I am currently reading "Welcome to Moonbase" by Ben Bova. This book is different from most novels because the book is written as a guid to a future astronaut or scientist who is arriving at Moonbase and therefor the book is more like an interesting textbook than a novel. The quote that I choose to analys is on page 25 and is about the first Christmas on the Moon.
"December 2003 saw the first celebration of Christmas on the Moon. The six occupants of Tempo D, a lunar shelter situated on the eastern edge of Mare Nubium, within sight of the crater Alphonsus, began decorating their austere underground shelter several days before Christmas with colored ribbons, drawings, and even a Christmass tree--made of aluminum strips cut from discared food wrappings, fastened to the stump of an antenna from a nonfuctioning radio".

When most people think of Christmas they think of a beautiful green tree, decorated with colorful lights, and cfated ordimints. However, when we read this passage we get a much different picture. Bova used the word "austere" to discribe thier shelter on the Moon. I was unsure what this word meant so I looked it up. The mean is without comfort or luxeries. We get the picture that these astronuaghts had to be creative and use things that they already had for thier decorations. I love how he tells us details such as they made thier Christmas tree out of aluminum strips cut from discared food wrappings and and attached them to an antenna from a broken radio. I have an image of a crude aluminum Christmas tree, maybe fastened together with duct tape and decorated with drawings and ribbons.

I am currently reading "Welcome to Moonbase" by Ben Bova. This book is different from most novels because the book is written as a guid to a future astronaut or scientist who is arriving at Moonbase and therefor the book is more like an interesting textbook than a novel. The quote that I choose to analys is on page 25 and is about the first Christmas on the Moon.
"December 2003 saw the first celebration of Christmas on the Moon. The six occupants of Tempo D, a lunar shelter situated on the eastern edge of Mare Nubium, within sight of the crater Alphonsus, began decorating their austere underground shelter several days before Christmas with colored ribbons, drawings, and even a Christmass tree--made of aluminum strips cut from discared food wrappings, fastened to the stump of an antenna from a nonfuctioning radio".

When most people think of Christmas they think of a beautiful green tree, decorated with colorful lights, and cfated ordimints. However, when we read this passage we get a much different picture. Bova used the word "austere" to discribe thier shelter on the Moon. I was unsure what this word meant so I looked it up. The mean is without comfort or luxeries. We get the picture that these astronuaghts had to be creative and use things that they already had for thier decorations. I love how he tells us details such as they made thier Christmas tree out of aluminum strips cut from discared food wrappings and and attached them to an antenna from a broken radio. I have an image of a crude aluminum Christmas tree, maybe fastened together with duct tape and decorated with drawings and ribbons.

After reading Venus I moved on to Jupiter and now I am beginning Welcome to Moonbase. One thing I have noticed in both Venus and Jupiter is that science and politics are driving forces for the novels. For example the main character's brother in Venus originally went on a voyage to Venus to support a group of scientist who were trying to show how earth could became like Venus if we did not change our behavior.

In Jupiter science also plays an important role. In this book Grant is sent to space station gold to spy on scientist who are searching for inteligent life inside Jupiter. In the course of the novel Grant is forced to decided between his religious beliefs or keeping the mission secret so that the religious political party of the New Morality does not try to cancel the mission.

A styalistic choice that Ben Bova makes is to write both his novels in first person. I thought that this was a good idea because it puts you in the center of the action. Also in both novels the main characters start out doing small tasks and as the novel progresses they begin to get more and more responcibility and became heros by the end of the book.

The book that I am reading now is much different than the first two novels. In fact the book is not really a novel at all. Instead it's more like an interesting text book than a novel and describes how we would return to the moon.

First Reflection

Over break I read Venus and began Jupiter both novels by Ben Bova. Ben Boava is a science fiction writer who has written many science fiction novels about planets in our solar system. His novels are based on real scientific facts, however some details need to be made up.

I have enjoyed reading Ben Bova because he is able to pain vidid images of undiscovered planets with details that make the reader feel like Ben Bova himself has visited these worlds. For example in Venus he compares the surface of Venus to the vowels of hell.

I also enjoy the characters that he creates. Not all his characters come from a science background and as the novel develops more details about the characters are revealed. For example in Venus the protagonists learns that the tyrannical captain that beat him when they first met is his father. This detail completely changed the plot of the story and Ben Bova revealed it at the right time to keep you on the edge of your seat wanting to learn more

In the book that I am reading now, Jupiter Ben Bova describes a giant ocean infinitively bigger and deeper than any ocean on earth. He also explores the possibility of intelligent life swimming in the Juvian sea. The conflict between science and religion is also discussed.