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| View Larger Image | Jupiter: A Novel (The Grand Tour)
by Ben Bova
| | List Price: | $7.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 7 to 13 days | | | | | Sales Rank: | 526844 | | Studio: | Tor Science Fiction | | | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 416 | | Publication Date: | February 18, 2002 | | Publisher: | Tor Science Fiction |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Grant Archer only wanted to study astrophysics. But the forces of the "New Morality," the coalition of censorious do-gooders who run 21st-century America, have other plans for him. To his distress, Grant is torn from his young bride and sent to a research station in orbit around Jupiter, to spy on the scientists who work there. Their work may lead to the discovery of higher life forms in the Jovian system-with implications the New Morality doesn't like at all.What Grant's would-be controllers don't know is that his loyalty to science may be greater than his desire for a quiet life. But that loyalty will be tested in a mission as dangerous as any ever undertaken-a mission to the middle reaches of Jupiter's endless atmosphere, a place where hydrogen flows as a liquid, and cyclones larger than planets rage for centuries at a time.What lurks there is more than anyone has counted on...and stranger than anyone could possibly have imagined. |
Amazon.com
He made planetfall on Venus and all but colonized Mars, so it's not surprising that SF don Ben Bova finally set his sights on our solar system's swirling, red-eyed sovereign. As with his previous planetary exploration books, Jupiter plants you right in the heart of the action, witness to the speculative science and political intrigue--and in this case, religious machination--that surround a fast-paced, dangerous, and technically fleshed-out mission. Our unlikely hero on this touchdown is an earnest, likeable, hard-working grad student named Grant Archer, a frustrated astrophysicist who's been shanghaied aboard Jupiter's Gold space station to fulfill a ROTC-style public-service commitment. What's worse, this devout young man has been ordered by the New Morality--the American flavor of the conservative religious order that runs Earth nowadays--to spy on some suspicious research involving alleged Jovian life forms. Bova begins his book with an A.C. Clarke quote: "The rash assertion that 'God made man in His own image' is ticking like a time bomb at the foundation of many faiths." This tells you pretty much everything you need to know about where this book's going, and who, respectively, will be wearing the white and the black hats (unfortunately, some of the characterizations don't get much deeper). That the central protagonist is both a Christian and a scientist makes for some fertile character development, but Bova's not exactly gunning for God here--he's happy just to blast away at narrow-minded ideologues and other assorted religious fanatics. (But that, of course, is about as easy as making teenagers depressed.) --Paul Hughes |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 49 reviews)
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Plumbing Jupiter's Depths 
Grant Archer is sent to Research Station Gold orbiting the largest planet in our solar system...Jupiter. He is sent under the auspices of conducting espionage for the New Morality, a pseudo-religious organization that has gained power over the US national government in the late 21st, early 22nd century. His mission for the New Morality is to determine why those on the station are conducting mysterious manned missions into the heart of the planet. But Grant Archer quickly begins to realize that the New Morality's agenda may not be his own, and disobeying the group may have serious consequences.
I'm going to start with the disappointing facets of this novel first. While this book presents and interesting, and indeed plausible, view of our planetary neighbor, I couldn't get over the fact that the plot just seemed formulaic from the start. I may not have known how, precisely it was going to end, but it was easy enough to predict how the book was going to progress from point to point. I have read quite a bit of Bova's previous stuff, and this is one of the few books that felt forced, almost as if he was struggling with the plot at times and decided on following the path of least resistence just to finish out the story.
Another big issue I had with this book was that the ending was seriously lacking. While the primary plotline was resolved in a reasonably satisfying manner...everything else was not. Grant Archer's wife seemed to be merely a device to make Archer's leaving Earth at the beginning of the book all the more painful. Her character and her issues were never satisfactorily resolved...nor were any of the other characters' issues.
Lastly, in the negative column, the entire concept the New Morality seemed pretty shallow. While the idea of a pseudo-religious entity gaining primary control of a national government is relatively believable, Bova only used the group as the "big bad guy", issuing veiled threats at the beginning of the story, and easily thwarted at the end of the story. Seeing some of the "depth of their evilness" would have been nice.
Onto to the good stuff. Bova does well in this book what he always does well on...developing and executing a plotline that presents the wonders of our solar system (and behind) in the best possible light. This book should be read, if only on this basis. No one but Bova elicits the need to turn to the next page for the main reason of, "What's behind the next corner?" or in this case, "What's just beyond that next cloud?"
Ben Bova will always be one of my favorite authors. I simply wish he would reclaim the trophy for not only wonderfully imagined, alien vistas, but also, wonderfully built plotlines as well. I await reading Bova's next work with this in mind.
October 12, 2007 | |
More Solar System Adventures from Ben Bova 
Action and adventure are rampant in this "grand tour" novel of the largest planet in the solar system.
The main character in the book is Grant Archer. Recently graduated from college with a degree in astrophysics, Grant longs for the opportunity to study black holes and other celestial matter. However, the powers-that-be have different ideas for him. Required to perform four years of "public service", Grant is sent by Ellis Beech, head of the New Morality, to Jupiter. According to Beech, those people working on Space Station Gold have apparently been searching for signs of life on Jupiter's satellites as well as Jupiter itself. This does not sit well with Beech and the New Morality, for they believe that any form of life outside of earth is "godless". Beech is sending Grant to spy on the members of Space Station Gold and report his findings to the New Morality. To make matters worse for him, Grant is newly-married, and will now be without his wife for six years. Dejected, Grant accepts and begins the long journey to Jupiter.
