- Hardcover: 444 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (2 Nov 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340767642
- ISBN-13: 978-0340767641
- Product Dimensions: 24 x 16.2 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 656,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Jupiter
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Manchester Evening News (Jupiter)
'a spectatcular page- turner'
Burton Daily Mail (The Precipice)
'Bova fans will not be disappointed by this latest offering from the master of scince fiction'
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Truly amazing, one of the best SCI FI books i've ever read. If not THE best. I've only actually read one other book by Ben Bova, "Mars" which i enjoyed but no where near as much as i enjoyed this. Jupiter was impossible to put down from start to finish. A well written simply fantastic story, told clearly and beautifully. If Venus is half as good as this then i'm not going to bother with any other SCI-FI writers for a while.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the 19th century, adventure novels were usually set in relatively unexplored areas of Earth - such as the Congo rainforests in 'King Solomon's Mines' by H. Rider Haggard. Little was known about these areas and what lived in them, or we had little understanding of what the peoples were like. And so the stories now seem often rediculous, as we now know a lot more about such places, and their inhabitants. But at the time, they were based on what was known, and were great adventures !
In the 20th century most adventure novels were either set during the wars, which we did know a lot about - after all it was a human event. Some were also set rediculously far in the future, in what was effectively unlikely fantasy environments with little respect to science (e.g. Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein).
Now, at the end of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st we have returned to the 19th century style of adventure novel. Only now, we set them on the other planets in our solar system - the new fronteer of exploration.
As before we know little about these planets (probably less than Haggard knew of the rainforests !) - and these are very different environments - and so stories are based on the little we do know, and other info is extrapolated from the 'facts'.
Ben Bova creates such adventures with his novels about the Moon, Mars, Venus, and now Jupiter.
As with the 19th century novels, the characters are often very unrealistic, with odd motivations, and little development. Conversations seem almost childish at points. Infact, the only change in characters nowadays is that the adveturers and explorers have become the scientists.
But you can't argue with the great adventure !
Jupiter is by far one of the best I've read. You can imagine yourself in this alien environment, the exitement of discovery in this terrible, inhospitable world of gas, immense gravity, titanic storms ... an alien world larger than anything we can even imagine !
And, of course, driving the characters is the hope that they may find life in the thin layer of liquid, formed by the incredible pressure exerted by the giant's gravitational field, thousands of kilometers below the cloud surface. But, how do you send people into such forces ?
The political groups and their motivations, unlike the characters themselves, do come across as likely, and add to the suspense and sense of urgency as the story progresses. And you find yourself holding your breath when the characters are actually in Jupiter.
And, the alien lifeforms discussed to live in Jupiter and its moons are admiral attempts at creating organisms unlike anything on Earth.
All in all, this is a marvelously crafted adventure to equal those written so long ago. Ben Bova proves we've finally found our sense of adventure and desire to understand the unknown that seemed to vanish early last century.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you like your science fiction written in an uncomplicated and uncluttered manner, then this is the book for you. It is refreshing in that it reads like a 1950's science fiction novel, concentrating on the exploration of another world - in this case, as the title more than suggests - Jupiter.
From the intriguing Prologue to the very last page, you'll be hooked. I can't recommend this book highly enough and having read 'Moonrise' by the same author before, it has inspired me to order 'Venus', 'Mars' and 'Return to Mars' already.
Don't just sit there - go and get it!
From the intriguing Prologue to the very last page, you'll be hooked. I can't recommend this book highly enough and having read 'Moonrise' by the same author before, it has inspired me to order 'Venus', 'Mars' and 'Return to Mars' already.
Don't just sit there - go and get it!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Spellbinding
Bova heads in to fresh territory with Jupiter and mankind's desperation to find to new intelligent life. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. G. Battle
One of Bova's best
Having read almost all of Ben Bova's "grand tour" books, I finally tracked down a copy of Jupiter and must say it is one of the best in the series. Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2006 by Richard F
excellent, bova at his best..
In Jupiter, Ben Bova explores further out into our solar system. Our hero is a naive student who has recently graduated and now faces new challenges. Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2000 by srichings@thisisnorthdevon.co.uk
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
