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The Grand Tour #1
Powersat
Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And in its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of space.
America needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy.
Worse, Dan discovers that the plane worked perfectly right up until the moment that saboteurs knocked it out of the sky. And whoever brought it down is willing and able to kill again to keep Astro grounded.
Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy idea as a campaign plank for the candidate she's grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck.
Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they've figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West.
A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.
America needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy.
Worse, Dan discovers that the plane worked perfectly right up until the moment that saboteurs knocked it out of the sky. And whoever brought it down is willing and able to kill again to keep Astro grounded.
Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy idea as a campaign plank for the candidate she's grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck.
Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they've figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West.
A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.
13 pages, Audiobook
First published January 1, 2005
121 people are currently reading
1950 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
714 books1,034 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 - 30 of 180 reviews
October 15, 2020
I’ll review this properly when I’ve finished screaming internally.
Update 5/20/19: Still screaming.
Update 10/15/20: Almost done.
Update 5/20/19: Still screaming.
Update 10/15/20: Almost done.
January 17, 2021
I think this is a very solid, average, old-school SF novel.
It's focused on current events (circa 2005) surrounding energy dependence issues, political realities, and a nice, if almost cartoonish, technothriller cherry on top.
When I say it's average, I need to clarify it some. It's not an average *our* modern SF novel. It actually relies very heavily on real science, real political necessities, and the grand possibilities of building a solar satellite that beams diffuse energy down to the earth for collection in great capacitors. I very much appreciate the problems associated with the privatization of space travel, a-la Musk, and think it is very worth reading.
The subject matter is appealing, timely, and certainly not wildly fantastical. Bova is pretty great for real science.
A potential problem lies in its fairly accurate portrayal of a less egregious '70s male-centric scientist-entrepreneur saves the world plot. I say less egregious because the male lead, while being prototypically male, isn't exactly doing anything WRONG, but it certainly portrays women in the old light. Not that any of them were complaining, mind you. Please follow my line of thought: the novel harms no-one from a social point of view, but it is NOT the current, common, point of view that everyone seems to be judging else by, today.
Just because he's a male lead, he's suspect by today's standards. If he treats women sometimes as many women used to like to be treated, and often still do, IE., admiring them, being oblivious to signs, being victims of self-centeredness, or being, well... MALE... a lot of people seem to have a PROBLEM with that these days.
Me? Reading this, having grown up with MANY books that more or less have this same feel in the SF shelves, I would have just shrugged and focused on the ideas and the plot. But modern SF and Fantasy have swung to the far OTHER end of this spectrum these days. All the modern books I read now have female-centric leads or LGBTQ focuses. So much so that I now find myself wondering where all these old male-centric novels went. Are they all dead? Have they been nixed, as a whole? Are there no longer any male-led stories? I mean, honestly, I'd prefer a healthy mix of BOTH primary sexes and a truly representative mix of everything else. You know. To represent reality.
But in this case, reading Bova now? I feel like I just read a delightful, if slightly average, panacea. Nothing revolutionary. Just a breath of fresh scientific air without a modern Mary Sue.
It's focused on current events (circa 2005) surrounding energy dependence issues, political realities, and a nice, if almost cartoonish, technothriller cherry on top.
When I say it's average, I need to clarify it some. It's not an average *our* modern SF novel. It actually relies very heavily on real science, real political necessities, and the grand possibilities of building a solar satellite that beams diffuse energy down to the earth for collection in great capacitors. I very much appreciate the problems associated with the privatization of space travel, a-la Musk, and think it is very worth reading.
The subject matter is appealing, timely, and certainly not wildly fantastical. Bova is pretty great for real science.
A potential problem lies in its fairly accurate portrayal of a less egregious '70s male-centric scientist-entrepreneur saves the world plot. I say less egregious because the male lead, while being prototypically male, isn't exactly doing anything WRONG, but it certainly portrays women in the old light. Not that any of them were complaining, mind you. Please follow my line of thought: the novel harms no-one from a social point of view, but it is NOT the current, common, point of view that everyone seems to be judging else by, today.
Just because he's a male lead, he's suspect by today's standards. If he treats women sometimes as many women used to like to be treated, and often still do, IE., admiring them, being oblivious to signs, being victims of self-centeredness, or being, well... MALE... a lot of people seem to have a PROBLEM with that these days.
Me? Reading this, having grown up with MANY books that more or less have this same feel in the SF shelves, I would have just shrugged and focused on the ideas and the plot. But modern SF and Fantasy have swung to the far OTHER end of this spectrum these days. All the modern books I read now have female-centric leads or LGBTQ focuses. So much so that I now find myself wondering where all these old male-centric novels went. Are they all dead? Have they been nixed, as a whole? Are there no longer any male-led stories? I mean, honestly, I'd prefer a healthy mix of BOTH primary sexes and a truly representative mix of everything else. You know. To represent reality.
But in this case, reading Bova now? I feel like I just read a delightful, if slightly average, panacea. Nothing revolutionary. Just a breath of fresh scientific air without a modern Mary Sue.
January 2, 2012
This is really bad and normally I wouldn't have finished it. However, its characterization and plot points became so predictably farfetched that it transcended into something amusing and I kept reading just to see what new amazingly clunky thing would happen next. Thus it became good like an Ed Wood movie!
Naive roughneck space cowboys do not become CEO's of multibillion high tech startups.
US senators are not unbelievably beautiful and sexually desirable.
Terrorist masterminds do not put their nefarious plans at risk so they can reward themselves with the incredibly beautiful and sexually desirable secretary of the above mentioned CEO and who is secretly in love with him (by the way she is black, but always dates white guys).
People who are crazy in love with old flames and wondering how to rekindle the flame do not suddenly go to bed with strangers they've just met.
CIA, FBI and armed forces underlings do not question orders from their superiors to the point of insubordination.
CEO's do not usually resort to hand to hand combat to foil the plans that threaten to doom their companies.
CEO's do not fill in for technicians when said technicians decide to spend time with their families).
Naive roughneck space cowboys do not become CEO's of multibillion high tech startups.
US senators are not unbelievably beautiful and sexually desirable.
Terrorist masterminds do not put their nefarious plans at risk so they can reward themselves with the incredibly beautiful and sexually desirable secretary of the above mentioned CEO and who is secretly in love with him (by the way she is black, but always dates white guys).
People who are crazy in love with old flames and wondering how to rekindle the flame do not suddenly go to bed with strangers they've just met.
CIA, FBI and armed forces underlings do not question orders from their superiors to the point of insubordination.
CEO's do not usually resort to hand to hand combat to foil the plans that threaten to doom their companies.
CEO's do not fill in for technicians when said technicians decide to spend time with their families).
July 23, 2016
Dan Randolph is focused on a single goal - to be the first privately-owned company to deliver solar power to the people of earth, starting with Americans, from an orbiting space platform, thus saving the environment by reducing reliance on fossil fuels. He has has bulldozed past endless American regulatory agencies, each one requiring mountains of paperwork and inspections of his engineering plans and facilities. He walked away from the love of his life, Senator Jane Thornton, when it became obvious their career choices six years ago would take them to opposite ends of the earth. Meanwhile, he is currently dealing with competition from a Japanese frenemy and a Texas oil consortium and last but not least, behind the scenes, a deadly Muslim terrorist organization is determined to kill the United States President while putting the blame on Randolph's space microwave energy delivery system!
Published in 2005, 'PowerSat' is an electrifying story of space sabotage! From entrepreneur Dan Randolph's personal love life to his ambitious dream of building an earth satellite and a spaceship delivery system with his own funds, we readers are treated to thrill after thrill as Randolph struggles on valiantly through dozens of obstacles throughout the story, until an exciting finish which demands the attention of an all-night read!
Warning gentle readers! I am going to be a little cranky and lecture-y for the rest of my review. I am getting on in my years...I could probably be a great grandmother in some circles. Books written by older authors bring it out in me, too. Or maybe I'm just off and running on a raaaaannnnttttt.
I really enjoyed listening to this on audiobook years ago, and again now after I read it in an ebook format. To me, it reflects reality in two rather awesome ways - in predicting current 2016 ongoing private entrepreneur space-business efforts to launch delivery space ships and in what the private/public intersection of business is like for entrepreneurish libertarians(?!?). Like many authors, especially those writers of a certain age, who tended to dominate in certain genres in what used to be mostly a young male readership, Bova has a certain political as well as a sexist viewpoint, which he doesn't really hide very much. However, his books are exciting, and the technology was very realistic and up-to-date during the years of publication for his books, if made a little cartoonish for plot purposes; and he does have certain weaknesses as a writer, which were more noticeable in earlier books. In my opinion, he is good enough. But he CAN possibly hit what are very sour notes for liberals and women readers. IDK, generally the intellectual candy of the hard-ish science fiction, the entertaining overblown soap-opera tones, and the exciting vigor of the action carries me through the politically-incorrect spots.
The GR ratings for this particular science-fiction novel are mixed, to say the least. To me, it is a fun fast-paced story.
