I quite liked this: if you can get past the very long time it takes the protagonist to develop a backbone and any sort of character strength, the story really takes off. The supporting cast is excellent, and I like the premise of the book: No one is really interested in going to Venus, but the billionaire father of an astronaut who died on Venus in the first attempt puts up prize money - all of his money - to the first person who can bring the body back.

And then cuts off his surviving son's allowance, forcing the vaguely effete pseudo-scientist to put together an attempt, or face poverty. Venus is an unforgiving place, and Bova caught its science beautifully.

I'm handing this one off to OttawaBill, who is heading up to Toronto, and plans on doing some releasing there. Good travels, book!

Picked up at the meet up in Toronto last night. I'm trying to be more open minded about science fiction...lets see how this goes :)

Started reading this last night and I am halfway thru. I am really enjoying it and the character, Van. He's an unlikely hero so far....he's on a mission to Venus to find his brother's remains and win the prize money of 10 billion dollars that their father has offered up.

Oh..did I mention his brother was killed attempting to make the first ever landing on Venus and no one has tried since....

Intriguing so far...will journal again when I've finished it in the next day or two..then its on its way to bc'er stinalyn.

N8an was right....Van finally does find his backbone....and he might be worth the wait after all. The ending was "happy" in a way that I am not used to science fiction being happy. This was my reattempt at science fiction after many years of abstinence and I truly enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed the scientific facts and speculation about Venus more than the plot line to be honest.
Thanks N8an for sharing.

This is off to stinalyn tomorrow.

Just received this today from cestmoi. Pax is a big fan of Dr Bova, and I know he hasn't read this one yet, so I am sure he will appreciate this. Thanks for the swap!

Another in the "Grand Tour" series of books by Ben Bova, this is an exploration of the planet Venus, including Van Humphries, son of one of the least likeable characters ever written in SF, in my opinion. Van isn't a whole lot more endearing, but the story is good, and the writing is clear and flows well. This book will be released into the wild.

Released on Friday, May 23, 2003 at Churchill Coffee Bistro (on S National) in Springfield, Missouri USA.

I left this on the table of the conversational grouping at the far end of the dining room.