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Venus

6 Ratings: 2.2

A book by Ben Bova

Ben Bova picked his villains well for this fast-paced, popcorn-and-Milk- Duds matinee: Topping the playbill is our sister planet, Venus itself, which Bova matter-of-factly describes as "the most hellish place in the solar system." Sci-fi authors (Bova … see full wiki

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Author: Ben Bova

Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Publisher: Tor Science Fiction

5 reviews about Venus

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review by cpw1952. September 23, 2010

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 … more

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review by MichaelN. April 30, 2004

Excellent!

Bova is a master storyteller about planetary exploration! In this book Van Humphries is given a challenge by his rich father. The challenge is to go to Venus and recover the body of his dead brother who crashed during an earlier attempt to explore the planet. The prize is 10 billion dollars.Van, a type of playboy who is used to the fast pampered life-style of the wealthy is in danger of being cut off from his source of income so his father's prize is enough incentive to risk his life to maintain … more

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review by plantsandbooks. July 05, 2003

Character driven story

Ben Bova's "Venus" is a fairly good story. I was a little turned off at first because it is written in first person, which I am not a big fan of and hadn't read a first person novel in a really long time. However, about halfway through the book, I realized the importance of the first person point of few when other strong characters were introduced.This is less a science fiction story and more a character journey in a scientific world. If you are looking for hard core scientific observations and … more

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review by fatherz. September 18, 2001

I was gravely disappointed. . .

. . .with this shallow, unbelievable novel.Ben Bova has, over the years, provided the Science Fiction reader with solid "hard-science" fiction novels, set in the near future, exploring technological ideas which are reasonable. Although character development has never been his strong suit, this has not, to my mind, been a significant detraction.Until now.In this novel, Bova's reliance on science is far weaker than in his novels dealing with Mars or the Moon -- and bases his plot around a totally … more

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review by CharlesAshbacher. December 13, 2001

posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

Too much interpersonal conflict for my tastes

Venus is in many ways the ideal woman of literature, beautiful, but improperly approached, deadly. Named after the mythological goddess of beauty, it is the closest planet to Earth and for years, considered the most Earthlike. Hovering like a jewel in the sky, it can sometimes be so bright that it casts a shadow. However, true to the literary femme fatale, the beauty is in appearance only. With acid in the atmosphere, hellish heat and tremendous atmospheric pressure, it is quite likely the driest … more

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