Ben Bova has 38 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 45 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.1★ across 136 ratings. The most-rated is Mars.
Powersat
Summary
Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And in its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of spaceflight. Americans needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites that gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy. Worse, Dan discovers that the plane was sabotaged. And whoever brought it down is willing—and able—to kill again to keep Astro grounded. Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy idea as a campaign plank for the candidate she’s grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck. Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they’ve figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West. A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.
©2005 Ben Bova (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Mars
Summary
This grand epic adventure from six-time Hugo Award - winning author Ben Bova tells the irresistible story of man's first mission to that great unconquered frontier, Mars. Technically plausible and compellingly human, Bova's story explores the political, scientific, and social repercussions of our greatest quest yet: the search for evidence of life beyond Earth's boundaries. Half-Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman has been selected for the ground team of the first manned expedition to our mysterious neighbor planet. Joining an international team of astronauts and scientists, he endures the rigors of training, the dangers of traveling an incredible distance in space, the challenges of an alien landscape, and the personal and political conflicts that arise when the team must face the most shocking discovery of all.
©1992 Ben Bova (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol. 2-B
Summary
Eleven essential classics in one volume This last volume in the definitive collection of the best science fiction novellas published between 1929 and 1964 contains 11 great classics. No anthology better captures the birth of science fiction as a literary field. Published in 1973 to honor stories that had appeared before the institution of the Nebula Awards, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame introduced thousands of young listeners to the wonders of science fiction and was a favorite of libraries across the country. This volume contains the following: Introduction by Ben Bova The Martian Way by Isaac Asimov Earthman, Come Home by James Blish Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys The Spectre General by Theodore Cogswell The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster The Midas Plague by Frederik Pohl The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz E for Effort by T. L. Sherred In Hiding by Wilmar H. Shiras The Big Front Yard by Clifford D. Simak The Moon Moth by Jack Vance
©2008 Ben Bova (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Sam Gunn Omnibus
Summary
A hero without peer or scruples, Sam Gunn has a nose for trouble, money, and women, though not necessarily in that order. A man with the ego (and stature) of a Napoleon, the business acumen of a P. T. Barnum, and the raging hormones of a teenage boy, Sam is the finest astronaut NASA ever trained and dumped. But more than money, more than women, Sam Gunn loves justice—and he really does love money and women. Whether he’s suing the Pope, helping twin sisters entangled in the virtual sex trade, or on trial for his life on charges of interplanetary genocide, you can be sure of one thing: this is one space jockey who’ll meet every challenge with a smile on his lips, an ace up his sleeve, and a weapon in his pocket. Now, for the first time in one volume, Hugo-winner Ben Bova presents all the tales of Sam Gunn to date, including three never-before collected in book form. Here is the entire chronicle of Sam Gunn, trailblazer and scoundrel, as he scams his way from one end of the solar system to the other, giving bold new meaning to the term venture capitalist.
©2007 Ben Bova (P)2007 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Death Wave
Summary
Six-time Hugo Award-winner Ben Bova chronicles the saga of humankind's expansion beyond the solar system. In Ben Bova's previous novel, New Earth, Jordan Kell led the first human mission beyond the solar system, where they discovered the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. But one alien AI survived, and it revealed to Jordan Kell that an explosion in the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has created a wave of deadly radiation, expanding out from the core toward Earth. Unless the human race acts to save itself, all life on Earth will be wiped out. When Kell and his team return to Earth many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news. He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.
©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audibooks
Moonrise
Summary
A 21st century U.S. aerospace company has developed the first permanent human settlement on the Moon, made possible by major scientific breakthroughs, particularly in the practical use of nanotechnology (microscopic machines which can build structures on the moon using lunar raw materials as well as correct damage done to the human body by illness and injury.) But conflict within the company's founding family and growing protests against the technology from radical environmentalists and religious fundamentalists on Earth put Moonbase in danger of closure. Former astronaut and brilliant visionary Paul Stavenger must prevent the project from falling into the wrong hands as a power struggle leads to murder and the near destruction of Moonbase.
©1996 Ben Bova (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Venus: The Grand Tour Series
Summary
The surface of Venus is the most hellish place in the solar system - it's ground hot enough to melt aluminum, its air pressure high enough to crush spacecraft landers like tin cans, it's atmosphere a choking mix of poisonous gases. This is where the frail young Van Humphries must go—or die trying. Years before, Van’s older brother perished in the first attempt to land a man on Venus. Van’s father has always hated him for being the one to survive. Now, his father is offering a $10-billion prize to the first person who lands on Venus and returns his oldest son’s remains. To everyone’s surprise, Van takes up the offer. But what Van Humphries will find on Venus will change everything—our understanding of Venus, of global warming on Earth, and his knowledge of who he is.
©2000 Ben Bova (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Empire Builders
Summary
Dan Randolph never plays by the rules. A hell-raising maverick with no patience for fools, he is admired by his friends, feared by his enemies, and desired by the world's loveliest women. Acting as a 21st privateer, Randolph broke the political strangle-hold on space exploration, and became one of the world's richest men in the bargain. Now an ecological crisis threatens Earth—and the same politicians that Randolph outwitted the first time want to impose a world dictatorship to deal with it. Dan Randolph knows that the answer lies in more human freedom, not less—and in the boundless resources of space. But can he stay free long enough to give the world that chance?
©1993 Ben Bova (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Moonwar
Summary
Ben Bova’s extraordinary Moonbase Saga continues with a breathtaking near-future adventure rich in character and incident. Seven years after the indomitable Doug Stavenger has realized his cherished dream of establishing a colony on the inhospitable lunar surface, Moonbase is a thriving community, a marvel of scientific achievement created and supported by nanotechnology: virus-sized machines that can build, cure, and destroy. But nanotechnology has been declared illegal by the home planet’s leaders, and a powerful despot is determined to lay claim to Stavenger’s peaceful city - or obliterate it, if necessary. The people of Moonbase, a colony with no arms or military, must now defend themselves from earthborn aggression with the only weapon at their disposal: the astonishing technology that sustains their endangered home. About the author: Ben Bova, six-time winner of the Hugo Award, is the author of over one hundred futuristic novels and nonfiction books. 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.
©1998 Ben Bova (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Rock Rats
Summary
Visionary space industrialist Dan Randolph is dead, but his protege, pilot Pancho Barnes, now sits on the board of his conglomerate. She has her work cut out for her, for Randolph's rival, Martin Humphries, still wants to control Astro and still wants to drive independent asteroid miners like Lars Fuchs out of business. Humphries wants revenge against Pancho, and, most of all, he wants his old flame, Amanda, who has become Lars Fuchs's wife. Before it ends, many will die, and many will achieve more than they ever dreamed was possible.
©2002 Ben Bova (P)2002, 2005 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
Return to Mars
Summary
Six years after the first manned Martian expedition, a second has been announced, this one motivated purely by its profitable potential. Half-Navajo geologist Jamie Waterman, a veteran of the first mission, feels his conflicted soul beckoning him back to the eerie, unforgiving planet. As commander of the new exploratory team, he will have to contend with a bitter and destructive rivalry, a disturbing new emotional attraction, and deadly, incomprehensible "accidents" that appear to be sabotage - all of which could doom the mission to failure. But there are still great secrets to be uncovered on this cruel and enigmatic world, not the least being something he glimpsed in the far distance during his first Martian excursion: an improbable structure perched high in the planet's carmine cliffs...a dwelling that only an intelligent being could have built.
©1999 Ben Bova (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Titan
Summary
Master storyteller Ben Bova continues his multi-volume "Grand Tour" saga chronicling humanity's exploration of near space with Titan, a fast-paced thriller focused on the first manned mission to the Solar System's most intriguing world. Skillfully blending high drama, passionate characters, and daring speculation with the latest discoveries from the current Cassini/Huygens probe of Saturn's moon, Bova has crafted a heart-stopping tale of epic adventure on mankind's next frontier. The gigantic colony ship Goddard has at last made orbit around the ringed planet Saturn, carrying a volatile population of more than 10,000 dissidents, rebels, extremists, and visionaries seeking a new life among the stars. Chief scientist Edouard Urbain's avowed mission is to study the enigmatic moon called Titan, which offers the tantalizing possibility that life may exist amid its windswept islands and chill black seas. But when the exploration vessel Titan Alpha mysteriously fails after reaching the moon's surface, long buried tensions surface among the colonists. Torn by political intrigue, suspicious accidents, and an awesome discovery that could threaten human space exploration, a handful of courageous men and women must fight for the survival of their colony, and the destiny of the human race.
©2006 Ben Bova (P)2006 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
The Silent War
Summary
Ben Bova's The Silent War is the breakneck continuation to The Asteroid Wars series that can end only in earth's salvation - or the annihilation of all that humankind has ever accomplished in space. When corporations go to war, standard business practice goes out the window. Astro Corporation is led by indomitable Texan Pancho Lane, Humphries Space Systems by the rich and ruthless Martin Humphries, and their fight is over nothing less than resources of the Asteroid Belt itself. Fighting escalates and the lines between commerce and politics, boardroom and bedroom, blur - and the keys to victory will include physics, nanotechnology, and cold hard cash.It's a breakneck finale that can end only in earth's salvation - or the annihilation of all that humankind has ever accomplished in space.
©2004 Ben Bova (P)2005 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
Mercury
Summary
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.
©2005 Ben Bova (P)2005 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
Voyagers III
Summary
Keith Stoner lay frozen in an alien spacecraft for 15 long years. During that time, he came to be something more than just an astronaut, or just a man. Stoner became partly alien himself, merged with an alien intelligence embodied in the nanotechnology that lived inside his body. The alien whose tomb that spacecraft was brought humanity both a blessing and a deadly peril. The technology that lives in Stoner's bloodstream will change mankind forever. Powerful leaders, both corporate and political, become aware of Keith Stoner and the power he seems to control. They want that power for themselves and will do anything to gain it. Nothing Stoner can say or do will convince these ruthless men and women that the power they seek may destroy them utterly.
©1990 Ben Bova (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Voyagers
Summary
Stoner knew. The fiery object hurtling toward the Earth was an alien spacecraft. But the world might never know. He was trapped in an iron cordon of secrecy, for the discovery had shattered the world power balance, setting off a brutal struggle for supremacy that raged from the sacred halls of the Vatican to the corridors of the Kremlin and the Pentagon. The forces of fear and treachery would use any weapon at their command, from mind war to sabotage, to keep the world in darkness. Aided by a brilliant Soviet linguist and a lovely young student, Stoner planned a desperate mission, a wild, heart-stopping gamble to preserve the legacy of the star voyager for all mankind.
©1981 Ben Bova (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks
Saturn
Summary
In the best-selling novels Venus and Jupiter, Ben Bova dramatized the latest discoveries about our own solar system in an epic tale of near-future exploration and development. Now Bova turns his attention to one of our system's greatest mysteries, Saturn. Earth groans under the thumb of fundamentalist political regimes. Crisis after crisis has given authoritarians the upper hand. Freedom and opportunity exist in space, for those with the nerve and skill to take it. Now the governments of Earth are encouraging many of their most incorrigible dissidents to join a great ark, a one-way expedition to Saturn, the ringed planet that baffled Galileo and has fascinated astronomers ever since. But humans will be human, so amidst the idealism permeating Space Habitat Goddard are many individuals with long-term schemes, each awaiting their moment. And hidden from them is the greatest secret of all, the real purpose of this expedition, known to only a few.
©2003 Ben Bova (P)2003 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
Apes and Angels
Summary
Six-time Hugo Award winner Ben Bova chronicles the saga of humankind's expansion beyond the solar system in Apes and Angels, the second installment in the Star Quest Trilogy. Humankind headed out to the stars not for conquest, nor exploration, nor even for curiosity. Humans went to the stars in a desperate crusade to save intelligent life wherever they found it. A wave of death is spreading through the Milky Way galaxy, an expanding sphere of lethal gamma radiation that erupted from the galaxy's core 28,000 years ago and now is approaching Earth's vicinity at the speed of light. Every world it touched was wiped clean of all life. But it's possible to protect a planet from gamma radiation. Earth is safe. Now, guided by the ancient intelligent machines called the Predecessors, men and women from Earth seek out those precious, rare worlds that harbor intelligent species, determined to save them from the doom that is hurtling toward them. The crew of the Odysseus has arrived at Mithra Gamma, the third planet of the star Mithra, to protect the stone-age inhabitants from the Death Wave. But they'll also have to protect themselves.
©2016 Ben Bova (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Aftermath
Summary
Six-time Hugo Award winner Ben Bova chronicles the saga of humankind's expansion beyond the solar system in The Aftermath. In the wake of the Asteroid Wars that tore across the solar system, Victor Zacharius makes his living running the ore-carrier Syracuse. When the Syracuse stumbles into the middle of a military attack on the habitat Chrysalis, Victor flees in a control pod to draw the attacker's attention away from his family. Now, as his wife and children plunge into the far deeps of space, Victor has been rescued by the seductive Cheena Madagascar. He must do her bidding if he's to have a prayer of ever seeing his family again. Elverda Apacheta, the solar system's greatest sculptor, and the cyborg Dorn, the ruthless military commander responsible for the attack on Chrysalis, are linked by their joint discovery of an alien artifact. Similarly transformed by the artifact's mysterious powers, Apacheta and Dorn now prowl the Belt, determined to find the bodies of the many victims of Harbin's atrocities so that they can be given proper burials. Kao Yuan is the captain of Viking who's determined to kill Dorn and Elverda because they know too much about the artifact and its power. But Viking's second-in-command appears to have the real power on board ship. When Viking catches up to Apacheta and Dorn, their confrontation begins a series of events involving them, the Zacharius family, and the transformation of the human solar system....
©2007 Ben Bova (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
Leviathans of Jupiter
Summary
What secrets lurk in the depths of Jupiter’s oceans? In Ben Bova’s novel Jupiter, physicist Grant Archer led an expedition into Jupiter’s planet-wide ocean, attempting to study the unusual and massive creatures that call the planet their home. Unprepared for the hostile environment and crushing pressures, Grant’s team faced certain death as their ship malfunctioned and slowly sank to the planet’s depths. However, one of Jupiter’s native creatures—a city-sized leviathan—saved the doomed ship. This creature’s act convinced Grant that they were intelligent, but he lacked scientific proof. Now, several years later, Grant prepares a new expedition to prove it once and for all. The new team faces dangers from both the hostile environment and from humans who will do anything to make sure the mission is a failure—even if it means murdering the entire crew.
©2011 Ben Bova (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.