What do you think?
Rate this book
Orion #3
Orion In The Dying Time
A sequel to "Orion" and "Vengeance of Orion". At the end of the Cretaceous Period, Earth is in the grip of the dinosaurs. Their leader is a reptile, worshipped by the Egyptians as a powerful god for thousands of years. His mission is to destroy the Creators - Orion's masters - and rule the planet.
356 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
12 people are currently reading
329 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
715 books1,037 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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 16, 2023
This time-travel adventure sequel offers probably the most problematic of its saga's dabbles in what the back of this book calls 'speculative theology,' taking as its premise the wild notion that the ancient Egyptian god Set is the same being as Christianity's Satan -- and a murderous reptilian alien from another universe, to boot. The ensuing plot finds humanity's champion Orion struggling against that foe and his minions in the Neolithic, Cretaceous, and far-future eras as they seek to supplant us throughout the space-time continuum, and while I think author Ben Bova is trying to offer a twist on the first novel in the series (which revealed that humans once did much the same to Neanderthals), it plays out here as too similar a conflict in practice.
More interesting on a character dimension is the fact that the protagonist's divine love interest accompanies him for most of this title, having previously been largely either separated or present in a mortal guise with no memory of her true self. We finally get to see the lovers as an actual couple for an extended period of the narrative, and they seem like a good match with their shared warrior spirit, although Orion has some needlessly angsty moments when he temporarily (repeatedly!) thinks she's abandoned him.
This was my least favorite of its series when I read the lot as a teenager, and I can't say that it's improved after decades away. It's also definitely the work of a male science-fiction writer from 1990, with its gratuitous female (including underage) nudity, infanticide, and gore, none of which are handled with particular respect. At its best amid all the flamethrower-wielding dinosaurs and whatnot, the story does manage to achieve a level of pulpy fun akin to something like A Princess of Mars, or perhaps Planet of the Apes crossed with the prehistoric epoch of Chrono Trigger. But the hero's dour moping cuts against the effectiveness of that as a sustained mood for the overall piece, and together with some sloppy plotting in the end ultimately lands this installment a lower rating than its predecessors for me.
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6...
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
More interesting on a character dimension is the fact that the protagonist's divine love interest accompanies him for most of this title, having previously been largely either separated or present in a mortal guise with no memory of her true self. We finally get to see the lovers as an actual couple for an extended period of the narrative, and they seem like a good match with their shared warrior spirit, although Orion has some needlessly angsty moments when he temporarily (repeatedly!) thinks she's abandoned him.
This was my least favorite of its series when I read the lot as a teenager, and I can't say that it's improved after decades away. It's also definitely the work of a male science-fiction writer from 1990, with its gratuitous female (including underage) nudity, infanticide, and gore, none of which are handled with particular respect. At its best amid all the flamethrower-wielding dinosaurs and whatnot, the story does manage to achieve a level of pulpy fun akin to something like A Princess of Mars, or perhaps Planet of the Apes crossed with the prehistoric epoch of Chrono Trigger. But the hero's dour moping cuts against the effectiveness of that as a sustained mood for the overall piece, and together with some sloppy plotting in the end ultimately lands this installment a lower rating than its predecessors for me.
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6...
--Or click here to browse through all my previous reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
August 29, 2024
In this episode, Orion fights the dinosaur god, Set. Time is fluid! The book was a cool rendition, but I thought that Orion showed too much emotion at times. He's a pawn and does what he's told...get over it and quit whining about it. The girlfriend plays quite a role, too. But, as always with Bova stories, there are quite a few people/beings/entities to track. I like the book enough to continue on to #4.
November 7, 2020
It would have been better if it had been consistent and not made up new science as needed.
December 28, 2023
Duration: 9:51
October 4, 2024
Totally enjoyed
I really am enjoying this series. There's nothing I didn't
like. It's well written, and so are the characters and storyline of off to book four
I really am enjoying this series. There's nothing I didn't
like. It's well written, and so are the characters and storyline of off to book four
January 28, 2013
Ben Bova wrote the Orion series to explore one big idea: what is our relationship to god or to the gods? Does humanity create the gods or do the gods create humanity? What if the relationship is circular and more messy than you think? Orion was created by the Creators, to fight their battles in their past. He's stronger than regular humans and has abilities that regular humanity does not. He's more than a man but less than a god. But with each mission that he's sent on, he becomes a little stronger, a little more capable, and a little closer to the Creators.
In this novel, Orion is sent back to ancient Earth. Set, an alien who inspired the stories of the Egyptian god, is trying to wipe out all of humanity. Set wants to populate the earth with his own reptilian race and Orion is all that's standing between him and the elimination of the human race. The story ranges back and forth through time, allowing us to see both the dawn of humanity as well as the Cretaceous period.
Ben Bova used this story to illustrate cosmology (Set's home planet is a red dwarf star, sitting where Jupiter sits in our solar system), paleontology (what was the Cretaceous period really like?), and biology / sociology (how would a race of intelligent lizards evolve and what would their society look like?). He succeeded, as the science was interesting without being dry and pedantic.
I had reservations about the action side of this story, however. I know that Orion's growth and development was a big point of both this story and the overall series. I know that Orion needs to develop godlike powers, to achieve Bova's goals. I felt like Bova's goals were too important and the needs of the story were not important.
Orion's powers developed at very convenient points in the story. Whenever he hit a roadblock or faced defeat, he would suddenly realize that he was capable of something new, something that would have have an immediate impact and benefit. It was too convenient and detracted from the realism of the story.
I'll probably still read some of the other books in this series, to see the science that Bova puts into them. But I hope the other stories aren't as flawed as this one.
In this novel, Orion is sent back to ancient Earth. Set, an alien who inspired the stories of the Egyptian god, is trying to wipe out all of humanity. Set wants to populate the earth with his own reptilian race and Orion is all that's standing between him and the elimination of the human race. The story ranges back and forth through time, allowing us to see both the dawn of humanity as well as the Cretaceous period.
Ben Bova used this story to illustrate cosmology (Set's home planet is a red dwarf star, sitting where Jupiter sits in our solar system), paleontology (what was the Cretaceous period really like?), and biology / sociology (how would a race of intelligent lizards evolve and what would their society look like?). He succeeded, as the science was interesting without being dry and pedantic.
I had reservations about the action side of this story, however. I know that Orion's growth and development was a big point of both this story and the overall series. I know that Orion needs to develop godlike powers, to achieve Bova's goals. I felt like Bova's goals were too important and the needs of the story were not important.
Orion's powers developed at very convenient points in the story. Whenever he hit a roadblock or faced defeat, he would suddenly realize that he was capable of something new, something that would have have an immediate impact and benefit. It was too convenient and detracted from the realism of the story.
I'll probably still read some of the other books in this series, to see the science that Bova puts into them. But I hope the other stories aren't as flawed as this one.
April 8, 2015
Orion in the Dying Time (1990) 348 pages by Ben Bova
Third Orion book. Bova is retelling or reinventing mythological tales in an SF context. Orion is created by The Golden One, a.k.a Apollo, Aten, and maybe some other names, to be one of the creators weapons to keep or make history fall in line, so that humans come into existence and eventually evolve into the creators. So there is some time travel elements in the story as well.
In this book, Orion is sent back to pre-egyption days to try to defeat Set. Set happens to be a lizard like being from a doomed planet that orbits the planet Sheol. Sheol is a red star a binary companion to our sun. At this point it's about to go Nova. By our time is has died and that's why we no longer see it.
The book was fun to read. I remember really liking the first book, Orion, immensely, and the second Vengeance of Orion not that much. I can't really remember those stories, one of them had to do with Neanderthals. This one was in between, it never hit any lulls, but only rarely did it excite me. Still it was a good change of pace from the last book I read.
Third Orion book. Bova is retelling or reinventing mythological tales in an SF context. Orion is created by The Golden One, a.k.a Apollo, Aten, and maybe some other names, to be one of the creators weapons to keep or make history fall in line, so that humans come into existence and eventually evolve into the creators. So there is some time travel elements in the story as well.
In this book, Orion is sent back to pre-egyption days to try to defeat Set. Set happens to be a lizard like being from a doomed planet that orbits the planet Sheol. Sheol is a red star a binary companion to our sun. At this point it's about to go Nova. By our time is has died and that's why we no longer see it.
The book was fun to read. I remember really liking the first book, Orion, immensely, and the second Vengeance of Orion not that much. I can't really remember those stories, one of them had to do with Neanderthals. This one was in between, it never hit any lulls, but only rarely did it excite me. Still it was a good change of pace from the last book I read.
February 2, 2014
The third episode in Orion's adventures across time and space is just as fantastic as the others.
This time around, Orion ventures back to the cretaceous to battle a reptilian alien who controls dinosaurs telepathically.
There is a lot to like here. I can't think of anything cooler than telepathically controlling a tyrannosaurus so that you get to see life through its eyes and essentially be a dinosaur. I'm pretty sure that has been my dream from the moment I was born.
One of my favorite things about this series is how it wraps many famous historical events and cultural myths into Orion's story. This book's explanation of the garden of Eden was weak, in my opinion. But, I really liked the tie in to the extinction of the dinosaurs being caused by Orion. I also thought that the explanation for the dragon myth being tied to reptilians with energy weapons was a good one as well.
All in all, this is another excellent episode in Orion's saga. It has plenty of adventure, and larger than life characters. Highy recommended.
This time around, Orion ventures back to the cretaceous to battle a reptilian alien who controls dinosaurs telepathically.
There is a lot to like here. I can't think of anything cooler than telepathically controlling a tyrannosaurus so that you get to see life through its eyes and essentially be a dinosaur. I'm pretty sure that has been my dream from the moment I was born.
One of my favorite things about this series is how it wraps many famous historical events and cultural myths into Orion's story. This book's explanation of the garden of Eden was weak, in my opinion. But, I really liked the tie in to the extinction of the dinosaurs being caused by Orion. I also thought that the explanation for the dragon myth being tied to reptilians with energy weapons was a good one as well.
All in all, this is another excellent episode in Orion's saga. It has plenty of adventure, and larger than life characters. Highy recommended.
July 15, 2014
The third book in the Orion series was actually the best so far, though not by enough to get more stars. Orion continues to learn abilities that only the Creators and the villain du jour have.
The science for how Jupiter formed seemed just plain wrong though it was an interesting idea.
I guess I'll read book four, but only because I'm borrowing these and not buying them.
The science for how Jupiter formed seemed just plain wrong though it was an interesting idea.
I guess I'll read book four, but only because I'm borrowing these and not buying them.
July 7, 2008
Not as good as the original, but on pace with the other sequels to Orion.
October 13, 2012
Pulpy adventure.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews