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Orion #4
Orion and the Conqueror
John O'Ryan is Orion--more than human, less than a god, cast away on the seas of Time to do battle among the Creators for the future of mankind.
Now the eternal warrior finds himself separated from his great love, Anya, and marooned in Macedonia under the reign of Phillip--fighting alongside the young Alexander, and at the mercy of a Queen Olympias who is far more than she seems.
Now the eternal warrior finds himself separated from his great love, Anya, and marooned in Macedonia under the reign of Phillip--fighting alongside the young Alexander, and at the mercy of a Queen Olympias who is far more than she seems.
350 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
10 people are currently reading
323 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
714 books1,033 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 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 5, 2023
This isn't the worst title of the Orion saga -- it's a noticeable step up from the angst-ridden previous volume -- but it might well be the most boring. Much how the first half of Vengeance of Orion was little more than a straightforward retelling of traditional accounts of the Trojan War, this fourth novel is almost entirely just a factual presentation of the later years in the reign of Philip of Macedon, leading up to his assassination and the succession of his son Alexander the Great. Oh, there are some nominal sci-fi trappings: the reincarnated super-human warrior Orion is there as our witness to events, of course, and the king's wife Olympias is quickly revealed to be Hera, one of the far-future advanced beings of this series who have gained time-travel and retroactively inspired the pantheons of various world religions. But neither of them make any particular impact on the established timeline, in the end.
Historical fiction has its place, and author Ben Bova seems to have done all the appropriate research for it here, but that's not really what I'm looking for in a story like this. It doesn't help that the protagonist's current mission is so obscure for so long, or that he's lost most of his memories again (including his original twentieth-century textbook knowledge of Philip and Alexander, which could have at least added some pathos and dramatic irony to the affair). And it's certainly not great that the divine villainess's main role in the plot is to repeatedly torture and rape the hero, a topic which this 1994 pulp adventure is not remotely able to handle with the care that it deserves. But this is primarily just a novel-length treatment of a real military leader's rise and fall, which I guess is fine as far as it goes.
[Content warning for pedophilia, incest, suicide, and gore.]
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Historical fiction has its place, and author Ben Bova seems to have done all the appropriate research for it here, but that's not really what I'm looking for in a story like this. It doesn't help that the protagonist's current mission is so obscure for so long, or that he's lost most of his memories again (including his original twentieth-century textbook knowledge of Philip and Alexander, which could have at least added some pathos and dramatic irony to the affair). And it's certainly not great that the divine villainess's main role in the plot is to repeatedly torture and rape the hero, a topic which this 1994 pulp adventure is not remotely able to handle with the care that it deserves. But this is primarily just a novel-length treatment of a real military leader's rise and fall, which I guess is fine as far as it goes.
[Content warning for pedophilia, incest, suicide, and gore.]
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
October 6, 2024
What can I say
This is a great series ,I love how well the cast of characters has been written,I totally enjoyed the storyline. Well, what can I say off to book five
This is a great series ,I love how well the cast of characters has been written,I totally enjoyed the storyline. Well, what can I say off to book five
November 23, 2024
The fourth book in the Orion series sees Orion spending time with Alexander the Great and his father Philip. Same as the other sequels to Orion, not quite as good as the original. But still worth a read.
August 21, 2008
Okay, when I picked up 'Orion' originally, I didn't know it was a series. Now that I have discovered it, I must admit that I'm hooked. This is the fourth book in a series of five, so I've read out of order. Machts nichts . . .it matters not.
Bova continues to masterfully weave Orion into the fabric of human history. Unlike the first novel, when Orion was in several different time lines, this novel is confined to fourth century Hellenic Greek, in the time of Phillip of Macedonia when Alexander (who was to become 'The Great') was eighteen years old.
It's really fascination--great story, terrific characters, really interesting. Thematically, the book explores the differneces between democracy and autocracy but does not do so simply; in this novel, the democracy follows the wrong-headed people who speak well and who sway the masses, and the autocracy is a well-run, fair minded power structure. We wind up admiring the autocract and cheering against the democrat. However, as Bova says in a thoughtful afterward, no matter how good the autocrat, things fall apart in the matter of succession . . . although Alexander achieved the title of 'The Great,' his success was build on that of his father, Phillip, who was not only a successful general but a fine statesman. Alexander was a fine general but lacked the ability to govern.
And like Khan from the first novel, Orion tries to save Phillip from a murder plot, only to find that the king is weary, recongizies the way of things, and welcomes death.
Definitely worth reading.
Bova continues to masterfully weave Orion into the fabric of human history. Unlike the first novel, when Orion was in several different time lines, this novel is confined to fourth century Hellenic Greek, in the time of Phillip of Macedonia when Alexander (who was to become 'The Great') was eighteen years old.
It's really fascination--great story, terrific characters, really interesting. Thematically, the book explores the differneces between democracy and autocracy but does not do so simply; in this novel, the democracy follows the wrong-headed people who speak well and who sway the masses, and the autocracy is a well-run, fair minded power structure. We wind up admiring the autocract and cheering against the democrat. However, as Bova says in a thoughtful afterward, no matter how good the autocrat, things fall apart in the matter of succession . . . although Alexander achieved the title of 'The Great,' his success was build on that of his father, Phillip, who was not only a successful general but a fine statesman. Alexander was a fine general but lacked the ability to govern.
