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Mercury Audiobook
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(3.23) - 26 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
A tale of revenge and technological endeavor set on our solar system's most desolate stage Despite Mercury's desolateness, there are still those who hope to find diamonds in the rough. Saito Yamagata thinks Mercury's position will make it an ideal orbit point for satellites that could someday create enough power to propel starships into deep space. He hires Dante Alexios to bring his dreams to life. Astrobiologist Victor Molina thinks the water at Mercury's poles may harbor evidence of life, and hopes to achieve fame and glory by proving it. Bishop Elliot Danvers has been sent by the religious sect, "The New Morality," to keep close tabs on their endeavors, which threaten to produce results that contradict biblical teachings.
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"Good stuff, the narrative structure worked well. The chapters were short and the writing to-the-point and easy to read. Mance/Dante was a great and tragic character, at first I didn't like him at all, but by the half-way point of the book I was rooting for him."
— Kalle (4 out of 5 stars)
Quotes
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“With Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein gone, Bova, author of more than 70 books, is one of the last deans of traditional science fiction. And he hasn't lost his touch.
— Kansas City Star on Venus -
Recalls the work of Heinlein in his Destination Moon mode, or Hal Clement in any number of stories: a day-after-tomorrow tale crafted with near-journalistic purity...It's a difficult, demanding mode to pursue, and not many choose to nowadays. But Bova does it magnificently.
— Paul Di Filippo, Scifi.com -
This audio version, as you expect from Macmillan Audio, is very good and when you listen to the narrators, it's like being re-introduced to old acquanintances.
— SFCrowsnest.com
Mercury Listener Reviews
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" I generally like Ben Bova's novels and stories from his Grand Tour series. This one I felt wasn't up to his usual level. A story of vengeance on the hottest planet in the solar system does have a kind of poetry to it, and on that level worked okay. "
— Pete, 10/31/2013 -
" The end of the tour, but the beginning of the future "
— Drew, 9/16/2013 -
" More Depressing than Jupiter, but no less entertaining. One of the charactes built a sky tower that goes into space. "
— John, 3/19/2013 -
" Another fabulous Ben Bova voyage into outer space. I love his books! "
— Mitch, 12/20/2011 -
" This is the first Ben Bova I have read. It was great! Fast-paced and really well-written. An interesting science fiction novel with a great plot. "
— Robert, 8/31/2011 -
" Re-reading some Sci-Fi that I had sitting around and am enjoying Bova's series. Many of his books are linked even if only by one common character or event. Some day I will go through them all just to find those links... probably not. "
— Keith, 2/10/2011 -
" Fun, but definitely not the best of his works. It had too little to do with the planet and with science. The suspense wasn't there. "
— Morgan, 9/22/2010 -
" The end of the tour, but the beginning of the future "
— Drew, 9/2/2010 -
" Fun, but definitely not the best of his works. It had too little to do with the planet and with science. The suspense wasn't there. "
— Morgan, 1/26/2010 -
" Meh(hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh). <br/> <br/>Halfway through, don't care to go on. Bland bland bland. Yet unsubtle. Whole book club agreed it did not make us eager to read another Ben Bova. "
— Rachel, 11/8/2009 -
" This is the first Ben Bova I have read. It was great! Fast-paced and really well-written. An interesting science fiction novel with a great plot. "
— Robert, 2/24/2009 -
" I generally like Ben Bova's novels and stories from his Grand Tour series. This one I felt wasn't up to his usual level. A story of vengeance on the hottest planet in the solar system does have a kind of poetry to it, and on that level worked okay. "
— Pete, 1/15/2008
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 the Narrators
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.
Arte Johnson is an award-winning narrator and an American comic actor who won an Emmy Award for his role in the television series Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. His audiobook narations have won two AudioFile Earphones Awards, and he placed as a finalist for the Audie Award for best narration in 2003 and 2007.
Moira Quirk, a British actress and Earphones Award–winning narrator, co-narrated Ben Bova’s Mercury and has narrated other popular audiobooks for which she received Audie Award nominations. She is a successful comedian and can be heard on Nickelodeon’s cartoon My Life as a Teenage Robot as well as in The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd, The Wild Thornberrys Feature, and Serendipity, among others. She has also lent her voice to several video games, including Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Haunting Ground.