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Startling fiction and sage insight into the science fiction process--from one of the most distinguished voices in the field. Bova offers a collection in which each story is framed by his observations about the SF writing process itself, and by wise and witty commentary on the special problems and challenges faced by the SF writer in an increasingly futuristic world.
- GenresScience Fiction
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
53 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
715 books1,039 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
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 25, 2020
This is a strong collection of Ben Bova's fiction (80%) and some non-fiction consisting of introductions to the stories and essays about SF (20%). I enjoyed the fiction more, so am glad they were the major part of the book. In regards to the stories, there was not a clunker among them, which is rare in a story collection. I think that's a testament to Bova's writing professionalism. He does not sit down and write just to put words on paper, but always has something interesting to say. On the other hand, most of the stories were three-star stories, meaning only that I liked them. Bova doesn't often hit the really high notes like Heinlein, Dick, Card, or LeGuin can. I think this stems in part from a limitation Bova places on what science fiction can and should be, but also from an over reliance on description when a dramatic scene instead would do more.
“The Man Who Hated Gravity” (1989) – 3 – An ambitious trapeze artist holds a personal grudge against gravity. Good human story (I especially liked the character of his wife and the dynamic of their relationship) set against a hard science lunar background.
“Crisis of the Month” (1988) – 3 – A journalist has to keep reporting interesting stories in order to sell news periodicals. But what if technology advances so far there are no more problems to solve and therefore write about? Clever twist ending.
“Sepulcher” (1992) – 4 – A mercenary cyborg discovers an artifact among the asteroids and gives up killing to become a priest. What is the secret of the artifact? Set in a dystopic world of mineral exploitation among the asteroids (like The Expanse), I like the dramatic way this story unfolds. It’s my second favorite story of the collection.
"Fitting Suits" (1990) – 3 – Clever short short making fun of the litigiousness of our society.
“To Touch a Star” (1987) – 3 – The most hard science fiction story of the collection. A man sent on a mission in cryogenic suspension laments the relationships he has to leave behind. The concepts of how he gets companionship and the revelation of the importance of the mission save it from becoming a downer.
“Brothers” (1987) – 4 – Dated story of a connection between a twin brother in a lunar module, the other on a fighter flying mission over a Vietnam jungle. I am not a fan of the main conceptual device of the story, but the dramatic situation involved overcomes the drawback (for me). My third favorite story of the collection.
“Interdepartmental Memorandum” (1993) – 3 – The other short-short story of the collection. It's about how various cabinet departments reacted to the war with Mexico. It’s clever and short, which saves it from becoming a clunker, but the bones need more meat on them. This story demonstrates how political Bova can be, not a bad thing for me, nevertheless this story is my least liked in the collection.
“World War 4.5” (1993) – 3 – An assassin infiltrates a complex and has a most unusual assignment. I really liked the protagonist’s character and the story of how she resolved this internal conflict. Wonderful, high science fiction concepts are present in this story that finishes in a little too maudlin a manner for my taste.
“Answer, Please Answer” (1962) – 3 – Two men in the Antarctic explore a clever concept for making contact with intelligent life in other galaxies. I love the science and logic they’re using to try to make this contact. Surprisingly, they succeed, in a way, but draw conclusions I’m not sure are valid given the premises of the story. Like Bova’s other 1962 short story, "The Next Logical Step," this one also ends as a didactic Cold War anti-war story. What got Bova on this kick back then?
"The Mask of the Rad Death" (1993) – 3 – As an experiment, Bova takes Poe’s story of almost the same title, and updates it, changing as few words of Poe’s as possible. Bova’s experiment succeeds. He makes a Poe story I didn’t like at all into a readable science fiction story in a clever way.
“Bushido” (1992) – 5 – This story so deep in the collection came as a complete shock. It was phenomenal! This is my favorite piece of Bova fiction bar none to date. What makes it even more amazing is that it violates one of Bova’s science fiction tenets in that he states an SF story must contain conceivably valid future science. In this one, a future Japanese citizen plucks Japanese WW II General Yamamoto out of Japan’s past .
“Thy Kingdom Come” (1993) – 3 – Bova takes a stab at telling a story in punk style. This is actually a novelette, the longest story in the collection, and it improves the further along one gets. The character of the protagonist, at first not appealing, grows on the reader as he explains the tight situation he got into with some terrorists and how he tries to figure out how to save the world leader without losing his life in the process.
"2042: A Cautionary Pessimistic View" - 3 - Some may consider this a fiction story, but I classify it the first essay. It's the text of a speech given by the world leader of 2042. I am now closer in time to 2042 than to the date the essay was written. Bova's prescience is often striking. Other times he's really off the mark though. If future predictions are your thing, you might enjoy this more than me.
"Science in Science Fiction" - 3 - The essay Bova writes with the aforementioned view that science fiction has to contain plausible future science. While I share his view that marketers have made SF too wide a concept so that too much gets called SF, I'm not willing to define SF quite as tightly as Bova wishes to. It's an interesting essay, but nothing groundbreaking.
"Will Writing Survive" - 3 - Bova decries the growing illiteracy of the public. Was the majority of the public ever truly more literate? I wonder. He makes some marvelous predictions about the coming of cyberbooks and what their effects will be, much of which came to be true, only we call them e-Readers (or Kindles and Nooks).
"What Works for Me--And What I Work for" - 3 - A jaunt down SF history lane.
"John Campbell and the Modern SF Idiom" - 3 - A nice remembrance of Campbell and what Bova thinks he meant to SF. Bova tries to dispel the myths and pays tribute to Campbell's actual contributions. This essay contains really nice private insights that gives me a much more positive view of this controversial figure.
"Science, Fiction and Faith" - 2 - Maybe I was just essayed out by this point, but I mostly skimmed this one. It's about how important SF is as literature in our society. How it separates pessimists and optimists, Luddites and those who embrace science, etc.
All in all, this is a really strong, enjoyable story collection that reaffirms my belief in the value of reading Bova. That said, I think as time goes on he will become increasingly obscure and less read by science fiction readers. As he states in one of his essays in this collection, he likes marrying SF to politics. Few things are more ephemeral than political scribblings. People fifty years later want to read about political problems of their time, not about Vietnam War protests, and certainly not about Covid-19. There are enough big ideas in the stories though that I think people willing to give them a try will be as pleasantly surprised by Bova's consistently good writing as I was.
“The Man Who Hated Gravity” (1989) – 3 – An ambitious trapeze artist holds a personal grudge against gravity. Good human story (I especially liked the character of his wife and the dynamic of their relationship) set against a hard science lunar background.
“Crisis of the Month” (1988) – 3 – A journalist has to keep reporting interesting stories in order to sell news periodicals. But what if technology advances so far there are no more problems to solve and therefore write about? Clever twist ending.
“Sepulcher” (1992) – 4 – A mercenary cyborg discovers an artifact among the asteroids and gives up killing to become a priest. What is the secret of the artifact? Set in a dystopic world of mineral exploitation among the asteroids (like The Expanse), I like the dramatic way this story unfolds. It’s my second favorite story of the collection.
"Fitting Suits" (1990) – 3 – Clever short short making fun of the litigiousness of our society.
“To Touch a Star” (1987) – 3 – The most hard science fiction story of the collection. A man sent on a mission in cryogenic suspension laments the relationships he has to leave behind. The concepts of how he gets companionship and the revelation of the importance of the mission save it from becoming a downer.
“Brothers” (1987) – 4 – Dated story of a connection between a twin brother in a lunar module, the other on a fighter flying mission over a Vietnam jungle. I am not a fan of the main conceptual device of the story, but the dramatic situation involved overcomes the drawback (for me). My third favorite story of the collection.
“Interdepartmental Memorandum” (1993) – 3 – The other short-short story of the collection. It's about how various cabinet departments reacted to the war with Mexico. It’s clever and short, which saves it from becoming a clunker, but the bones need more meat on them. This story demonstrates how political Bova can be, not a bad thing for me, nevertheless this story is my least liked in the collection.
“World War 4.5” (1993) – 3 – An assassin infiltrates a complex and has a most unusual assignment. I really liked the protagonist’s character and the story of how she resolved this internal conflict. Wonderful, high science fiction concepts are present in this story that finishes in a little too maudlin a manner for my taste.
“Answer, Please Answer” (1962) – 3 – Two men in the Antarctic explore a clever concept for making contact with intelligent life in other galaxies. I love the science and logic they’re using to try to make this contact. Surprisingly, they succeed, in a way, but draw conclusions I’m not sure are valid given the premises of the story. Like Bova’s other 1962 short story, "The Next Logical Step," this one also ends as a didactic Cold War anti-war story. What got Bova on this kick back then?
"The Mask of the Rad Death" (1993) – 3 – As an experiment, Bova takes Poe’s story of almost the same title, and updates it, changing as few words of Poe’s as possible. Bova’s experiment succeeds. He makes a Poe story I didn’t like at all into a readable science fiction story in a clever way.
“Bushido” (1992) – 5 – This story so deep in the collection came as a complete shock. It was phenomenal! This is my favorite piece of Bova fiction bar none to date. What makes it even more amazing is that it violates one of Bova’s science fiction tenets in that he states an SF story must contain conceivably valid future science. In this one, a future Japanese citizen plucks Japanese WW II General Yamamoto out of Japan’s past .
“Thy Kingdom Come” (1993) – 3 – Bova takes a stab at telling a story in punk style. This is actually a novelette, the longest story in the collection, and it improves the further along one gets. The character of the protagonist, at first not appealing, grows on the reader as he explains the tight situation he got into with some terrorists and how he tries to figure out how to save the world leader without losing his life in the process.
"2042: A Cautionary Pessimistic View" - 3 - Some may consider this a fiction story, but I classify it the first essay. It's the text of a speech given by the world leader of 2042. I am now closer in time to 2042 than to the date the essay was written. Bova's prescience is often striking. Other times he's really off the mark though. If future predictions are your thing, you might enjoy this more than me.
"Science in Science Fiction" - 3 - The essay Bova writes with the aforementioned view that science fiction has to contain plausible future science. While I share his view that marketers have made SF too wide a concept so that too much gets called SF, I'm not willing to define SF quite as tightly as Bova wishes to. It's an interesting essay, but nothing groundbreaking.
"Will Writing Survive" - 3 - Bova decries the growing illiteracy of the public. Was the majority of the public ever truly more literate? I wonder. He makes some marvelous predictions about the coming of cyberbooks and what their effects will be, much of which came to be true, only we call them e-Readers (or Kindles and Nooks).
"What Works for Me--And What I Work for" - 3 - A jaunt down SF history lane.
"John Campbell and the Modern SF Idiom" - 3 - A nice remembrance of Campbell and what Bova thinks he meant to SF. Bova tries to dispel the myths and pays tribute to Campbell's actual contributions. This essay contains really nice private insights that gives me a much more positive view of this controversial figure.
"Science, Fiction and Faith" - 2 - Maybe I was just essayed out by this point, but I mostly skimmed this one. It's about how important SF is as literature in our society. How it separates pessimists and optimists, Luddites and those who embrace science, etc.
All in all, this is a really strong, enjoyable story collection that reaffirms my belief in the value of reading Bova. That said, I think as time goes on he will become increasingly obscure and less read by science fiction readers. As he states in one of his essays in this collection, he likes marrying SF to politics. Few things are more ephemeral than political scribblings. People fifty years later want to read about political problems of their time, not about Vietnam War protests, and certainly not about Covid-19. There are enough big ideas in the stories though that I think people willing to give them a try will be as pleasantly surprised by Bova's consistently good writing as I was.
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August 11, 2011Ben Bova's non fiction writing seems better than his fiction in this collection. I enjoyed his description of John W Campbell's contribution to the SF genre ,but none of the other items really stood out.
March 27, 2011
A rather colorless set of short stories. Still worth reading if you like Bova, but not nearly as good as Twice Seven.
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http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=474
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews