New Frontiers: A Collection of Tales About the Past, the Present, and the Future

by Ben Bova

New Frontiers, fourteen startling visions of yesterday, today, and tomorrow from Ben Bova, six-time winner of the Hugo Award


Frontiers can be found in all directions. Frontiers of time and space, as well as frontiers of courage, devotion, love, hate, and the outer limits of the human spirit. This outstanding collection of stories by one of science fiction's premier talents spans the length and breadth of history and the universe, while exploring thought-provoking new ideas and dilemmas.

From the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights to a vast interstellar empire thousands of years in the future, from the Vatican to a one-man vessel drifting in the vast emptiness of the asteroid belt, from virtual reality duels to the subtle intricacies of time travel and a golf tournament on the Moon, here are tales of scoundrels and heroes, scientists and explorers, aliens and artificial intelligences, and even a young Albert Einstein. Each of them stands at the border of a new frontier and must venture out into unexplored territory―thanks to the limitless imagination of Ben Bova.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies, Adult Fiction

400 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 22, 2014

About the author

Ben 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

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ben Bova wrote speculative fiction, science fiction, hard science articles and historical fiction. He wrote his stories for many magazines and was editor of Analog Science Fact & Fiction and Omni magazine. He won several Hugo awards (science fiction).

New Frontiers is a collection of shorter stories that spans Bova’s visions of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. We have a fresh view of Scheherazade’s storytelling and what happened to Rick and Ilsa after the story of Casablanca. There are logistic problems on the moon with the transportation of both humans and golf balls. There are stories about the interface between humans and artificial intelligence, and more: Fourteen stories in all.

“Frontiers” is meant in a larger sense of the edges of emotions (such as frustration, love and determination) as well as the edges of knowledge and time.

The audiobook has four readers. You may like some better than others but I felt that they all worked well. Some of the offerings are a bit dated, but Bova’s skill with narrative and his ability to speculate on technology were enough to keep me enchanted. Maybe a shade under 4* but this book proved a fine companion for some car trips.

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised by the luke warm reviews for this sci-fi short story collection. I went into it without any expectations and came away realizing many of the stories in it belong in the very highest tier of sci-fi short stories, better than many by the legends of the genre. In particular, the story about an alien race offering humans the chance to ask any one question they want was perfectly done. There were a few stinkers in the collection that fell completely flat, but more often than not the stories were either good or great.

[Tim Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competent. Totally unmemorable.

Bova is clearly an author who could take an idea and have you a perfectly serviceable, competently crafted short story in a day or two. Unfortunately these come across as if he did exactly that.

I appreciate that a short story must quickly place us in scene, present one idea, and develop it. These all do that. But I'm left with no sense that a craftsman did this; more like a journeyman, a smith making his five-thousandth horseshoe.

That said, there are no weak stories here; nor will the journeyman's 5000th horseshoe be anything short of a perfectly good horseshoe.

Or, to be cruel to a different metaphor, if some stories are exquisitely hand-iced petit fours, these are grandma's toll house cookies. Good cookies, but ...

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of sci fi stories. They were okay. I listened to these as part of a book challenge. It was a little bit of a change in what I have been reading as of late, and I appreciated that. 3 stars

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading stories or books by Bova when I was in my teens/twenties and couldn't believe this was a fairly new book (2014) but then I looked him up and he is 87 years old so certainly was publishing when I was a teenager. "In Trust" was a bit harsh on Catholics but the premise that being frozen means you are dead and you have committed suicide doesn't make any sense to me since if you can be revived you aren't dead. I also thought the story about Scheherazade was sexist as it postulated that she didn't make up the stories- no woman is that smart???? But otherwise I enjoyed the stories.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. The stories are fine but not all that well written. I had high hopes because of all the awards but the whole time I was thinking "Kim Stanley Robinson has done all this but better."

[Shyue Chou Chuang · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a lacklustre collection of science fiction short stories that is characterised by their blandness. The stories are forgettable and seem to be throwaway pieces written between novels. Some of the stories appear to be nothing more than exercises in self-indulgence. The ideas expressed are mundane and the writing dull. There is precious little to recommend here except maybe for the Bova completist who must read everything that he has written.

