Ben Bova

I was curious if there were any suggestions as to his books. Good, bad, okay, what are your thoughts. The various book summaries I have read are interesting, but I would like your opinion on this author and his books.

I've read many of his books. His Grand Tour series of novels about exploration of the various parts of the solar system are good. I haven't read his newest in the series, Titan yet. I liked him better when he was editor of Analog, though. Those were the good ol' days of magazine science fiction, along with long-lost and lamented magazine greats Galaxy and If. His earlier stuff, from the late 50's and early 60's isn't as good. He's a bit dry and not as good a wordsmith as someone like Kim Stanley Robinson (who is my current favorite).

Ben Bova is a competent SF author, who produces highly-readable prose. IMHO, he doesn't quite deliver those page-burners you just can't put down, but he's very solid nonetheless.

As editor of Analog (http://www.analogsf.com/), I found him much too politicizing, often running stories that promoted one particular narrow worldview. These would have little or no entertainment or evocative value, and were never balanced with countervailing works.

Anyone trying to follow John W. Campbell as editor of this fine publication would be challenged, but I feel Stanley Schmidt is doing a significantly better job of it than Ben Bova did during his tenure there. This opinion of mine should in no way diminish anyone's appreciation of Bova as an author - the two jobs are quite different, and not everyone is equally good at both.

You have to consider the times in which Ben Bova was editor of Analog, beginning in the early 70's. Science fiction was very political then, with mainstream sci-fi writers like Ellison and Moorcock and Heinlein and Pournelle occupying opposite ends of the spectrum and a wide variety in between. Political and social commentary as science fiction was practically de rigueur. Some writers, like Philip J. Dick, did almost nothing but social and political commentary and speculation as the underlying plot in their stories. With these people as the icons of the era, looked up to and emulated, is it any wonder that most of the fiction in the magazines of the time reflected the era? Add to that the fact that it's rather difficult to write from the viewpoint of a right-wing Christian nut-case and make a good science fiction story out of it and it's easy to see why the era was rather less than "fair and balanced" in the Fox News definition of the term. :wink:

Clive Cussler is the best....:grin: