Tales of the Grand Tour [Hardcover]

Ben Bova (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2004

In novels like Mars and Moonbase, and Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, as well as Privateers, The Precipice, and The Rock Rats, Ben Bova has been telling the stories of the wars and rivalries, the outsize individuals, public crusades, and private passions that will drive us as we expand into the Solar System and make use of its vast resources. And throughout, Bova has shown our cosmic neighborhood as we know it to be, giving us a sense of Venus and Jupiter and the Asteroid Belt and Mars that's as up-to-date as the latest observations. For the last two decades have been a golden age of near-Earth astronomy and observation, and in his novels Bova has made dramatic use of our newest knowledge.

But during that time Bova has also written short fiction about some of the same events and characters---Sam Gunn, Martin Humphries, Klaus Fuchs, Dan Randolph, the Asteroid Wars. Now, in Tales of the Grand Tour, those stories are collected in book form for the first time, creating a volume that is a landmark of modern SF.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Six-time Hugo Award winner Bova likes to tell big stories in a small way. This approach both helps and hurts in this collection of stories, excerpts and outtakes from his "Grand Tour" novels (Saturn, etc.), which explore the colonization of the solar system. Despite his vast subject, Bova focuses tightly on the heroes and villains whose striving makes up his future history. While some characters are standards of the SF genre (megalomaniac capitalist, lone-wolf entrepreneur, love object caught between them), Bova imbues each with Homeric virtues and flaws. Plus, he can slip convention to present a tale of a crippled circus performer regaining his balance from a visit to the lower-gravity moon ("The Man Who Hated Gravity"), or an account of unrequited love of a stunt double about to free-fall through Venus's skies ("High Jump"). Like a folksy astrophysicist, Bova delights in talking about outer space, from the surface of Venus (hot enough to melt aluminum!) through the asteroid belt (four times farther from the sun than Earth!) to the depths of Jupiter (a beach ball squashed down by an invisible child!). His excitement at being there matches his gusto for the dirty deeds done in the name of love, honor and duty. Less happily, the volume reveals his occasional repetitive prose, hidden across the novels. Similarly, the differing backstories of the novels sit uneasily next to each other. Still, his stories offer glimpses of the human side of space, the heroic grins and tragic grimaces alike.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Though some of these stories remain freestanding, Bova expanded or inserted many into the novels of his Grand Tour series, concerned with credible space exploration. The collection opener, "Sam and the Flying Dutchman," presents Sam Gunn, Bova's vision of the first space entrepreneur, getting involved in classic noir style with a beautiful woman requesting his help. Elsewhere, Bova shares legends like that of Harry Twelvetoes, who worked on a space-habitat construction crew, and tells the story of the first man to walk on the lowlands of Venus --as a daredevil's stunt double. Several stories are about astronaut Jamie Waterman: "Muzhestvo" picks up on him just before he is chosen for the first Mars mission; another has him encountering the dangers of the second Mars mission. The collection closes, in "Leviathan," with the first discovery, deep in the oceans of Jupiter, of evidence of humans by one of the giant beings native to those seas. Bova's tales encompass good characters, high-tension adventure, thoughtful introspection, and a sense of wonder. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (January 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765307227
• ISBN-13: 978-0765307224
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,789,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Collection of Short Stories, August 3, 2004

By 

Antoine Tardif "Antoine Tardif" (red deer, Alberta Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales of the Grand Tour (Hardcover)

'Tales of the Grand Tour' is a short story collection. The title `The Tales of the Grand Tour' is based on the nickname given to the novels Ben Bova has written in the last 15 years. Sharing the same characters interconnects these novels, and the settings are on planets like Mars, Venus & Saturn.

While most of these stories were written in the past 15 years, there is one gem that was written in the mid-60s. 'Fifteen Miles' is a story is about an Astronaut on the moon risking his life to save a fellow astronaut. What is great about this story is that it's a roadmap showing how Bova's writing has evolved over the years.

My only complaint is that some of these stories are excerpts from his novels. Since I read those novels a third of this material wasn't new to me. Regardless, I enjoyed rereading these sections. If you're a Ben Bova fan this is a must have collection. If you're new to Ben Bova's writing, you might also want to read his Mars novels, as some of the stories in this book are based on those novels. All of these stories can be enjoyed without having read his previous work.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, December 7, 2008

By 

Steven J. Meader (Port Orchard, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tales of the Grand Tour (Paperback)

I was rather disappointed. Instead of a book of shorstories, all this book is is reprints of chapters from each of the "Grand Tour" books. Quite a let down

4.0 out of 5 stars Office Space, June 6, 2011

By 

Dean Cowan (Manchester UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tales of the Grand Tour (Paperback)

I'm not really an afficiondo of SF so it is still a mystery to me as to why I am reading this book at the moment. I am even less knowledgeable on cosmology so anyhing that even gives some insight as to what the surface of Venus may look like is an interesting piece of escapism. What particular enthralls me about these short stories is that most them are about group dynamics particularly in the work place. Here we read about office affairs which instead of taking place in a high tech office suite on earth, take place on a scientific observation centre on Mars. We read about other planetary office politics; careers advancements for the millionaire business man's son who happens to be funding a project; a film stuntman who undertakes a dangerous sky-dive ontoVenus in order to win back the girl, or is it the guy? Clearly with all the imagined advancements in space technology Ben Bova does not really imagine that human beings would change much, and from that point of view comes the realism of the book. A funny but some times thoughtful read with better case studies for the business manager than the scientist to use for this world training materials.