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19th out of 46 books
—
39 voters
Titan (The Grand Tour #13)
by
Ben Bova
Hugo Award-winning editor, author, scientist, and journalist, Ben Bova is a modern master of near-future science fiction and a passionate advocate of manned space exploration. For more than a decade, Bova has been chronicling humanity's struggles to colonize our solar system in a series of interconnected novels known as "The Grand Tour."
Now, with Titan, Ben Bova takes read...more
Now, with Titan, Ben Bova takes read...more
Paperback, 432 pages
Published
March 6th 2007
by Tor Science Fiction
(first published 2006)
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This is the first book in Ben Bova's Grand Tour series that I've read. While this book did not particularly impress me, I will say that I enjoyed it enough to read more of his work.
First I'll start out with the good. The pacing of the story worked fairly well for me. In particular, it quite deftly avoided one of the biggest issues plaguing hard scifi books: the massive info dump. This isn't to say that it doesn't try to give you some scientific background on what's going on, but that it is in g...more
First I'll start out with the good. The pacing of the story worked fairly well for me. In particular, it quite deftly avoided one of the biggest issues plaguing hard scifi books: the massive info dump. This isn't to say that it doesn't try to give you some scientific background on what's going on, but that it is in g...more
Jan 20, 2013
Clark Hallman
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
science-fiction
Titan is another excellent science fiction novel in Ben Bova’s Grand Tour series. Goddard, a permanent space habitat containing 10,000 people from Earth, is in orbit around Saturn in the years 2095-2096. The unethical Chief Administrator of Goddard is planning to extract the water from the rings of Saturn to sell it to other earth space colonies, which would make the population of the habitat very wealthy. However, the scientists in the habitat are concerned that the mining operations will harm...more
Ben Bova has written a vast number of books in the Grand Tour series this being the most recent to be released in paperback. Several of the books have planet or moon names as the titles, the Rock Rats series also is in the saga. I read the first three Rock Rats books and they were all pure Bova – fast paced, great characters, interesting locations and solid science.
Titan takes places a few years after the Asteroid wars are over, and Pancho Lane, the heroine of the Rock Rats books has retired as...more
Titan takes places a few years after the Asteroid wars are over, and Pancho Lane, the heroine of the Rock Rats books has retired as...more
I know this author has a “Grand Tour” of the solar system series. I have put off reading any of these for no reason other than some of Bova’s other books have been inconsistent in the quality of writing. I finally snatched ‘Titan’ cheap and thought I’d give it a go. Overall, I found the story itself rather boring and uninteresting. The underlying politics and personal interactions that should drive the story are woefully unimpressive. Bova displays a very simplistic and naive approach that resul...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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I had high hopes for this novel. I enjoyed Ben Bova’s
Mars
a lot. Given the real life Cassini Space Probe is currently wowing NASA and the public with its scientific exploration of Saturn and its moons, I was primed to relish this book. Unfortunately, I found most of it dry, plodding, and almost wholly unconcerned with the moon Titan. Much of the novel takes place in Goddard, a space vehicle reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rama, though this one is manmade. Mr. Bova stirs up a great deal of...more
This book is about the trials and tribulations of people living on space habitat colony orbiting the moon Titan. The people who occupy the habitat are rebels, dissidents and in general those that the fundamentalist religious government do not approve of. Their actions, however, were quite bland and not very rebellious. The habitat is very peaceful and ordered with everything basically going perfectly smoothly. The only interesting things that happens to these people, and in the book, is the prob...more
There might not really be anything less enjoyable about this book than others in Bova's planets series, but... the same characters again... It just wears thin for me, with some unbelievable drama going on in space too. I also found the AI situation of the robotic craft unbelievable. The most intriguing aspect of the book is only a teaser: the dark life forms which evidently live in Titan's oceans, yet which we never really find out about in this text. Had that part of the plot been developed the...more
This book carries on where Saturn ends. The 11 mile long by 4 mile wide space habitat Goddard has reached Saturn and is in orbit around it’s moon Titan.
Science, politics, technology and human foibles all get put in a bender, shaken; not stirred, and what comes out is highly entertaining.
The main story revolves around Titan Alpha which is a semi autonomous rover type vehicle sent to the surface of Titan to explore the surface. The problem is once it lands it decides that collecting data about Tit...more
Science, politics, technology and human foibles all get put in a bender, shaken; not stirred, and what comes out is highly entertaining.
The main story revolves around Titan Alpha which is a semi autonomous rover type vehicle sent to the surface of Titan to explore the surface. The problem is once it lands it decides that collecting data about Tit...more
I had difficulty liking many of the characters, and the political machinations weren't the most interesting factors. However, I appreciated how this books resolves many of the issues Bova brought up earlier, and I loved the hard science and the adventures of the robot on Titan.
I'm giving 4 stars here not just for this book, but for the whole series that took us to this point. If you enjoy hard-SF space opera and are a fan of Bova's work, you'll love these books!
I'm giving 4 stars here not just for this book, but for the whole series that took us to this point. If you enjoy hard-SF space opera and are a fan of Bova's work, you'll love these books!
