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The Grand Tour Series: Book #17
Narrator
Stefan Rudnicki
This audiobook uses AI narration.
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Length
11 hours 26 minutes
Language
English
The surface of Venus is the most hellish place in the solar system, its ground hot enough to melt aluminum, its air pressure high enough to crush spacecraft landers like tin cans, its atmosphere a choking mix of poisonous gases. This is where the frail young Van Humphries must go—or die trying.
Years before, Van’s older brother perished in the first attempt to land a man on Venus. Van’s father has always hated him for being the one to survive. Now, his father is offering a ten-billion-dollar prize to the first person who lands on Venus and returns his oldest son’s remains. To everyone’s surprise, Van takes up the offer. But what Van Humphries will find on Venus will change everything—our understanding of Venus, of global warming on Earth, and his knowledge of who he is.
Ben Bova (1932–2020) was an American author of more than one hundred books of science fact and fiction. His work earned six Hugo Awards and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005.
Stefan Rudnicki is an avid audiobook narrator, receiving numerous Earphones Awards from AudioFile magazine. He is also a Grammy-winning audiobook producer.
Reviews
“Bova proves himself equal to the task of showing how adversity can temper character in unforeseen ways.”
“Bova’s new novel will indeed please his fans, as it offers his usual mix of solid science, serviceable (if sketchy) characterizations, and lickety-split plotting with plenty of cliff-hangers…As a voyage to an unknown world, it excels.”
“Narrator Stefan Rudnicki’s voice is deep and resonant…[and] works well for this book. With its stately pacing, technology-heavy setting, and detailed descriptions, Bova’s story is an old-fashioned space opera, and Rudnicki’s narration is reminiscent of a 1930s radio announcer performing a Buck Rogers serial.”
“[A] well-researched, thrills-and-chills descent through Venus’ pressure-cooker atmosphere. With solid science, a palatable environmental message, and an inspiring character arc for unlikely hero Van, Venus delivers guilt-free, man-against-nature SF in a tight, page-turning package.”
“A top-notch adventure story of broken dreams and lifelong hatreds that match the turbulence of Venus itself. The author’s excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of the genre’s most accessible and entertaining storytellers. Recommended for SF collections.”
“A leading light of hard SF and space advocacy turns his attention from Mars to Venus…Hard SF fans in general and Bova fans in particular will generate strong demand for his highly respectable new effort.”
“Exciting and vividly wrought.”
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