Kinsman

Kinsman #1

by Bova Ben

Fixup of the following Zero Gee (1972)Test in Orbit (1965)Fifteen Miles (1967)Build Me a Mountain (1974)The Lieutenant and the Folksinger (1978)

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

280 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1979

Reviews

[Wyatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book by Ben Bova. I love the way he writes and the characters he develops. I was hoping this was going to be more set in space and the relationships between countries developing there like it was in the first third of the book and less about Kinsman dealing with his PTSD. However, while it was not what I was expecting or hoping for (thus the 3 stars) the book was still excellently written and had a wonderful look into the intensity of those traumatizing moments.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that Bova predicted as much technology as he did is wonderful. Overall a very good read, but too much blasphemy for my taste.

[Selena · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

sexist man discovers empathy and colonizes the moon

[فرهاد ذکاوت · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.6/5

[Wayne Kearney · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is considered a great SciFi classic, but I found it tedious and boring. There was more character development and inner turmoil than in the usual scifi, but in the end I didn't care. I had no interest in the characters by the end of the book, which I feel is a failure of the author. The technology was also very dated and tended to trip me up a bit. This was written at the very beginning of the Space Shuttle program and would have been very interesting at that point, but now it just seems hackneyed and off-putting. There are sequels to this book, but I have no intention of reading them. I would not recommend this book.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel of attempts to settle on the moon. Chet Kinsman was a Quaker who joined the Air Force in an attempt to venture into space. Despite his peace-loving religion, he becomes the first man to kill another in space.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bova's Kinsman stories are exceptional in terms of their relevance to geopolitics at the time of their composition, his protagonist a sympathetic figure.

[Andy]

1ST BRITISH EDITION. EX -LIB.

[Cazzaman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as title "Millenium"

[Samuel Lubell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is hard science fiction that has become alternate history as the future didn't play out the way Bova imagined -- good in that there is no Soviet Union, bad in that space exploration hasn't happened the way it should have been. This book has much more characterization than most hard science fiction as Kinsman, who grew up a Quaker and at first seems like a Top Gun style good-old-boy pilot, has to come to terms with what he did to a Russian cosmonaut and then sacrifice everything, even friendship and the woman he loves, to achieve his dream of a moonbase.