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Farside Audiobook
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(2.96) - 145 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Farside, the side of the moon that never faces Earth, is the ideal location for an astronomical observatory. It is also the setting for a tangled web of politics, personal ambition, love, jealousy, and murder.
Telescopes on Earth have detected an Earth-sized planet circling a star some thirty light-years away. The race is on to obtain photographs and spectra that show whether or not the planet is truly like Earth—and if it bears life. Farside observatory will have the largest optical telescope in the solar system, as well as a vast array of radio antennas—the most sensitive radio telescope possible, insulated from the interference of Earth's radio chatter by a thousand kilometers of the moon's solid mass.
Building the Farside observatory is a complex and often dangerous task. On the airless surface of the moon—under constant bombardment by hard radiation and infalling micrometeoroids—builders must work in cumbersome spacesuits and use robotic machines as much as possible. Breakdowns, both mechanical and emotional, are commonplace. Accidents happen, some of them fatal. But what they ultimately find will stun everyone, and the human race will never be the same.
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"A decent SF story with a solid premise that is certainly a possibility combined with characters having ego's and rivalries. All to realistic and not the optimistic SF where progress means human nature changes."
— Jeff (4 out of 5 stars)
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“One of his best.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“With his customary use of scientific facts to augment his flair for storytelling, six-time Hugo Award winner Bova brings to life another sf adventure about humanity’s future in space. Bova’s emphasis is on plot and scientific speculation, but his characters still resound with personality.”
— Library Journal -
Bova carries the story forward with his usual workmanlike, technically savvy narrative, which is interspersed with background facts and biographies of the main characters. The sort of gritty, hands-on, you-are-there yarn at which Bova has long excelled.
— Kirkus Reviews
Farside Listener Reviews
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Skyler, 9/10/2020
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" 10 word review: horny middle school personalities conspire against each other; the moon "
— L, 1/30/2014 -
" Interesting ideas, but the characters are fairly one-sided and not particularly likable. "
— Mary, 1/11/2014 -
" Reads like a book written by some teenager. "
— Mirek, 1/7/2014 -
" audio -- a book about building the 100M mirrors on the dark side of the moon to find Goldilocks. nice SCI of the sci-fi "
— Irene, 1/4/2014 -
" Typical old style science fiction, fast read. OK story but not much depth. "
— Frank, 12/30/2013 -
" Murder mystery/romance lite set on the moon. It's funny how so few authors get the love/romance part right. Female authors write it too mushy and male authors write it too factual. Although I wouldn't rush out to read another book by this author, I wouldn't not read another of his books. "
— Sharblynn, 11/4/2013 -
" Fun book. Easy to read. However, the tension wasn't there for me. "
— Benjamin, 10/24/2013 -
" Way too much expository information delivered via the thoughts of the characters. "
— Carol, 10/19/2013 -
" This is a remarkably bad book. It is awfully, laughably bad. I find it hard to believe it was actually written by Ben Bova. "
— Robert, 10/17/2013 -
" I unabashedly like Bova's books - yeah, women are all sex objects and men are all macho and wacko, but they're fun reads. And SPACE!! "
— Jenn, 10/11/2013 -
" The short chapters were distracting and it ended too nicely. It would have been better with a little twist. "
— Librarygirl71, 10/5/2013 -
" Good addition to the Grand Tour stories. Fast paced and good tech stuff. "
— Derek, 9/21/2013 -
" Another book with an interesting location - this time the far side of the moon. However, it rapidly turned into a book I've read many times in the past; mysterious deaths, lots of potential suspects, etc., etc. Only liked it for reading about the science of living on the moon. "
— Tamlyn, 6/25/2013 -
" Interesting technology, but cookie cutter characters and plot "
— Sara, 5/21/2013 -
" Not my cup of tea. While I do enjoy sci-fi thrillers; this one sort of flopped. It never piqued my interest. "
— Tessie, 1/29/2013 -
" Have been reading SF for forty (or more?) years. Good read, somewhat trite murder mystery. Remember, the inanimate doesn't kill -- it takes a person to release the violence of such objects. "
— Joanne, 1/28/2013
About Ben Bova
Ben Bova (1932–2020), American author of more than one hundred books of science fact and fiction, was awarded posthumously the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. His work earned six Hugo Awards. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and his novel Titan won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of 2006. In his early career, he was a technical editor for Project Vanguard, the United States’s first effort to launch a satellite into space in 1958. He then was a science writer for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, which built the heat shields for the Apollo 11 module. He held the position of president emeritus of the National Space Society and served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
About Stefan Rudnicki
Stefan Rudnicki first became involved with audiobooks in 1994. Now a Grammy-winning audiobook producer, he has worked on more than five thousand audiobooks as a narrator, writer, producer, or director. He has narrated more than nine hundred audiobooks. A recipient of multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, he was presented the coveted Audie Award for solo narration in 2005, 2007, and 2014, and was named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices in 2012.