Ben Bova

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Ben Bova

Ben Bova in 1974
Born: November 8, 1932
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Occupation: Novelist, short story author, essayist, journalist
Genres: Science fiction
Debut works: The Star Conquerors

Benjamin William Bova (born November 8, 1932) is an American science fiction author and editor.

Contents

[edit] Biographical timeline

In 1971 he became editor of Analog Science Fiction after John W. Campbell's death; after leaving Analog, he went on to edit Omni Magazine during 1978-1982.

He was the science advisor for the failed television series The Starlost, leaving in disgust after the airing of the first episode; his novel The Starcrossed was loosely based on his experiences and featured a thinly veiled characterization of his friend and colleague Harlan Ellison. He dedicated the novel to "Cordwainer Bird", the pen name Harlan Ellison uses when he does not want to be associated with a television or film project.

Ben Bova is the President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past President of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America [1] (SFWA).

Bova was a technical writer for Project Vanguard and later for Avco Everett in the 1960s when they did research in lasers and fluid dynamics. It was there that he met Arthur R. Kantrowitz later of the Foresight Institute. Bova is an avid fencer and organized Avco Everett's fencing club. Bova is also an environmentalist of the Ansel Adams variety and met Adams by chance. Bova wants to conserve the Earth but rejects Luddism.

Bova went back to school in the '80s, earning an MA in communications in 1987 and a Ph.D. in 1996.

Bova has drawn on these meetings and experiences to create fact and fiction writings rich with references to spaceflight, lasers, artificial hearts, nanotechnology, environmentalism, fencing and martial arts, photography and artists.

Bova is the author of over a hundred books, non-fiction as well as science fiction. In 2000, he was the Author Guest of Honor at the worldcon, Chicon 2000.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] Collections

  • Forward in Time (1973)
  • Maxwell's Demons (1979)
  • E' (1984)
  • The Astral Mirror (1985)
  • Prometheans (1986)
  • Battle Station (1987)
  • Future Crime (1990)
  • Challenges (1994)
  • The Future Quartet - Earth in the Year 2042 (1995)
  • Twice Seven (1998)

[edit] Exiles

  • Exiled from Earth (1971)
  • Flight of Exiles (1972)
  • End of Exile (1975)

[edit] Grand Tour

  • Mars (1992)
  • Empire Builders (1993)
  • Return to Mars (1999)
  • Venus (2000)
  • Jupiter (2001)
  • Saturn (2002)
  • Tales of the Grand Tour (2004)
  • Mercury (2005)
  • Powersat (2005)
  • Titan (2006)
  • An Upcoming 3rd Mars Book (200?)
  • Moonrise (Part of the Grand Tour)
    • Moonrise (1996)
    • Moonwar (1998)
  • Asteroid Wars (Part of the Grand Tour)
    • The Precipice (2001)
    • The Rock Rats (2002)
    • The Silent War (2004)
  • Sam Gunn (Part of the Grand Tour)
    • Sam Gunn, Unlimited (1993)
    • Sam Gunn Forever (1998)
    • Sam Gunn Ominous (2007)

[edit] Non-series Novels

  • The Weathermakers (1967)
  • Out of the Sun (1968)
  • Escape! (1969)
  • THX 1138 (with George Lucas) (1971) based on the film THX 1138
  • As on a Darkling Plain (1972)
  • The Winds of Altair (1983)
  • Privateers (1985) (Contains a character from the Grand Tour series, but the history is different, such as the Soviet Union still existing.)
  • When the Sky Burned (1972)
  • Gremlins, Go Home! (with Gordon Dickson) (1974)
  • The Starcrossed (1975)
  • City of Darkness (1976)
  • Millennium (1976)
  • The Multiple Man (1967)
  • Colony (1978)
  • Test of Fire (1982)
  • "The Kinsman Saga" (1987) Combines "As on a Darkling Plain" (1972) and "Millennium" (1976). Contains introduction and narrative explaining his re-working of these two novels.
  • Peacekeepers (1988)
  • Cyberbooks (1989)
  • The Trikon Deception (with Bill Pogue) (1992)
  • Triumph (1993) Alternate history work set at the end of World War II in which Winston Churchill plots the assassination of Joseph Stalin, and in which Franklin D. Roosevelt lives past 1945. ISBN 0-312-85359-9
  • Death Dream (1994)
  • Brothers (1996)
  • The Green Trap (2006)

[edit] Orion

  • Orion (1984)
  • Vengeance of Orion (1988)
  • Orion in the Dying Time (1990)
  • Orion and the Conqueror (1994)
  • Orion Among the Stars (1995)

[edit] To Save the Sun

  • To Save the Sun (with AJ Austin) (1992)
  • To Fear the Light (with AJ Austin) (1994)

[edit] Voyagers

  • Voyagers (1981)
  • The Alien Within (1986)
  • Star Brothers (1990)

[edit] Watchmen

  • The Star Conquerors (1959) (download free copy at [2] )
  • Star Watchman (1964)
  • The Dueling Machine (1969)

[edit] Non-Fiction

  • Man Changes the Weather (1973)
  • The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells Writers Digest Books, 1994 ISBN 0-89879-600-8 (a guide to writing fiction of any genre)
  • Immortality (1998)
  • Are We Alone in the Cosmos? (1999)
  • Faint Echoes, Distant Stars: The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth (2004)
  • The Story of Light (2001)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Persondata
NAME Bova, Ben
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bova, Benjamin William
SHORT DESCRIPTION American novelist, short story author, essayist, and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
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