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Star Watch / Watchmen #2-3
The Watchmen
Together for the first time, the complete texts of Ben Bova's Star Watchman and The Dueling Machine. Modern mankind has spread throughout the stars and must join together to fight ancient enemies in Star Watchman, and a harmless, dispute-settling machine is turned deadly in The Dueling Machine.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
423 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1994
85 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
690 books1,041 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 2, 2014
4 stars for "Star Watchmen", but only 2 stars for "The Dueling Machine"
While in the same universe, these two books are not thematically linked as a series.
You'd do better to read "Star Conquerors" first (not included in this volume, but available as an ebook), and then follow that up with "Star Watchmen". Those books link nicely and are a satisfying read. Admittedly early in Bova's career, these two books nonetheless have much to offer, and are a bit unique (more military SF and space-opera than the norm) among Bova's output.
Save the final novel "The Dueling Machine" for a stand-alone read some time, but be prepared for a bit of a mess as a novel (and a downgrade in quality from the other two books).
While in the same universe, these two books are not thematically linked as a series.
You'd do better to read "Star Conquerors" first (not included in this volume, but available as an ebook), and then follow that up with "Star Watchmen". Those books link nicely and are a satisfying read. Admittedly early in Bova's career, these two books nonetheless have much to offer, and are a bit unique (more military SF and space-opera than the norm) among Bova's output.
Save the final novel "The Dueling Machine" for a stand-alone read some time, but be prepared for a bit of a mess as a novel (and a downgrade in quality from the other two books).
July 28, 2013
Enjoyable, if dated, space opera
October 5, 2014
This is not so much a novel as it is two short stories with an organizational tie-in. The second short storiy is very good but the first one is just so so. Another of the many 3 1/2 star novels.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews