URANUS by Ben Bova is Book 2 of his OUTER PLANETS Series, which commences with NEPTUNE. It didn't quite meet my admittedly high expectations: I wanted more Astronomy, more Science Fiction; less I guess human nature, human villainy. I had hoped for more why's of this anomalous planet. Now Dr. Bova does design an intensely puzzling mystery, I admit. I also grant full kudos for his ability to delineate a Villain in extreme detail, so that I spent most of the novel in fury at the depredations and machinations of the human evil plotter [in this, not much different than real life].

I also would have liked more detail, development, and background on the spiritual leader of the Habitat, who conceived the idea of implementing a refuge orbiting Uranus to house the poor and downtrodden of Earth and to provide new lives. He exemplifies the intent of the Statue of Liberty, and expansion on that would be intriguing.

Ben Bova is the author of nearly 100 novels. Uranus was published in 2020 and is the first book in his Outer Planets trilogy.

Due to scenes of violence and mature situations, I categorize this novel as R. With the financial backing of billionaire Evan Waxman, Reverend Kyle Umber has built Haven, a habitat orbiting the planet Uranus. To Haven Umber has invited "the tired, the sick, the poor“ of Earth. Many have responded, and the population has grown to around 4000. A second habitat is under construction to accommodate the growth.

Chilean astronomer Tómas Gomez was awarded a grant to conduct research on Uranus. With his arrival at Haven and the initial results of his work comes a great deal of unwanted attention. Attention that interferes with the production of drugs and other activities that would be illegal on Earth or the inner planet outposts.

Beautiful Raven Marchesi is one of those who have fled to Haven. She was orphaned at an early age and had grown up in the slums of Naples, Italy. She became a prostitute working the streets and was arrested when she was 20. While she was being held in prison, she was offered the chance to move to Haven and restart her life. Like many, she jumped at the opportunity.

Marchesi is assigned to help Gomez when he arrives. A relationship develops, but they soon both become aware of the sinister side of Haven. Knowledge that could get them both killed.

I enjoyed the 7 hours I spent reading this 368-page science fiction novel. This is not the first novel by Mr. Boa that I have read. In 2016 I read and enjoyed Millennium. I look forward to reading the following books in the series. I give this novel a rating of 4.5 (rounded up to a 5) out of 5.

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This is not a bad book but it's not a great book either. On the positive side, it's a true-dyed-in-the-wool SciFi story by the insuperable Ben Bova.

On the negative side the characters are kinda flat, and the story is kinda predictable -- except for a nice twist from the middle-to-end.

The worst part of the book for me was when two characters sustained an interactive conversation (one says something, waits for the other to reply, then replies to that, and so on) one of them being in Uranus, and the other being on Earth. Despite acknowledging at the beginning that light took "more than 2 hours" to travel between Uranus and Earth (meaning each interaction would take at least more than 4 hours -- after all, the person at the other end has to wait more than 2h for your words to reach him/her, then reply, and finally his/her words would take more than 2h to reach you), Bova describes a conversation with 3 such exchanges, with the people sitting at their desks (!). Would you sit at your desk for well over 12h straight, instead of sending a single message with all your thoughts in the morning, then go about your business while the other person receives it, answer all your points in one go, then sends it over to reach you in the afternoon or the next day? I definitely wouldn't....

I apologize for that long probably tedious to read paragraph and it is a bit nit picky but it bothered the heck out of me. I did fine it refreshing that the story portrays religion in a positive light. A theme in his earlier writings is anti faith. Some of his stories, earth; has become dominated by an oppressive government controlled by religious organizations. This book introduces a religious figure, although flawed, has the best interests of habitat and its citizens in mind. Bova has written a story that gets religious motivations right without being preachy.

This is one of Bova's "Grand Tour" novels, this one the first of an outer planet trilogy. It is about a colony orbiting Uranus, a colony for the disadvantaged from Earth - "the tired, the sick, the poor".

I haven't read any others of this series and had difficulty connecting. But it was well written, had a good plot and the characters were well rounded.

I can see that other people would like this book.

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher and the author for sending me this ARC

2 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
Financed by billionaire Evan Waxman, Reverend Kyle Umber has set out to create a haven for Earth's huddled masses - in an orbital around Uranus. But Waxman isn't quite the philanthropist he seems, and when newcomer Raven Marchesi gets on the wrong side of him, the haven isn't as safe as she'd hoped. When she offers to help astronomer Tómas Gomez search for life on Uranus, his discoveries complicate everything.

Review
I was never a huge fan of Ben Bova. As the editor of Omni, I had my doubts about him – the magazine was slick, but none of the stories stuck in my mind. As a writer, I mostly passed him by. But at some point, the first books of what became the Grand Tour series came to my attention. They were, in typical Bova style, dry and technical, but gripping in their own way, and I started buying them as they came out. The series is so convoluted that I’ve lost track over time, but I have at least 15 of the books in it.

Uranus – apparently the start of a new sub-trilogy – is unfortunately not one of the best parts of the Grand Tour. There’s just too much that’s not credible and glossed over, and the characters (never Bova’s best suit) are generally cardboard thin. Worse, they play pretty heavily into outdated stereotypes (e.g., men are ever ready to rape a woman, and woman are the only ones interested in fashion), and some of the moments of biggest potential emotional impact fall by the wayside pretty readily. It’s clear that Bova is interested here primarily in the hard SF side of the story, and making only minimal effort to provide a supporting cast for it. That SF element is interesting, and promises to play out on a grand scale in the next books of the trilogy, but the character side of the story is composed almost entirely of stock characters never taken out of their original wrapping.

Oddly, Bova also muddles the character perspectives, hopping from one head to another at random without much signaling, and not in the way of an omniscient or partially omniscient observer. It’s confusing at times. Equally confusing is the socio-politics. A major problem is solved through non-violent resistance, but aside from a token mention of Gandhi, I didn’t come away with any confidence that Bova understands how this works; his use of it in the story certainly didn’t convince me that the application was even credible. Equally odd, he seems to muddle some of the science – suggesting, for example, that an EVA suit radio could reasonably call Earth from Uranus.

All in all, an interesting scientific theme, but a disappointingly thin and dated-feeling entry from an author who can do much better.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Sadly. 'Uranus' continues Bova's string of dissapointing work. Don't get me wrong, this is a good story with interesting characters but it just does not measure up to the storyteller we expect of Bova. You can read other reviewers synopsis of the book so I will not repeat them. Merely OK.

Uranus is the first in Ben Bova's promised Outer Planets trilogy. This one starts with a promising and compelling basis. A preacher and a billionaire have teamed up to create a space habitat orbiting Uranus. Aptly called Haven, it is a "haven for Earth's poor, disenfranchised, forgotten men and women," a last resort for people who need a second chance. Residents come from the lower classes and are screened for criminal tendencies, in hopes that, freed from the earth's economic struggles and stratification, they can thrive with a fresh start in space.

After a life on the streets, depending on prostitution and manipulation to survive, Raven Marchesi feels lucky to have a place on Haven. Trying to start over and escape her past, yet using the street smarts acquired over many years, she quickly gains a spot in the inner circles of Haven's administration. Kyle Umber, the preacher, has good intentions, but he has allowed Evan Waxman, the billionaire who largely funded Haven, to run the place in unsavory ways.

Uranus is a decently fun, melodramatic story, with a strong female central character, a couple of sleazy male characters, and a few others to feed the story. For such a prolific writer, I was surprised by the simplicity of the plot and the predictability of the characters. The subplot of scientific research on the history of Uranus and evidence of extraterrestrial life doesn't get the attention it should. I would rather have seen this part of the story developed. This is a decent book, but if you read it expecting a great story from a seasoned sci-fi writer, just prepare yourself for disappointment.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Ben Bova's new book Uranus, the first of his Outer Planets trilogy, is a book I was eager to read. There is plenty of sci-fi about the inner planets, and there is plenty about other systems. Even Jupiter and Saturn and their moons get a fair amount of attention, but there really is comparatively little interest in the outer planets. That's a shame, because they're fascinating and full of sci-fi potential. This book promised to tap into that potential, and on top of that to foreground religion—a gutsy, rare move.

Uranus explores the interesting question of why the planet's axis is so tilted that it is more rolling around the sun than a spinning top like the rest of the planets. From the vantage point of the ring station Haven orbiting Uranus, scientist Tomas Gomez looks to find signs of life in the planet's ocean and ends up finding clues about the planet's past.

This could hardly be said to be the main plot of the book, however. The main character is instead a whore who was rescued from her life of poverty on Earth and brought out to Haven for a chance at a new life seeking God under the watchful eye of the station's founder, Kyle Umber, a man of the cloth who just wants to give people a chance to find God and lead a good life in whatever way they see fit. Unfortunately, he's financed by a business tycoon who's footing the bill via the sale of narcotics.

I found the book to be pretty disappointing, though: the characters are unimaginative and two-dimensional. The religion is an uninspiring farce. The plot proceeds largely through third person omniscient, painfully obvious thought dialogue ("He doesn’t think the data are conclusive, Abbott almost growled to himself"). Sex is used in the book presumably to give it an edgy tone, but it mostly feels like the way middle schoolers would furtively talk in a back hallway ("Raven smiled back at her, but she thought, Is fellatio one of the talents you’re looking for?")

The question of why Uranus is so tilted is fascinating but it mostly gets shunted onto a secondary plot thread, backgrounded behind a rather cliché storyline of a powerless whore who gets her life together and takes down a drug kingpin.

There's so much material here that could be made into a truly fantastic hard sci-fi space adventure. Alas.

DISCLAIMER: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of a fair, unbiased review.

I haven’t read every book by Ben Bova, but I have read all the books in his Grand Tour series.
I’ve enjoyed most of them.
This book takes us to a station in orbit around the planet Uranus.
The book moved along well and never really lost my interest.
The characters seemed a bit one note as to who the Good Guys were and who the Bad Guys were.
The story of the day to day society on the station wasn’t as interesting to me as the science story was.
That I could have read more of.
I could have used a little more hard science in this, too.
All in all, it was an enjoyable installment to the series.

To be published 21st July 2020. Orbiting Uranus is Haven, a privately financed habitat which aims to take in Earth's rejects. It's run by religious idealist Kyle Umber, but he's allowed himself to become nothing more than a figurehead while Waxman takes over the running while manufacturing drugs on the side. Raven Marchesi is a newcomer to Haven, an ex prostitute with a good brain that she's never had the opportunity to use. She thinks Waxman is her meal ticket, but soon realises he's bad news. In the mean time, enter a scientist from Earth, Tomas Gomez, intent to exploring Uranus' oceans, looking for evidence of life, or a reason for the lack of it. This is a book of two halves, the personal and the scientific. It's competent, but neither story really grabs. It's emotionally level all the way through with nothing to really lift either the story or the characters into the realm of exceptional, even when the scientist makes an incredible discovery. I know he has a long and illustrious history in SF, but I confess this is my first Ben Bova book, which I read as an e-ARC from Netgally. On this showing I probably won't search out any more.

I was very excited,when reading the description, to read this novel. I love science fiction and futuristic fantasy. I was unfortunately very disappointed in the book. The science was ridiculous - not that I expect science fiction to be 100% true to what we know today. I do expect there to be some connection to reality as a basis for a creative view of a possible future. This book had none. The story was weak and seemed thrown together. The writing was sophomoric, I was sure this had to be a first novel and was surprised to see that the author had written multiple other books that had been published. Maybe this was written quickly to fulfill a contract or to just get another book out. Feels like that. There was a lot of potential at the start. It was wasted. There were too many plot lines thrown in to develop properly in a book of the length of this one The characters were cardboard and stereotypical. Reading was challenging as there were changes in location, time and character between paragraphs that made me have to stop and go back to read be be sure I had not skipped a page. The segues were abrupt and confusing. A major rewrite and then edit are needed.

Another excellent, character-driven work by Ben Bova

I enjoyed this book very much. It has everything I expect from a Ben Bova book. The story is well-told. The characters are fascinating and well developed. The pacing is great. There is a certain gritty reality to the book that I like. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys science fiction.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

Uranus by Ben Bova
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've been reading SF for a long time and I've seen Ben Bova's name on the bookshelves all the time... or at least I used to... and yet I never once picked up a copy. So strange.

So when I saw that Bova had a new book on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance.

I've had this impression of his novels as a series of colonization pieces set across the solar system, and Uranus certainly fits that description.

But honestly? I expected more along the lines of keeping the habitat functional and the personal heroism of a few or a group... just not this.

It was notably light on science. And the story had this prostitute with a heart of gold thing going on, not to mention... get this... an honestly good preacher-man gathering up a number of the despondent, taking them away from their bad old lives... to Uranus. Hmm. It's almost like I read a novel version of a Saturday afternoon made-for-TV B-Movie. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely average. Not meh, but we have a colony funded on nefarious deeds and then it fights its own corruption and... it's... revolution-lite.

All the elements are there, including some I really do like, but the storytelling is definitely formula.

That's not to say it's all average, however. Two parts were actually rather cool, but the coolness comes from the ideas behind them rather than the way they're brought into the full story.

Want to know why Uranus is so messed up, compared to the rest of the Solar System? (Good stuff.)
How about seeing a Satyagraha treatment on the page? (Also good stuff.)

However... while the last bit suffers a bit in execution, it's still MOSTLY pretty good. At least in spirit.

I won't say this is a great novel or anything more than an average one, but it has sparked my interest in finding some of the author's very best works and trying them out as a comparison.

This book is part of the author's Solar System Series. Overall the book is uneven with it being engaging in some parts and borderline boring in others. Also parts of the storyline will not appeal to certain audiences. I recommend this book for hard core Ben Bova fans, but caution others as it is not one of his better efforts.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook  page.

Uranus, by Ben Bova, is a science fiction novel set on a space station orbiting the planet Uranus. Bova not only writes about the future; he has helped to create it. The author of more than 130 futuristic novels and nonfiction books, he has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space program. He has also been an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry.

I was impressed a few years ago reading Moonrise and Moonwar. I liked the realism of the writing and how the story and characters meshed. Uranus, however, is different. It started with a few excellent themes. First, was the space station orbiting Uranus led by Kyle Umber, a very idealistic, but open-minded religious leader. His goal is to save the poor and undesirables by cleaning them up and taking them to the space station Haven. There, removed from the vices of earth, the new settlers would have a clean start free from earthly temptations. His project is financed by Evan Waxman, who has his own agenda. The other main characters are Raven Marchesi, a former prostitute from Italy, and Tomas Gomez and astronomer. Gomez makes an extraordinary discovery on Uranus, which should drive the novel using the space station as a source of characters and setting. However, the story gets tied up in too many small items on the space station as well as more significant issues that compete for the central role in the book.

Although most of the smaller stories are possible, they evolve too quickly and seem forced or too simplistic. There are key themes like drugs, corruption, and individuality that could have been almost complete stories in themselves. Instead, they are half developed and wedged into place. The Uranus discovery could have been an entire novel in itself, but it is so interrupted that it seems to be missing a great deal of complexity. The lack of detail could be why the book read so fast. I read three-quarters of it in one sitting. Although there is much that could be liked about the book, I felt that I was reading a young adult novel. There was a lot of surface area but little depth in the book. I was hoping for much more.

This is a good book. I really enjoyed it. The characters are well developed and the story is packed with action and adventure. The author does a great job delivering a story with a solid plot and interesting subplots.

This novel carries on the Bova tradition of excellent writing. Once you pick up the book, you don't put it down. I enjoyed the plot and the interlacing of the complex characters throughout the story. The plot is ever twisting. I look forward to Bova's sequel.

Bova, a voice from the science fiction golden age many decades ago, continues his series exploiting the planets and moons of our solar system. This time we visit Uranus, or more properly, Haven, which orbits Uranus. Haven is to be peopled by the outcasts and dregs of society as a great cosmic do-over. But, it's filled with cardboard characters and not much else. Rather disappointing.