And like Khan from the first novel, Orion tries to save Phillip from a murder plot, only to find that the king is weary, recongizies the way of things, and welcomes death.
Definitely worth reading.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2014
This is probably my least favorite of the Orion series. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. It's still a fun bit of historical fiction, and we still have Orion's over the top skills as a warrior, but there were a few things that bothered me.
Orion's memory
The first book was fun and interesting when Orion didn't know who he was, or how he came to be. It was a bit of a mystery as we discover the nature of the gods and their creature, Orion. This time around, there was no mystery to discover but it just felt like losing Orion's memory made it so that we lost a lot of what makes him a fun character. His character is powerful and noble, but in this book we see him become a thief and a murderer (I know he's killed plenty before, but it always had a higher purpose.)
The ending
When it was all said and done I thought for a moment and realized that the book was kind of pointless. Orion didn't know what he'd been sent to do, but when he figured it out he We never do find out the specifics of why that mission was tied to the whole fabric of spacetime, which is also somewhat unsatisfying.
All of that being said, it's a good historical fiction, and a fun adventure. It was fun to see a childhood view of Alexander the Great. It's certainly worthy of the 3 stars I gave it. It's just not in the 4 and 5 star category where I've rated the other books.
Orion's memory
The first book was fun and interesting when Orion didn't know who he was, or how he came to be. It was a bit of a mystery as we discover the nature of the gods and their creature, Orion. This time around, there was no mystery to discover but it just felt like losing Orion's memory made it so that we lost a lot of what makes him a fun character. His character is powerful and noble, but in this book we see him become a thief and a murderer (I know he's killed plenty before, but it always had a higher purpose.)
The ending
When it was all said and done I thought for a moment and realized that the book was kind of pointless. Orion didn't know what he'd been sent to do, but when he figured it out he We never do find out the specifics of why that mission was tied to the whole fabric of spacetime, which is also somewhat unsatisfying.
All of that being said, it's a good historical fiction, and a fun adventure. It was fun to see a childhood view of Alexander the Great. It's certainly worthy of the 3 stars I gave it. It's just not in the 4 and 5 star category where I've rated the other books.
June 9, 2016
This is just one of those light bits of fluff that I enjoy while I'm reading something heavier. It's not art, but it's fun. It's part of a series that Bova created in which our hero, Orion, is placed in Macedonia during Philip II's reign, and as Philip's son Alexander (eventually known as "the Great") is learning his military lessons.
Orion is not exactly human. He was created by the cleverly named Creators to serve them as needed, usually as a warrior. The Creators, while based in the distant future, are recognized by humans in this era as their gods - Apollo, Hera, Athena and the rest of the gang.
The Creators see this point as a critical nexus in time, and need to be sure that things go the way the want. It's up to Orion to help ensure this - but by this time, he isn't exactly fond of the Creators and has his own plans.
I read the first Orion book when I was in high school and really enjoyed it. I don't get the same pleasure now as I did then, but it's still a fun diversion. And Bova does make a decent effort to get the history right - with some of his own interpretations.
One complaint - what the heck is that cover art about? In no scene in this book is Orion dressed in modern clothes, and carries no weapon more advanced than a sword.
Orion is not exactly human. He was created by the cleverly named Creators to serve them as needed, usually as a warrior. The Creators, while based in the distant future, are recognized by humans in this era as their gods - Apollo, Hera, Athena and the rest of the gang.
The Creators see this point as a critical nexus in time, and need to be sure that things go the way the want. It's up to Orion to help ensure this - but by this time, he isn't exactly fond of the Creators and has his own plans.
I read the first Orion book when I was in high school and really enjoyed it. I don't get the same pleasure now as I did then, but it's still a fun diversion. And Bova does make a decent effort to get the history right - with some of his own interpretations.
One complaint - what the heck is that cover art about? In no scene in this book is Orion dressed in modern clothes, and carries no weapon more advanced than a sword.
July 15, 2014
The fourth book in the Orion series sees Orion spending time with Alexander the Great and his father Philip. Bova paints a picture of Philip that is more kind than most portrayals.
As always, the historical fiction aspect of the book is interesting. It's Orion and his relationship to the Creators that leaves me wanting. Orion hates having his strings pulled and the creators act like spoiled children. The crisis is left unspecified and so the motivations behind any of this other than Bova's excuse to write a novel featuring Alexander the Great are left as a mystery.
As always, the historical fiction aspect of the book is interesting. It's Orion and his relationship to the Creators that leaves me wanting. Orion hates having his strings pulled and the creators act like spoiled children. The crisis is left unspecified and so the motivations behind any of this other than Bova's excuse to write a novel featuring Alexander the Great are left as a mystery.
March 27, 2011
Widely considered to be Bova’s masterpiece, I never really figured out these books (and yet for some reason I read three of them). Our titular hero loses his memory, fights evil as he jumps back and forth in different eras of past and future. These jumps are more or less out of his control. He constantly loses and regains his beloved. The first book is decent, but after that it’s really just rinse and repeat and they blend into each other in my memory. I gave up after book three.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=460
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=460
July 7, 2008
Same as the other sequels to Orion, not quite as good as the original. But still worth a read.
August 19, 2012
Another history lesson .
June 14, 2013
I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of this one, but I will say that I was quite entertained. A fast, fun read, no more--but sometimes that's exactly what I want.
February 15, 2016
I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of this one, but I will say that I was quite entertained. A fast, fun read, no more--but sometimes that's exactly what I want.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews