Tales of the Grand Tour
About this eBook
"Bova's tales encompass good characters, high-tension adventure, thoughtful introspection, and a sense of wonder." — Booklist
In novels like Mars and Moonbase, and Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as Privateers, The Precipice, and The Rock Rats, Ben Bova has been telling the stories of the wars and rivalries, the outsize individuals, public crusades, and private passions that will drive us as we expand into the Solar System and make use of its vast resources. And throughout, Bova has shown our cosmic neighborhood as we know it to be, giving us a sense of Venus and Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt and Mars that's as up-to-date as the latest observations. For the last two decades have been a golden age of near-Earth astronomy and observation, and in his novels Bova has made dramatic use of our newest knowledge.
But during that time Bova has also written short fiction about some of the same events and characters—Sam Gunn, Martin Humphries, Klaus Fuchs, Dan Randolph, the Asteroid Wars. Now, in Tales of the Grand Tour, those stories are collected in book form for the first time, creating a volume that is a landmark of modern SF.
"Like a folksy astrophysicist, Bova delights in talking about outer space, from the surface of Venus . . . through the asteroid belt . . . to the depths of Jupiter. . . . His excitement at being there matches his gusto for the dirty deeds done in the name of love, honor and duty. . . . His stories offer glimpses of the human side of space, the heroic grins and tragic grimaces alike." — Publishers Weekly
"I don't think there's another SF author alive with a better grasp of planetary science, nor one that can match Bova's storytelling experience, so it's no surprise that this is one collection of tales worth telling." —SFRevu
"Bova's saga is a long, varied, and successful one, and this is a good place for newbies to start." — Kirkus Reviews
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About the author
Ben Bova (1932-2020) was the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction, including Able One, Transhuman, Orion, the Star Quest Trilogy, and the Grand Tour novels, including Titan, winner of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. His many honors include the Isaac Asimov Memorial Award in 1996, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award "for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature" in 2008.
Dr. Bova was President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, and a former editor of Analog and former fiction editor of Omni. As an editor, he won science fiction's Hugo Award six times. His writings predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), electronic book publishing, and much more.
In addition to his literary achievements, Bova worked for Project Vanguard, America's first artificial satellite program, and for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, the company that created the heat shields for Apollo 11, helping the NASA astronauts land on the moon. He also taught science fiction at Harvard University and at New York City's Hayden Planetarium and worked with such filmmakers as George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry.
