“By far the science fiction author who will have the greatest effect on the science fiction world, and the world as a whole, is Ben Bova.” —Ray Bradbury, New York Times bestselling author
“The last of the great pulp writers.” —New York Times
“No one has done more to keep the dream of space alive in science fiction than Ben Bova.” —Wall Street Journal
“Bova deftly captures the excitement of scientific discovery and planetary exploration.” —Publishers Weekly
“Bova gets better and better, combining plausible science with increasingly complex fiction.” —Los Angeles Daily News
Biography
Ben Bova (1932–2020), American author of more than one hundred books of science fact and fiction, was awarded posthumously the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award. His work earned six Hugo Awards. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and his novel Titan won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best science fiction novel of 2006. In his early career, he was a technical editor for Project Vanguard, the United States’s first effort to launch a satellite into space in 1958. He then was a science writer for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, which built the heat shields for the Apollo 11 module. He held the position of president emeritus of the National Space Society and served as president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
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Praise for Books
“Bova gets better and better, combining plausible science with increasingly complex fiction.” —Los Angeles Daily News
“The author’s excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of our most accessible and entertaining storytellers.” —Library Journal
“Ben Bova was my primary gateway to science fiction, and so many of these stories have been dear to me for as long as I’ve been a serious fan of science fiction—and they’ve remained so after twenty years of being an editor. This volume is an ideal introduction to the works of this science fiction legend!” —John Joseph Adams, Hugo Award–winning editor of Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy and Lightspeed magazine
“This is a great collection! I’d missed some of these.” —Larry Niven
“This collection of short stories features several standouts…This collection has something for all sf readers…Bova is one of the grand masters of the field, and this anthology reflects the breadth of his writing. Recommended for readers seeking an introduction to the author, and for libraries that do not own a more complete collection.” —Library Journal
“This book is the work of a gifted storyteller putting on a grand display of his versatility. Bova’s fans will rejoice at this collection, and newcomers will find it a great introduction to the works of one of the grand masters of science fiction.” —Booklist (starred review)
“[The stories] are all eminently entertaining and very well-crafted, and together represent a worldview of optimism and triumph over adversity that was once considered synonymous with science fiction…A bridge between the oldest roots of SF and its twenty-first-century forms, still enjoyable and admirable.” —Paul Di Filippo, Locus
In this new collection, Ben Bova has compiled fourteen of his favorite short stories. Each story includes an all-new introduction with compelling insight into the narrative.
Exploring the boundaries of the genre, Bova not only writes of spaceships, aliens, and time travel in most of his titles, but also speculates on the beginnings of science fiction in “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” as well as the morality of man in “The Angel’s Gift.” Stories such as “The Café Coup” and “We’ll Always Have Paris” dip into speculative historical fiction, asking questions about what would happen if someone could change history for the better. This expansive collection is a key addition for Bova fans and sci-fi lovers alike!
Stories included in this collection: “Monster Slayer,” “Muzhestvo,” “We’ll Always Have Paris,” “The Great Moon Hoax, or A Princess of Mars,” “Inspiration,” “Scheherazade and the Storytellers,” “The Supersonic Zeppelin,” “Mars Farts,” “The Man Who Hated Gravity,” “Sepulcher,” “The Café Coup,” “The Angel’s Gift,” “Waterbot,” and “Sam and the Flying Dutchman.”