The Return

Voyagers #4

by Ben Bova

In the 1980s, an alien starship visited Earth. While investigating what appeared to be a sarcophagus bearing the preserved body of its builder, astronaut Keith Stoner was trapped and cryogenically frozen. After his body was eventually returned to Earth and revived, Stoner discovered that he had acquired alien powers. Using these new powers, he built a new starship and left Earth.

Now, after more than a century of exploring the stars, Keith Stoner returns to find that the world he has come back to does not match the one he left. The planet is suffering the consequences of disastrous greenhouse flooding. Most nations have been taken over by ultraconservative religion-based governments, such as the New Morality in the United States. With population ballooning and resources running out, Earth is heading for nuclear war. Stoner, the star voyager, wants to save Earth’s people. But first he must save himself from the frightened and ambitious zealots who want to destroy this stranger—and the terrifying message he brings from the stars.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction

464 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2009

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

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the four Voyagers books, this is by far the best. Bova may well realize that age is catching up with him, and in this book ties up a number of loose ends. The story is trite in places, but it asks questions that mankind must resolve to continue the race. It also paints a stark portrait of what could happen to America should we become a theocracy. If you have only read the first three in the series, but not his Grand Tour books, read those first, then read The Return.

[Heidi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Return was a somewhat fun read, but I found it to be very condescending in tone. The author oversimplified many issues facing the global community today. The characters also lack the depth to engage the audience. The author briefly delves into their backgrounds and psyches, but not enough to make the reader really care what happens to them.

I hated the fact that The Return declared religion the reason for all the evils in the world. Any group of individuals is prone to corruption, not just religious groups.

The Return is an okay read, but there are better stories out there to occupy your time.

[Randy Mcbride · Rating 5 out of 5]

When reading science fiction that is done in a classical way a person better be prepared to have the author challenge some of what takes place in society. Bova is no different. If you are easily offended about some of your thinking avoid this book, and many other great works by other authors.

This is not a fast moving shoot them up story. It is drama set in futurist world. Reading this in 2022 makes what Bova wrote in 2009 look prophetic. Can humanity be saved? Is it even worth saving? We at least get Stoner's point of view on this.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book in the Grand Tour.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy this was weird reading in 2020 where the world is arguing over basic scientific facts. I thought it was a good end to the series (think this is the last one)

[Gabriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 4.5 ***

I would give it up to 4.5 rating stars, this is quite a great book, a wonderful book, not just fun and entertaining, not just well written, as expected by this author, but even more, this book is addressing sensitive subjects and topics, sensitive and serious topics that are critical and important to human race survival, in any time, any era, including now the modern times we all live in...

The author is his master writing style, is bringing to us, its audience, for refection themes like liberty versus censorship and mass brainwashing or control by the government, in the name of safety and security, compliance and fitting with the mediocrity versus rebellious ideas and scientific discoveries that could lead to real progress, arms race and nuclear armament reactivation and building programs with the "mutual destruction" nuclear war looming and real versus peace and harmony without wars or weapons, and not least, global exponential population growth danger versus population control methods, religion control of the masses versus free will thinking and much, much more...

This book is in itself a jewel of how humans think, act and react how well the human race is able to self-destroy its own and how incapable we all are to save ourselves of our own ambitions...

For this and many other reasons, I think this book is a great book, one that's worth your time, regardless if you like SciFi or philosophy, or even plain action and plots unfolding, this book is a great book and deserves attention...

[Samyann · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a story of space, aliens, space travel, this is not your series. The review addresses Voyagers, Voyagers II, III, and The Return.

Plot. A spacecraft is approaching earth — no response to earth signals. A mission from earth determines that the craft is a sarcophagus - the sole passenger is a dead alien. A ship message tells us to study the alien and his ship and send him on his way to other worlds. A USA astronaut decides to stay on the alien ship, goes into stasis for 18 years, and returns to earth. He has changed - and so has the earth.

Liked: Stuck with it, well, because it IS a Bova series. Narration and production are fine. No sex, no objectionable language, clean reads.

Not so hot: This is NOT a typical SciFi, rather a platform for the author to voice concerns regarding world politics, religious zealots, climate change, nuclear war...the earth will perish if humans do not change. There have been other books and movies with the same basic theme - The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Abyss, more. So, it's been done before - and better, IMO.

Disappointed.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's twenty-one years since I read Voyagers III: Star Brothers, which at the time I thought was the conclusion to the Voyages series, so it was a surprise to see this fourth instalment.
My memory of the events in previous books was a bit sketchy, to say the least, but it did not really matter as this novel can be read as a standalone.
The society portrayed in this novel is one that could so easily be derived from where we are now if events and trends of the past several years are left unchecked and unchallenged.
The characters are all well portrayed and relatable to, as are most of the situations they find themselves in.
Stoner and his family are written in quite a mysterious way, so you are never quite certain how they achieve what they do.
This is a very enjoyable and thought-provoking read and a good addition to the series and well worth reading.

[AndrewP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great conclusion to this mini series (Voyagers) and an interesting insertion into the Grand Tour series. In the later series, this works as a Segway from the main series into the final books. All of the previous books were restricted to the Solar System and it was obvious that getting to the nearest star would take a huge leap in technology from what has gone before. It does feel like a bit of cheat that Keith Stoner comes from a slightly different timeline and brings the technology with him.
Other than that the basic storyline follows the usual Bova optimistic viewpoint, religion is the root of all evil but people can overcome this because they are all basically good at heart and can easily be made to see the error of their ways.
Looking forward to getting back and finishing off the main Grand Tour series.

[Kathleen West · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Bova is my favorite science fiction author and he does a great job in portraying the human emotions, reactions, and feelings of a story with real science references. I read this book on/off over the course of a few months and I enjoyed reading every chapter of it. Bova has a skilled writing style of which I admire where I, the reader, can get quickly involved and focused on the story and understand what is happening. This book talks about a believable future dystopia that could very well happen with religion, world politics, climate change, and the stupidity of humanity. It does have a happy ending (no spoilers).

[Helen the Bassist · Rating 3 out of 5]

I decided to review the series as a whole.

Readable, interesting, quite prescient in some ways, hopelessly off in others...I expect you can say that about a lot of sci-fi.

I was gobsmacked at the level of sexism throughout that barely dissipated between those books penned in the 80s and the most recent in 2009. Why do I get the feeling I'd not like the author much if I met him in person?

Sci-fi fan on holiday? The Voyager series will do for by the pool. Just don't expect anything too profound...

[Tom Getzinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I was wondering how Ben would merge his two series. I mean, the world of the Voyagers was so different from the world(s) of the Grant Tour. Answer: the Multiverse! So much happened. Given the order in which the books were written, it willbe interesting to see if the remaining books really follow the events of this one. Multiverse, fine, but that means they could have returned to another Earth, not necessarily the one of the Grand Tour.

[Kim Wyatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this sci-fi space travel novel. Its discribed as a cautionary tale about what could happen when eduationd & science information are supressed to control the worldwide population.

It should be exciting. But I grew more and more bored till I just didn't care what happened anymore.I gave up reading this book at the halfway point.

[Jenel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gifted this book by a fellow Sci Fi Book Club member last Saturday. It's headed to the coffee shop little library.
The bones are good. The themes interesting. Yes, religion is a menace, maybe *the* menance.
But it felt a little too much like being preached to and mansplained.
Yes, Bova tried to increase the diversity of the casting but its tone was a little to 1950s for me.

[فرهاد ذکاوت · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.7/5
Discussions he wrote as dialogues make sense for 2025 since exactly the same topics were around this year. More than Sci-Fi it is about politics, political religion and so on and the same topics and religions and governments and issues as were the hot topics of 2025. He tries to encourage morality and logic over politics.

[Durval Menezes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story, interesting characters. The protagonist in my opinion is not the obvious one (Keith Stoner) but rather Raoul Tavalera, who after a humble start, has been growing through each apparition though the Great Tour arch.

[Tom Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character is just short of being a god in this story along with his wife and kids. No threat to him in the book whatsoever as he just invents new powers to get out of situations. Again, strange ideas about sexual politics and romance. Better as a series than a novel.

[Marica · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book brought back many issues already dealt with in the previous book but handled differently in a different setting. it was still a.good read though and I was disappointed that there is no 5th book

[Phil Mullins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get book Me Bova captivating teaching as to e " the honest to God's truth... Everyone on this rock should read this book..


It kept me coming back, A great read.. It isn't that far from the truth....Stoner is the man. You rock

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hero returns. Its a different earth than the one he left (to allow him to enter the universe Bova created for The Grand Tour), but he saves this one too...

[Rudy Bauer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read my comments posted for the first book

[Seth Whitfield · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cool if your in to religiophobe. If your wanting a good sci fi look else where.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Duration: 11:37:00

[Phil Giunta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star traveler Keith Stoner and his family return to Earth in the ancient alien ship that once held Stoner in cryonic freeze decades before. When he rejoined the human race the first time, the technology of the alien ship had ushered in a new age of enlightenment for the human race. Now, however, no trace of Stoner's previous visit to his home planet can be found and not one of the technological advancements--"gifts from the stars"--is evident. Instead, Stoner finds an alternate Earth, one controlled by ultra-conservative religious groups. In the case of the USA, it's the New Morality.

At the same time, engineer Raoul Tavalera arrives home after six years aboard the Goddard Habitat orbiting Saturn. There, he had fallen in love with the project's fiery administrator, Holly Lane. Tavalera returns to an Earth as alien to him as it is to Stoner and he quickly longs to return to Holly, but he finds himself under the thumb of the New Morality. They have pervaded, and in fact invaded, American government, schools, even private homes, all in the name of unifying the nation under Christ.

Meanwhile, rumblings of nuclear war stir Stoner into action. After Tavalera is recruited to work for the New Morality, he encouters Stoner and for a time, becomes the star travelers human contact. However, what Stoner and Tavalera do not realize is that key players in the New Morality are setting a trap for Stoner using an international summit of the world's three largest nuclear powers--USA, China, and Iran.

Dr. Bova does a fair job in crossing his own universes here, despite the lack of explanation as to how it happened. Readers of his Grand Tour series will recognize the New Morality which is omnipresent in each story from that series. In The Return, however, the story merely eludes to the possibility that "somehow" this must be an alternate Earth than what Stoner left a century before to continue his exploration of the cosmos.

Also, the character of Stoner's wife, Jo Camerata, is nearly irrelevant to the story, relegated to a "nervous-Nellie" who spends her time inconsistently warning and chiding her husband and children about interfering in human evolution yet not exactly stepping in to prevent it. In Voyagers II, Camerata had been a fierce, bold captain of industry with the temerity to manage an entire corporation while surviving the insane machinations of her conniving, murderous husband.

All told, The Return is a decent ending to the series despite the aforementioned issues. Bova's flawed, human characters are well developed even if Stoner's family is not. The story and pacing make for a definite page turner.

[John Loyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Return, Book IV of Voyagers (2009) 418 pages by Ben Bova.

Keith Stoner and his family return from the stars to find a dystopic Earth. The Americas are run by the New Morality, a sort of Big Brother entity with a more religious overtone. Chinese and Iranian superpowers have their own form of totalitarian societies. The planet is becoming overpopulated. Resources from space are only delaying the inevitable. The three superpowers are all arming for nuclear war, with only the threat of mutual assured destruction holding them back.

The overall plot of the book is will Stoner be able to keep the people from destroying themselves. What makes it interesting is the characters that Bova has created. Raoul Tavelara, Sister Angelique, etc.

The book is so far distanced from Voyagers III that it is a standalone novel. The Stoner character is the only thread tying them together. Even the Earth to which he has returned is different. Similar, but changed, as if it's on a different timeline from the one on which he originated. That is not gone into, just accepted

The book was interesting, fun, and well worth reading.

[Beverly · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a problem with this one. It's didactic for one thing, and the hero is a little too much super hero. In the previous books, he has been augmented via nanotechnology with lots of alien powers, which made the earlier ones in the series pretty good. This one in the series has the hero and family coming back from space and finding earth taken over by a very restrictive religious entity called The New Morality, and the world threatened by nuclear holocaust.

The problem comes in here. Stoner, the hero, has found no intelligent life anywhere in his travels; just remnants of intelligence that have destroyed themselves one way or another. He wants to help Earth to survive. The end is a foregone conclusion, however, since he is practically a god. The New Morality never had a chance.

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book will probably get glowing reviews because fans love Ben Bova. But I was just not moved by this story. The blurbs on the back of the book praise the author for "plausibility of detail" and "combining science with attention-grabbing plots". Ummm. I don't see it. There WAS no science in this book, at least not that I could find. The man who returns from voyaging among the stars with super-human abilities - he can read minds, manipulate people's bodies, turn off electronic devices at will, pretty much any god-like behavior, is all explained away as "nanotechnology". The space ship? A circular shell of energy. I wanted - more, I guess.

[Jesse Weaver · Rating 3 out of 5]

This might be a four-star book except for the fact that Ben Bova could have done so much better. The characters are interesting and unique but poorly handled. The dialogue and plot are clumsily handled and dully predictable. I found myself skimming the last part of the book to avoid the clichéd savior-shows-us-the-way ending. The material Bova had to work with was excellent; powerful human comes to show world plagued by theocracy and hardship a better way. In The Return, however, he dropped rhe ball and made yet another cheesy future sci-fi book.

Honestly, I'd have preferred another demoralizing book about the throwback world of the New Morality to this very unsatisfying conclusion.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plot device Bova uses to bring this future Earth more in line with current trends than the Earth of the first books (all written long ago in a different time) is interesting, but the explanation and rationale of it is half-hearted at best. Not to mention that it would provide a serious hindrance to space travel if it were true - how is an interstellar drive that bops you around to random universes really useful, since you can never go back to the planet you came from to begin with? Nice to see a different sort of plot structure, too, although its resolution was very white-bread. Doesn't end the series with either a whimper, but it's not a bang either.

[Allison Rogers · Rating 1 out of 5]

This seemed more like a juvenile or young adult book. Predictable and shallow. I got to the section where Cathy was preparing to visit Earth and got on her "tan slacks and stylish boots" , and just couldn't justify wasting more time on this book. Even the adjectives were simple ! In truth, I expected more out of this whole series. I only drudged through the third book out of a sense of commitment, having read the first two. I figured I might be disappointed with the final and fourth installment but proceeded into The Return anyhow, wanting to finish. Don't bother. You won't miss anything.