After traveling for a year, Grant finally arrives at Jupiter, where he immediately meets Egon, who is the personnel director (at least for this week). Besides meeting Egon, Grant is also introduced to Lane O'Hara, a stunningly beautiful woman who is one of the scientists studying the possibilities of life existing on the planet. But Zhang Wo, the director of Space Station Gold, is the one who really gets Grant's attention. Their relationship is icy at best, but as the story goes along, the two bond and become friends. Meanwhile, Grant is introduced to the rest of the Jupiter team: Zeb, Irene, Quintero, Buono, Uhara, and Krebs. Earlier, a probe was launched to penetrate the clouds of Jupiter and plunge into Jupiter's ocean to see if any life existed there. The mission was a failure. Now, a new mission is being planned, and Grant is to be one of the crew. Will this mission succeed, or will it fail like the previous one? Will life be discovered in Jupiter's ocean?
In keeping with the tradition of his other novels, Ben Bova has created an exciting story containing action and intrigue. Perhaps the strongest point of Bova's writing is his character development. Each character in this book is well-developed, and the reader can bond immediately with them. From the chilly Wo to the somewhat apprehensive Archer, Bova has developed characters that the reader can truly relate to. The story itself is very well-conceived, and the action is non-stop.
I recommend this book very highly. I've read others from Bova's "grand tour" series, and this book is as good as any I've read so far. If you're a fan of good science fiction, then don't miss Bova's "Jupiter. Highly recommended.
August 22, 2007 | |
One of Bova's Best - A Science Fiction Masterpiece
Ben Bova is the last writer of the John W. Campbell Jr. mode. That is to say, a writer who takes plausible scientific principles and applies them to characters who must take action to resolve a clear conflict. He thus writes best about engineers, astronauts, explorers. He also writes well about politics and commerce (businesses operating in outer space, for example). But JUPITER (like VENUS) is an extraordinary achievement and has all the "sense of wonder" that's oftentimes missing in current science fiction. Lately, most sf is overladen with one trope after another, one sci-fi conceit or gimmick after another with no care to the evolution of characters in a scientific environment. JUPITER places several characters in believable circumstances with a few discoveries along the way. I've read this book three times now and it still works its wonders on me. Most writers, when they're dead and gone, will be remembered for one or two books or stories. I think JUPITER and VENUS will be among those books by Bova that will remain classics. Highly recommended!
June 25, 2007 | |
No sublety, SciFi of the lowest order 
I love scifi, but I'm at a loss to explain the success of Bova's books. His writing is predictable and often repetitive, his plots are loose, and his characters are flat. His technology is contrived, and thinly explained. This book hits you over the head with his philosophy on science versus religion, and instead of asking interesting questions on that front, resorts to near lecturing using the unispired device of character thought monologue. About halfway through this book I lost interest.
March 09, 2007 | |
Beyond Life As We Know It 
On the second stop in Ben Bova's Grand Tour of our solar system, we explore the mysteries of the planet Jupiter-the largest gas giant in the system. Though we have a good starting idea of what type of planet Jupiter is--a massive ball of gas that rotates at a high speed, with bands of clouds circling the upper atmosphere and a giant, centuries old hurricane called the Red Spot that could swallow Earth itself. We also believe that Jupiter has a liquid metal hydrogen center surrounding a small rocky ball. Most likely, Jupiter is a failed companion star to Sol that never reached enough mass to ignite; a potential companion star that has a few of its own worlds circling it, including Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Io...each with its own mysteries to be solved.
In "Jupiter", young, astrophysics graduate Grant Archer has his eyes set on studying black holes from the moon for his graduate studies; newly married, Grant must serve out four years of Public Service to the state for their generous funding of his education, and what better way, Grant believes, than this. But, the state, which is controlled by the New Morality, has other ideas for Grant: as a spy on Space Station Gold circling Jupiter where scientists are defying the state's desires and studying life on Jupiter's moons and in Jupiter itself. This study of extraterrestrial life has the potential of challenging the New Morality's view of reality, and they don't like it at all. Grant--a believer, but not a Zealot--is miffed at the idea, especially since there is no astrophysics research being conducted at Jupiter; a complete waste of his talents and time he believes. But, Grant has no choice, Public Service is Public Service; and if he can find out what the New Morality wants to know quickly, then maybe they will ship him back to the moon where he belongs.
What Grant is yet to learn, is what role he will ultimately play within the secretive space station and its mission of discovering what the large shapes moving around inside of Jupiter's world spanning ocean are...and are they intelligent?
Ben Bova weaves a tight, straight forward tale about a mission to the heart of Jupiter where our understanding of fluid dynamics are incomplete when it comes to the dynamics of a gas atmosphere that subtly becomes liquid ammonia-laced water without a distinct boundary. Bova speculates on the potential of a gas giant like Jupiter to support life--both microscopic and large and intelligent. I have recently read a few books that bring in gas giant life forms into the storyline, but "Jupiter" tackles the topic head on.
Unlike some of the more multi-layered space opera being crafted today, Ben Bova is a bit more old school; and, that is not a bad thing. It is a nice change of pace to read a good book about space exploration that is a simple adventure tale while tackling our understanding of our solar system and the universe at large. And, I enjoyed what is also a simple moral tale as well, where a young self- absorbed grad student grows up and discovers the difference between right and wrong without the help of a "New Morality".
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A Guide to my Book Rating System:
1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.
August 19, 2006 | |
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