My opinion is 'Powersat' is possibly flawed in execution, but not because it is an outdated story (this year) or that it is reflective of sexist attitudes in its characterizations which supposedly no longer exist. In my opinion, the vividly described workplace and characters are due to an author who notices the real world around him, and he is using such material in an admittedly melodramatic, politically incorrect, male-oriented fashion. The only reasons I feel for 'modern' readers not entirely liking the plot of the novel on politically liberal grounds is that it weaves in a potboiler version of intricate politics and business realities, and it does so from the blinkered viewpoint of which many masculine entrepreneurs have. After all, the character Dan Randolph is a blinkered self-driving masculine entrepreneur. But he is otherwise humane in his outlook.
Is Ben Bova an entrepreneurial-minded writer who has had collisions in other jobs which also required interfacing with government and company regulations? I suspect, yes, gentle reader. I noticed he is in the same generation as I am, too. I think it may be he is a blinkered libertarian entrepreneur with scientific leanings, struggling to be a little less politically incorrect. I don't know why, but as a liberal feminist, I can enjoy his books, anyway.
The complaints about this novel I've read in reviews have ranged from sexism to boredom to that the characters are not realistic, to the characters being developed in an outdated manner. Well, maybe because I married a man 40 years ago who was a self-made Republican entrepreneur, who was also a small-plane pilot, and owned a 20-foot motor boat and, since he was a handyman too, and he still loves working on cars, as well as my own experiences, I can say with complete confidence I believe in the reality of the political and engineering world-building Ben Bova has created for his hero, Dan Randolph, circa 2005, and maybe also the 1980-1990 novels I see on Ben Bova's published list. I haven't read them yet.
In the early 1980's I went to numerous association meetings (boat clubs, small plane clubs, my husband's work-related tool-company meetings) and I met men and women who functioned exactly as the people in this book - the beautiful educated wealthier white women were treated as 'somebodies', while the older or plainer or poorer less-educated white or 'other' racial women served the men food from the kitchen or ran errands; and all females talked mostly about children, home decorations, clothes or gardening in their self-separated seating area. Maybe inside their heads, these women I met at these settings were seething with feminist frustrations, but I didn't see it. I was the only one seething, which I expressed by refusing to serve the men and by sitting with the men; but I was 15 years younger than the next youngest woman and my husband didn't object. Plus I didn't talk, just listened. Most women didn't fight back on their forced roles, and pretty women enjoyed being admired by men, sexist or not. After all, having a privileged role is still a fine thing, however society is defining it or whatever the guilty pleasure. Many rich people today still live in a milieu in which someone transported from the 1950's would feel comfortable.
I went to college late in life (late 1980's - early 1990's) so I was looking for computer programming work in my 40's. I can personally testify, after numerous and many shocking interviews with 'liberal' Seattle computer engineering/tech companies, I was exposed to the often 100% male programmer environment on Human Resources tours of the company, with women employed only as Human Resource managers, secretaries and receptionists. Why did they call me in for an interview, you might be asking? My guess it was just in case I was a young blond hottie, or maybe it was to be able to say they couldn't find any qualified female programmers despite having made an effort in recorded instance to government agencies.
So, after a year of looking for a computer-related job, I ended up being a secretarial office manager for a Seattle engineering firm in the mid-1990's. The engineers were six men and one young beautiful non-English speaking Chinese girl who had struck the boss's eye on a trip he took looking for work for his engineering company in China. She was moved to Seattle on a special green card called an 'essential skilled worker' Eb-3 Visa. The boss, who owned the company, rewrote all of her assigned reports for clients, which were written by her in a fractured English, paid her half of what the men earned, which was still three times my salary. I know, because part of my job was doing the bookkeeper role and paychecks.
In the year 2005, which was ten years after I moved on from the office manager job with the engineers, beautiful polished young women were being promoted and moved up in many successful tech companies, and such firms, and political organizations also, could then publicly exclaim how progressive their credentials were. Go to any mid-sized city library and check out the required annual financial reports of popular tech companies, especially the photos of any highly-placed women in public roles. Glasses are almost the only thing marring some of their lovely faces. Asian firms inevitably today still have young beautiful women fronting as the public face of the company.
Once, I walked into a tech company for a job interview, which was working from a north of downtown Seattle, at a Lake Union address, next to a world-famous restaurant and Seattle Port Authority and City of Seattle government offices next door, a mostly glass and wood building. My job interview was to take place with a tech company where it looked as if all of the men were head-shaved or expensively styled, and/or bearded, all 30 to 50 year olds. The dozens of women all looked to be 19 to 21 years old, wearing tight short skirts (no pants), all with long perms (it was 1993), working in what looked to be an old-fashioned typing pool of sorts centrally located on an open-floor plan. All of the men were in closed door offices with windows looking out at the lake. When I arrived for my appointment and identified myself to a mini-skirted woman, I waited a long time past my appointed hour. Men kept appearing, looking at me with stunned concerned faces. Finally a shaved head 50-year-old man came out and grabbed me by the arm, and dragged me into a nearby conference room. He said very fast "sorry, we filled the position,", then he dragged me by the arm quickly outside to the sidewalk. I am not exaggerating. In Bellevue, Washington, a company in a glass and shiny metal building, who had written me one of the most enthusiastic offers of a job based on my resume I had yet received, directed me to their Human Resources Department for my appointment in their letter. The young woman who was supposed to interview me, if a one-second look at my 40ish-year-old face and then quickly standing up and walking around her desk to place a kind hand on my shoulder to turn me around towards the door counts as an interview, I was again told the position had been filled.
I did not include my age on my resume, if you are wondering. What they saw on my resume was that I had recently graduated from college. And these were the forward-looking tech companies who did not place the requirement in their ad that the applicant for a computer job should be able to lift a 50-pound box of computer printer paper.
The past is the past, right? This is 2016, and our society doesn't need women's liberation or race-based preferential treatment laws anymore, right? And, 'Powersat' must be so dated, now, right?
My husband was a Republican (no longer) and he is white, and he still has conservative opinions, as do many of my relatives and his friends (I'm an outlier, gentle reader) so I heard and hear a lot of eye-opening conservative commentary which gave and gives my liberal democrat-socialist, half-Native-American heart quite a jolt.
Many real-life self-made entrepreneurs are still mostly Republican or Libertarian in their thinking and in how they feel about the world socially. Some of these self-made types who are either professional engineer-entrepreneurs or who are those who learned some engineering/construction/handyman skills in the 'school of hard knocks' - mechanically minded, in other words - are socially liberal, but most are still quite instinctually unthinkingly scornful of people who are not white, male or without natural physical strength. They are intellectually rigid in their thinking and find it hard to move past their white-ish childhoods of church and teachings of self-reliance, and they are mentally oblivious to negative social barriers (except for those rules and regulations which seemingly are there to place roadblocks to their creativity), believing that everybody today has had the same opportunities and schools they did. Very few, actually, are being disingenuous in their beliefs, but honestly believe what they say they believe, having never examined other neighborhoods, social classes or lifestyles, much less their beliefs. They read manuals, mostly, if they are male, although younger ones are foodies, too.
The mostly young and male, computer 'techie' world likes to see itself as socially liberal and woman/gender friendly - but I know for a fact it still has as far to go as the mostly male world of educated engineers and self-taught machinists. They still tend to be libertarian or Republican in the executive offices, and whether right or left libertarians or Republicans, tech and engineering companies, especially the small startups, tend to hire only young pretty women programmers, leaving older women out in the street. Fifty-year-old men are more likely to be hired than fifty-year-old women, but both older sexes are last hired, first fired. The exceptions to discriminatory hiring practices at tech and engineering firms are always the A-list of the brilliant and well-connected, who can name their salary.
Returning to this book and series, I am puzzled by the next book in what is being called the Grand Tour' series. 'Powersat', listed as book one in the Grand Tour, has a published date of 2005, while the next one, 'Privateers' was published in 1985. Were all of these books actually written in the 1980's and 1990's (in which I think Dan Randolph's quest of building a privately financed space station without NASA even more amazingly predictive!), but I think not. At least, 'Powersat' mentions the World Trade Center attacks in New York City, but possibly it was re-written recently. 'Privateers', which WAS published in 1985, speaks of the Soviet Union from what I've read in reviews. I don't know what this timeline craziness in publication dates is about, gentle reader. I guess I'll find out because I plan to read 'Privateers'. Maybe I'll hate it, IDK. But I liked 'Powersat'.
Published in 2005, 'PowerSat' is an electrifying story of space sabotage! From entrepreneur Dan Randolph's personal love life to his ambitious dream of building an earth satellite and a spaceship delivery system with his own funds, we readers are treated to thrill after thrill as Randolph struggles on valiantly through dozens of obstacles throughout the story, until an exciting finish which demands the attention of an all-night read!
Warning gentle readers! I am going to be a little cranky and lecture-y for the rest of my review. I am getting on in my years...I could probably be a great grandmother in some circles. Books written by older authors bring it out in me, too. Or maybe I'm just off and running on a raaaaannnnttttt.
I really enjoyed listening to this on audiobook years ago, and again now after I read it in an ebook format. To me, it reflects reality in two rather awesome ways - in predicting current 2016 ongoing private entrepreneur space-business efforts to launch delivery space ships and in what the private/public intersection of business is like for entrepreneurish libertarians(?!?). Like many authors, especially those writers of a certain age, who tended to dominate in certain genres in what used to be mostly a young male readership, Bova has a certain political as well as a sexist viewpoint, which he doesn't really hide very much. However, his books are exciting, and the technology was very realistic and up-to-date during the years of publication for his books, if made a little cartoonish for plot purposes; and he does have certain weaknesses as a writer, which were more noticeable in earlier books. In my opinion, he is good enough. But he CAN possibly hit what are very sour notes for liberals and women readers. IDK, generally the intellectual candy of the hard-ish science fiction, the entertaining overblown soap-opera tones, and the exciting vigor of the action carries me through the politically-incorrect spots.
The GR ratings for this particular science-fiction novel are mixed, to say the least. To me, it is a fun fast-paced story.
My opinion is 'Powersat' is possibly flawed in execution, but not because it is an outdated story (this year) or that it is reflective of sexist attitudes in its characterizations which supposedly no longer exist. In my opinion, the vividly described workplace and characters are due to an author who notices the real world around him, and he is using such material in an admittedly melodramatic, politically incorrect, male-oriented fashion. The only reasons I feel for 'modern' readers not entirely liking the plot of the novel on politically liberal grounds is that it weaves in a potboiler version of intricate politics and business realities, and it does so from the blinkered viewpoint of which many masculine entrepreneurs have. After all, the character Dan Randolph is a blinkered self-driving masculine entrepreneur. But he is otherwise humane in his outlook.
Is Ben Bova an entrepreneurial-minded writer who has had collisions in other jobs which also required interfacing with government and company regulations? I suspect, yes, gentle reader. I noticed he is in the same generation as I am, too. I think it may be he is a blinkered libertarian entrepreneur with scientific leanings, struggling to be a little less politically incorrect. I don't know why, but as a liberal feminist, I can enjoy his books, anyway.
The complaints about this novel I've read in reviews have ranged from sexism to boredom to that the characters are not realistic, to the characters being developed in an outdated manner. Well, maybe because I married a man 40 years ago who was a self-made Republican entrepreneur, who was also a small-plane pilot, and owned a 20-foot motor boat and, since he was a handyman too, and he still loves working on cars, as well as my own experiences, I can say with complete confidence I believe in the reality of the political and engineering world-building Ben Bova has created for his hero, Dan Randolph, circa 2005, and maybe also the 1980-1990 novels I see on Ben Bova's published list. I haven't read them yet.
In the early 1980's I went to numerous association meetings (boat clubs, small plane clubs, my husband's work-related tool-company meetings) and I met men and women who functioned exactly as the people in this book - the beautiful educated wealthier white women were treated as 'somebodies', while the older or plainer or poorer less-educated white or 'other' racial women served the men food from the kitchen or ran errands; and all females talked mostly about children, home decorations, clothes or gardening in their self-separated seating area. Maybe inside their heads, these women I met at these settings were seething with feminist frustrations, but I didn't see it. I was the only one seething, which I expressed by refusing to serve the men and by sitting with the men; but I was 15 years younger than the next youngest woman and my husband didn't object. Plus I didn't talk, just listened. Most women didn't fight back on their forced roles, and pretty women enjoyed being admired by men, sexist or not. After all, having a privileged role is still a fine thing, however society is defining it or whatever the guilty pleasure. Many rich people today still live in a milieu in which someone transported from the 1950's would feel comfortable.
I went to college late in life (late 1980's - early 1990's) so I was looking for computer programming work in my 40's. I can personally testify, after numerous and many shocking interviews with 'liberal' Seattle computer engineering/tech companies, I was exposed to the often 100% male programmer environment on Human Resources tours of the company, with women employed only as Human Resource managers, secretaries and receptionists. Why did they call me in for an interview, you might be asking? My guess it was just in case I was a young blond hottie, or maybe it was to be able to say they couldn't find any qualified female programmers despite having made an effort in recorded instance to government agencies.
So, after a year of looking for a computer-related job, I ended up being a secretarial office manager for a Seattle engineering firm in the mid-1990's. The engineers were six men and one young beautiful non-English speaking Chinese girl who had struck the boss's eye on a trip he took looking for work for his engineering company in China. She was moved to Seattle on a special green card called an 'essential skilled worker' Eb-3 Visa. The boss, who owned the company, rewrote all of her assigned reports for clients, which were written by her in a fractured English, paid her half of what the men earned, which was still three times my salary. I know, because part of my job was doing the bookkeeper role and paychecks.
In the year 2005, which was ten years after I moved on from the office manager job with the engineers, beautiful polished young women were being promoted and moved up in many successful tech companies, and such firms, and political organizations also, could then publicly exclaim how progressive their credentials were. Go to any mid-sized city library and check out the required annual financial reports of popular tech companies, especially the photos of any highly-placed women in public roles. Glasses are almost the only thing marring some of their lovely faces. Asian firms inevitably today still have young beautiful women fronting as the public face of the company.
Once, I walked into a tech company for a job interview, which was working from a north of downtown Seattle, at a Lake Union address, next to a world-famous restaurant and Seattle Port Authority and City of Seattle government offices next door, a mostly glass and wood building. My job interview was to take place with a tech company where it looked as if all of the men were head-shaved or expensively styled, and/or bearded, all 30 to 50 year olds. The dozens of women all looked to be 19 to 21 years old, wearing tight short skirts (no pants), all with long perms (it was 1993), working in what looked to be an old-fashioned typing pool of sorts centrally located on an open-floor plan. All of the men were in closed door offices with windows looking out at the lake. When I arrived for my appointment and identified myself to a mini-skirted woman, I waited a long time past my appointed hour. Men kept appearing, looking at me with stunned concerned faces. Finally a shaved head 50-year-old man came out and grabbed me by the arm, and dragged me into a nearby conference room. He said very fast "sorry, we filled the position,", then he dragged me by the arm quickly outside to the sidewalk. I am not exaggerating. In Bellevue, Washington, a company in a glass and shiny metal building, who had written me one of the most enthusiastic offers of a job based on my resume I had yet received, directed me to their Human Resources Department for my appointment in their letter. The young woman who was supposed to interview me, if a one-second look at my 40ish-year-old face and then quickly standing up and walking around her desk to place a kind hand on my shoulder to turn me around towards the door counts as an interview, I was again told the position had been filled.
I did not include my age on my resume, if you are wondering. What they saw on my resume was that I had recently graduated from college. And these were the forward-looking tech companies who did not place the requirement in their ad that the applicant for a computer job should be able to lift a 50-pound box of computer printer paper.
The past is the past, right? This is 2016, and our society doesn't need women's liberation or race-based preferential treatment laws anymore, right? And, 'Powersat' must be so dated, now, right?
My husband was a Republican (no longer) and he is white, and he still has conservative opinions, as do many of my relatives and his friends (I'm an outlier, gentle reader) so I heard and hear a lot of eye-opening conservative commentary which gave and gives my liberal democrat-socialist, half-Native-American heart quite a jolt.
Many real-life self-made entrepreneurs are still mostly Republican or Libertarian in their thinking and in how they feel about the world socially. Some of these self-made types who are either professional engineer-entrepreneurs or who are those who learned some engineering/construction/handyman skills in the 'school of hard knocks' - mechanically minded, in other words - are socially liberal, but most are still quite instinctually unthinkingly scornful of people who are not white, male or without natural physical strength. They are intellectually rigid in their thinking and find it hard to move past their white-ish childhoods of church and teachings of self-reliance, and they are mentally oblivious to negative social barriers (except for those rules and regulations which seemingly are there to place roadblocks to their creativity), believing that everybody today has had the same opportunities and schools they did. Very few, actually, are being disingenuous in their beliefs, but honestly believe what they say they believe, having never examined other neighborhoods, social classes or lifestyles, much less their beliefs. They read manuals, mostly, if they are male, although younger ones are foodies, too.
The mostly young and male, computer 'techie' world likes to see itself as socially liberal and woman/gender friendly - but I know for a fact it still has as far to go as the mostly male world of educated engineers and self-taught machinists. They still tend to be libertarian or Republican in the executive offices, and whether right or left libertarians or Republicans, tech and engineering companies, especially the small startups, tend to hire only young pretty women programmers, leaving older women out in the street. Fifty-year-old men are more likely to be hired than fifty-year-old women, but both older sexes are last hired, first fired. The exceptions to discriminatory hiring practices at tech and engineering firms are always the A-list of the brilliant and well-connected, who can name their salary.
Returning to this book and series, I am puzzled by the next book in what is being called the Grand Tour' series. 'Powersat', listed as book one in the Grand Tour, has a published date of 2005, while the next one, 'Privateers' was published in 1985. Were all of these books actually written in the 1980's and 1990's (in which I think Dan Randolph's quest of building a privately financed space station without NASA even more amazingly predictive!), but I think not. At least, 'Powersat' mentions the World Trade Center attacks in New York City, but possibly it was re-written recently. 'Privateers', which WAS published in 1985, speaks of the Soviet Union from what I've read in reviews. I don't know what this timeline craziness in publication dates is about, gentle reader. I guess I'll find out because I plan to read 'Privateers'. Maybe I'll hate it, IDK. But I liked 'Powersat'.
January 14, 2016
This book almost made me root for the terrorists. Dan Randolph is one of the most unintentionally unlikable protagonists ever, a hotshot business CEO and former astronaut, he does very little of note for the vast majority of the book and succeeds for no other reason than he is as American as Donald Trump and Hulk Hogan and about as likable as a combination of the two. That's not to say the terrorists, read: muslims, are any better, while their leader has managed to infiltrate western business by trimming his beard and drinking alcohol, the rest of the group receives about as much character development as the hyenas in The Lion King.
