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journey_sloane's review
adventurous
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.0
spinnerroweok's review
4.0
While not a great book, I enjoyed this a lot. It reminded me a lot of Jupiter. I think I will read more of the Grand Tour Series and see where it leads.
jonmhansen's review against another edition
4.0
Another space noir. I am impressed by Bova's willingness to make the vast majority of his characters unlikeable.
weaselweader's review
5.0
Hard sci-fi pioneering space exploration at its very best!
Martin Humphries, a fabulously wealthy industrialist living on a lunar colony, passionately despises his second son, Van. Cruelly labeling him as "the runt" and bullying him relentlessly as a directionless, untalented weakling, Humphries blames Van for the death of his wife during Van's birth and, in fact, resents him for even being alive. Humphries' beloved eldest son, Alex, who Van also loved dearly, lost his life in the first manned exploration of the surface of Venus. When Humphries announces that he is terminating his son's stipend and that he is offering a $10 billion prize to the first person who recovers his beloved Alex's remains from Venus, it is quite clear that Van, who is without any other means of support, is being manipulated and forced by his own father into choosing a path that will likely lead to his death. The waters become muddied and the fight for that almost unimaginably large prize becomes a heated race when Lars Fuchs, a rock rat from the Asteroid belt and Humphries' long time corporate foe, announces he is also making a play for the prize.
Venus won't win any prizes when it comes to literary status. Nor does it convey any subliminal moral messages, political satire, mystical symbolism or any of those other things that deep thinkers often consider necessary for a novel to be deemed truly great. But if you're looking for a hard-driving plot with palpable suspense and superb hard science fiction supported by a wealth of current hard scientific fact, then Venus is a novel you'll want to read. Bova's ability to weave science seamlessly into a fast-paced plot is simply wonderful - orbital and celestial mechanics, plate tectonics, volcanism, planetary evolution, chemistry, biology, physics, aerospace engineering, rocketry and more. In fact, it's safe to say that Venus, with a hostile surface environment straight out of Dante's Inferno, is the major character in the novel!
But, let's take nothing away from the rest of the novel. Bova's characters, in a word, succeed! They evoke emotions in a reader fully ensnared in the action who will care about what happens. His heroes have their flaws and weaknesses but they're likable and they develop meaningfully over the course of the novel. His villains are despicable but they too evolve in an understandable human way. The dialogue is appropriate to the environment of a quasi-military space exploration vehicle. And the twist ending - well, suffice it to say that there is one! Let's not give anything away other than to say it will bring a smile to most reader's faces!
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Martin Humphries, a fabulously wealthy industrialist living on a lunar colony, passionately despises his second son, Van. Cruelly labeling him as "the runt" and bullying him relentlessly as a directionless, untalented weakling, Humphries blames Van for the death of his wife during Van's birth and, in fact, resents him for even being alive. Humphries' beloved eldest son, Alex, who Van also loved dearly, lost his life in the first manned exploration of the surface of Venus. When Humphries announces that he is terminating his son's stipend and that he is offering a $10 billion prize to the first person who recovers his beloved Alex's remains from Venus, it is quite clear that Van, who is without any other means of support, is being manipulated and forced by his own father into choosing a path that will likely lead to his death. The waters become muddied and the fight for that almost unimaginably large prize becomes a heated race when Lars Fuchs, a rock rat from the Asteroid belt and Humphries' long time corporate foe, announces he is also making a play for the prize.
Venus won't win any prizes when it comes to literary status. Nor does it convey any subliminal moral messages, political satire, mystical symbolism or any of those other things that deep thinkers often consider necessary for a novel to be deemed truly great. But if you're looking for a hard-driving plot with palpable suspense and superb hard science fiction supported by a wealth of current hard scientific fact, then Venus is a novel you'll want to read. Bova's ability to weave science seamlessly into a fast-paced plot is simply wonderful - orbital and celestial mechanics, plate tectonics, volcanism, planetary evolution, chemistry, biology, physics, aerospace engineering, rocketry and more. In fact, it's safe to say that Venus, with a hostile surface environment straight out of Dante's Inferno, is the major character in the novel!
But, let's take nothing away from the rest of the novel. Bova's characters, in a word, succeed! They evoke emotions in a reader fully ensnared in the action who will care about what happens. His heroes have their flaws and weaknesses but they're likable and they develop meaningfully over the course of the novel. His villains are despicable but they too evolve in an understandable human way. The dialogue is appropriate to the environment of a quasi-military space exploration vehicle. And the twist ending - well, suffice it to say that there is one! Let's not give anything away other than to say it will bring a smile to most reader's faces!
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
amyborch's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Van goes to Venus to find his brothers body. He finds microbes that eat his ship and an octopus like creature that pulls down his fathers.
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
This is a story written by an old man with old ideas, but at least he has a lot of them. In an adventurous planetary exploration story, we see the weakling son of an obscenely ultra-rich capitalist scum-dog, rise to the challenge of going to Venus to collect his deceased Astronaut brother's remains from the planet surface.
It's a treacherous mission, so you don't expect to get through the whole story without losing some characters along the way, to the perils of ... space stuff. Some of the characters are women.. so the main character gets to eye everyone up... enjoy rubbing against boobs while moving through narrow spaceship corridors, and get away with kissing women who are pretty enough, without them even complaining much. It's all a bit ew.
It's important to know that the reason he doesn't find any of the scary, sneaky Asian women attractive, is not because they have a guttural barking language that he can't understand, and not because he's Racist, but because they just aren't that pretty. I would have had serious issues finishing this book if I had been reading it as a paperback, rather than an audiobook, because it's impossible to track text when you are eyerolling this hard.
The main character is utterly insecure, and there is almost some character growth as he steps up to take leadership roles.. but it certainly doesn't show in his relationships, or his attitudes toward others. During the story he learns some dark personal history that allows him to understand himself better, but even after his toil and epiphanies, he is still just a lame jerk.
The way that the Green Party (environmentalists) is depicted leaves me wondering what Bova thought the motivation of environmentally focused Parties is. These parties are not Trying to Destroy Business, but rather responding to the very real threat of total ecological collapse, and the end of human life on Earth. I'm not sure which readership or audience he is trying to appeal to here.
Maybe doing reading challenges where I read a book because it starts with a certain letter of the alphabet, are not a good way to choose good books.. or maybe I'm doing it wrong.
It's a treacherous mission, so you don't expect to get through the whole story without losing some characters along the way, to the perils of ... space stuff. Some of the characters are women.. so the main character gets to eye everyone up... enjoy rubbing against boobs while moving through narrow spaceship corridors, and get away with kissing women who are pretty enough, without them even complaining much. It's all a bit ew.
It's important to know that the reason he doesn't find any of the scary, sneaky Asian women attractive, is not because they have a guttural barking language that he can't understand, and not because he's Racist, but because they just aren't that pretty. I would have had serious issues finishing this book if I had been reading it as a paperback, rather than an audiobook, because it's impossible to track text when you are eyerolling this hard.
The main character is utterly insecure, and there is almost some character growth as he steps up to take leadership roles.. but it certainly doesn't show in his relationships, or his attitudes toward others. During the story he learns some dark personal history that allows him to understand himself better, but even after his toil and epiphanies, he is still just a lame jerk.
The way that the Green Party (environmentalists) is depicted leaves me wondering what Bova thought the motivation of environmentally focused Parties is. These parties are not Trying to Destroy Business, but rather responding to the very real threat of total ecological collapse, and the end of human life on Earth. I'm not sure which readership or audience he is trying to appeal to here.
Maybe doing reading challenges where I read a book because it starts with a certain letter of the alphabet, are not a good way to choose good books.. or maybe I'm doing it wrong.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Sexism, Death of parent, Drug use, Drug abuse, Racism, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Terminal illness
Minor: Grief
bethany_with_a_book's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0