The planet closest to our Sun, Mercury is a rocky, barren, heat-scorched world. But there are those who hope to find wealth in its desolation. Saito Yamagata thinks Mercury's position makes it an ideal place to generate power to propel starships into deep space. Astrobiologist Victor Molina thinks the water at Mercury's poles may harbor evidence of life. Bishop Elliot Danvers has been sent by the Earth-based "New Morality" to keep close tabs on Molina. But all three of these men are blissfully unaware of their shared history, and of how it connects to the collapse of Mance Bracknell's geosynchronous space elevator a generation ago. Now they're about to find out, because Mance is determined to have his revenge… **From Publishers WeeklyAfter secretly infiltrating a scientific mission on Mercury, a disgraced yet brilliant scientist exacts his revenge on those who framed him in this flawed, yet accessible and fun, hard SF novel, the latest in Bova's Grand Tour series (and the best since 2001's Jupiter). 2005 Audie Award winner Rudnicki is in top form again, handling primary narrative duties with panache-his deep, resonant voice and deliberate cadence grip listeners' attention like a vise. Rudnicki's remarkable ability to subtly modulate his voice allows him to enact male and female characters with equal proficiency, and to shift seamlessly between the various accented dialects of the multinational cast of characters. In supporting roles, Johnson is outstanding, with his skill at dramatizing dialogue being particularly noteworthy; Quirk offers competent, if at times overly-emotive, narration. The characters are the weak point of the audiobook-at times they are megalomaniacal and over-the-top-but the science fictional concepts presented here-skyhooks, solar power satellites, and the near-future exploration and colonizing of our solar system-along with Rudnicki and cast's top-notch performance, are enough to make an otherwise minor novel by the six-time Hugo Award winner into an audiobook well-worth listening to.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistBova's impressive series on human exploration of the Solar System (Venus, 2000; Jupiter, 2001; Saturn, 2003) turns to the planet nearest the Sun. Saito Yamagata wants to build power satellites around Mercury, engineer Dante Alexios has designs for them in hand, and biologist Victor Molina wants to explore Mercury's polar caps, where there may be water, for possible signs of life. Theocrat Bishop Danvers is looking over their shoulders, and visionary Mance Bracknell wants to avenge the sabotage of his power satellites years ago by in turn sabotaging the Mercury project. Their motivations bring the characters to life, and readers may also savor the complex and plausible hardware, and the lethal environment in which humans need it to have any chance of survival. Briskly paced into the bargain, this superior entry in one of the classic hard-sf sagas going is pretty much a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. Roland GreenCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

When all the best of Earth's scientists are forced into exile to a space station to prevent their work from upsetting the status quo, they decide to embark on an even grander adventure to the stars. An epic three-volume saga from a science fiction master, all in one book: EXILED FROM EARTHFLIGHT OF EXILESEND OF EXILE Limited time special! ReAnimus Press is pleased to offer The Exiles Trilogy purchasers of a free copy of Ben Bova's science fiction novel The Multiple Man for your Nook. If you purchased an ebook copy of The Exiles Trilogy from the Barnes & Noble Nook store web site on or after October 1, 2013, please submit a copy of your receipt to ReAnimus Press via reanimus.com/bnpromo as proof of purchase to receive your copy.

Brimming with memorable characters and human conflict, rugged high-tech prospectors and boardroom betrayals, The Rock Rats continues the tale of our near-future struggle over the incalculable wealth of the Asteroid Belt. Before it ends, many will die—and many will achieve more than they ever dreamed was possible.

Pink scented smog, 3-D TV and earthquake-proof aluminium skyscrapers capable of hurtling themselves and their occupants to a safe Pacific splashdown should tremors exceed desired tolerances. This is the twenty-first century of Ben Bova’s hilarious novel, where the Vitaform Process grants nubile new bodies to the aged and a new 3-D TV series offering the illusion of almost live entertainment in the home is all that Bernard Finger, the cigar-chewing loudmouth mogul of Titanic Productions needs to save his company from the brink of financial disaster. Enter one Bill Oxnard, inventor of the 3-D holographic system, Brenda Impanema, Finger’s sexy lady assistant, Ron Gabriel, hot-tempered hot-shot script writer who hates Finger nearly as much as Finger hates him, and you’ve got the winning formula for a smashing new family series guaranteed to bring 3-D to the heart of the viewing public and make a fortune for Titanic. Or will it? Stay tuned as the whole sick crew of Titanic Productions struggles to bring you the greatest intergalactic show on earth… THE STARCROSSED.

Six-time Hugo-Award winner Ben Bova presents Farside.Farside, the side of the Moon that never faces Earth, is the ideal location for an astronomical observatory. It is also the setting for a tangled web of politics, personal ambition, love, jealousy, and murder.Telescopes on Earth have detected an Earth-sized planet circling a star some thirty light-years away. Now the race is on to get pictures of that distant world, photographs and spectra that will show whether or not the planet is truly like Earth, and if it bears life.Farside will include the largest optical telescope in the solar system as well as a vast array of radio antennas, the most sensitive radio telescope possible, insulated from the interference of Earth’s radio chatter by a thousand kilometers of the Moon’s solid body.Building the Farside observatory is a complex, often dangerous task. On the airless surface of the Moon, under constant bombardment of hard radiation and infalling micrometeoroids, builders must work in cumbersome spacesuits and use robotic machines as much as possible. Breakdowns—mechanical and emotional—are commonplace. Accidents happen, some of them fatal.What they find stuns everyone, and the human race will never be the same.About the AuthorBEN BOVA is a six-time winner of the Hugo Award, a former editor of Analog, former editorial director of Omni, and a past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bova is the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction. He lives in Florida.

A new novel from Ben Bova, creator of the New York Times best-selling Grand Tour science fiction series. Bova is a six time Hugo award winner, and past president of the National Space Society.  Here, Bova returns to his most popular and best-selling subject: the quest for Mars! How do you get to the Red Planet?  Not via a benighted government program trapped in red tape and bound by budget constrictions, that’s for sure.  No, what it will take is a helping of adventure, science, corporate powerplays, a generous dollop of seduction—both in and out of the boardroom—and money, money, money! Art Thrasher knows this.  He is a man with a driving vision: send humans to Mars.  The government has utterly failed, but Thrasher has got the plan to accomplish such a feat: form a “club” or billionaires to chip in one billion a year until the dream is accomplished.  But these are men and women who are tough cookies, addicted to a profitable bottom-line, and disdainful of pie-in-the-sky dreamers who want to use their cash to make somebody else’s dreams come true. But Thrasher is different from the other dreamers in an important regard: he’s a billionaire himself, and the president of a successful company. But it’s going to take all his wiles as a captain of industry and master manipulator of business and capital to overcome setbacks and sabotage—and get a rocket full of scientist, engineers, visionaries, and dreamers on their way to the Red Planet. The man for the job has arrived.  Art Thrasher is prepared to do whatever it takes to humans on Mars—or die trying! About Mars, Inc.:"The Hugo winner returns to his most popular subject: the quest for Mars."—Publishers Weekly About the award winning novels of Ben Bova:“Technically accurate and absorbing.  . ..”—Kirkus “[Bova is] the science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the world.”—Ray Bradbury “A masterful storyteller”—Vector “Gives a good read while turning your eyes to what might be in the not so distant future, just like Clarke and Asimov used to do so well.”—SFX**

Once, Dan Radolph was one of the richest men on Earth, but now that the planet is spiraling into environmental disaster, he must look to the wealth of the stars to save the economy. Martin Humphries is also aware of the potential of space-based industry, but he does not care if Earth perishes.

Thirteen startling visions of yesterday, today, and tomorrow from the six-time winner of the Hugo AwardFrontiers can be found in all directions. Frontiers of time and space, as well as frontiers of courage, devotion, love, hate, and the outer limits of the human spirit. This outstanding collection of stories by one of science fiction's premier talents spans the length and breadth of history and the universe, while exploring thought-provoking new ideas and dilemmas.From the Baghdad of the Arabian Nights to a vast interstellar empire thousands of years in the future, from the Vatican to a one-man vessel drifting in the vast emptiness of the Asteroid Belt, from virtual reality duels to the subtle intricacies of time travel and a golf tournament on the Moon, here are tales of scoundrels and heroes, scientists and explorers, aliens and artificial intelligences, and even a young Albert Einstein. Each of them stands at the border of a new frontier and must...

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 twenty-first 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? At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklyTen years after breaking the Russian Federation's monopoly on space travel, 21st-century swashbuckler Dan Randolph returns in this third-rate sequel to Privateers . Now an industrialist, Randolph is suddenly arrested and his billion-dollar lunar mining corporation confiscated by the corrupt and bureaucratic Global Economic Council--which happens to be headed by his archnemesis, Vasily Malik. Randolph escapes, and learns that his misfortune is linked to an impending global environmental disaster which the G.E.C. is using as an excuse to seize control of the world's economy--starting with his company. He also learns that organized crime has infiltrated the G.E.C. and is looking forward to a handsome profit from the seizure. With enemies chasing him between Earth and the moon, Randolph works to stop these schemes and save the earth without compromising its people's freedom. In a hackneyed, predictable plot and bad B-movie dialogue, Bova combines familiar environmental doomsaying with dewy-eyed capitalist optimism. Presumably a lovable rake, the totally unsympathetic Randolph acts more like an insensitive lecher; although Bova makes many careful gestures toward gender egalitarianism in his casting, the major female characters are inevitably sexually harassed, manipulated and victimized. Bova can do better than this childishly macho, feeble and unoriginal attempt at space adventure. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalImagine that the economics of the world is determined by seven major companies, and scientists have recently discovered that the greenhouse effect is not just a theory but a "cliff" ready to overwhelm the coastal cities with a tidal wave of undreamed proportions. A global economic cartel is desperate to keep this information from the public, since it could hurt their attempts to gain control of the seven influential industrial powers. In addition, the Mafia wants a piece of the action. Enter Dan Randolph, whose job it is to keep Earth from destroying itself. Unfortunately, nearly everyone is out to keep Dan quiet. Herein lies the plot and all the action. Robert Lawrence reads this sf tale with a clear voice and a moderate amount of characterization. His fine narration brings the characters to life and keeps the frantic action flowing to the very end. For sf collections.- Miriam Kahn, Columbus, OhioCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Grant Archer merely wanted to work quietly as an astronomer on the far side of the moon. But a coalition of censorious do-gooders who run 21st century America sends him to a research station in orbit around Jupiter to spy on the scientists who work there. What they don’t know is that Grant’s loyalty to science may be greater than his loyalty to the New Morality.

Provocative, gripping, startling: bestselling author Ben Bova delivers a knockout read with his trademark blend of cutting edge science and unrelenting suspense....Some see stem-cell research as mankind's greatest scientific breakthrough. Others see a blasphemous attempt to play God. Suddenly, the possibility of immortality exists. Two brothers, both doctors, stand on opposite sides of the controversy. To Dr. Arthur Marshak, his work is a momentous gift to humanity. To Dr. Jessie Marshak, it is a curse. Between them stands a beautiful, remarkable woman both brothers will do anything to save.Somehow, before it's too late, Arthur and Jessie Marshak must bridge the gap that divides them...on an issue that could mean nothing less than life or death for millions.At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.

Eighteen years ago, astronaut Keith Stoner had been the American member of a joint U.S.–Soviet mission to capture an alien ship that had entered the solar system. It was the greatest adventure in the history of Earth—but disaster struck when a bomb placed on the Soviet craft forced its recall. Stoner refused to return to Earth, staying behind in the strange ship alone where he fell into suspended animation.Jo Camerata, the ambitious young student who fell in love with Stoner, is now head of Vanguard Industries. Jo’s dogged determination has forced the recovery of the alien ship, and now her company is in control of the vast new technology—and in control of Keith Stoner. What Camerata doesn’t know, however, is that when Stoner wakes, someone else awakens, too. The alien presence in Stoner’s mind that has kept him alive all these years is now free, and intends to explore the world.And it will let nothing stand in its way.

Seventeen hard science fiction tales by today's top authorsHard science fiction is the literature of change, rigorously examining the impact—both beneficial and dangerous—of science and technology on humanity, the future, and the cosmos. As science advances, expanding our knowledge of the universe, astounding new frontiers in storytelling open up as well.In Carbide Tipped Pens, over a dozen of today's most creative imaginations explore these frontiers, carrying on the grand tradition of such legendary masters as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and John W. Campbell, while bringing hard science fiction into the 21st century by extrapolating from the latest scientific developments and discoveries. Ranging from ancient China to the outer reaches of the solar system, this outstanding collection of original stories, written by an international roster of authors, finds wonder, terror, and gripping human drama in topics as diverse as space...