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I got halfway through the book, but it's just too amateurish. Cool concept squandered because the author doesn't know how to make consistent characters or follow up on any potentially interesting subplots
How many times can I read "Ilona realized" before I realize how bad this is?
How many times can I read "Ilona realized" before I realize how bad this is?
A middle-aged woman, Ilona, is obsessed with her father and funds the renovation of an existing ship to return to Neptune where it is very likely he died exploring the sea on Neptune in order to become known as a successful scientist explorer. She hires a retired pilot and a newbie scientist and is, herself, the third member of the crew.
This book, written by multiple-award-winning author Ben Bova who died in 2020, was a disappointment on so many levels. First, it read like the author wrote a bare-bones book with the intention of returning to it later to flesh it out, and his publisher published it as is after his death.
There is little character development here. The characters are cardboard characterizations of the enormously wealthy daddy’s girl, the curmudgeon pilot, and the young, but eager scientist. The dialogue is juvenile and is practically monosyllabic and therefore boring.
The storyline about going to Neptune is thin and hard to believe since there’s no reason, other than Ilona’s obsession with her father, to believe he is still alive after three years.
If you’re looking for a well-written book full of believable characters and hard science, don’t pick this one up.
My thanks to Tor and Edelweiss for an eARC.
This book, written by multiple-award-winning author Ben Bova who died in 2020, was a disappointment on so many levels. First, it read like the author wrote a bare-bones book with the intention of returning to it later to flesh it out, and his publisher published it as is after his death.
There is little character development here. The characters are cardboard characterizations of the enormously wealthy daddy’s girl, the curmudgeon pilot, and the young, but eager scientist. The dialogue is juvenile and is practically monosyllabic and therefore boring.
The storyline about going to Neptune is thin and hard to believe since there’s no reason, other than Ilona’s obsession with her father, to believe he is still alive after three years.
If you’re looking for a well-written book full of believable characters and hard science, don’t pick this one up.
My thanks to Tor and Edelweiss for an eARC.
3 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
The wealthy Ilona Magyr can't accept that her father died researching the oceans of Neptune. So, she's funding a brand new expedition to find out the truth about what happened to him.
Review
While I’ve enjoyed parts of Ben Bova’s Grand Tour series, I found the last entry, Uranus, to be outdated and effectively past its prime. This book, while not great, is happily better, if somewhat summary in execution.
One of Bova’s strengths is usually the relative credibility of his science and engineering. Here, it’s still fairly believable, but it also feels very rushed, as does the plot. There are loose ends (e.g., a mystery signal under the ocean of Neptune that is mentioned and then never pursued), a lack of character development (which is not a Bova strength), and a certain amount of repetition. All in all, the book felt like it was released well before it was ready. The book will be released in August 2021, and Bova died in November 2020; I’m not sure if that had something to do with it. It’s unfortunate that his last book isn’t great, but at least he didn’t go out with the very weak Uranus, and he did leave a body of genuinely strong work behind.
This book is a poor starting point for an appreciation of Bova’s writing. If you are a fan of Bova or the Grand Tour, though, it’s an okay – if by no means necessary – place to stop and see him off. And, since this was billed as a trilogy, it’s possible there’s one more book left in the pipeline. This one certainly calls for a sequel, but based on its state, I suspect any final book would be even less finished.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Summary
The wealthy Ilona Magyr can't accept that her father died researching the oceans of Neptune. So, she's funding a brand new expedition to find out the truth about what happened to him.
Review
While I’ve enjoyed parts of Ben Bova’s Grand Tour series, I found the last entry, Uranus, to be outdated and effectively past its prime. This book, while not great, is happily better, if somewhat summary in execution.
One of Bova’s strengths is usually the relative credibility of his science and engineering. Here, it’s still fairly believable, but it also feels very rushed, as does the plot. There are loose ends (e.g., a mystery signal under the ocean of Neptune that is mentioned and then never pursued), a lack of character development (which is not a Bova strength), and a certain amount of repetition. All in all, the book felt like it was released well before it was ready. The book will be released in August 2021, and Bova died in November 2020; I’m not sure if that had something to do with it. It’s unfortunate that his last book isn’t great, but at least he didn’t go out with the very weak Uranus, and he did leave a body of genuinely strong work behind.
This book is a poor starting point for an appreciation of Bova’s writing. If you are a fan of Bova or the Grand Tour, though, it’s an okay – if by no means necessary – place to stop and see him off. And, since this was billed as a trilogy, it’s possible there’s one more book left in the pipeline. This one certainly calls for a sequel, but based on its state, I suspect any final book would be even less finished.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
I hate everything about how Ilona was portrayed. Sci-fi tends to have an incredibly sexist portrayal of women in the genre. I get it.... But this book dips into that trope in a severely degrading way. A woman of power need not to maintain power by sleeping with men. Additionally. A woman of power such as the MC was portrayed to have straight forward intentions of finding her father. She handled herself with poise and grace. Until she didn't. All of that was diminished in the beginning when the author wrote about her seeking out the attention and sexual advances of her two male companions. And was then disappointed when they weren't showing interest. Bad form, Ben. Bad form. We can write women better.
Come. On. We can do better.
Come. On. We can do better.
Yeah, I didn't finish this, even though it was short. I picked it up because it was short, and I wanted a quick sci-fi read.
I give every book 40-50 pages to be interesting, and if it's not, DNF. In this books case, that number of pages is almost a 5th of the whole thing. Though it was fast reading per se, the story was nothing. A bunch of talk among stock characters.
If anyone is curious, I pretty much knew I would find nothing to redeem this by page 40 once I read something along the lines of, "She fantasized...what would it be like if both men were attracted to her?"
Is this 14 year old fan fiction? The guy was in in late 80s when he wrote this, I mean come on. I want quick sci-fi and I get Three Company: The Next Generation.
This is the second, (and I do believe final) time I tried Ben Bova, the first being many years ago. My review for that experience is among my posts here on Goodreads, but to summarize, I wasn't impressed then either.
I give every book 40-50 pages to be interesting, and if it's not, DNF. In this books case, that number of pages is almost a 5th of the whole thing. Though it was fast reading per se, the story was nothing. A bunch of talk among stock characters.
If anyone is curious, I pretty much knew I would find nothing to redeem this by page 40 once I read something along the lines of, "She fantasized...what would it be like if both men were attracted to her?"
Is this 14 year old fan fiction? The guy was in in late 80s when he wrote this, I mean come on. I want quick sci-fi and I get Three Company: The Next Generation.
This is the second, (and I do believe final) time I tried Ben Bova, the first being many years ago. My review for that experience is among my posts here on Goodreads, but to summarize, I wasn't impressed then either.
I received this to read via NetGalley. Glad I didn't spend any money on it.
Oh boy.
Do not come for character development or realistic relationship building.
The overall narrative is interesting enough and the theory that drives the second half of the plot itself is fine. But the scientific consequence isn’t nearly developed enough; it’s a leap. I’m all for short sharp stories, no need for a trilogy, but this was just a bit silly.
Lots of spoilers follow.
When Ilona and co get to Neptune they discover her father is dead - OF COURSE - but they also discover what turn out to be alien remains. And somehow, very quickly, it's decided that these aliens were responsible for destroying life on Uranus (how did we come to that conclusion? who knows!) and also an ice age on Earth. As I said, as a premise I am SO HERE for this idea. Explore the repercussions of this for me - either on Earth or in the wider galaxy! ... but that basically doesn't happen. There's a politician who is worried for his career and scientists who don't like it - which again, cool! explore this angle - but no. No exploration. It just ends up being boring.
And the conclusion is simply appalling. Like, really awful. Ilona's obsession with having lost her father leads to her bearing his clone. This is gross and nonsense and just weird.
I won't be reading anything else by Ben Bova having read this.
Oh boy.
Do not come for character development or realistic relationship building.
The overall narrative is interesting enough and the theory that drives the second half of the plot itself is fine. But the scientific consequence isn’t nearly developed enough; it’s a leap. I’m all for short sharp stories, no need for a trilogy, but this was just a bit silly.
Lots of spoilers follow.
Spoiler
Character development: there really is none. The woman, Ilona, whose obsession with finding her father's remains somewhere on Neptune funds the first venture to the planet, and basically drives the entire narrative? So little development as to be non-existent. The old space-sailor on his last adventure? basically no development beyond that. The scientist who doesn't actually seem to have any real knowledge of Neptune, but who is in love with Ilona after a brief meeting... is just a nothing. And even the scientist who joins the second mission, apparently as a government stooge, is just... a nothing. There are hints of the possibility of intrigue: is she deliberately seducing the other scientist? is she also just a pawn? WHO KNOWS. WHO CARES.When Ilona and co get to Neptune they discover her father is dead - OF COURSE - but they also discover what turn out to be alien remains. And somehow, very quickly, it's decided that these aliens were responsible for destroying life on Uranus (how did we come to that conclusion? who knows!) and also an ice age on Earth. As I said, as a premise I am SO HERE for this idea. Explore the repercussions of this for me - either on Earth or in the wider galaxy! ... but that basically doesn't happen. There's a politician who is worried for his career and scientists who don't like it - which again, cool! explore this angle - but no. No exploration. It just ends up being boring.
And the conclusion is simply appalling. Like, really awful. Ilona's obsession with having lost her father leads to her bearing his clone. This is gross and nonsense and just weird.
I won't be reading anything else by Ben Bova having read this.
[ Some spoilers follow...]
If I had to summarize my reaction to this book in one word, that word would be "boring."
I have to respect an author who tries to do genuine "hard" Sci Fi. For me, this means, first and foremost, ***NO FTL!***. Keep the action entirely within the solar system, and try to depict space flight in a realistic way. Bova did this well. Putting life on Neptune might be a bit of a reach, but I guess I can accept for the sake of argument that some sort of extremophiles might evolve there. So this book scores points for being an honest attempt at Hard SF, and I do like Bova's descriptions of the planet Neptune.
The problem is that science fiction is just that: fiction. Stories. They can either be "serious" stories, intended to reveal some important inner truth about life, fate, human nature, etc., or simply stories intended to entertain. And on both of these goals, I think that Neptune is a clear failure. Its characters are dreadfully two-dimensional. It's as if they were selected from some catalog of Jungian archetypes - the Charming Rogue, the Haughty Princess, the Earnest-But-Inexperienced-Youth - and simply dropped into the story without any further attention to giving them any depth.
Apart from this, I thought that the development of the plot was very sketchy. When the protagonists found wreckage on Neptune and concluded that it was 2 million years old and of alien origin, my reaction was "wait a minute, how do you reach that conclusion?" There's a tiny bit of mumbo-jumbo about radioisotope dating and the metallurgical composition of the metal of the wreckage indicating that it wasn't crafted on Earth, but it was very sketchy and not at all convincing. And given that it's established in the story that the Neptunian fauna like to absorb various metals, sort of like vitamins, even to the point of eroding a ship's hull, I have to question whether conclusions based on metallurgical analysis should be accepted without careful consideration. On the strength of what was presented in the story, I couldn't blame the authorities on Earth for being skeptical: extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.
Then came another "What the hell?" moment, again delivered in just a paragraph with little or no exposition. The aliens who left wreckage on Neptune had also long ago exterminated an intelligent and civilized race on Uranus. None of the protagonists were aware of this, but the news was delivered briefly, in passing, in just one or two short paragraphs, with no further comment. Isn't the existence of another sapient race - even if it originated in our own solar system, and even if it's now extinct - rather a big deal? If you're going to inject something like this, it demands some exposition, detailing how and when that now-extinct sapient species on Uranus was discovered, what it was like, and what is known about its civilization, not simply, "Oh, yeah, there were civilized aliens on Uranus, but they were wiped out by the same aliens who left wreckage on the surface of Neptune." All of this reminded me of the flaw in A. E. van Vogt's writing that Damon Knight highlighted in his well-known essay "Cosmic Jerrybuilder", in which he pointedly chided van Vogt for repeatedly introducing monsters, technology, alien cultures, or other important plot elements simply by mentioning them in passing, without any further description or explanation.
To be fair, Bova died in November 2020, and Neptune was published in August 2021. To me, it reads sort of like a rough draft. Perhaps if he had survived, he might have made further revisions that would have fleshed out this skeleton in a more satisfactory way. But as it stands now, I can only say that I found Neptune a real disappointment.
If I had to summarize my reaction to this book in one word, that word would be "boring."
I have to respect an author who tries to do genuine "hard" Sci Fi. For me, this means, first and foremost, ***NO FTL!***. Keep the action entirely within the solar system, and try to depict space flight in a realistic way. Bova did this well. Putting life on Neptune might be a bit of a reach, but I guess I can accept for the sake of argument that some sort of extremophiles might evolve there. So this book scores points for being an honest attempt at Hard SF, and I do like Bova's descriptions of the planet Neptune.
The problem is that science fiction is just that: fiction. Stories. They can either be "serious" stories, intended to reveal some important inner truth about life, fate, human nature, etc., or simply stories intended to entertain. And on both of these goals, I think that Neptune is a clear failure. Its characters are dreadfully two-dimensional. It's as if they were selected from some catalog of Jungian archetypes - the Charming Rogue, the Haughty Princess, the Earnest-But-Inexperienced-Youth - and simply dropped into the story without any further attention to giving them any depth.
Apart from this, I thought that the development of the plot was very sketchy. When the protagonists found wreckage on Neptune and concluded that it was 2 million years old and of alien origin, my reaction was "wait a minute, how do you reach that conclusion?" There's a tiny bit of mumbo-jumbo about radioisotope dating and the metallurgical composition of the metal of the wreckage indicating that it wasn't crafted on Earth, but it was very sketchy and not at all convincing. And given that it's established in the story that the Neptunian fauna like to absorb various metals, sort of like vitamins, even to the point of eroding a ship's hull, I have to question whether conclusions based on metallurgical analysis should be accepted without careful consideration. On the strength of what was presented in the story, I couldn't blame the authorities on Earth for being skeptical: extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.
Then came another "What the hell?" moment, again delivered in just a paragraph with little or no exposition. The aliens who left wreckage on Neptune had also long ago exterminated an intelligent and civilized race on Uranus. None of the protagonists were aware of this, but the news was delivered briefly, in passing, in just one or two short paragraphs, with no further comment. Isn't the existence of another sapient race - even if it originated in our own solar system, and even if it's now extinct - rather a big deal? If you're going to inject something like this, it demands some exposition, detailing how and when that now-extinct sapient species on Uranus was discovered, what it was like, and what is known about its civilization, not simply, "Oh, yeah, there were civilized aliens on Uranus, but they were wiped out by the same aliens who left wreckage on the surface of Neptune." All of this reminded me of the flaw in A. E. van Vogt's writing that Damon Knight highlighted in his well-known essay "Cosmic Jerrybuilder", in which he pointedly chided van Vogt for repeatedly introducing monsters, technology, alien cultures, or other important plot elements simply by mentioning them in passing, without any further description or explanation.
To be fair, Bova died in November 2020, and Neptune was published in August 2021. To me, it reads sort of like a rough draft. Perhaps if he had survived, he might have made further revisions that would have fleshed out this skeleton in a more satisfactory way. But as it stands now, I can only say that I found Neptune a real disappointment.
5 stars because it's the last book published by Ben Bova. It's also for the impact he had on the Scifi community in his life.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I haven't read Bova before this in spite of forty years of reading SF, so I can't say if this is typical of his work. My suspicion, since this was published after his death, is that his heirs threw a rough draft at the publisher who went ahead and published it. The characters have the depth of people in a detergent commercial and the plot is bland at best. I wanted to like this book and I really tried to finish it but one night I just threw it aside in disgust