Side characters are barely any better, male characters are introduced to flash their wealth or be murdered or bribed and female characters all inexplicably fall in love with Dan, including his old flame Senator Jane Thornton who becomes the most irritating character in the book on account of having to read page after page of Dan's pathetic pining for her and feet-stamping temper tantrums when he finds out she may have moved on from their relationship. Although of cause by the end of the book she is madly in love with him again, to the point of risking her chances of becoming vice-president to carry on an affair with him.
For an author of so many science fiction books, there is very little science fiction in the story. The powersat is introduced early on and then forgotten about for the vast majority of the book whilst Dan scrabbles about trying to keep his company afloat by refusing any outside investment and throwing figurative briefcases full of cash to anyone presenting an obstacle to him. There's the spaceplane which spends the majority of the time in a hanger and which the lead technician very seldom lets anyone, including the reader, in and a hydrogen powered pick-up truck, which exists for about 5 pages so it can be blown up.
The style of writing also makes the book a slog in parts, written from the perspective of an omniscient narrator, pretty much every scene is set up like a scene from a movie and is told in the present tense. This leads to ridiculous passages such as one where Dan's secretary speaks with the terrorist leader, cut to the next scene: the secretary relays this conversation to her FBI contact, cut to the next scene: the FBI agent relays the exact same message, which the reader has now encountered three times in about ten pages, to the FBI director. It also means that there is never any sense of anticipation as events play out; after it is established early on that Dan is our hero the actions of rival companies and the terrorist cell never really feel like they will be of any serious consequence and the conclusion as the terrorists attack and Dan swoops in to save the satellite, his company and Jane all plays out in 3 of the 434 pages of the edition I read.
All this being said, the book succeeds in being mostly entertaining, if not always enjoyable. The scenes are so short that the perspective never shifts far enough to show just how two dimensional and played out the characters are and like a bad action film, every time you start to tire of bad businessman Dan or whichever woman is currently infatuated with him, there's always something exploding or someone getting killed.
Overall, give this one a miss unless you are a fan of Bova's previous work and have read other books in his Grand Tour series.
Side characters are barely any better, male characters are introduced to flash their wealth or be murdered or bribed and female characters all inexplicably fall in love with Dan, including his old flame Senator Jane Thornton who becomes the most irritating character in the book on account of having to read page after page of Dan's pathetic pining for her and feet-stamping temper tantrums when he finds out she may have moved on from their relationship. Although of cause by the end of the book she is madly in love with him again, to the point of risking her chances of becoming vice-president to carry on an affair with him.
For an author of so many science fiction books, there is very little science fiction in the story. The powersat is introduced early on and then forgotten about for the vast majority of the book whilst Dan scrabbles about trying to keep his company afloat by refusing any outside investment and throwing figurative briefcases full of cash to anyone presenting an obstacle to him. There's the spaceplane which spends the majority of the time in a hanger and which the lead technician very seldom lets anyone, including the reader, in and a hydrogen powered pick-up truck, which exists for about 5 pages so it can be blown up.
The style of writing also makes the book a slog in parts, written from the perspective of an omniscient narrator, pretty much every scene is set up like a scene from a movie and is told in the present tense. This leads to ridiculous passages such as one where Dan's secretary speaks with the terrorist leader, cut to the next scene: the secretary relays this conversation to her FBI contact, cut to the next scene: the FBI agent relays the exact same message, which the reader has now encountered three times in about ten pages, to the FBI director. It also means that there is never any sense of anticipation as events play out; after it is established early on that Dan is our hero the actions of rival companies and the terrorist cell never really feel like they will be of any serious consequence and the conclusion as the terrorists attack and Dan swoops in to save the satellite, his company and Jane all plays out in 3 of the 434 pages of the edition I read.
All this being said, the book succeeds in being mostly entertaining, if not always enjoyable. The scenes are so short that the perspective never shifts far enough to show just how two dimensional and played out the characters are and like a bad action film, every time you start to tire of bad businessman Dan or whichever woman is currently infatuated with him, there's always something exploding or someone getting killed.
Overall, give this one a miss unless you are a fan of Bova's previous work and have read other books in his Grand Tour series.
November 4, 2015
Having just finished Energized by Edward M. Lerner, I was directed toward the Ben Bova novel that was actually written earlier, and tells basically the same tale.
A bonafide hard-SF novel, the science in Bova's novel is actually much lighter than what Lerner includes, but in either case it's not likely to scare away any non-techie readers, and as such both novels are decidedly mainstream thrillers.
Plotwise, both novels feature a gigantic (2.5 miles square in Bova's book) solar cell satellite that orbits earth, collecting sunlight and converting it to microwave energy to be beamed down to earth. And as such, both books involve terrorists that try to take over the satellite and use the microwave beam as a weapon. Motive? Financial power by creating an artificial dependence on oil.
Characters seem to be the downfall of hard-SF, and Bova tries... he really tries. This is one of his better efforts, but even still, the characters tend to fall flat quite often, and don't always ring true. And the tension between Dan Randolph and his Senator lover never was satisfying to me, so it's unfortunate that it was one of the main conflicts that the novel focussed on.
I recommend this book to all hard-SF fans, and anybody who wishes to think about what might be next when we stop using oil. Dan Randolph is a name that appears in many of Bova's Grand Tour books, so reading this novel gets you an early look at a young Dan Randolph trying to build an empire using the virtually limitless resources that space has to offer.
A bonafide hard-SF novel, the science in Bova's novel is actually much lighter than what Lerner includes, but in either case it's not likely to scare away any non-techie readers, and as such both novels are decidedly mainstream thrillers.
Plotwise, both novels feature a gigantic (2.5 miles square in Bova's book) solar cell satellite that orbits earth, collecting sunlight and converting it to microwave energy to be beamed down to earth. And as such, both books involve terrorists that try to take over the satellite and use the microwave beam as a weapon. Motive? Financial power by creating an artificial dependence on oil.
Characters seem to be the downfall of hard-SF, and Bova tries... he really tries. This is one of his better efforts, but even still, the characters tend to fall flat quite often, and don't always ring true. And the tension between Dan Randolph and his Senator lover never was satisfying to me, so it's unfortunate that it was one of the main conflicts that the novel focussed on.
I recommend this book to all hard-SF fans, and anybody who wishes to think about what might be next when we stop using oil. Dan Randolph is a name that appears in many of Bova's Grand Tour books, so reading this novel gets you an early look at a young Dan Randolph trying to build an empire using the virtually limitless resources that space has to offer.
April 16, 2018
This is my first acquaintance with Ben Bova and what a letdown it was! I was expecting solid science-fiction book and instead I had to suffer through a mediocre techno-thriller with 'paint it by numbers' plot riddled with logical holes through which a satelite could pass without any problems whatsoever. What's worse, the story is populated by a bunch of characters who, pretty much to the last man and woman, could serve as caricatures of the archetypes in this particular genre. And then, just to top it off, we have not one, but two 'romantic' side-plots which are not only rudiculous considering people involved, but are depicted with a 'skill' that made me cringe.
I am considering giving a second volume in this series a shot, but only because I discovered that 'Powersat', despite being the first book chronologically, was one of the last books in 'Grand Tour' cycle in publication order. I am therefore hoping that this book is a filler dud and that the previous books (which better be real sci-fi!) in the series are significantly better than this tripe.
I am considering giving a second volume in this series a shot, but only because I discovered that 'Powersat', despite being the first book chronologically, was one of the last books in 'Grand Tour' cycle in publication order. I am therefore hoping that this book is a filler dud and that the previous books (which better be real sci-fi!) in the series are significantly better than this tripe.
August 5, 2016
I really liked the book and would have given it four stars except it was overly simplified. The other problem I had with it is that they used the two stupid phrases double damned and rain makes apple sauce about 50 times each and it was sickening after the 5th time.
January 15, 2025
The Grand Tour 01 Powersat by Ben Bova
challenging dark funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense
Medium-paced
Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes
3.75 Stars
In some ways, this story reminds me a BIT of Stephen King's The Stand. Obviouly it is not a one-to-one comparison, but there are some similarities (at least to me). Mix it with The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, and you have Powersat by Ben Bova.
This is a Thriller, with a Political scenario, in a Science Fiction setting.
There are a LOT of grey characters. I only liked a few of the characters, and most of them got killed (one way or another). Sadly.
None of the characters are pure good, or pure evil. Well, there is one character that is pretty evil, but in his mindset...he's just greedy and self-absorbed.
I like Dan (to a degree). He's focused on his technology and the desire to give the world cheaper energy, but as he proceeds with his plans, you see that he is getting wrapped up in the idea of power. He starts off niave, but then the power starts to corrupt him (just a bit). He has some moral tethers, but he keeps overrunning them...in his pursuit to achieve his goal.
The science community and the political community are cut-throut. You have to keep the "status quo", 'cause if you buck the established system, then you gain a WHOLE lot of enemies, that may seem to be your friend, until they show their true colours, and you are boxed out, or killed.
This was a tension filled story, up to the very end. AND, of course, this is a long running series, with up to 28 novels...and I just finished the first one (chronologically). Next up is Privateers. Looking forward to reading it...soon.
challenging dark funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense
Medium-paced
Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes
3.75 Stars
In some ways, this story reminds me a BIT of Stephen King's The Stand. Obviouly it is not a one-to-one comparison, but there are some similarities (at least to me). Mix it with The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, and you have Powersat by Ben Bova.
This is a Thriller, with a Political scenario, in a Science Fiction setting.
There are a LOT of grey characters. I only liked a few of the characters, and most of them got killed (one way or another). Sadly.
None of the characters are pure good, or pure evil. Well, there is one character that is pretty evil, but in his mindset...he's just greedy and self-absorbed.
I like Dan (to a degree). He's focused on his technology and the desire to give the world cheaper energy, but as he proceeds with his plans, you see that he is getting wrapped up in the idea of power. He starts off niave, but then the power starts to corrupt him (just a bit). He has some moral tethers, but he keeps overrunning them...in his pursuit to achieve his goal.
The science community and the political community are cut-throut. You have to keep the "status quo", 'cause if you buck the established system, then you gain a WHOLE lot of enemies, that may seem to be your friend, until they show their true colours, and you are boxed out, or killed.
This was a tension filled story, up to the very end. AND, of course, this is a long running series, with up to 28 novels...and I just finished the first one (chronologically). Next up is Privateers. Looking forward to reading it...soon.
July 10, 2025
There’s so many things I could say about this novel…
- That it’s sexism and male chauvinist
- That the characters are superficial and 2 dimensional
- That the plot is totally unbelievable
And it is all that, but it’s also fast paced and entertaining, without being to complicated, perfect for holiday reading.
- That it’s sexism and male chauvinist
- That the characters are superficial and 2 dimensional
- That the plot is totally unbelievable
And it is all that, but it’s also fast paced and entertaining, without being to complicated, perfect for holiday reading.
December 2, 2024
This is simply awful. The character development falls flat: the only real character here is the relatively repugnant Randolph. The story itself is predictable and set in the most rigid stereotypes: bureaucracy = bad, terrorist = Arab, private enterprise = the only solution, etc. I mean, it could have been written by Elon Musk (had it only been 144 characters, which, admittedly, might have been an improvement in this case). Despite being the first book of this very long series (20-odd books so far), I was expecting to see a mature writing style that would engage me. Still, based on what I read here, I will not be going on the Grand Tour with Bova because he will try to grope my date and crash us into an asteroid.
January 10, 2016
This was truly a great listen. I was in the hunt for a new SciFi series, as I have exhausted Orson Scott Card's "Enderverse" a long time ago. And then I find the "Grand Tour" series by Ben Bova off to a great (chronological) start - and even narrated by none other than Stefan Rudnicki !!! (The voice of God). Oh, man ... a good SciFi thriller and Stefan Rudnicki. I'm in heaven ...
December 31, 2021
Bova, Ben. Powersat. Grand Tour No. 1. Tor, 2005.
Ben Bova is a writer who belongs in the conversation with such icons of future-history science fiction as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Gregory Benford, and Steven Baxter. For me, he is the least of these, yet he is a worthy member of this exclusive club. Bova’s Grand Tour series began in 1985 and did not conclude until just before his death in 2020. Each novel is set in a different part of the solar system. In the twenty-seven novels in the series, he covered Old Sol’s playground thoroughly enough. I am not sure the internal chronology of the series is consistent. The novels were not published in chronological order, so it was always difficult to keep track of the historical timeline.
Powersat is the first in the series chronologically, but the series was already 20 years along when it was written. Its protagonist is Dan Randolph, an aerospace entrepreneur, who has built a satellite to beam power down to a receiving station in Alaska. To make his business profitable, he needs to develop a space plane to shuttle crews to and from the satellite. He is opposed by American bureaucracies and by several international competitors. His leadership style is a my-way-or-the-highway, and he is not always tuned in to the human dynamics around him. Bova is not as good at making him likable as Heinlein was for similar characters. His casual heart-on-sleeve attitude toward sex reminds me of John D. McDonald’s Travis McGhee, but it is less mature. The plot of Powersat could use more focus, but Bova achieves a good balance of action, character drama and scientific exposition. 4 stars—for historic value if nothing else.
Ben Bova is a writer who belongs in the conversation with such icons of future-history science fiction as Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Gregory Benford, and Steven Baxter. For me, he is the least of these, yet he is a worthy member of this exclusive club. Bova’s Grand Tour series began in 1985 and did not conclude until just before his death in 2020. Each novel is set in a different part of the solar system. In the twenty-seven novels in the series, he covered Old Sol’s playground thoroughly enough. I am not sure the internal chronology of the series is consistent. The novels were not published in chronological order, so it was always difficult to keep track of the historical timeline.
Powersat is the first in the series chronologically, but the series was already 20 years along when it was written. Its protagonist is Dan Randolph, an aerospace entrepreneur, who has built a satellite to beam power down to a receiving station in Alaska. To make his business profitable, he needs to develop a space plane to shuttle crews to and from the satellite. He is opposed by American bureaucracies and by several international competitors. His leadership style is a my-way-or-the-highway, and he is not always tuned in to the human dynamics around him. Bova is not as good at making him likable as Heinlein was for similar characters. His casual heart-on-sleeve attitude toward sex reminds me of John D. McDonald’s Travis McGhee, but it is less mature. The plot of Powersat could use more focus, but Bova achieves a good balance of action, character drama and scientific exposition. 4 stars—for historic value if nothing else.
February 3, 2025
Someone is responsible for the downing of a test plane and so it begins. I enjoyed the chase. My biggest quibble was sense of time. Large periods of time passed and sometimes you only knew by some throw away comment during a conversation. Then a long flashback is tossed in a way that just assured either confusion or indifference which takes away from the enjoyment of the story.
The second half became busy and messy. this obsession with Jane was ridiculous, stupid and overall a waste of space and time. Bova needs to show stronger skills at this relationship stuff. The executive secretary that everyone enjoyed could have and should have been a bigger, hbetter player stronger player and alas, she was not. In fact her character was completely disrespected and that was sad.
For me, the big waste of time was Bova could not decide whether he was going to focus on the action, the crime, the solution or this emotional personal thing which was weak. I also felt there were way, way too many tropes throughout this book. I found myself literally saying out loud “pick a lane and start driving”.
The second half became busy and messy. this obsession with Jane was ridiculous, stupid and overall a waste of space and time. Bova needs to show stronger skills at this relationship stuff. The executive secretary that everyone enjoyed could have and should have been a bigger, hbetter player stronger player and alas, she was not. In fact her character was completely disrespected and that was sad.
For me, the big waste of time was Bova could not decide whether he was going to focus on the action, the crime, the solution or this emotional personal thing which was weak. I also felt there were way, way too many tropes throughout this book. I found myself literally saying out loud “pick a lane and start driving”.
November 21, 2023
This one feels so real.
It really don’t matter what subject the author Ben Bova writes about he always gets it right on the spot and is why he is one of my favorite of the fiction authors in existence.
His stories are full of mysteries, action and twists which are not always expected.
On this story Ben Bova penmanship is absolutely amazing and feels like it’s straight from the history channel, like it happened for real or can and will happen.
One of the most famous narrator in existence today, which got an amazing voice, Stefan Rudnicki narrated this creation beautifully.
Without a doubt
got my recommendations !!!
Oded Ostfeld.
It really don’t matter what subject the author Ben Bova writes about he always gets it right on the spot and is why he is one of my favorite of the fiction authors in existence.
His stories are full of mysteries, action and twists which are not always expected.
On this story Ben Bova penmanship is absolutely amazing and feels like it’s straight from the history channel, like it happened for real or can and will happen.
One of the most famous narrator in existence today, which got an amazing voice, Stefan Rudnicki narrated this creation beautifully.
Without a doubt
got my recommendations !!!
Oded Ostfeld.
January 24, 2025
I’ve been revisiting childhood reads and been looking into getting back into Bova’s grand tour. This book put me off tue idea for good. I hace not seen characterization as bad, characters as bad, moustache twirling arabs and women breasting boobily around their genius male peers in quite a while. Powersat is simplu horrible.
May 25, 2018
Sticking my toes in the Grand Tour series... I’m not quite sure how this one fits in, but I enjoyed the sci-fi as thriller mood of the book. Fast paced and hard to put down. I will continue on and see how it goes!
July 6, 2014
Although this book is listed chronologically as the first book in the 'Grand Tour' series, it is more of a prequel. All the other books are about planetary exploration and fall more or less into the 'hard science fiction genre. I'ts a prequel in that it's set near future, before any manned exploration of the solar system has begun.
In essence it's an action adventure novel. The main protagonist, Dan Rudolph, is struggling to get a massive power operational. Of course, there are numerous people in the oil business trying to stop him by any means necessary.
The story starts out with a bang, identifying the bad guys right away. That sets up an environment of plotting 'v' investigation. It's a race to see who comes out on top, especially in the last 100 pages of the book. The ending was not quite as predictable as I had expected and it didn't turn out all nice and rosy for everyone. Well, almost nobody actually.
My only problem with this book was how trusting Dan Rudolph was of almost everyone. When your turning on a massive alternative energy source you should be very wary of everything anybody from big oil says or does. No matter how nice he may have appeared, trusting a rich sleazeball from anywhere in the Middle East was just pure nonsense in my opinion.
In essence it's an action adventure novel. The main protagonist, Dan Rudolph, is struggling to get a massive power operational. Of course, there are numerous people in the oil business trying to stop him by any means necessary.
The story starts out with a bang, identifying the bad guys right away. That sets up an environment of plotting 'v' investigation. It's a race to see who comes out on top, especially in the last 100 pages of the book. The ending was not quite as predictable as I had expected and it didn't turn out all nice and rosy for everyone. Well, almost nobody actually.
My only problem with this book was how trusting Dan Rudolph was of almost everyone. When your turning on a massive alternative energy source you should be very wary of everything anybody from big oil says or does. No matter how nice he may have appeared, trusting a rich sleazeball from anywhere in the Middle East was just pure nonsense in my opinion.
October 23, 2014
I had a hard time getting into this story. None of the characters were likeable, admirable, or exhibited any traits that prompted me to care what happened to them. The protagonist, and most of the other characters (including politicians, businessmen, and engineers), behave like emotionally unstable teenagers being dragged around by their gonads. There was a point in which the protagonist practically has a temper tantrum when speaking with his ex-girlfriend (who is now a US senator) that almost caused me to close this one unfinished. I trudged on, but between the blatant sexism and unbelievably naive characters, this novel simply did not appeal to me.
July 25, 2020
This was a "re-write" of the origin of the Dan Randolph legacy since the previous origin book, Privateers (1985), became obsolete because it was predicated on the existence of the USSR in the future. After moving on with other books in this Grand Tour series, apparently Bova felt compelled to correct his timeline to synch it with real history. Unfortunately it was a half-hearted effort. Powersat (2005) does not synch well into the subsequent books and it seems as if Bova is not reading his own books. The story itself was average and, to me, seemed to be thrown together without much thought or effort on part of the author.
December 22, 2020
I will NEVER EVER EVER read or listen to another book by Ben Bova again. His name was familiar from Analog magazine and I recall reading his non-fiction editorials. However, I had never read his fiction. In the past 3 weeks I listened to 3 of his books - Mars Inc., Earth, and PowerSat. All three were cliche ridden, formula driven crap. In the case of PowerSat I came oh so close to breaking my DNF commitment and gave a cheer when it was over. Avoid this poorer than any pulp fiction ever published shiznod!
May 30, 2022
Very disappointed and would not recommend. The writing is poor; the characters extremely two-dimensional; the plot predictable to the last; the male gaze in extreme effect; the occasional bit of casual racism; the more than occasional sexism; the science-fiction aspects laughable. The only thing this book had going for it was a fast pace. I was expecting more and was expecting to love getting into the Grand Tour series, but I’m instead getting off the tour after this first stop.
December 29, 2014
Yep, this book is a really good read. I found myself actually researching some of the things it talks about and I enjoyed it.
March 19, 2015
It hurts to write this because I love Ben Bova. It was just too long, too drawn out and too boring. Not a vital read in the Grand Tour series.
September 26, 2022
2 out of 5 stars. I feel kind of bad giving "Powersat" by Greg Bear such a low rating, as it did keep me reading and had some funny bits. And it is tightly plotted for the most part. But, oh boy, is that plot ever predictable, more than a little ridiculous, and eye-rolly / face-palmy in a LOT of places. Especially when it comes to the main character, who is a HUGE Marty Stu.
That main character is a self built corporate rocket-scientist/astronaut CEO (think Elon Musk without the rich family upbringing), who is having sex with a hot journalist (for no apparent reason as the 2 encounters really seem to lend nothing necessary to the plot or the character development), while pining for (and having sex with mere hours after doing so with the journalist) his long lost super-rich love who is also of course a beautiful and hot US Senator who is now secretly married to the future President, while his super-model looking yet secretly super smart personal assistant secretary is also secretly head over heels in love with him.
There is also a very eye-rolly stereotypical Muslim terrorist bad guy who is supposed to be really smart and manipulative, but whose every action seems so stupid and obvious you wonder why anyone falls for it. His big plan is incredibly involved and really just asking to get caught and busted, and in my opinion would not give them the results they were hoping for even if it the actual plan he had concocted had gone exactly as planned technically. Yet the fact that this evil plan (assisted by a stereotypical Mexican American ex-gang member, a stereotypical Irish ex-IRA bomber, and other equally stereotypical bad guys,) is only finally stopped mere seconds from its finale is ludicrous to say the least. Stopped I might add all due to our Marty Stu character and not the collection of the lamest, whiniest, and ineffectual US public servants, and Federal investigators ever to grace the pages of a novel. (Yes this is far more spoilery than my typical review but I feel it justified and not really spoiling anything as you see all this coming from nearly page 1.)
So why did I read this then, or continue if it was so bad, you ask? Well, it is the first book (chronologically but not in originally published order) to Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" science fiction series that is supposedly an interesting future history of man's expansion to explore and colonize the Solar System. Strangely THIS book is more a modern spy thriller than a science fiction novel, though it is set ostensibly in a possible, not too distant future and had a couple of scenes in orbit. I guess it's possible that some of the cheesy and seemingly unnecessary character bits in this one are setting up events later in the series as I know some characters reappear in the other books though each novel is supposed to be a stand alone story. Anyway, the series is supposed to get better, so I plan on continuing and reading the later and higher rated books in the series. I had determined to read this in story chronological order rather than in order of when they were published and knew going in that doing so might involve reading some stories that weren't as interesting or as good as others. And while the narrator of the audiobook version of this that I listened to was pretty entertaining and some of the writer's prose was amusing, I still can't get away from feeling like I watched a pretty cheesy "B" action movie than reading a realistic "hard science" fiction novel.
That main character is a self built corporate rocket-scientist/astronaut CEO (think Elon Musk without the rich family upbringing), who is having sex with a hot journalist (for no apparent reason as the 2 encounters really seem to lend nothing necessary to the plot or the character development), while pining for (and having sex with mere hours after doing so with the journalist) his long lost super-rich love who is also of course a beautiful and hot US Senator who is now secretly married to the future President, while his super-model looking yet secretly super smart personal assistant secretary is also secretly head over heels in love with him.
There is also a very eye-rolly stereotypical Muslim terrorist bad guy who is supposed to be really smart and manipulative, but whose every action seems so stupid and obvious you wonder why anyone falls for it. His big plan is incredibly involved and really just asking to get caught and busted, and in my opinion would not give them the results they were hoping for even if it the actual plan he had concocted had gone exactly as planned technically. Yet the fact that this evil plan (assisted by a stereotypical Mexican American ex-gang member, a stereotypical Irish ex-IRA bomber, and other equally stereotypical bad guys,) is only finally stopped mere seconds from its finale is ludicrous to say the least. Stopped I might add all due to our Marty Stu character and not the collection of the lamest, whiniest, and ineffectual US public servants, and Federal investigators ever to grace the pages of a novel. (Yes this is far more spoilery than my typical review but I feel it justified and not really spoiling anything as you see all this coming from nearly page 1.)
So why did I read this then, or continue if it was so bad, you ask? Well, it is the first book (chronologically but not in originally published order) to Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" science fiction series that is supposedly an interesting future history of man's expansion to explore and colonize the Solar System. Strangely THIS book is more a modern spy thriller than a science fiction novel, though it is set ostensibly in a possible, not too distant future and had a couple of scenes in orbit. I guess it's possible that some of the cheesy and seemingly unnecessary character bits in this one are setting up events later in the series as I know some characters reappear in the other books though each novel is supposed to be a stand alone story. Anyway, the series is supposed to get better, so I plan on continuing and reading the later and higher rated books in the series. I had determined to read this in story chronological order rather than in order of when they were published and knew going in that doing so might involve reading some stories that weren't as interesting or as good as others. And while the narrator of the audiobook version of this that I listened to was pretty entertaining and some of the writer's prose was amusing, I still can't get away from feeling like I watched a pretty cheesy "B" action movie than reading a realistic "hard science" fiction novel.
October 7, 2021
– California la orizont.
Pilotul de încercare Hannah Aarons vedea linia coastei ca pe o dâră de-un negru şters întinzându-se foarte, foarte jos de-a latul orizontului curbat. Dincolo de hubloul gros din cuarţ al carlingii, cerul de pe toată întinderea acelui orizont era luminat de venirea unei noi dimineţi, pierzându-se într-un violet intens şi ajungând într-un sfârşit deasupra ei în negrul spaţiului infinit.
Avionul spaţial săgetă de-a curmezişul cerului cu viteza de Mach 16 şi traversă coasta Californiei la o altitudine de 60 085 de metri, exact pe direcţie. Prin viziera căştii de la costumul etanş de presiune, Aarons văzu cum, atunci când muşcă din atmosfera firavă, îndreptându-se către terenul de aterizare de pe Insula Matagorda din golful coastei texane, botul de titan al avionului începu să strălucească. Şuieratul subţire al aerului rarefiat care se freca de carlingă se făcu auzit.
– Exact la ţanc, Hannah, auzi în căşti vocea controlorului de zbor. Începi manevra de coborâre în treizeci de secunde.
– Recepţionat, coborârea în treizeci, răspunse ea.
Când botul avionului spaţial se ridică uşor, linia orizontului dispăru din câmpul ei vizual. Tot ce putea vedea acum era negrul necuprins al spaţiului de deasupra. Se concentră asupra ecranelor de afişaj de pe panoul de control. Indicatorul digital al contorului Mach începu să coboare: 16, 15.5, 15… Când, sub acţiunea forţei gravitaţionale, chingile de la umeri ale harnaşamentului de protecţie începură s-o strângă prea tare, Hannah îşi percepu respiraţia aspră şi chinuită. Cu coada ochiului văzu muchia din faţă a aripilor scurte şi îndesate ale avionului căpătând o nuanţă mohorâtă de rubiniu intens. În câteva secunde, ştia, acestea aveau să devină vişinii.
Deodată, avionul plonjă atât de puternic, încât Hannah se lovi dureros cu nasul de viziera căştii. Dacă n-ar fi avut harnaşamentul de protecţie, probabil că şi-ar fi rupt gâtul. Icni, pradă unui şoc de moment. Aerul de dincolo de bolta carlingii începu să urle, aruncând asupră-i jerbe ţipătoare de flăcări portocalii.
– Intru în coborâre! strigă ea în microfonul din cască, trăgând în acelaşi timp de maneta de control în formă de T din partea stângă.
I se părea că braţele ei, chiar dacă erau susţinute în chingile protectoare, cântăreau câte zece tone fiecare. Avionul se zdruncina atât de tare, încât vederea i se înceţoşă. Manşa părea blocată; nu o putea clinti din loc.
– Mecanismele servo sunt înţepenite, spuse ea cu o voce în creştere.
Prin crâncena strălucire din afara carlingii reuşea să vadă foarte, foarte jos pământul. Păstrează-ţi calmul, îşi impuse. Păstrează-ţi calmul!
Pilotul de încercare Hannah Aarons vedea linia coastei ca pe o dâră de-un negru şters întinzându-se foarte, foarte jos de-a latul orizontului curbat. Dincolo de hubloul gros din cuarţ al carlingii, cerul de pe toată întinderea acelui orizont era luminat de venirea unei noi dimineţi, pierzându-se într-un violet intens şi ajungând într-un sfârşit deasupra ei în negrul spaţiului infinit.
Avionul spaţial săgetă de-a curmezişul cerului cu viteza de Mach 16 şi traversă coasta Californiei la o altitudine de 60 085 de metri, exact pe direcţie. Prin viziera căştii de la costumul etanş de presiune, Aarons văzu cum, atunci când muşcă din atmosfera firavă, îndreptându-se către terenul de aterizare de pe Insula Matagorda din golful coastei texane, botul de titan al avionului începu să strălucească. Şuieratul subţire al aerului rarefiat care se freca de carlingă se făcu auzit.
– Exact la ţanc, Hannah, auzi în căşti vocea controlorului de zbor. Începi manevra de coborâre în treizeci de secunde.
– Recepţionat, coborârea în treizeci, răspunse ea.
Când botul avionului spaţial se ridică uşor, linia orizontului dispăru din câmpul ei vizual. Tot ce putea vedea acum era negrul necuprins al spaţiului de deasupra. Se concentră asupra ecranelor de afişaj de pe panoul de control. Indicatorul digital al contorului Mach începu să coboare: 16, 15.5, 15… Când, sub acţiunea forţei gravitaţionale, chingile de la umeri ale harnaşamentului de protecţie începură s-o strângă prea tare, Hannah îşi percepu respiraţia aspră şi chinuită. Cu coada ochiului văzu muchia din faţă a aripilor scurte şi îndesate ale avionului căpătând o nuanţă mohorâtă de rubiniu intens. În câteva secunde, ştia, acestea aveau să devină vişinii.
Deodată, avionul plonjă atât de puternic, încât Hannah se lovi dureros cu nasul de viziera căştii. Dacă n-ar fi avut harnaşamentul de protecţie, probabil că şi-ar fi rupt gâtul. Icni, pradă unui şoc de moment. Aerul de dincolo de bolta carlingii începu să urle, aruncând asupră-i jerbe ţipătoare de flăcări portocalii.
– Intru în coborâre! strigă ea în microfonul din cască, trăgând în acelaşi timp de maneta de control în formă de T din partea stângă.
I se părea că braţele ei, chiar dacă erau susţinute în chingile protectoare, cântăreau câte zece tone fiecare. Avionul se zdruncina atât de tare, încât vederea i se înceţoşă. Manşa părea blocată; nu o putea clinti din loc.
– Mecanismele servo sunt înţepenite, spuse ea cu o voce în creştere.
Prin crâncena strălucire din afara carlingii reuşea să vadă foarte, foarte jos pământul. Păstrează-ţi calmul, îşi impuse. Păstrează-ţi calmul!
September 29, 2025
🍕 Pizza Rat Reads Review 🐀
Powersat by Ben Bova
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5 stars - A solid, satisfying slice with great flavor and a chewy crust.)
Let's cut right to the core: Ben Bova's Powersat is a piping hot dish of Hard Science Fiction served up with a side of corporate and political intrigue. It’s exactly the kind of ambitious, big-idea book that makes you believe in a future powered by orbital solar arrays. If this book were a New York slice, it would be perfectly folded, grease-dripping, and worth a desperate scramble down a subway staircase.
The hero of our story, Dan Randolph, is a space entrepreneur whose vision is bigger than his latest craving. He's determined to build the Powersat—a giant orbital station to beam clean energy to a world baked in its addiction to oil. His dream is to provide unlimited power and finally break the grip of the energy cartels. The science Bova provides is the crispy, delicious crust of this novel; it's detailed, plausible, and gives the whole plot a satisfying chew.
The Full Pie of the Plot
The main event here is the colossal effort to get this satellite off the ground. Randolph faces sabotage, corporate spies, bureaucratic indigestion, and a cast of villains who are slicker than old mozzarella. Bova truly excels at showing the messy, high-stakes reality of technological revolution. Every chapter is a new hurdle, making this feel less like a sci-fi novel and more like an electrifying technothriller. You'll be on the edge of your seat, waiting to see if Randolph's dream gets delivered, or if it all goes flat.
Where the Toppings Get Thin
While the science and the tension are freshly grated, the characters can feel a bit... processed. Randolph is the quintessential genius-tycoon, and the secondary characters, particularly the women, often fill predictable roles (the ex-lover/political operative, the beautiful-but-underestimated assistant). It’s a bit of old-school seasoning on a modern dish. Also, as the first book in The Grand Tour series, Bova has a lot of dough to roll out, meaning the setup occasionally slows the pace.
The Verdict
Powersat is a highly recommended slice of classic, idea-driven science fiction. It’s visionary, it’s fast-paced, and it grounds its massive orbital concepts with satisfying political and personal battles. It's a great palate cleanser if you're tired of dystopian futures and want a story where ingenuity and perseverance are the main ingredients. It left me feeling baked with inspiration!
What's your preferred power source: Dan Randolph's space solar or a coal-fired pizza oven?
Powersat by Ben Bova
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4 out of 5 stars - A solid, satisfying slice with great flavor and a chewy crust.)
Let's cut right to the core: Ben Bova's Powersat is a piping hot dish of Hard Science Fiction served up with a side of corporate and political intrigue. It’s exactly the kind of ambitious, big-idea book that makes you believe in a future powered by orbital solar arrays. If this book were a New York slice, it would be perfectly folded, grease-dripping, and worth a desperate scramble down a subway staircase.
The hero of our story, Dan Randolph, is a space entrepreneur whose vision is bigger than his latest craving. He's determined to build the Powersat—a giant orbital station to beam clean energy to a world baked in its addiction to oil. His dream is to provide unlimited power and finally break the grip of the energy cartels. The science Bova provides is the crispy, delicious crust of this novel; it's detailed, plausible, and gives the whole plot a satisfying chew.
The Full Pie of the Plot
The main event here is the colossal effort to get this satellite off the ground. Randolph faces sabotage, corporate spies, bureaucratic indigestion, and a cast of villains who are slicker than old mozzarella. Bova truly excels at showing the messy, high-stakes reality of technological revolution. Every chapter is a new hurdle, making this feel less like a sci-fi novel and more like an electrifying technothriller. You'll be on the edge of your seat, waiting to see if Randolph's dream gets delivered, or if it all goes flat.
Where the Toppings Get Thin
While the science and the tension are freshly grated, the characters can feel a bit... processed. Randolph is the quintessential genius-tycoon, and the secondary characters, particularly the women, often fill predictable roles (the ex-lover/political operative, the beautiful-but-underestimated assistant). It’s a bit of old-school seasoning on a modern dish. Also, as the first book in The Grand Tour series, Bova has a lot of dough to roll out, meaning the setup occasionally slows the pace.
The Verdict
Powersat is a highly recommended slice of classic, idea-driven science fiction. It’s visionary, it’s fast-paced, and it grounds its massive orbital concepts with satisfying political and personal battles. It's a great palate cleanser if you're tired of dystopian futures and want a story where ingenuity and perseverance are the main ingredients. It left me feeling baked with inspiration!
What's your preferred power source: Dan Randolph's space solar or a coal-fired pizza oven?
September 13, 2024
This is the first book in Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" series—chronologically at least. I get the idea it was one of the later ones written, but I haven't looked deeply into that. Each one was written about a particular location in the solar system, and this one is... "orbit".
Technothrillers generally have at least a whiff of science-fiction to them, since they often deal with the intersection of modern military and new technology, so every once in a while SF authors will come at it from the other direction. This is the second such I've read, and by far the more successful.
