earth and Bova describes Venus as “the most hellish place in the solar system.” Its atmosphere is dominated by sulfuric acid and carbon dioxide, with only negligible traces of oxygen and nitrogen. The surface temperatures are well above 450 degrees Celsius (nearly 900 degree Fahrenheit) and the atmospheric pressure at ground level is equal to the pressure more than a kilometer below the surface of an ocean on Earth. In addition, Venus rotates around its axis so slowly that a single Venusian day is 225 Earth days. The “hellish” environment has prohibited Earthlings from establishing any colonies on Venus and even from exploring the planet. Unmanned probes have gathered some information, but all of them ceased their data transmission within very short time frames after entering the Venusian atmosphere. However, three years ago Alex Humphries and his crew made the voyage to Venus and he attempted to land on the Venusian surface, but no one survived that voyage. Now Alex’s father, a very wealthy, powerful and ruthless industrialist/business man has offered a reward of ten billion dollars to anyone who succeeds in locating his son’s remains and returning them to Earth. Van Humphries, Alex’s younger brother, accepts the challenge even though he has no realistic experience that would indicate he could be successful in such a venture and he has a serious blood condition that requires regular medication. However Van embarks on the recovery mission to Venus because his father previously informed him that he will no longer support him and Van needs the money, and also because he loved his older brother. As usual, Bova weaves a complex story including much plausible scientific data and action. Van and his crew encounter much hardship, danger, and tragedy in the Venusian atmosphere, beginning shortly after they descend into the upper atmosphere and discover that something is eating away the hull of their ship. During the trip, Van evolves into a strong leader who accepts responsibility for decisions and risks his life for the mission. In addition, he must risk accepting the help of Lars Fuchs, a bitter enemy of his father and a competitor in the competition to retrieve Alex’s body and win the $10 billion reward. Venus is another very enjoyable and well-crafted space exploration adventure. The characters are very well developed, unique, and believable. This book provides much tension and suspenseful action and it kept me reading with enthusiasm until the very satisfying conclusion.
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If there is one thing that I have come to expect of Ben Bova it is that he can take any fantastically unbelievable idea and make it so real that you actually think that it could happen. This is the case with Venus.
Van Humphries is the last living son of Martin Humphries, having outlived his brother who died a few years before on a trek to the venusian surface to try to discover how a runaway greenhouse could explain the sudden warming on Earth. But his father hates him beyond reason. He's the runt in the family with a terrible anemia that he has to take medicine for to keep in check. Then comes his father's award--a billion dollars to anyone who can bring back the remains of his beloved son. To make matters more interesting, Martin Humphries has cut off all of Van's funding and in desperation Van signs up to win that billion dollars. But Van isn't the only one that wants the prize...
Enter Fuchs, an asteroid belt entrepreneur who lost everything he owned because of Martin Humphries, including his wife. Claiming a billion dollars could right his life and give him the vengeance he has always wanted.The story is riveting to say the least. I think this book is possibly better than Mars, but it's such a close match I find it hard to make the decision. Everything from the way Bova designs the ships that take them to Venus and ultimately the ships that get them to the surface to his description of Venus in such a realistic manner made this book one of the best reads I've had in a while. I don't want to give anything away, but the way he describes Venus' clouds, surface, winds, etc. really give you the image of how dangerous this planet is.
Venus is written in first person and I found that in this case it worked perfectly. I've known a few instances when I hated first person, but again, the same as with Old Man's War, it worked very well here. Bova's style is not profound in any sense of the word, and he likely won't be winning any 'best writer ever' awards, but he has such a way to tell a scifi story to make you really believe in what is going on. There is little that I had to dispel belief for. This is something I've come to know Bova for--realism. There are a lot of twists and turns that you don't expect too, and I won't give any of them away simply because that would ruin the book.
Pick this book up. You can probably find it online for cheap--it's been out for a while. It is a fascinating read. -
Though I often consider myself more keen on good characterization and dialogue than a fast-moving plot, when it comes to science fiction, I tend to reverse my usual preferences. The unlikely hero in this book is granted with a sort of late bloomer-coming-of-age story, but many of the other characters never really become more than vaguely enigmatic. The plot however, doesn't really stop moving as the characters are catapaulted into one danger after another. Van Humphries must risk his life to embark on a recovery mission to Venus in order to finally sever ties with his controlling and cruel father, and make a fresh start. Problem is, Venus happens to be just about the most hostile planet out there, Van is inexperienced and sickly, and his chief competitor for the ten billion dollar reward is ruthless and has all the advantages he doesn't. Realistic detail about the dangers of Venus, and the technology involved to get everyone there is useful and unfolds naturally, unlike many novels where it feels awkwardly plugged in, and it never bogs down the pace. Story comes first here, and all in all, it's not a bad one to while an afternoon away.
