Free Download | The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells | Ben Bova Novel

This is a short non-fiction book focusing on story development and short story / novel writing in genre fiction, especially in the science fiction field. For anyone interested in writing science fiction or any kind of genre fiction, this book can provide a useful insight, a valid viewpoint by a famous practioner of the field. Full of great advice, helpful tips and revealing good practice developed during decades of writing and editing it offers a window to see a successful writer at work. Though it is a nice journey into a writer's mind and environment, the chapters do not create a well organised collection, the reader doesn't receive a complete, exhaustive overview of the craft of a writer.

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Free Download | The Silent War | Ben Bova Novel

The Silent War (2004) is the third SF novel of the Asteroid Wars series, following The Rock Rats. In the previous volume, Lars Fuchs was caught in an ambush by HSS mercenaries, was returned to Ceres, and then was exiled by the Rock Rats. Amanda Cunningham divorced him and married Martin Humphries to keep Lars from being hurt by any HSS goons. But Amanda also has plans to implant an embryo fertilized by Lars within herself and to carry it to term. In this novel, Yamagata Corporation is moving back into space ventures after years of rebuilding Japan. Saito Yamagata is leaving corporate management to his son Nobuhiko, but providing advice as requested.

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Free Download |The Star Conquerors | Ben Bova Novel

This was Ben Bova's first book. It was published as part of the famous Winston Sci-Fi Series and was the best book of the series. I've read most of Mr. Bova's works over the years, and while this was his first, it is still about the best thing he ever wrote. In later years, he tended to develop the tendency to pad his writing. Star Conquerors, on the other hand, was a great action adventure than spanned the galaxy. When the Terran Empire is invaded by "the Masters", it appears that all is lost. But one man leads a fleet of ships against incredible odds and by genius, luck, new inventions, and indomitable character, overcomes the hordes of invaders and eventually reaches the center of the Galaxy to confront the Masters.

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Free Download | Hour of the Gremlins | Ben Bova Novel

Hour Of The Horde by Gordon R. Dickson: The voracious and merciless Horde roved the galaxies, stripping whole star systems of all life. As they advance on the Milky Way, a galaxy-wide force is hastily arrayed to stop them. But Miles Vander, the warrior sent by Earth to join the defence, must first convince his alien crewmembers that he is just as good a soldier as they. Wolfing by Gordon R. Dickson: Earth was only a primitive outpost, its people dubbed primitive "wolfings" by the rulers of the galactis empire.

Jim Kell was sent to the High-Born rulers' Throne World, with orders only to observe - until he cast away his orders from Earth and proved himself a Wolfling indeed. Gremlins Go Home by Gordon R. Dickson and Ben Bova: Suppose that elves, gremlins, and leprechauns are really tiny aliens marooned on Earth for hundreds of years.

They want to go home, and human technology finally can make it possible - it they can get aboard NASA's Mars rocket and hijack it! Pity the poor human who has to help them with the big heist

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Free Download | Return to Mars | Ben Bova Novel

In Ben Bova's 1992 bestselling book Mars, geologist Jamie Waterman and his crewmates discovered the existence of primitive lichen on the floor of the great Martian canyon known as the Valles Marineris. In Return to Mars, Waterman is headed back to the Red Planet, this time in charge of an expedition that hopes not only to study Martian life but also to prove that exploring Mars can be profitable.

Waterman also wants to revisit a part of the canyon where he thought he spotted a primitive cliff dwelling during the first Martian mission. The second voyage to Mars runs into trouble right away, however, as Waterman clashes with Dex Trumball, the son of a billionaire who's backing the expedition.

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Free Download | Venus | Ben Bova Novel

It is the most desolate place in the universe. With a surface blasted by temperatures hotter than any oven and an atmosphere heavy with sulphur, months from Earth by even the fastest spacecraft, Venus remains almost unknown even after a century of space travel. But Alex Humphries, son of ruthless space tycoon Martin Humphries, disappeared along with his ship Phosphoros into Venus' infernal atmosphere, and now Humphries has offered ten billion dollars to anyone who can bring his son's body home. Two ships are soon racing against each other to Venus. But when they enter the poisonous hurricane winds of the unknown planet they find something so surprising, so unexepected, that it will change the whole course of space exploration. 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.