464 pages. Science fiction. Bova spins a good yarn as he explores on of the solar system's most interesting moons. Titan is one of the few moon that has its own atmosphere. Bova explores the question of wheter or not life is present. He continues his universe that contains a repressive religious goverment that exiles its malcontents to space stations. The story is used as a back drop that explores their lives.
Ben Bova has written some beautiful books (such as "Mars"), and this one is worth reading too, but it is not the best of this author. The plot is pretty good and the book is a nice enough read, but the overall story can be a bit dry at times, and the book does not convey the sense of tension, wonder and intellectual and physical adventure at the same level as other books.
Titan is a nice addition to Ben Bova's Grand Tour of the Solar System series. It stands well on its own and its plot grows out of what came before it. Bova's prose is good but not great and his plot and characters are a bit flat. But as near-future sci-fi it is compelling, barely 90 years into the future. Our own solar system is envisioned as a very rich and fertile place and the science isn't too far our of reach making it beleivable and compelling. Also making it even more belivable and compel...more
I remembered reading and liking a Ben Bova book once about 25 years ago. So when this was 2 bucks I figured why not?
Ugh. Plots that go no where. It's like he sat down and wrote a chapter. Slept on it. And instead of rewriting he just changed the story in the next chapter.
Even by my low standards the writing was moderately to severely craptastic.
Ugh. Plots that go no where. It's like he sat down and wrote a chapter. Slept on it. And instead of rewriting he just changed the story in the next chapter.
Even by my low standards the writing was moderately to severely craptastic.
Titan made me feel like I was really there either in orbit around Saturn or on the famous moon of the ringed planet. The book really asks: what if? What if life was found on Titan, or in the rings of Saturn? What if we were able to set up a colony of 10000 people or so in a large habitat in orbit around Saturn? It was a lot of fun to think about.
Good read. The story reminded me of a somewhat realistic twist to B5. The maligned look at faith and morals was disagreeable but I understand the narrow field of vision that most scientist hold. Claiming to regard only the facts they often choose which of those facts to believe and which to dismiss.
This is another book in the Grand Tour series. I highly recommend reading Saturn before reading this book as this picks up where it left off. This book not only has the inter personal battles between people as well as between ideologies but now includes an AI in the mix. This is very entertaining series.
Ugh. What a bad book. Ben Bova always tricks me into buying his books. I love the idea of having a story evolve around the exploration of our solar system, and incorporating the latest data from NASA's unmanned probes. Unfortunately Bova always turns it into a shallow soap opera. He seems more concerned with the private lives of his flat characters, than the technology and adventure of space exploration.
This will be the last Ben Bova book for me. Very disappointing.
This will be the last Ben Bova book for me. Very disappointing.
Great ideas and a generally decent story, but sunk a little by some routine characterisations. The good outweighs the bad (and the cliched). Makes an interesting comparison read with Stephen Baxter's book of the same name.
The heartbreaking thing is that you can tell that Bova wants to be a better writer. There are literary references, attempts at depth of character, attempts at insight... But it's all so clunky, so poorly done. It's a little sad, but in the end I just can't recommend him to anyone interested in good writing.
Another great Grand Tour book! It's hard to rate these individually since I think of them as one long continuation. This one is a direct sequel to Saturn - they could have easily been packaged as one book.
Fun, exciting, deep and interesting sci-fi story, with wonderful characters and an amazing plot. I loved it!
Full review: http://hiyokonojinsei.dreamwidth.org/...
Full review: http://hiyokonojinsei.dreamwidth.org/...
the follow up to Saturn, a little bit slow in comparison to some of his other books, such as Jupiter but altogether very entertaining, i enjoyed it, another piece of the world of the conquest and settling of the solar system
Another road trip audio. Lots of characters for one reader made it tricky but fun. Light but thought provoking scifi. I enjoyed listening.
i really liked this one, if i told you how much i liked it id end up giving spoilers away
Ben Bova is one of the best scifi writers and this book is excellent reading
Saturn continues, to land a stunt man on Titan
another of the grand tour of the universe series.
What can I say? I've been a fan of Mr. Bova for years and always have a good fun with his books of The Grand Tour.
While I think this was a better novel than it's predecessor 'Saturn', Bova has some stronger stories elsewhere. It was a decent book, and I did enjoy it, but some of the sub plots irked me. Most notably the one dealing with the population growth question, and the many references to that mostly women wanted to have children and the strong majority of men didn't.
All that said, it is worth a read and I look forward to reading more of Bova's stories.
All that said, it is worth a read and I look forward to reading more of Bova's stories.
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Ben Bova was born on November 8, 1932 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1953, while attending Temple University, he married Rosa Cucinotta, they had a son and a daughter. He would later divorce Rosa in 1974. In that same year he married Barbara Berson Rose.
Bova is an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He is an environmentalist, but rejects Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer fo...more
More about Ben Bova...
Bova is an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He is an environmentalist, but rejects Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer fo...more
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Jun 15, 2012 04:15pm