|
-
News
- Features
- Events
Calendar
- Editorials
- Monthly
Zine
- Offworld
Report
- Our Daily
RSS Feed
- Movie/TV
Reviews
> Recent movies
> Movies by year
> Movies by title
- Book
Reviews
> Recent books
> Books by year
> Books by title
- Home
- Worlds
- Biography
- Bibliography
- Appearances
- Reviews
- Blog
- Community
- Press
- Links
Become
an Advertiser
- Web
Site Directory
- Search
the Net
- StephenHunt.net
- WoodenRocket.com
- Check
your E-mail
- Non Sci-Fi
News
|
Mercury by Ben Bova
01/05/2008 . Source: Rod MacDonald 
Audio CD. pub: Audio Renaissance/PanMacmillan. 11 hours. 9 CDs. Price: $39.95 (US), $55.95 (CAN) ISBN: 1-59397-501-5). read by: Stefan Rudnicki, Arte Johnson and Moira Quirk. Buy Mercury in the USA - or Buy Mercury in the UK  check out website: www.audiorenaissance.com and www.benbova.net
Listening to 'Mercury', I was reminded of a short story I read many years ago by Alan E. Nourse called 'Brightside Crossing' where intrepid explorers tried to cross the daylight side of Mercury. In the 50s, it was thought that Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, had a captured rotation. In other words, it kept the same face to the Sun all the time. We now know that this isn't true and despite the rotation being slow, virtually all of the planet's surface receives sunlight at some time or other. Nevertheless, being so close to the sun (36,000,000 miles compared to Earth's 93,000,000 miles) the environment is still, by all accounts, extremely hot and hostile.
In his 'Grand Tour', Ben Bova takes us to the planets of the solar system much in the same way that Voyager 2, the space probe, did the same but with the author, we also get a look in at the planets closer to the Sun. In this audio book, we encounter Mercury, even more terrifying than the 'Brightside Crossing'.
However, unlike the earlier stories where space exploration took precedent over dialogue and drama, Ben Bova takes humans into the solar system along with all their baggage, emotional and otherwise. Currently, space is explored by robotic missions but when people go in increasing numbers, we will take our humanity with us.
That's why I like Ben Bova. His Science Fiction is realistic. It may be hard science which some people don't like but at least it's not based on mumbo-jumbo. You know that when taken to the planets by Ben Bova, you are getting a good approximation to the real thing. However, despite his plots being set in the solar system, they are rooted on Earth. As with all stories, nothing much has changed since the ancient Greeks. Sophocles, Euripides and other ancient writers wrote down plots from the depths of time that extend up to our own era basically without change. In 'Mercury', the basic plot is one of revenge and, as with many cases involving revenge, it usually comes at a terrible price.
Mance, the name of the main character, later changed to Dante, is the man consumed by revenge. He has just cause. He was the main force behind a sky elevator (basically a lifting device which goes all the way up to Earth orbit) located in Ecuador as the best place to have one is the equator. Following a ruinous disaster which cost a huge number of lives, Mance is put on trial and sent to the asteroids to work on a freighter. It's there he discovers that he has been set up and the destruction of the elevator was sabotage and not an accident.
Behind the dastardly deeds is the Yamagata Corporation. Curiously, the elder Yamagata is the same age as the younger Yamagata on account of him dying, being frozen and then brought back to life at a later time. Dante, as he now called himself, is also out for revenge against former friends who deserted him in his hour of need. A scientist and a cleric no less! Worse still, the scientist has absconded with his wife.
Mercury is the setting for the extraction of revenge. Dante's Inferno no less! Ben Bova describes the planet very well. We know a little more about Mercury since the latest encounter with the Messenger space probe but essentially he has the right picture. It isn't a nice place for a holiday. A bit hot, I would say, and blasted by solar wind, x-rays and cosmic rays. Could be a good place to send the mother-in-law for a holiday?
Suffice to say, Dante begins his quest for revenge and though it succeeds, the results are not what he expected. He gets revenge on his ex-friends and the Yamagata Corporation. Saying more would spoil the book.
This audio version, as you expect from Macmillan Audio, is very good and when you listen to the narrators, it's like being re-introduced to old acquaintances. Having listened to them from other audio books, their voices are familiar and reassuring, almost like having friends reading to you. What would be interesting, and this is something I haven't tried, would be to read a copy the book and listen at the same time. This is an unabridged version so this exercise should be possible.
This is certainly an audio book to recommend. I know some people don't like Ben Bova (some reviews testify to this) but on the other hand there are many more who do like him and book sales verify this fact. I've listened to an audio book of Bova's before, 'Mars' written some years ago, and now that I have enjoyed 'Mercury', my quest begins to follow him on the 'Grand Tour'.
Rod MacDonald
|
|