Bova avoids any mention of what year it's supposed to be, but there's some interesting hints of background as he writes from a 2005 perspective. There was a second 9/11 style event (three major bridges being blown up near-simultaneously), and the US occupied a decent amount of the Middle East, and is still there as a result. There's no overall look at the privatization of space flight that was starting at the time, but there is certainly one company making a real go at it, and it is the center of the novel.
Thankfully, Dan Randolph has none of the authoritarian foot-in-mouth baggage that the real world has to deal with. But he is obsessive, and obsessive enough to have two separate obsessions, one of which powers the central plot, the other of which helps tie together pieces of the secondary plot (or maybe tertiary, the side stuff tends to be a bit fragmented to easily sort out).
The primary obsession is to deliver cheap power by setting up a large geosynchronous satellite that will gather solar power and beam it down to Earth. Whatever year this is, the various technical hurdles of this plan have been dealt with, and there's even been a Japanese demonstration model already (which Randolph helped with).
Of course, this would completely upend current power structures (pun not quite intended). And that's where the book goes from hard SF to technothriller as various groups try to stop or control this about-to-be new source of comparatively cheap power. It's odd that all of this comes up as the project is nearing completion, instead of a decade or two of political fighting, but that would make for an extremely dull novel.
The novel starts with the crash in a test flight of the last piece of Randolph's plan. A true reusable space plane that can get maintenance people up to geosynchronous orbit to perform any needed maintenance. Late in the novel you finally find out that there's already an equivalent to the '80s "space tug" proposal up there that is what is transferring everything from low orbit to geo. But there's no discussion of when/how that was put there, what keeps it fueled, or any other infrastructure. Not even evidence of current space stations in orbit. The novel has a lot to talk about on the ground anyway, but it does make it feel like Astro Corporation is operating in a vacuum (har har).
Pacing is overall a bit slow, a little uneven, and ramps up to a technothriller action climax. Overall, it's a good book, but a lot of the secondary parts feel underbaked. It's a strong enough book for me to be continuing on to the asteroids.
Technothrillers generally have at least a whiff of science-fiction to them, since they often deal with the intersection of modern military and new technology, so every once in a while SF authors will come at it from the other direction. This is the second such I've read, and by far the more successful.
Bova avoids any mention of what year it's supposed to be, but there's some interesting hints of background as he writes from a 2005 perspective. There was a second 9/11 style event (three major bridges being blown up near-simultaneously), and the US occupied a decent amount of the Middle East, and is still there as a result. There's no overall look at the privatization of space flight that was starting at the time, but there is certainly one company making a real go at it, and it is the center of the novel.
Thankfully, Dan Randolph has none of the authoritarian foot-in-mouth baggage that the real world has to deal with. But he is obsessive, and obsessive enough to have two separate obsessions, one of which powers the central plot, the other of which helps tie together pieces of the secondary plot (or maybe tertiary, the side stuff tends to be a bit fragmented to easily sort out).
The primary obsession is to deliver cheap power by setting up a large geosynchronous satellite that will gather solar power and beam it down to Earth. Whatever year this is, the various technical hurdles of this plan have been dealt with, and there's even been a Japanese demonstration model already (which Randolph helped with).
Of course, this would completely upend current power structures (pun not quite intended). And that's where the book goes from hard SF to technothriller as various groups try to stop or control this about-to-be new source of comparatively cheap power. It's odd that all of this comes up as the project is nearing completion, instead of a decade or two of political fighting, but that would make for an extremely dull novel.
The novel starts with the crash in a test flight of the last piece of Randolph's plan. A true reusable space plane that can get maintenance people up to geosynchronous orbit to perform any needed maintenance. Late in the novel you finally find out that there's already an equivalent to the '80s "space tug" proposal up there that is what is transferring everything from low orbit to geo. But there's no discussion of when/how that was put there, what keeps it fueled, or any other infrastructure. Not even evidence of current space stations in orbit. The novel has a lot to talk about on the ground anyway, but it does make it feel like Astro Corporation is operating in a vacuum (har har).
Pacing is overall a bit slow, a little uneven, and ramps up to a technothriller action climax. Overall, it's a good book, but a lot of the secondary parts feel underbaked. It's a strong enough book for me to be continuing on to the asteroids.
April 24, 2019
I last read most of the The Grand Tour in high school or earlier, jumping about from book to book in no particular order. I don't even know if I read The Grand Tour, especially given that it might not have been out yet. It's a bit of a strange book, set first chronologically but written decades after others in the series. I was looking for an audiobook series to listen to next and this seemed worth a try.
Plotwise, it's near future science fiction, with a world similar enough to the modern world that nothing seems impossible but exploring what could be / could have been. It's not the sort of science fiction I generally read, but so it goes. The idea of the powersat and the spaceplanes is neat and the idea of NASA transferring responsibilities to private companies seems increasingly prescient every year (the last space shuttle flight was 6 years after this book was published). The ending in particular has just the right push of scifi action and adventure to keep me reading by itself.
Characterwise, I really don't like Dan Randolph. He's the worst sort of 'alpha male' personality, absolutely sure he's right at all times and uses and discards all those around him, women in particular. Having a main character you don't care for can work, but it certainly makes things harder. On top of that, there are a pile of other stereotypes. Women are described physically first and are all different variations on beautiful, and while they're often intelligent or successful of their own right, it always feels like an afterthought.
Perhaps it's a product of the point of view, the story purposely colored by Randolph's point of view. Perhaps it comes from a story that was started in the 80s. Perhaps an author born in the 30s. Perhaps it's how the world still is. In any case, it's not a world I'd generally choose to read about.
In any case, not my favorite story. But it's good enough to give the rest a try. I'm especially looking forward to the books post-Dan Randolph. :D
Plotwise, it's near future science fiction, with a world similar enough to the modern world that nothing seems impossible but exploring what could be / could have been. It's not the sort of science fiction I generally read, but so it goes. The idea of the powersat and the spaceplanes is neat and the idea of NASA transferring responsibilities to private companies seems increasingly prescient every year (the last space shuttle flight was 6 years after this book was published). The ending in particular has just the right push of scifi action and adventure to keep me reading by itself.
Characterwise, I really don't like Dan Randolph. He's the worst sort of 'alpha male' personality, absolutely sure he's right at all times and uses and discards all those around him, women in particular. Having a main character you don't care for can work, but it certainly makes things harder. On top of that, there are a pile of other stereotypes. Women are described physically first and are all different variations on beautiful, and while they're often intelligent or successful of their own right, it always feels like an afterthought.
Perhaps it's a product of the point of view, the story purposely colored by Randolph's point of view. Perhaps it comes from a story that was started in the 80s. Perhaps an author born in the 30s. Perhaps it's how the world still is. In any case, it's not a world I'd generally choose to read about.
In any case, not my favorite story. But it's good enough to give the rest a try. I'm especially looking forward to the books post-Dan Randolph. :D
December 4, 2020
POWERSAT! It turns out "never boring" doesn't always get you 5 stars.
The fact that this book was published in 2005 is the most fascinating part of it. Swap out Astro Corp for SpaceX, Space Plane for Falcon 9, Powersat for Starlink, and the protagonist for Elon Musk, and this book would pass as a near 1 to 1 prediction of the modern era.
Of course with it being written in 2005, you also have muslim terrorism, 90's era action scenes, and sexy ladies everywhere.
Ben Bova passed away last Sunday, so I decided to give one of his works a try. I feel like what I just read was less science fiction and more steamy ensemble romance. With so many modern writers finding no success anywhere but writing smutty love stories, Ben Bova seems to have had a reverse problem in his time. He has this uncanny ability to get a plot into a bedroom.
There is a real confident writer behind this book, though. It's a big story with lots of characters. Even though it plays like a perfectly predictable 90's action movie, it's tightly written and has no fat on it. I didn't put it down till it was over, but it doesn't really leave me wanting more.
I feel like this wasn't the introductionary book I would have been guided to by a Bovahead. So I will be checking out more by Ben Bova.
4 stars. I read science fiction for the transformative conscious experience. I need to be astonished. Apparently Ben Bova has over 120 more in his catalogue, so relax Bovaheads, the jury is still out.
The fact that this book was published in 2005 is the most fascinating part of it. Swap out Astro Corp for SpaceX, Space Plane for Falcon 9, Powersat for Starlink, and the protagonist for Elon Musk, and this book would pass as a near 1 to 1 prediction of the modern era.
Of course with it being written in 2005, you also have muslim terrorism, 90's era action scenes, and sexy ladies everywhere.
Ben Bova passed away last Sunday, so I decided to give one of his works a try. I feel like what I just read was less science fiction and more steamy ensemble romance. With so many modern writers finding no success anywhere but writing smutty love stories, Ben Bova seems to have had a reverse problem in his time. He has this uncanny ability to get a plot into a bedroom.
There is a real confident writer behind this book, though. It's a big story with lots of characters. Even though it plays like a perfectly predictable 90's action movie, it's tightly written and has no fat on it. I didn't put it down till it was over, but it doesn't really leave me wanting more.
I feel like this wasn't the introductionary book I would have been guided to by a Bovahead. So I will be checking out more by Ben Bova.
4 stars. I read science fiction for the transformative conscious experience. I need to be astonished. Apparently Ben Bova has over 120 more in his catalogue, so relax Bovaheads, the jury is still out.
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