I have no finished all of my novels and have read some biographies of my author and interviews and listened to some audio interviews. What I have found out through my research is that Ben Bova tries to write novels with real science and real relationships. This is a different approach from many science fiction novels, that have more far out ideas. For example Ben Bova is in the process of writing a series that his fans have dubbed as the Grand Tour of the Solar System. His novels also focuses on scientific issues such as global warming, a hot issue even today. In his novel Venus first mission to the planet was to try to prove that if we didn't change our behavior that Earth would experience a run away green house effect. So I guess that my thesis could be something like, Ben Bova's novels are based around hard science with focas on relationships, religiou and scientific debates and big scientific issues. Ben Bova also believes that space is going to open up to human exploration faster than most people think. In an audio interview I listen to Ben Bova sighted Burt Rutan as being a pioneer of space tourism, which he belives will take off in the next few decades, and will help to fund man space missions. He sees the international space station being converted to a space hotel after NASA retires the station.

I just finished my third book by Ben Bova. I have yet to start reading a biography on Bova, however many of his books have been written while I was alive. In his writing I have noticed that a lot of the issues he brings up are issues that we face on the planet Earth. For example in Bova's novel "Venus", the protagonist's brother was killed on a mission to Venus, where he was hoping to find evidence that would support the argument that if we did not change our behaviors that Earth would turn into a run-away greenhouse effect. Today scientist are arguing about global warming and try to find evidence to prove or disprove it.

In "Jupiter" there are slightly different issues at hand. The novel slates science versus religion. This has been and is a hot topic on our planet. The New Morality is a religious group that has also gained much political power. They are against any scientific study that could reveal that there might be other intelligent life forms. The protagonist in this novel is a scientist and also is religious. He believes that discover new life forms is not a sin because God created the Universe and therefor they are just studying Gods work.

So you can see that in both these books Ben Bova is focusing on issues that we face today. He is taking hot controversial issues and using his ability as a writer to turn these into interesting novels. What makes Bova's work powerful is that the characters and issues that he presents in his novel seam real. I felt that these things could happen and therefor we must think about these issues and how we want to world to be in the future. I think that part of the reason why Ben Bova's novels take place in the future is because he wants to show us that issues that we face now, we will also face in the future.

Another theme I have noticed in Bova's work is exploration. In his novels characters are traveling to places that are unknown. I think that human nature is to explore our environment and figure new things out so we can better understand our situation. Although Ben Bova's novels are fictional he is able to pain an image of these new worlds. For example in "Venues" he explains that beneath the clouds lies a gigantic oceans thousands of times bigger than any ocean on earth. He also describes the intelligent animals by comparing them to things we can relate to. For example: the creatures were like giant wales there bodies were as big as cities.

I have already finished Jupiter and Venues and I am now on my third book "Return to Moon Base". Lately I haven't been doing a lot of reading so I have only advanced about 30 pages since my last update. My goal is to continue to read "Return to Moon Base" for at least 30 minutes every night, or finish the book by ski week, which ever comes first. During ski week I will begin on the biography.

Since Ben Bova is a contemporary writer there are not many books that are a dedicated biography just about him. However, I did find a book, "The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction", edited by Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, with a 134 page entry just on Ben Bova. I also found "Edging into the Future: Science Fiction and Contemporary Cultural Transformation" by Veronica Hollinger, with a 22 page article. Finally there is "Understanding Contemporary American Science Fiction: Age of Maturity, 1970-2000", by Darren Harris-Fain, with a short 14 page chapter on Ben Bova.

I will ramp up on the reading during sky week and finish at least two-thirds of the biography. This will give me enough time to finish all the reading by the March 10th deadline.

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.