Audiobooks by Ben Bova

A Long Way Back: Alone Above A Broken Earth

"The world ended not in a single flash, but in exhaustion. Cities lie in radioactive ruin, knowledge is scattered like ash, and a small fortified settlement clings to survival with one desperate plan: revive an eighteen-year-old satellite designed to beam solar power back to Earth. Only one man can reach it. Thomas H. Morris is not an engineer. He is a historian. Chosen because he is expendable, conditioned through hypnosis to perform work he does not consciously understand, and launched alone into orbit, Tom must assemble five drifting satellite modules before his oxygen runs out and before the cold of space seeps through his failing ship. Below him waits a community that sees the satellite as salvation. Tom sees something more complicated. As he labors through freezing darkness, he begins to understand that the true struggle is not against space, but against fear—the fear of reopening the shattered cities and the knowledge buried inside them. A Long Way Back is not simply a story about survival in orbit. It is a tense, intimate confrontation between one man and the future he is being asked to secure. With time slipping away and a final adjustment left to make, Tom must decide whether he will follow orders—or force humanity onto a harder, riskier path toward rebuilding itself. Ben Bova would go on to become one of science fiction’s most influential editors and novelists. As editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact from 1972 to 1978, he helped shape a generation of writers and ideas in hard science fiction. He later won six Hugo Awards for Best Professional Editor and wrote more than 120 books, including the long-running Grand Tour series such as Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. His fiction often grapples with humanity’s relationship to technology and the moral choices that accompany progress."

Ben Bova (Author), Scott Miller (Narrator)

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Vintage Sci-Fi 25 - 22 Science Fiction Short Stories from Lester Del Rey, Jack Williamson, Ben Nova, Frank Belknap Long, Michael Shaara and more: Strange Creatures, Impossible Paradoxes, And Dangerous Discoveries In Vintage Science Fiction

"Vintage Sci-Fi 25 - 22 Science Fiction Short Stories from Lester Del Rey, Jack Williamson, Ben Nova, Frank Belknap Long, Michael Shaara and more - Wainer by Michael Shaara - Seller of the Sky by Dave Dryfoos - Final Exam by Sam Merwin Jr. - Welcome to Paradise by Allyn Donnelson - World's End by Henry Kuttner - Helen O'Loy by Lester Del Rey - Death Wish by Robert Sheckley - The Ultimate Wish by E. M. Hull - The Ultimate Paradox by Thorp McClusky - The Ultimate World by Bryce Walton - The Ultimate Problem by Victor Rousseau - The Hounds of Tindalos by Frank Belknap Long - The Man Who Knew Everything by Randall Garrett - Castaway by A. Bertram Chandler - Quixote and the Windmill by Poul Anderson - A Long Way Back by Ben Bova - Patch by William Shedenhelm - Strange Exodus by Robert Anthony - The Next Time We Die by Robert Moore Williams - Salvage in Space by Jack Williamson - The Man From 2071 by Sewell Peaslee Wright"

A. Bertram Chandler, Allyn Donnelson, Ben Bova, Bryce Walton, Dave Dryfoos, E. M. Hull, Frank Belknap Long, Henry Kuttner, Jack Williamson, Lester Del Rey, Michael Shaara, Poul Anderson, Randall Garrett, Robert Anthony, Robert Moore Williams, Robert Sheckley, Sam Merwin Jr., Sewell Peaslee Wright, Victor Rousseau (Author), Scott Miller (Narrator)

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Pluto

"Hugo Award winner Ben Bova and Les Johnson complete Bova’s Outer Planets series (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), a Grand Tour of the human settled solar system, with a final encounter on Pluto. Major Larry Randall has been called to Pluto to retrieve Dr. Aaron Mikelson. Mikelson, no longer human after a horrific accident, is now melded to an AI. His enhanced senses have detected an alien artifact on Pluto’s surface, and he’s not leaving without it. Transferred to the research vessel studying Pluto, Randall and the other scientists are stumped as to the artifact’s purpose and origin. Looking for similar signs of aliens they make their way to Pluto’s moon, Charon, where, buried deep under its icy surface, something stirs―and wakes. Against a backdrop of unknown alien technology and potential interplanetary war, Mikelson’s inhuman ego and obsession will risk humanity by calling something unknown to our solar system."

Ben Bova, Les Johnson (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Answer, Please Answer !: A dire warning from space that humans do not want to hear

"Two army draftees, both astronomers of different types, are sent to spend six months at the South Pole, monitoring weather patterns. The tensions of cold war between the US and Russia have increased to the breaking point and each nation has mobilized for imminent nuclear strikes. A sort of peace still exists but just by the narrowest margins. Sitting in their tiny igloo beneath the ice, the men talk about their jobs of searching the stars for intelligent life; one using visual means and the other using radio frequency means. In doing so, a strange anomaly is noticed in a star 600 light years away. It appears to be a regular signal of some type. Absurd of course but having little else to do, these two scientists try to crack the code, if indeed there is one, as a way to pass the time. They do. And the message is most definitely not one they wish to get. Listen to this story by the astronomer and master story teller Ben Bova and think about the consequences of our world's current armament race."

Ben Bova (Author), Philip Chenevert (Narrator)

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Ben Bova: The Next Logical Step: Ordinarily the military does not want to have the enemy know the final details of their war plans. But, logically, there would be times—

"Things are not good. The tension between the USA and t he USSR have continued to grow until each side is glowering at the other behind thousands of nuclear missiles on submarines, silos, railroads and planes. Each nation is on a hair trigger. The entire world is armed now and ready to blow at the slightest provocation. 'If you try anything, I will retaliate with 20 times the destruction, I will take you so far down you won't see daylight for 500 years!' The US has built a massive computer to run battle simulations; a computer so innovative and big that it can show what will happen in excruciating detail and as a visual reality. Unfortunately the generals that have used it so far have either quit the military or committed suicide so a CIA agent is called into give advice."

Ben Bova (Author), Philip Chenevert (Narrator)

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Sam Gunn Jr.

"The final completed novel by Ben Bova Intergalactic explorer, venture capitalist, and Casanova Sam Gunn may be gone, but his legacy lives on in his son, Sam Gunn Jr. In his first-ever adventure, Sam Gunn Jr. sets off to fulfill his father’s left-behind mission of interplanetary enterprising. He soon learns his father’s shoes are tough to fill, but he is up for the task. Junior takes a journey through the stars, falling in love with beautiful women and leaving his unique mark everywhere he ventures. Soon, however, this trip through the universe takes a dangerous turn when Junior lands on Saturn and learns about a recent scientific discovery that will change everything, possibly forever. Will he be able to save the universe and live up to his father’s name? Take an unforgettable ride through space in master sci-fi author Ben Bova’s exciting novel!"

Ben Bova (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Privateers

"America has ceded the heavens to the tyrants—and the renegades. The US has abandoned its quest for the stars, and an old enemy has moved in to fill the void. The potential wealth of the universe is now in malevolent hands. Rebel billionaire Dan Randolph—possessor of the largest privately owned company in space—intends to weaken the stranglehold the new despotic masters of the solar system have on the lucrative ore industry. But when the mineral-rich asteroid he sets in orbit around the earth is commandeered by the enemy, and his unarmed workers are slaughtered in cold blood, the course of Randolph’s life is changed forever. Now cataclysm is aimed at the exposed heart of America—a potential catastrophe that Randolph himself inadvertently set in motion. And the maverick entrepreneur must use his skills, cunning, and vast resources to strike out at his foes hard, fast, and with ruthless precision—and wear proudly the mantle that fate thrust upon him: space pirate!"

Ben Bova (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Neptune

"Hugo Award winner Ben Bova continues his grand tour of the human-settled solar system with a look at life in the Outer Planets, among the moons of Neptune. In the future, humanity has spread throughout the solar system, on planets and moons once visited only by robots or explored at a distance by far-voyaging spacecraft. No matter how hostile or welcoming the environment, mankind has forged a path and found a home. In the far reaches of the solar system, the outer planets―billions of miles from Earth, unknown for millennia―are being settled. Neptune, the ice giant, is swathed in clouds of hydrogen, helium, and methane and circled by rings of rock and dust. Three years ago, Ilona Magyr’s father, Miklos, disappeared while exploring the seas of Neptune. Everyone believes he is dead―crushed, frozen, or boiled alive in Neptune’s turbulent seas. With legendary space explorer Derek Humbolt piloting her ship and planetary scientist Jan Meitner guiding the search, Ilona Magyr knows she will find her father―alive―on Neptune. Her plans are irrevocably altered when she and her team discover the wreckage of an alien ship deep in Neptune’s ocean, a discovery that changes humanity’s understanding of its future … and its past."

Ben Bova (Author), Gabrielle De Cuir (Narrator)

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Uranus

"Ben Bova, author of Earth, continues his exploration of the future of a human-settled Solar System with the science fiction action adventure Uranus. On a privately financed orbital habitat above the planet Uranus, political idealism conflicts with pragmatic—and illegal—methods of financing. Add a scientist who has funding to launch a probe deep into Uranus’s ocean depths to search for signs of life, and you have a three-way struggle for control. Humans can’t live on the gas giants, making instead a life in orbit. Kyle Umber, a religious idealist, has built Haven, a sanctuary above the distant planet Uranus. He invites “the tired, the sick, the poor” of Earth to his orbital retreat where men and women can find spiritual peace and refuge from the world. The billionaire who financed Haven, however, has his own designs: beyond the reach of the laws of the inner planets, Haven could become the center for an interplanetary web of narcotics, prostitution, and even hunting human prey. Meanwhile a scientist has gotten funding from the Inner Planets to drop remote probes into the “oceans” of Uranus, in search of life. He brings money and prestige, but he also brings journalists and government oversight to Haven. And they can’t have that."

Ben Bova (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Power Challenges

"It is time to start colonizing the solar system. Ex-astronaut, current space advisor, and all-out troubleshooter for the President, Jake Ross, is determined to make it happen. And what better way than to return to America’s glory by returning to the moon and setting up a permanent moon-base which can then serve as the launching pad for Mars and beyond. But as usual, political intrigue and conflicting priorities are threatening the whole program. Add to that a President who is about to die, a strong contingent in the legislative body which thinks that money spent on a moon-base is money wasted, and the general apathy of the public, and you have an almost impossible task. Even NASA, natural enthusiasts of a project like this, are dragging their feet because they have lost control of the top-spot in the project. But none of those opposing forces have contended with the resolve and the skill of Jake Ross. He will create the base on the moon. He will send humans out to many worlds."

Ben Bova (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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My Favorites: A Collection of Short Stories

"In this new collection, Ben Bova has compiled fourteen of his favorite short stories. Each story includes an all-new introduction with compelling insight into the narrative. Exploring the boundaries of the genre, Bova not only writes of spaceships, aliens, and time travel in most of his titles, but also speculates on the beginnings of science fiction in “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” as well as the morality of man in “The Angel’s Gift.” Stories such as “The Café Coup” and “We’ll Always Have Paris” dip into speculative historical fiction, asking questions about what would happen if someone could change history for the better. This expansive collection is a key addition for Bova fans and sci-fi lovers alike! Stories included in this collection: “Monster Slayer,” “Muzhestvo,” “We’ll Always Have Paris,” “The Great Moon Hoax, or A Princess of Mars,” “Inspiration,” “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” “The Supersonic Zeppelin,” “Mars Farts,” “The Man Who Hated Gravity,” “Sepulcher,” “The Café Coup,” “The Angel’s Gift,” “Waterbot,” and “Sam and the Flying Dutchman.”"

Ben Bova (Author), Alex Hyde-White, Arthur Morey, Efrem Zimbalist, Gabrielle De Cuir, Grover Gardner, John Rubinstein, Orson Scott Card, Paul Boehmer, Stefan Rudnicki, Steven Hoye (Narrator)

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Earth

"Earth is the latest science fiction novel from multiple Hugo Award winner Ben Bova, author of Apes and Angels and Survival A wave of lethal gamma radiation is expanding from the core of the Milky Way galaxy at the speed of light, killing everything in its path. The countdown to when the death wave will reach Earth and the rest of the solar system is at two thousand years. Humans were helped by the Predecessors, who provided shielding generators that can protect the solar system. In return, the Predecessors asked humankind’s help to save other intelligent species that are in danger of being annihilated. But what of Earth? With the Death Wave no longer a threat to humanity, humans have spread out and colonized all the worlds of the solar system. The technology of the Predecessors has made Earth a paradise, at least on the surface. But a policy of exiling discontented young people to the outer planets and asteroid mines has led to a deep divide between the new worlds and the homeworld, and those tensions are about to explode into open war."

Ben Bova (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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Audiobooks by Ben Bova

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