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I almost didn't finish this one. In fact, I only stuck with it because I'd paid for a used copy. It just isn't a very good book. The main character is a typical protagonist, except the fact that he has a debilitating illness; there's your typical skeptical, asshole character, a villain, a love interest, etc... I found myself being able to predict the plot too easily and just not really caring what happened to ANYONE in the book. I got it because I'd heard a bunch of stuff about Bova being one of the "masters" of scifi. Well, I guess I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since it's the only book by him I've read. If he is a master, then I guess this means masters can make some pretty big mistakes in their career.
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This was so laughably bad that I refrained from giving it just one star since it had me cracking up so often. Picked this out from the shelf while doing some light weeding (those fiction shelves are getting too crowded!)... The blurb inside the flap caught my attention. It contained what is quite possibly my favorite sentence of the past couple years: "Late in the twenty-first century, Van is the sickly, fearful second son of a tyrannical corporate tycoon." How could I not read this based on that alone?
Dim characterizations and cliche plot twists were the running theme of this novel. Metal eating bugs, plate tectonics, paternal revelations, cryonics, and global warming also made appearances. Hilarious, but not recommended. -
During the Reagan period Ben Bova had written his Kinsman series, a science fiction piece beginning with 'Star Wars' planning on the moon. I'd liked the politics, the relevance and the main character--liked it so much that Bova's name had impressed itself on me enough to cause me, years later, to pick up this much later novel.
Although there's some relevance to contemporary politics here as regards climate change, this book is mostly about Venus, a character portrayed with about as much depth as the human explorers of its atmosphere and surface. The science is plausible enough, but the plotting and the protagonist are too shallow to engage much interest. -
It took me a few tries to finally get into this one. This was mainly due to the novel's slower start. Once the book got rolling, though, I found myself enthralled by this adventure through the clouds of our sister planet, Venus. While the characters were not the deepest, the intense action and science based hard sci-fi goodness made up for this. If you're looking for extremely deep characters or story, don't expect it here. But if you love hard sci-fi and want to begin the journey into Bova's dubbed "The Grand Tour" of our solar system, or if you have ever dreamed about flying through the vastness of the many planets in our solar system this is a great place to start.
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This is my first ever science fiction novel read and I absolutely loved it. This is one of my favorite books ever. It's a page turner right from the beginning through to the end. There's plenty of action and the characters feel so real like they are your friends. There's twists throughout and you don't know what to expect on their journey to Venus and what will happen when they get there.
I'm definitely reading more from Ben Bova and would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to read a fictional book set in space. -
As usual with Bova there are both physical (relating to the planet Venus) and personal problems to solve (who is the protagonist's Father - etc.)
Put together they make this book an excellent part of the Grand Tour series, -
Another space noir. I am impressed by Bova's willingness to make the vast majority of his characters unlikeable.
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Ben Bova books are exactly what I long for in science fiction. I hope someone out there picks up his mantle. I couldn't help but read this with a pang of sorrow.
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18 books in and
Venus is the only body this side of
Saturn that the Grand Tour hasn't explored, so it seems a perfectly fitting place to end (I'll get back to that). There's something of a continuation of the The Asteroid Wars, with Martin Humphries and his sons as the focus of the books. One (Alex, ) attempted to be the first to reach the surface of Venus and died in the attempt. The other (Van, ) decides to take on the task of recovering his remains--a pot sweetened by ten billion dollars of his father's money.
All that actually makes Venus somewhat interesting and unique among the Grand Tour novels. It's not really one of the corporate war books, such as the early Moonbase books or the Asteroid Wars, but it's also not a purely scientific exploration of Venus--although there's plenty of that. It's really more an an adventure novel with a sci-fi setting and backing in the hellscape that is Venus. That actually makes it a surprisingly solid book.
I'm glad that Martin Humphries wasn't in more of the book--I really can't stand him and I'm glad his plotline didn't really go much of anywhere in the foreground after the Asteroid Wars--and Van's whining feels real enough, even if he's rather whiny for an adventure protagonist. We get a good chunk more Lars Fuchs, who has fallen far--albeit for a good reason. Always good to see.
