What do you think?
Rate this book
Brothers
1st edition paperback, new
550 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 1995
105 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
715 books1,040 followersBen 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 was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Bova was an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. He was an environmentalist, but rejected Luddism.
Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute.
In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death. After leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni during 1978-1982.
In 1974 he wrote the screenplay for an episode of the children's science fiction television series Land of the Lost entitled "The Search".
Bova was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode. His novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.
Bova was the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).
Bova went back to school in the 1980s, earning an M.A. in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.
Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.
Bova was the author of over a hundred and fifteen books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the 58th World Science Fiction Convention (Chicon 2000).
Hollywood has started to take an interest in Bova's works once again, in addition to his wealth of knowledge about science and what the future may look like. In 2007, he was hired as a consultant by both Stuber/Parent Productions to provide insight into what the world is to look like in the near future for their upcoming film "Repossession Mambo" (released as "Repo Men") starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker and by Silver Pictures in which he provided consulting services on the feature adaptation of Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
http://us.macmillan.com/author/benbova
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 29, 2022
This was good enough to finish, but not so good that I can trumpet its excellence in beg you to spend your time with it. Here’s the broad-brush essence of it:
Arthur and Jesse are brothers; one is a physician; the other is a molecular biologist who believes he can regenerate tissue and thereby allow people to live well beyond the three score and 10 thing. Although the idea was originally Jesse’s, he opposes it. Worse still, he marries the woman Arthur fell in love with. This is the story of their uneasy estranged and reconnected relationship.
The science fiction element of this is super weak. There’s nothing futuristic in it. In the world Bova offers you, people still send faxes and watch video on VCRs. Wireless phones don’t exist. And yet, Arthur’s lab believes it can grow a new heart inside the body wherein beats a damaged one. Ok, sure.
I don’t know why I finished it. It wasn’t so awful that I had to delete it prematurely. But it wasn’t so great that I’m going to remember it more than two days after I craft the review. Yeah, I know. These are terrible things to say about the work of a guy who turned 90 three weeks ago. Others who read this loved it; and those Bova fans who haven’t yet read it may find it well worth their time.
Arthur and Jesse are brothers; one is a physician; the other is a molecular biologist who believes he can regenerate tissue and thereby allow people to live well beyond the three score and 10 thing. Although the idea was originally Jesse’s, he opposes it. Worse still, he marries the woman Arthur fell in love with. This is the story of their uneasy estranged and reconnected relationship.
The science fiction element of this is super weak. There’s nothing futuristic in it. In the world Bova offers you, people still send faxes and watch video on VCRs. Wireless phones don’t exist. And yet, Arthur’s lab believes it can grow a new heart inside the body wherein beats a damaged one. Ok, sure.
I don’t know why I finished it. It wasn’t so awful that I had to delete it prematurely. But it wasn’t so great that I’m going to remember it more than two days after I craft the review. Yeah, I know. These are terrible things to say about the work of a guy who turned 90 three weeks ago. Others who read this loved it; and those Bova fans who haven’t yet read it may find it well worth their time.
January 7, 2020
A doctor tries to clone organs and so create an alternative to transplants, and cure several diseases. It is a hard sci fi where characters are in second plane. They will suffer from psychological disturbence from a fellow doctor, televangelists and other crazies, politics and the treason of his own brother.
To me the brother is the main problem in the story, because the author wants to be a two sides of the story - but there is a point where the character simply goes beyond the event horizon you can´t simply just forgive him, but the author still thinks you do.
The death of the gorilla was also stupid and make for plot. Ok, sometimes you have to test on animal, but it surely don´t seem to be the case, and the intervention was grotesque and stupid, just for Melodrama!
To me the brother is the main problem in the story, because the author wants to be a two sides of the story - but there is a point where the character simply goes beyond the event horizon you can´t simply just forgive him, but the author still thinks you do.
The death of the gorilla was also stupid and make for plot. Ok, sometimes you have to test on animal, but it surely don´t seem to be the case, and the intervention was grotesque and stupid, just for Melodrama!
June 27, 2020
Surprisingly light on the science, this novel makes up for that deficiency with an engrossing story and excellent character development. We are treated to multiple points of view on the same event. Bova handles this with an ever shifting first-person narrative, and it broadens the tale considerably.
December 28, 2019
A doctor attempts to regenerate organs within a body.
August 23, 2010
About half way through this book, I was already thinking about my review and how I was going to slam this book. Funny thing happened between the middle and the end, it improved (albeit slightly) and I had a few second thoughts.
Look, this is a stereotypical Bova book. All the women are pretty, all the men are handsome and everybody enjoys sex - even if it's described in a sentence or two at most. There's a love triangle, family members that don't get along, and a protagonist's life long goal to try and make the whole thing hang together.
Personally, I'm bored with it. I feel like I've read the book over and over again, long before I get half-way.
On the other hand, I recently rated a Cherryh book a four star effort because it was exactly what I was hoping for - in other words, an awful lot the same as other books she's written.
So, even though I didn't like it, if you do like Bova, you might like this one. Otherwise, skip it.
Look, this is a stereotypical Bova book. All the women are pretty, all the men are handsome and everybody enjoys sex - even if it's described in a sentence or two at most. There's a love triangle, family members that don't get along, and a protagonist's life long goal to try and make the whole thing hang together.
Personally, I'm bored with it. I feel like I've read the book over and over again, long before I get half-way.
On the other hand, I recently rated a Cherryh book a four star effort because it was exactly what I was hoping for - in other words, an awful lot the same as other books she's written.
So, even though I didn't like it, if you do like Bova, you might like this one. Otherwise, skip it.
March 29, 2009
This is a really sweet book, exploring the issue of tissue and organ regeneration from a moral aspect. Especially now that it really is possible, they're already growing ears and shit, it is something that we should be thinking of all the consequences of immortality. As sweet as it sounds, and I'm all down for it, we really should put a lot of thought into it because clearly there will be many unforeseen repurcussions. Anyways a good book.
December 16, 2009
What I most admired about this book is that it was written in 1995 but reads like it was written today - the mark of a good work of science fiction. The debate / emotion and tactics of each side in this story could easily be seen on our news channels today.
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews