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The Winds Of Altair: Signed
Earth is an old planet, and her teeming masses are running out of resources . . . and time. It is up to men such as Jeff Holman to discover a haven for Earth’s millions. Altair VI is one such planet, and Holman is determined to transform this world into one where the human race can survive.Star probes had long before informed Earth that Altair VI had a flourishing ecology with one very tough beast at the top of the food chain, a beast that will have to be dealt with before the human colony ships arrive. The beast is not only tough, it is as smart as a man.Holman is faced with a soul-wrenching decision—for to make Altair VI habitable for humans, all native life must die.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
6 people are currently reading
262 people want to read
About the author
Ben Bova
715 books1,039 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 46 reviews
August 25, 2017
I am so excited about finding this book!
Ever since I watched the movie Avatar I have been scraping my memory trying to the remember the name of the book that I read in grade school with the six-legged tigers on the hostile planet and the kids that run them telepathically.
Well guess what? It's called The Winds of Altair
Stand yourselves by for a re-read review so very soon.
--update--
Having re-read this book now, I must say that it not aged as well as I had hoped but it was still pretty great. Here some thoughts:
This story is old school YA and as such doesn't really deliver the Hunger Game level of intensity expected of modern YA. It's kind of tame by today's standards.
The ending is rough - I remember thinking even as kid that that it was a little unrealistic and anticlimactic. What surprised me during the re-read though, was that the ending that I remembered didn't actually happen. I invented it. The actual ending was even more unsatisfying than the one I remembered. Apparently somewhere along the line I imposed my own "How it Should Have Ended" upon it.
Having said all that I must add that I still really love this book. A lot. The ideas in it are fabulous. Just ask James Cameron, because he appears to have dipped heavily into it to create the movie Avatar.
I also cannot deny the appeal of nostalgia. This book was "the one." The story that lit up my eyes and hooked me on Science Fiction. I even tracked down the 1973 version that I had originally read and paused religiously during my re-read to inhale that old book smell. By the magic invested in it, I was able to be a kid again, racing across an alien planet as a glorious three-ton wolfcat, if only for few hours.
Which is powerful magic indeed.
Ever since I watched the movie Avatar I have been scraping my memory trying to the remember the name of the book that I read in grade school with the six-legged tigers on the hostile planet and the kids that run them telepathically.
Well guess what? It's called The Winds of Altair
Stand yourselves by for a re-read review so very soon.
--update--
Having re-read this book now, I must say that it not aged as well as I had hoped but it was still pretty great. Here some thoughts:
This story is old school YA and as such doesn't really deliver the Hunger Game level of intensity expected of modern YA. It's kind of tame by today's standards.
The ending is rough - I remember thinking even as kid that that it was a little unrealistic and anticlimactic. What surprised me during the re-read though, was that the ending that I remembered didn't actually happen. I invented it. The actual ending was even more unsatisfying than the one I remembered. Apparently somewhere along the line I imposed my own "How it Should Have Ended" upon it.
Having said all that I must add that I still really love this book. A lot. The ideas in it are fabulous. Just ask James Cameron, because he appears to have dipped heavily into it to create the movie Avatar.
I also cannot deny the appeal of nostalgia. This book was "the one." The story that lit up my eyes and hooked me on Science Fiction. I even tracked down the 1973 version that I had originally read and paused religiously during my re-read to inhale that old book smell. By the magic invested in it, I was able to be a kid again, racing across an alien planet as a glorious three-ton wolfcat, if only for few hours.
Which is powerful magic indeed.
June 24, 2012
Loved it!
Ben Bova's eye for detail is amazing. His insight and forethought still leave me in awe. This author is what started me liking SiFi.
Not only does he draw you in, he also makes everything believable. Instead of merely reading a fictional story, its like your reading an account of someones life. If you have a love for animals, like myself, you will enjoy reading this.
Ben Bova's eye for detail is amazing. His insight and forethought still leave me in awe. This author is what started me liking SiFi.
Not only does he draw you in, he also makes everything believable. Instead of merely reading a fictional story, its like your reading an account of someones life. If you have a love for animals, like myself, you will enjoy reading this.
July 16, 2014
Winds of Altair is my second venture into the works of acclaimed sci-fi writer Ben Bova. I have heard from a few sources that it heavily inspired Avatar, so I was willing to take an 8-hour shot at it. Afterwards, I felt disappointed at the wasted potential, but do give credit to the story for inspiring the superior cinematic follow-up.
That’s not to say there is nothing redeemable found in Winds. I would pass this with 2.5 stars, because Bova shows he is capable of grabbing the reader’s attention right away, by setting up a well-described dystopic future and populating it with characters that shine through and develop adequately. Bova continues into the middle of the story strong, placing believable obstacles in the path of the protagonist, and raising the stakes just when you think they would abate. Bova’s description of the technology that connects people to lion-like animals is unique and refreshing, and doesn’t beat the reader over the head with jargon and massive paragraphs of vague exposition.
Heading towards the end, the story suffers greatly. There begins unrealistic character shifts, and liberal applications of deus ex machina. It’s almost as if the ‘winds’ in ‘Winds of Altair’ are howling through to get the book finished, stamped, and published by a deadline. I was waiting for a unique insight into the debates between religion and science that pepper the story, but it remains a formulaic execution on philosophy.
Winds feels like wasted potential, feels like a story that could have used a grander publishing implementation, but instead was a grand idea that was relegated to a pocket book. I can sense Bova has a lot more to say about respecting nature and humankind stewarding it, but it is muddle in Winds of Altair.
That’s not to say there is nothing redeemable found in Winds. I would pass this with 2.5 stars, because Bova shows he is capable of grabbing the reader’s attention right away, by setting up a well-described dystopic future and populating it with characters that shine through and develop adequately. Bova continues into the middle of the story strong, placing believable obstacles in the path of the protagonist, and raising the stakes just when you think they would abate. Bova’s description of the technology that connects people to lion-like animals is unique and refreshing, and doesn’t beat the reader over the head with jargon and massive paragraphs of vague exposition.
Heading towards the end, the story suffers greatly. There begins unrealistic character shifts, and liberal applications of deus ex machina. It’s almost as if the ‘winds’ in ‘Winds of Altair’ are howling through to get the book finished, stamped, and published by a deadline. I was waiting for a unique insight into the debates between religion and science that pepper the story, but it remains a formulaic execution on philosophy.
Winds feels like wasted potential, feels like a story that could have used a grander publishing implementation, but instead was a grand idea that was relegated to a pocket book. I can sense Bova has a lot more to say about respecting nature and humankind stewarding it, but it is muddle in Winds of Altair.
November 27, 2017
A good early Bova story on it's own but better known recently as a book that probably inspired the movie Avatar. Too many similarities to not be. Too many premises coincide but there is enough difference to make it a different story. Bova did not explicitly agree that it was but acknowledges the similarities and applauded the movie on it's own merit.
July 13, 2018
Naive and somewhat shallow story that works great as a classic adult fiction tale about a misunderstood shy teenager bonding with a bad-ass beast and becoming a hero for his people. A somewhat oversimplified portrayal of religion, world politics, colonization and environmental problems stands in a way of some legitimately good attempts to make an interesting and dynamic story.
February 25, 2009
Clash between desperate, religious colonists and ferocious, six-legged native predators. Sketchy characters, fair-to-middling alien action (no sex), and a completely unbelievable conclusion. I can't recommend it, even as a beach read for a sci-fi addict.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 9, 2012
Before there was "Avatar" there was "The Winds of Altair" and the wolfcats of Windsong. While not a direct correlation to James Cameron's blockbuster there were enough similarities to make me appreciate both the book and the movie a lot more.
July 3, 2018
Good detail does a great job describes the world but, the characters are flat. I mean the most important moments in story arch you just knew nothing bad would happen. I thoughg it was ok book.
July 23, 2021
Aardige old-school Science Fiction waarin een groepje kerkelijke wetenschappers probeert een verre planeet veilig te maken voor de komst van Aardse kolonisten. De Aarde zelf gaat aan overbevolking ten onder en de bevolking wordt rustig gehouden middels een controle chip in het centrale zenuwstelsel. Diezelfde chip wordt op Altair gebruikt om controle uit te oefenen over plaatselijke diersoorten die zich makkelijker kunnen verplaatsen over het donkere, onvoorwaardelijke landschap. Maar wat als blijkt als al het leven op die planeet uitgeroeid moet worden om het vatbaar te maken voor menselijk leven? Wat als andere soorten op Altair misschien ook intelligent zijn? Zeker de moeite van het lezen waard maar het snijdt eigenlijk geen punten aan die niet al in andere boeken met wat meer diepgang behandeld zijn. Het religieuze thema's ligt er naar mijn smaak ook iets te dik bovenop. Verder zeker niet slecht.
May 20, 2022
Yikes... So sad. If the wolfcats are smart, they will team up with the other animals and murder every single person on their planet. I haven't finished it yet. But dam. Too much like our history here in USA. Doesn't pay to be nice and help others. LMAO. And why should they get another planet? When they can't even take care of their own. They gonna fck this new planet up the same way they did earth.
March 30, 2025
An excellent page turner of a book by Ben Bova.
Almost YA in its simplicity and story telling ,but no less gripping for that.
And yes I would agree that it has all the Hallmarks of AVATAR.
I thought Bova,s description of the tsunami on Altair Vl astonishingly terrifying and the connection between Jeff and Crown subtly beautiful.
Old school Sci-Fi for sure.....but just as good today as then,if just a tad dated in some respects.
Almost YA in its simplicity and story telling ,but no less gripping for that.
And yes I would agree that it has all the Hallmarks of AVATAR.
I thought Bova,s description of the tsunami on Altair Vl astonishingly terrifying and the connection between Jeff and Crown subtly beautiful.
Old school Sci-Fi for sure.....but just as good today as then,if just a tad dated in some respects.
August 20, 2019
I really have enjoyed all of Bova's books and this was the last audiobook available.
Need to find a comparable author.
Thanks Goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/simi...
Need to find a comparable author.
Thanks Goodreads.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/simi...
May 19, 2020
Interesting story. I remember reading this as a teen. Kind of horrifying, in a way. A story about environmentalism and fundamentalist religion. The ending is just a little too neat and tidy to me. The rest was good.
November 17, 2020
Meh.
I was okay.
Think Avatar with six legged "cats" rather than blue guys. The terraforming was a bit optimistic. I think you might need more than a few oxygen generators on the beach to make a glocal impact. THink he need to do more for readers to care about his characters.
I was okay.
Think Avatar with six legged "cats" rather than blue guys. The terraforming was a bit optimistic. I think you might need more than a few oxygen generators on the beach to make a glocal impact. THink he need to do more for readers to care about his characters.
March 29, 2024
Interesting. The first space-based sci-fi book I've ever read. Characters were likable and interesting. Premise was realistic and relatable: when humans destroy earth, do they have the right to move on and destroy other planets? My only complaint was that it resolved too quickly and simply.
October 13, 2024
Great read
I really enjoyed this story. The story started off slow, but it kept building steam till finally your thinking what's next, I loved the characters and the animals they were all well written, I love a story that keeps you guessing
I really enjoyed this story. The story started off slow, but it kept building steam till finally your thinking what's next, I loved the characters and the animals they were all well written, I love a story that keeps you guessing
June 1, 2018
Enjoyable story
August 1, 2022
An easy 3.5 stars
March 29, 2023
Duration: 7:36:37
September 12, 2023
Quick read, little outdated but cool aspects of religion and morality in a colonization story that James Cameron absolutely read
December 17, 2016
The re-release cover has a quote saying that this is the story the movie Avatar tried to tell. Considering that the book predates Avatar by over twenty years I was mildly intrigued, but I ultimately picked it up because I had read Ben Bova's book Orion and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The Winds of Altair does feel a bit dated. 80's sci-fi was somehow simpler than the modern version. Certainly it's more concerned with characters and concepts than it is with technical details.
The story is shockingly similar to Avatar: a lone group of humans must colonize a distant, hostile planet, but there's primitive, native intelligent life already there. And the humans are going to link minds with another body in order to accomplish their goals. Altair focuses more on religion and social pressure than it does corporate greed and the military, but otherwise the two are extremely comparable.
The writing itself is not very notable in most ways. It's a short book; the writing is terse, but effective.
It doesn't end the same way Avatar does, and for that I'm thankful. Along the way the journey kept my attention, but it wasn't that groundbreaking. There are some beautiful sentences and ideas here and there. My favorite by far was a quote that I'll leave you with:
The Winds of Altair does feel a bit dated. 80's sci-fi was somehow simpler than the modern version. Certainly it's more concerned with characters and concepts than it is with technical details.
The story is shockingly similar to Avatar: a lone group of humans must colonize a distant, hostile planet, but there's primitive, native intelligent life already there. And the humans are going to link minds with another body in order to accomplish their goals. Altair focuses more on religion and social pressure than it does corporate greed and the military, but otherwise the two are extremely comparable.
The writing itself is not very notable in most ways. It's a short book; the writing is terse, but effective.
It doesn't end the same way Avatar does, and for that I'm thankful. Along the way the journey kept my attention, but it wasn't that groundbreaking. There are some beautiful sentences and ideas here and there. My favorite by far was a quote that I'll leave you with:
The meek shall inherit the Earth; the rest of us are going to the stars.
January 2, 2013
Earth is bursting with 17 billion people and the inevitable friction between that many people. A way out is presented to a lucky few who go off to colonise an alien plant around a distant star sponsored by the church. But the planet is inhospitable with unbreathable atmosphere and living creatures. The only hope is to terraform, but at the cost of wiping out all life on the planet. To help in the process, the scientists implant some of the higher order wildlife with devices that enable people to control the actions of the alien creatures. But they discover that they are not dumb brutes and the result is a struggle between the leaders of the mission and the scientists as to whether they should terraform, return to Earth or pursue some other course of action. Although written in the early 1970s, there are some parallels with the present situation. This is a good read, but not Ben Bova's best.
March 1, 2022
I give 4.5 stars to this excellent story full of dreams of new planets for humans, of love and romance, and of conflict and tension that shakes the foundation of society. To make the planet Altair VI suitable for humans means killing all life on the planet, including a possible intelligent species. The conflict between religion and science presents the ultimate moral dilemma. The solution is mind-blowing.
Ben Bova is one my favorite sci-fi authors and I'm just now rediscovering him. I'll be looking for more of his stories. In this one, he presents the challenges of colonization and respect for life in a complex story full of emotion and conflicts of values with an intricate plot and fully developed characters. Highly recommend.
Ben Bova is one my favorite sci-fi authors and I'm just now rediscovering him. I'll be looking for more of his stories. In this one, he presents the challenges of colonization and respect for life in a complex story full of emotion and conflicts of values with an intricate plot and fully developed characters. Highly recommend.
September 22, 2012
Similar to James Cameron's AVATAR film, in concept, THE WINDS OF ALTAIR is both a dated and insightful story of mankind's struggle to continue living against all odds, and what lengths we are prepared to go in order to ensure that survival. One of the biggest questions: Does humanity have the right to destroy all other life in the interest of maintaining itself?
This is the kind of science fiction I love to read, because it never stops being relevant, and it makes me, as a reader, consider the answers to the hard questions. But for something written in the eighties, it has some pretty oddly dated social issues, particularly in regard to race.
This is the kind of science fiction I love to read, because it never stops being relevant, and it makes me, as a reader, consider the answers to the hard questions. But for something written in the eighties, it has some pretty oddly dated social issues, particularly in regard to race.
August 9, 2016
Though this book is not technical in any way it was very entertaining. It is an easy read. The premise is an interesting one. The theological aspect had much relevance. All the main characters were given enough history so that you could not only feel for them but also understand them. There was just one aspect that I could not understand but accepted; if unsuccessful there was not enough money to get back home - I could not see how money would be spent on returning to earth. Regardless, I took this story as light-hearted and just overlooked this.
A quick read and an entertaining and enjoyable one.
A quick read and an entertaining and enjoyable one.
August 17, 2014
Thinking that I hadn't read a Science Fiction novel in a while I decided to just pick a random title off my shelf from my library. Bova seemed like a good pick, but, alas, this book wasn't a good choice. I won't summarize it only to say the plot was quite weak and not engaging, there weren't any truly strong characters and there was little protagonist/antagonist friction to help give it some excitement. The ending also felt contrived and rushed - not even remotely believable. All in all a disappointment. Don't waste your time with this one.
September 1, 2012
I read this book many years ago from the library and had to find a copy of my own 'cos I kept taking it out again and again (ive got a paperback and hardback now and recently found an ebook on baen.com)
I love the alien landscape that Bova creates and this is one of my favourites (my favourite of Bova's anyway)
If any book deserves a sequle its this one, the ending leaves it open for Crown and Jeff to meet again at least (if telepathic communication can be said to be a meeting)
I love the alien landscape that Bova creates and this is one of my favourites (my favourite of Bova's anyway)
If any book deserves a sequle its this one, the ending leaves it open for Crown and Jeff to meet again at least (if telepathic communication can be said to be a meeting)
December 17, 2015
I would say that "The Winds of Altair" is an OK book by Ben Bova. He clearly has written many others that are better. This one checks the box. The writing is rough at times and the plot is not as well though out as many of the others he has written. If you are only going to read one or two of his skip this one. If reading many of his, then go ahead and read this one. It is interesting but it could have been better.
August 25, 2012
After discovering the guy is soo good at political intruige,space opera/tech & with a few solid charecters & a sprinkling of romance/sexual tension i started buying his 80's work.wind's was an abstolute pleasure to read,loved every last word.,....question is who survives,the habitants of altair VI (windsong) or us ruined,cursed earthlings,....??,.a book of moral dilema.
March 26, 2014
I feel like this was pretty much what avatar was based on. Except for the fact that it was not nearly as preachy feeling. I loved the book until the very end at which time it sort of felt rushed and sort of like a kids book message 'if we all hold hands it will be alright'. Anyway that is just me looking for something to complain about.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews