The planet closest to our Sun, Mercury is a rocky, barren, heat-scorched world. But there are those who hope to find wealth in its desolation.

Saito Yamagata thinks Mercury’s position makes it an ideal place to generate power to propel starships into deep space. Astrobiologist Victor Molina thinks the water at Mercury’s poles may harbor evidence of life. Bishop Elliot Danvers has been sent by the Earth-based “New Morality” to keep close tabs on Molina.

But all three of these men are blissfully unaware of their shared history, and of how it connects to the collapse of Mance Bracknell’s geosynchronous space elevator a generation ago. Now they’re about to find out, because Mance is determined to have his revenge…

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 7 reviews)

Not BB's Best

Okay, I'm type A compulsive. I've been a Bova fan since Heinlein died; while he is a bit less political now than he was in the 80's and 90's, Bova has also become more predictable.

In trying to do the kind of future history saga others have attempted (Asimov most successfully, I think), Ben seems to have gotten a bit tired with this one. The plot echoes several of the previous ones; character development is kind of lacking. The hard science part is not new; there's quite a bit of repitition from some of the previous planetary stories in the series.

I got the sense he wrote this one becauise he felt he needed to; I guess "Neptune" and "Pluto" will follow (well, maybe not Pluto since it seems to have lost planetary status). And I'll read them because I'll want to finish the series. But this is not thought-provoking, and at best is very light summer time reading in the backyard hammock, or maybe airport reading while waiting for the delayed plane to eventually take off.

(By the way, how come there never seem to be delays in his flights?)
June 20, 2008

Science plays second fiddle to fiction in this "soapy" space opera!

Mance Bracknell is the chief engineer on the Sky Tower in Quito, Ecuador - a construction mega-project which will lift payloads to the altitude of geosynchronous orbit via elevator at a cost of pennies per pound instead of the current cost of hundreds of dollars if the load is lifted by standard rocket launch into orbit. But when the tower collapses killing over four million people and causing untold billions of dollars of property damage in a globe-girdling disaster, Mance Bracknell is found guilty of negligent homicide and exiled for life to a criminal penal colony in the asteroid belt. After a serendipitous encounter with an injured scientist fleeing for his life in which he learns the Sky Tower's collapse was the result of terrorist sabotage, Bracknell escapes and wends his way to a scientific outpost on the planet Mercury where he plots his revenge.

The good news is that "Mercury" is a soundly entertaining story that reads like a blockbuster five-star motion picture screenplay. The elements are all there - disaster, a love triangle, explosions, terrorism and sabotage, murder, the inscrutable Oriental tycoon, jealousy, hatred, suicide, right wing fundamentalist religious groups, mobs, courtroom trials and prisoner riots! The bad news is that the science and the setting of the book in the asteroid belt and on the surface of the hostile planet of Mercury is all but incidental to the plot. I can't help but feel that Bova had a plot in mind. All he actually needed to force fit that plot into the "Grand Tour of the Universe" theme was a planet which had virtually no chance of harboring life forms at any stage of development. Mercury fit the bill so Mercury got selected!

There is some inescapable science to be sure which is reasonably well done - a passable explanation on the geometric structure of bucky-ball molecules; the distinction between slow inertial coasting routes or high speed accelerated routes for interplanetary travel; the idea of a space elevator; the unique mechanics of Mercury's orbit that causes a false dawn, a brief retrograde sunset and then a return to full day - but, if you're looking for the "hard" in "hard sci-fi" at the level that Bova achieved in Mars or Venus, for example, you're doomed to be disappointed. On the other hand, if a fast-paced easy reading brain candy tale in the style of Sidney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer, or Irving Wallace tickles your fancy, then you're in luck. "Mercury" will definitely work for you.

Provided you adjust your expectations appropriately, a recommended easy going read for a few days!

Paul Weiss
October 02, 2007

Not what I expected

After reading numerous blurbs about how Ben Bova's novels were a return to the "hard" science fiction popularized by Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke (my personal favorite), I have to say I was really let down by this book. While the science may be more or less sound, the fiction leaves much to be desired.

The main problem is that Mercury is essentially a story about betrayal and vengeance that, almost as an afterthought, happens to take place on or around the planet Mercury. The main revenge plot is spelled out for the reader early on, so there's no real mystery and only a minor bit of suspense to keep the story moving.

Other reviewers have stated that the book is not Bova's best, and I might be willing to give him another try. Hard sci-fi has been on life support (or maybe suspended animation?) for years. I'm just grateful that, as of this writing, we still have Arthur C. Clarke alive and still writing.

August 29, 2007

Betrayal and Vengeance

Mercury (2005) is the fourth SF novel in the Planet Novel series, following Saturn. In this novel, Mance Bracknell was exiled from Earth when the Sky Tower that he constructed split at the geostationary level and the lower portion fell on the planet. Coming down to the west of its base at Quito, the tower wrapped around the Earth, with the far end coming down into the mid-Atlantic. Over four million people were killed as it fell.

During the trial, Mance was desolate, blaming himself for the disaster. He became agitated when Elliot Danvers, the New Morality minister at the site, stated that he had reported something like nanomachines being used to construct the tower. Then he became angry when his associate Victor Molina implied that Mance had ignored warnings about this new construction method.

Years after exile to the Belt, Mance learns from Danvers that his fiancee, Lara Tierney, had married Molina. Later he discovers that the Yamagata Corporation had sabotaged the tower. He becomes obsessed with plans of vengeance on Danvers, Molina and Yamagata. After his ship is destroyed by Yamagata assassins, Mance alters his name and face, opens a construction consulting company on Selene, and looks for an opportunity for revenge.

This novel is a study of ambition, vengeance and jealousy as well as loyalty and atonement. The three targets are brought together on Mercury with Mance, in his new identity, setting the stage. First Victor is led to believe that there is life on Mercury and then the plot unfolds.

Recommended for Bova fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of space ventures, ambition and betrayal.

-Arthur W. Jordin
August 05, 2006

Not that great

I found this book boring. I even considered throwing it away unfinished, but I decided to push through to the end to see if it lived up to Bova's other works. It didn't. It's not enough to drive me away from him for good because some of his other books were excellent, but I was sure disappointed in this one.
June 05, 2006

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Titan (The Grand Tour)
by Ben Bova

Saturn: A Novel of the Ringed Planet (The Grand Tour)
by Ben Bova

Jupiter: A Novel (The Grand Tour)
by Ben Bova

Venus (The Grand Tour)
by Ben Bova

Powersat
by Ben Bova