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The Return Audiobook
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(3.04) - 113 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
In the 1980s, an alien starship visited Earth. While investigating what appeared to be a sarcophagus bearing the preserved body of its builder, astronaut Keith Stoner was trapped and cryogenically frozen. After his body was eventually returned to Earth and revived, Stoner discovered that he had acquired alien powers. Putting them to use, he built a new starship and left Earth.
Now, after more than a century of exploring the stars, Keith Stoner returns to find that the world he has come back to does not match the one he left. The planet is suffering the consequences of disastrous greenhouse flooding. Most nations have been taken over by ultraconservative religion-based governments, such as the New Morality in the United States. With population ballooning and resources running out, Earth is heading for nuclear war. Stoner, the star voyager, wants to save Earth’s people, but first he must save himself from the frightened and ambitious zealots who want to destroy this stranger—and the terrifying message he brings from the stars.
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"I've greatly enjoyed working through Ben Bova's Grand Tour -- a 20+ series of books covering the exploration and colonization of the solar system. In the backdrop, Earth is falling under control of religious fanatics and loosing its brightest minds to to space. The premise of The Return is about a family of human star travelers returning to Earth with all their experiences and technologies obtained during their travels. They find Earth on the brink of a nuclear war, overpopulation, and feeling the effects of global climate change. With the religious fanatics taking over government and seeing the star travelers as an evil threat to their power, is there any hope for the human race? A good story!"
— Skyler (5 out of 5 stars)
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“This fourth volume in the Voyagers series displays Hugo Award winner Bova’s consummate ability to tell an absorbing tale about two men, each with a mission to free his world from blind dogma and orchestrated tyranny. The author’s outspoken philosophy provides food for thought for his many fans and readers who enjoy hard SF.”
— Library Journal -
“Bova doesn’t oversimplify the ethical conflicts, and that keeps tension high.”
— Booklist
The Return Listener Reviews
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" Loved it. Bova never fails to deliver a great storyline and believable plot & characters. It makes me wish I were born about 100 year later :) "
— Anca, 10/25/2013 -
" Outstanding. I love the way Bova concluded this series and actually tied it into his Grand Tour novels. This book also managed to interweave a lot of current political issues and problems currently occurring on our world. Just fantastic and easy to read. "
— Andy, 6/9/2013 -
" Sci-fi about a man who returns from outerspace with his wife and children to an Earth of a different reality - and he has a mission and a message to save humanity. A so-so book. "
— Nancy/girlsinthestacks.com, 5/30/2013 -
" This book is not up to Ben Bova's usual standard. I feel as if he needed to complete the sequence, so he did but without a lot of imagination. The book is pedantic and predictable. However, even a mediocre Ben Bova book is still worth reading if you like hard science fiction. "
— David, 6/18/2012 -
" A bit too preachy and antitheistic, but an interesting story. Hopefully it won't be the start of a whole series of parallel universe story lines, which has been overdone in sci-fi in every media type already. "
— Jeff, 1/29/2011 -
" Sci-fi about a man who returns from outerspace with his wife and children to an Earth of a different reality - and he has a mission and a message to save humanity. A so-so book. "
— Nancy, 3/20/2010 -
" This book is not up to Ben Bova's usual standard. I feel as if he needed to complete the sequence, so he did but without a lot of imagination. The book is pedantic and predictable. However, even a mediocre Ben Bova book is still worth reading if you like hard science fiction. <br/> "
— David, 12/12/2009
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.