Customer Reviews

Tales of the Grand Tour

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

'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.

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

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.

I want to mention one of the stories in here. It's buried and without fanfare or a clue about what it's really about and it's a gem. 'Fifteen Miles' would represent the Moon part of the 'Tour' and it is a beautiful human story. An astronaut finds himself having to undertake a highly risky mission on the Moon to save a colleague who is stranded - and finds that the man he is trying to save somehow seems to know of the terrifying secret he has hidden in his past. This is not so much science here as a great psychological tale and it will touch the reader in a way the other stories won't.

Awesome sci fi! Hard to put down. I cant wait to check out his other books.

Over the years, Ben Bova has become famous for his "Grand Tour" novels about the solar system. Through this fine series of books, Bova has introduced readers to numerous different characters, including Jamie Waterman (Mars), Van Humphries (Venus), Lars Fuchs (Venus, Asteroid Wars), and Sam Gunn (The Sam Gunn Omnibus). Each of these character has played an integral role in Bova's novels, and in "Tales of the Grand Tour", we get to revisit some of these characters' most exciting moments.

Rather than a stand-alone novel, this book is a collection of short stories from the entire Grand Tour series. The reader gets to experience once again Van Humphries' harrowing descent through the atmosphere of Venus with his ship breaking up all around him only to be rescued by none other than Lars Fuchs. Also, Jamie Waterman's experience on Mars, along with Dex Trumball and his future wife Vijay is retold again. I was also introduced to some characters I haven't read about before, including Sam Gunn and the Great Rolando. Some of these characters were introduced before the more well-known Grand Tour novels were written, so I especially enjoyed reading about them.

Some of the material in this book is simply re-printed directly from the novel from which it originally came, namely Jamie Waterman's and Van Humphries' adventures on Mars and Venus respectively, but I still enjoyed re-reading this material a second time, because I really enjoyed these characters originally. The added chapters with the characters I hadn't read about before are enjoyable and contain Bova's trademark style of writing, which includes strong character development and excellent storytelling.

I recommend this book to all fans of Ben Bova's "Grand Tour" novels. Sure, the reader might end up re-reading some material but, as I did, they may encounter some new adventures along the way as well.

This is a tasty collection of stories and excerpts from Bova's Grand Tour series. You get a little bit of everything including a Sam Gunn story and a snippet of JUPITER, MARS, and VENUS. I think the Grand Tour Series has shown Bova to be a writer who has clearly matured in his later years rather than peaking very early (such as Heinlein and Bradbury). His writing gets better and better. This is an excellent introduction to both Bova's writing and this particular series. I should also say that this "series" is not serial in any manner. You don't need to read one story ahead of another, though many characters overlap. This, of course, is what William Faulkner did throughout his career. Bova is no Faulkner and I'm no Harold Bloom, but this is science fiction at its absolute best.