One thing that's always a star in Bova's books is the idea of finding life absolutely everywhere. He's fond of implying that whereever there's water, there will be life... And now even that doesn't seem to be a limiting factor. The life on Venus is pretty crazy, both in the clouds and on the surface and I wish we had a bit more time to explore that. But so it goes.
Overall, one of the better books of the Grand Tour. Which works out, since I think that I'm done with the Grand Tour for now. The remaining books leave the solar system and get even further away from the near future hard sci-fi of the rest of the Grand Tour. There were hints that we are not alone, particularly in
The Aftermath and to some extent the
Mars trilogy, but nothing quite so blatent.
Not something I'm looking for just yet. Perhaps one day.
Six months and 18 books later, I think it's time to listen to something else. -
This is a story written by an old man with old ideas, but at least he has a lot of them. In an adventurous planetary exploration story, we see the weakling son of an obscenely ultra-rich capitalist scum-dog, rise to the challenge of going to Venus to collect his deceased Astronaut brother's remains from the planet surface.
It's a treacherous mission, so you don't expect to get through the whole story without losing some characters along the way, to the perils of ... space stuff. Some of the characters are women.. so the main character gets to eye everyone up... enjoy rubbing against boobs while moving through narrow spaceship corridors, and get away with kissing women who are pretty enough, without them even complaining much. It's all a bit ew.
It's important to know that the reason he doesn't find any of the scary, sneaky Asian women attractive, is not because they have a guttural barking language that he can't understand, and not because he's Racist, but because they just aren't that pretty. I would have had serious issues finishing this book if I had been reading it as a paperback, rather than an audiobook, because it's impossible to track text when you are eyerolling this hard.
The main character is utterly insecure, and there is almost some character growth as he steps up to take leadership roles.. but it certainly doesn't show in his relationships, or his attitudes toward others. During the story he learns some dark personal history that allows him to understand himself better, but even after his toil and epiphanies, he is still just a lame jerk.
The way that the Green Party (environmentalists) is depicted leaves me wondering what Bova thought the motivation of environmentally focused Parties is. These parties are not Trying to Destroy Business, but rather responding to the very real threat of total ecological collapse, and the end of human life on Earth. I'm not sure which readership or audience he is trying to appeal to here.
Maybe doing reading challenges where I read a book because it starts with a certain letter of the alphabet, are not a good way to choose good books.. or maybe I'm doing it wrong. -
I thoroughly enjoyed this classic style hard sci-fi novel. The characters were interesting and the main character's arc was well done. The one thing I would say is, I have no idea why he included the second chapter which is a total data-dump about Venus. I think it could be done with chapter two (a very short chapter) completely removed. This book is twenty two years old now, and yet we still know little more about the planet than this book describes (including those people speculating about the possibility of life in its cloud layers.) The book is not specifically about VENUS per-se but it is a great character / plot driven story set with some hard science ideas and some somewhat fantasy - leaning elements. A fun and enjoyable full loop story.
I had previously only read one book by the award winning author Ben Bova, his "The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells" which I read while learning about writing sci-fi. I loved the short story examples he included in that book. This was the first full length novel of his that I have read. I know that Venus is just one of his series of books called the "Grand Tour", and not the first in the series, but my fascination with Venus made me choose it first.
Part of this story, and the relationship between two of the characters in it reminded me a lot of the novel The Sea Wolf by Jack London (another novel I've always loved). Bova also worked in a very subtle metaphorical comparison of one character's fury and anger to the hellish conditions of Venus itself. The plot twists, promises and payoffs were a lot of fun in this book.
If you enjoy a good character driven hard sci-fi novel with maybe just a hint of good old speculative fantasy/mystery, I highly recommend this one. Just don't be put off by the second chapter data dump. Think of it as a primer or reminder of the scientific facts of the planet Venus as if it was part of a reference book not part of the story or even skip over chapter two if you want!
I wish more modern scifi would come back to this style of writing. -
Venus is another stop on Bova's Grand Tour. Alex Humphries, the son of a wealthy and powerful man, Martin Humphries, was lost on an expedition to Venus a few years prior to the start of the story, while trying to obtain, for the Greens, evidence that Earth's global warming is similar to the planetary greenhouse effect that has always enveloped the Planet of Love. When Humphries offers ten billion dollars to the first person who returns his son's remains, his other son, Van, who has been a sickly drone most of his life, decides to outfit his own expedition to compete for the prize, which will make him independent at last from his domineering and cruel father.
His only competition will be the expedition mounted by Lars Fuchs, an asteroid miner whose business was ruined and whose wife was stolen by the elder Humphries twenty years ago. Fuchs' ship is named Lucifer, and he spends much of his time in the story quoting Satan's lines from Milton. But there's more to Fuchs than his public persona would suggest, and he actually is one of the more interesting characters in the story by the end.
The best part of this book, however, is all of the fun details that Bova includes about the environment which he believes exists on Venus' surface, and in its cloud layers, and his suppositions about what sort of life might survive in such a vicious place. It ain't Carson of Venus, folks, or even Between Planets; it's nearly literally Hell, which suits the captain of Lucifer just fine, and our "hero" Van not as much. -
One of the great things a science fiction book can do is give an imaginative but realistic experience of what it would be like to go to a place that has never been visited before, like the planet Venus. Bova goes to some lengths to make his story feel realistic, taking what we know of Venus -- its crushing, corrosive atmosphere and furnace-like heat -- and creating the mix of technology and courage needed to explore it.
There are a lot of elements to Bova's story, maybe too many -- a main character (Van Humphries) with a need to prove himself against a lifetime of abuse and belittling from his father and a need to honor the death of his brother, that same character's awkward attempts at romance with a shipmate with issues of her own, a driven and grim ship's captain with the combined personalities of Captains Nemo and Ahab, a green movement hoping to use the specter of conditions on Venus to provide a lesson for Earth's politicians, not to mention the challenge of exploring Venus itself. The green movement in particular gets little play in the face of the other, more dominant elements.
That said, it's still a very entertaining story. I would have enjoyed it just for the pure "hard science fiction" story of exploring Venus. The searing heat and corrosive atmosphere are themselves characters in the story -- antagonists to be overcome. Van Humphries' relationship with his father and his devotion to his lost brother provide additional framing motivation for the expedition. -
Mi primer libro de Ben Bova y quede ¡flechado!
Leí este libro en tiempo record y en medio de la "conmoción mundial" por el descubrimiento de la que sería la primera "biofirma" (un indicio, en este caso indirecto, de la existencia de vida) en un planeta del sistema solar (distinto de la Tierra naturalmente); imagino que adivinaran cuál.
El resultado fue quedar enviciado con la obra de Bova y con su
"Grand Tour" por el Sistema Solar... solo les digo ¡hay que leer sus 25+ relatos que cumplen este año ya 35 años de escritura sin descanso.
Como es predecible, el libro desarrolla de forma increíblemente entretenida, la historia de dos misiones tripuladas independientes al planeta Venus para rescatar los restos de una primera misión (los pioneros) que termina accidentada en su superficie (no puedo adelantarles si algo vivo queda de o alrededor de ella).
La trama incluye muy buena ciencia: como astrónomo debo reconocer que estuve buscando con cuidado los más sutiles deslices, especialmente en sus descripciones del ambiente en Venus y no encontré nada grave (con excepción de las muy aceptables licencias literarias del genero). Muy buen suspenso y acción (creo que no hay página en la que no pase algo fuera de lo común, una conversación, peleas, golpes); historias de amor y odio (que no pueden faltar en una novela) y naturalmente un desenlace sorpresivo (que obviamente no puedo adelantarles).
El único "lunar" (al menos para mí, un "boomer" iberoamericano): esta escrita en inglés.
No encontré una traducción asequible de la novela para leerla en mi propia lengua (todavía no sé si existe). Como es obvio esto hace que no se puedan entender en una lectura de corrido todos los detalles (el vocabulario literario y el cotidiano exige un buen conocimiento de la lengua), pero naturalmente la trama se puede seguir sin inconvenientes.
Si están emocionados por el descubrimiento de fosfano en Venus (un gas maloliente y venenoso que en la Tierra es producido por las industrias y unos pocos microorganismos y en Venus no podría tener una fuente que no fuera biológica), descubrimiento que a la fecha de preparación de esta reseña sigue siendo un misterio no resuelto, no deben dejar de leer "Venus".
Tal vez la vida en Venus (de existir) sea más increíble de lo que creemos incluso de lo que soñó el maestro Bova.