[John Everard Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I am short on time and want to get back to my first love in reading I turn to short stories. I have not read a lot of Ben Bova and these stories did not draw me into reading more of his writing.
But I did enjoyed the stories. They are a quick read. The appreciated the diversity because I tend to go for future oriented space stories. I was ready to pass over stories or not finish the book, but I found most of the stories held my attention and gave me what I wanted - reading enjoyment without having to grapple with new languages, new worlds, strange names etc. Ben Bova has an introduction to each story which sets it up for the reader and these drew me into the story quickly. I read them all.

[Glenn Younger · Rating 4 out of 5]

appetizer reading

Short story sci fi has its limitations due to limited word counts, of course, but Ben Bova manages to create worlds, characters, and plot arcs with living color in short order. Some of the stories come off as a little dated. Others—like the last one with the Emperor of a hundred worlds— I wish had been full books.

All in all, I’d call this book solid appetizer reading for just before you put your head down on the pillow at night.

[Stephen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guess I've grown up. The stories reminded strongly of the anthologies of golden age magazine science fiction I devoured as child (before "tween"was a thing.) Not a terrible reading experience but even with the stories I especially liked (and most were too generic for that to be the case) there was a sense that the time for reading the story was long past.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bova gives us a collection of excellent short stories that look are set in various frontiers such as space, technology, and time. This easy to read work is suitable for children and is an example of the great writing of the old masters of science fiction.

[Sula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Often short story collections are a real mix, some amazing and always a few that are not for you. These all managed to be of a fairly similar standard. While none of them are excellent, the stick-in-your-mind for years to come, they all were enjoyable to read. 'Waterbot' was my favourite.

[Barmak Kusha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of short stories by the now dearly departed Ben Bova. I really liked it. It was a fun mix of the serious and the comical, a really well-named book. The last one was just perfect, so was the one about a young Einstein.

[Walaka · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://heisathark.blogspot.com/2015/0...

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up as a "Blind Date" from my library. While I don't usually read short story collections, it was fun. Some of the stories were better than others.

[Stuart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute boilerplate.

[Joan Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ben Bova's novels but this collection of short stories blew me away. He's got such a creative mind!!!

[MARTIN KRUK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic short stories that portrays wonderful morals within realistic constructed frameworks.

[Lori McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bug farts!!!!!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Duration: 09:45:28

[Cameron Powell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story after story feeling left empty. Out of 14 stories only about 3 were decent. The writing is fine, but not good enough to make me want more Bova.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a fan of the last story, but the rest are excellent. "The Question" is one of the best short stories I've read in my life.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taspark

Short stories by Ben Bova were not on my radar at all. Truly works that should be shared wide and far.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bova writes an easy, clear narrative that allows the reader to see right down into the philosophical heart of the tale. His short stories in this volume carry a folkloric quality that gives the reader space to enjoy the "telling" and time to reflect on the message...you might say Mr.Bova is a master of the space-time continuum (sorry, couldn't resist the pun)!

A quick read that you'll find easy to enjoy.

[Karl Geiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining short-story anthology of 14 tales ranging from an asteroid water miner arguing with his ship's AI to a quirky node to the cinema great "Casablanca". Most amusing story is about how to trust someone with your cryo-stored corpse.

If you want some light SF reading that can be interrupted or finished readily, it's tough to beat a master like Ben Bova.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually read short stories because I like to get lost in the narrative, but I thoroughly enjoyed these. They were just long enough to capture my attention, and varied enough to keep me wanted a little bit more.

[Christen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I really enjoyed about this book is that it is a book of sci-fi short stories that was about the human experience just in a different location or time. They were not the dark stories that I find in some collections. I don't know how I missed this author before now.

[Tom Gorski · Rating 3 out of 5]

As one of the 3 B's I love in science fiction (the others being Brin and Benford) I wanted to really like this collection of short stories by Ben Bova. Well, I only liked them. They are fun and clever and, like many short stories, somewhat underdeveloped.

[Mysteryfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It's a collection of short stories with characters at different frontiers - frontiers being loosely defined. The Scheherazade story was funny, so was the golfing one. "The Question" was thought-provoking and "In Trust" was entirely believable.

[Susie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this recorded book of short stories by Ben Bova. I had never read any of Bova's novels so the experience was new to me. One thing I liked was that the stories were read by different narrators including Paul Boehmer, Gabrielle De Cuir, Alex Hyde-White, and Stefan Rudnicki.