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Free Download | Mercury | Ben Bova Novel

The planet closest to our Sun, Mercury is a rocky, barren, heat-scorched world. But there are those who hope to find wealth in its desolation. Saito Yamagata thinks Mercury’s position makes it an ideal place to generate power to propel starships into deep space. Astrobiologist Victor Molina thinks the water at Mercury’s poles may harbor evidence of life. Bishop Elliot Danvers has been sent by the Earth-based “New Morality” to keep close tabs on Molina. But all three of these men are blissfully unaware of their shared history, and of how it connects to the collapse of Mance Bracknell’s geosynchronous space elevator a generation ago. Now they’re about to find out, because Mance is determined to have his revenge. Mance Bracknell is the chief engineer on the Sky Tower in Quito, Ecuador - a construction mega-project which will lift payloads to the altitude of geosynchronous orbit via elevator at a cost of pennies per pound instead of the current cost of hundreds of dollars if the load is lifted by standard rocket launch into orbit.

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Free Download | Voyagers | Ben Bova Novel

In the 1980s the world is still under threat of nuclear annihilation, memories of the Bay of Pigs nightmare are still fresh and the Cold War is still very much a fact in the world's political life. Carl Sagan is at the height of his popularity. UFO sightings still occur with astonishing regularity. SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) is making headlines in the popular scientific press. The right wing fundamentalist Christian movement in the USA is gathering a full head of steam and preachers with the oratorical skill of Billy Graham can pack a stadium to the rafters. Radio astronomy is a relatively new science. The Roman Catholic Church is sensing that it is a diminishing influence in the first world so it is looking to increase its flock by ensuring its power base in the third world is strong.

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Free Download | Moonrise | Ben Bova Novels

Ben Bova has a way of writing hard science fiction that can best be described as "definitive." While other writers introduce technology that could be developed under the right set of circumstances, Bova tends to write about advances that we're already capable of, if only we pursued them.

In Moonrise he describes a future where space has finally been privatized and the moon is on the brink of becoming fertile commercial ground. But even as former astronaut Paul Stavenger seeks to turn a handful of leftover government moon shelters into a full-fledged moonbase, powerful corporate forces are aligning against him. Controlled by Masterson Corporation, Moonbase has been set up as an advance research facility crewed by researchers and scientists.

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Free Download | Orion and the Conqueror | Ben Bova Novel

Orion and the Conqueror puts our hero Orion back into the thick of world history as a royal guard to Philip of Macendonia, the father of Alexander the Great. As Philip struggles to conquer/unite Greece, Alexander's mother, who is one of the Creators, struggles to ensure the ascension of Alexander to the throne.

This is Orion at his best, fighting with swords and knives as he struggles with his personal loyalties versus the desires of the Creators. As Orion's powers develop, he continues to try to find the mystery behind the intentions of The Golden One. A quick fun read, Orion and the Conquerer is definitely worthwhile despite the one shortcoming of Orion's constant whining about finding Anya, the Creator he loves. Hey, I liked the concept, but the execution is spread out as if it were an epic but there isn't enough beef.

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Free Download | Orion Among the Stars | Ben Bova Novel

Orion Among the Stars is the first Orion novel set entirely in the future. Orion leads a band of cloned soldiers in a galactic civil war that pits Creator against Creator. In this novel Orion is again out of place, but this time he does not have the advantage of his understanding of the future to help him in his battles.

The story's action is just as strong as the previous 4 Orion books, but Bova introduces some unique new ideas in this book, such as cloned soldiers who are frozen between battles and do not have the rights one would expect human beings to have. In one interesting sequence Orion is arguing with an old time Army officer that the soldiers deserve a batter life, while the officer cannot get over the idea that they were cloned to be warriors and they are somewhat less than human. Obviously, this parallels Orion's own existence.

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Free Download | Vengeance of Orion | Ben Bova Novel

Interesting book. The main character, Orion, was created by powerful god-like human beings from the far future. Orion is a tool of these god-like beings, specifically, one that Orion calls the Golden One (aka Apollo). Orion is tired of being a pawn, he wants to forge his own destiny and choose his own life but the Golden One won't stand for it. It's any interesting novel as Orion tries to thwart the Golden One's plans of rewriting history during the Trojan War.

Orion doesn't do this out of a sense of right or wrong (even though he is a generally good guy) or to fix the timeline. Orion does this to hurt the Golden One because Orion is tired of being used, he wants his freedom. Vengeance of Orion indeed. I like this book because we see a character resisting fate and destiny. Even though this is science fiction, I do get tired of fantasy characters accepting their fate as they are drawn into a destiny they MUST fulfill. Vengeance of Orion is refreshing.

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Free Download | Moonwar | Ben Bova Novel

Ben Bova's extraordinary Moonbase Saga continues with a breathtaking near-future adventure rich in character and incident. The action begins seven years after the indomitable Stavenger family has realized its cherished dream of establishing a colony on the inhospitable lunar surface. Moonbase is now a thriving community under the leadership of Doug Stavenger, a marvel of scientific ahievement created and supported by nanotechnology: virus-size machines that can build, cure, and destroy. But nanotechnology has been declared illegal by the home planet's leaders. And a powerful despot is determined to lay claim to Stavenger's peaceful city...or obliterate it, if necessary.

The people of Moonbase--a colony with no arms or military--must now defend themselves from earth-born aggression with the only weapon at their disposal: the astonishing technology that sustains their endangered home. Ben Bova can really turn out the space sagas. Moonwar, the sequel to Bova's popular 1996 Moonrise, continues the story of Douglas Stavenger, the Kennedy-esque scion of Moonbase's founding dynasty. Moonbase is flourishing under Stavenger's management, but its existence--and Stavenger's very life--depends on nanotechnology, outlawed on Earth in response to a wave of Luddite fear and violence. United Nations peacekeepers arrive on the moon to enforce the anti-nanotech laws, accompanied by intrepid network news reporter Edith Elgin, who promptly falls for Doug.

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Free Download | The Rock Rats | Ben Bova Novel

Visionary space industrialist Dan Randolph is dead-but his protégé, pilot Pancho Barnes, now sits on the board of his conglomerate. She has her work cut out for her. For Randolph's rival, Martin Humphries, still wants to control Astro and still wants to drive independent asteroid miners like Lars Fuchs out of business. Humphries wants revenge against Pancho-and, most of all, he wants his old flame, Amanda, who has become Lars Fuchs's wife. Brimming with memorable characters and human conflict, rugged high-tech prospectors and boardroom betrayals, The Rock Rats continues the tale of our near-future struggle over the incalculable wealth of the Asteroid Belt, the richest source of raw mineral wealth known to humankind.

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Free Download | The Precipice | Ben Bova Novel

This is my first read of Ben Bova, and considering other people's comments about his books, expectations were high. I had not had any exposure to Bova, except that he is famous and considered a big gun in sci-fi literature.  "The Precipice", the first of the "Asteroid Wars" novels, is really the lead in to the next novel, though it can certainly be enjoyed alone. The plot itself follows the machinations of Astro Corporation's boss, Dan Randolph, and Martin Humphries, of Humphries Space Systems, in their attempts to outdo each other and open up the asteroid belt for exploitation. Both men are motivated by very different causes.

The story takes place in the relative near future, when the Earth has been savaged by a series of human-caused natural disasters that have resulted from Earth reaching a greenhouse gas "climate cliff". Massive floods have radically altered the landscape, with many cities underwater, the economy, with the collapse of a lot of infrastructure, and the population, with millions dead. In this setting, humanity's ventures into space are still fledgling and in their infancy. The moon has people living there and there are bases on Mars. That is it. 

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Free Download | Orion | Ben Bova Novel

It's the second time I am reading this novel, and I got myself the next issues to read them too. There is something that I like about it, and yet I keep ranting about the weaknesses of writing, plot building, soundness of the treated issues etc.

It feels like Ben Bova is 1/ cheaply educated, I mean full of prejudices and ignorance although they've probably been acquired in expensive schools anyway, 2/ trained by secret societies (indirectly) in conventional theology and history, 3/ not willing to dedicate much time and energy to build a story, yet willing to use as tricks all the good ideas that he grabbed elsewhere, that were basically told to him by others.

The result is kind of annoying, there IS good stuff in there, but to dig it out one must put up with heaps of cheap tricks, and cheap writing. I'll dig them out, but I know this is no litterary masterpiece, just cheap writing with a few good ideas that are not his. I just wish Mr Ben Bova did some real work with these ideas, or that i found another author who does it. In the end it doesn't matter that much. I'll use this messenger as I'd use another one who would be a real artist.

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