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What secrets lurk in the depths of Jupiter's oceans? In Ben Bova's novel Jupiter, physicist Grant Archer led an expedition into Jupiter's planet-wide ocean, attempting to study the unusual and massive creatures that call the planet their home. Unprepared for the hostile environment and crushing pressures, Grant's team faced certain death as their ship malfunctioned and slowly sank to the planet's depths. However, one of Jupiter's native creatures--a city-sized leviathan--saved the doomed ship. This creature's act convinced Grant that they were intelligent, but he lacked scientific proof. Now, several years later, Grant prepares a new expedition to prove it once and for all. The new team faces dangers from both the hostile environment and from humans who will do anything to make sure the mission is a failure--even if it means murdering the entire crew.
Les avis clients, y compris le nombre d'étoiles des produits, permettent aux acheteurs potentiels d'en savoir plus sur un produit et de déterminer s'il répond à leurs besoins.
Pour calculer le nombre d'étoiles et leur répartition en pourcentage, nous n'utilisons pas une moyenne simple. En effet, notre système prend en compte certains critères comme l'ancienneté d'un avis ou encore si l'auteur de cet avis a acheté l'article sur Amazon. De plus, il analyse les avis pour en vérifier la fiabilité.
So I really enjoy Ben Bova's works. Jupiter was a cracking read and totally grabbed me. When I got the opportunity to read the sequel I was really looking forward to exploring more of the Jovian story. I'm not giving anything away nor being unduly critical, but whilst I thought it was a good read, I felt that for me there was not enough focus on the creatures in the title. Yes we learn more about them but there were times when the novel felt similar to the original. All that said if you love science fiction, you'll enjoy this no doubt.
Twenty years ago, Grant Archer and his team descended into Jupiter's vast ocean. Once inside, they discovered massive living creatures; "leviathans" which fed on particles and fought for survival against the dreaded darters. Archer barely escaped with his life, thanks to the help of one of the leviathans. Now the director of Station Gold orbiting Jupiter, Archer intends to send another crewed mission into the depths of the Jovian ocean to try to establish communication with the leviathans.
Four crew members are slated for the mission: Diedre Ambrose, a microbiologist; Andy Corvus, a scientist; Dorn, an ex-mercenary; and Max Yeager, designer of the ship to be used on the mission. However, other forces are at work as well. Katherine Westfall, a member of the IAA, is determined to see the mission fail. Convinced that Archer is wasting money, she has come to Station Gold to set him back in line. Westfall will stop at nothing to make sure that the mission fails, even if it means sacrificing the crew.
Finally, the ship sets down into the Jovian sea. Once there, the crew tries to establish contact with the leviathans. But the pressure takes a heavy toll on both the ship and crew. Will the crew be able to determine if the leviathans are in fact intelligent creatures, or will the ship succumb to the tremendous pressure exerted by the Jovian ocean?
I've read all of Bova's previous "Grand Tour" novels, and I was pleased to see that he decided to re-visit Jupiter. The story line from the first book was very good, and this book does a good job of picking up and expanding on it. Bova's books are full of adventure, and "Leviathans of Jupiter" continues in that tradition. Highly recommended.
As a disclaimer for my review, I'll mention that I'm trying to read all of the Grand Tour (19ish) books by Ben Bova in their chronological order - which is not the order they were written in. Leviathans of Jupiter is the 14th book in the chronological order.
Mr. Bova takes us back to the largest planet in our solar system with this sequel to 2001's "Jupiter." Grant Archer, who we met in "Jupiter" as a wet behind the ears scientist just arriving at the massive space station orbiting Jupiter has become the station director in the 20 years of Grand Tour time that have elapsed since the last book. Archer is determined to take another crewed mission into the heart of Jupiter, despite the deaths and injuries of previous missions. Opposed to his plan, mostly for her own gain, is Katherine Westfell of the IAA who is determined to become head of the agency and fears Archer's success might prevent her goal. Archer and a team of newly arrived scientists, including a beautiful female microbiologist (Deirdre), Dorn (the cyborg and continuing character from previous Bova works), master engineer Sam Yeager, and Deep Brain Psychologist (Andy) must race to discover whether the giant creatures swimming through Jupiter's worldwide ocean are intelligent, braving the crushing pressure of Jupiter and ongoing attempts by Westfell to sabotage their mission.
Bova's 2nd book dealing with Jupiter is another good adventure among the Grand Tour books that suffers from a few flaws I find very typical to his books. The hard sci-fi is there, and I enjoyed the fact that while there is - as usual in Bova books - a political or corporate scheming sub-plot, that a lot of the book was focused on Leviathans and the unimaginable conditions faced when trying to explore a planet like Jupiter. The foursome of protagonists also seemed to fit well and be a believable group of friends despite the fact that they meet at the beginning of the book and only have a few days to get to know each other before they face some pretty intimate situations and trials. The characters are pretty stereotypical for Mr. Bova. We can't hear often enough about how attractive Deirdre is, or how awkward Andy is (want to guess which characters fall in love...). Dorn, despite his atrocities during the Asteroid Wars books, has become a standout character and gets a chance to shine in Leviathans.
My biggest issue with Leviathans of Jupiter is that once again the antagonist, this time played by Katherine Westfell, is just totally unbelievable. So overt and over the top that its hard to believe she would have reached the position she has. Despite being in line for the chairmanship of one of the most powerful government agencies on Earth, most of Westfell's schemes to topple the imagined threat of Grant Archer, fall apart in rapid succession and are so poorly thought out that a ten year old would see through them. Westfell's only motivation to gain the chairmanship of the IAA is that on her deathbed, her mother told her to "reach the top." We do get a glimpse at some of her hard-knocks early life, but as a motivator, it just doesn't ring true. Just a short list of Westfell's immediate crimes include:
1) Using a bio-engineered strain of rabies to force a protagonist to do her bidding. 2) Multiple counts of attempted murder. 3) Actual murder. 4) Bribery of practically everyone.
So we have this extremely powerful, ultra wealthy character with no motivation other than "mom said" committing a fairly long list of atrocities simply to climb one more rung up the power ladder? I didn't buy it.
However, beyond that character, Leviathan's of Jupiter was, for me, a total page turner. I read the entire book in a weekend (although that did include two, three hour plane rides) and stayed up late on a "school night" to finish it off. The Leviathan's continue to provide fascinating aliens, and the entire chain of fauna on Jupiter is well presented and makes me want to get out there on my own torch ship so I can see them for myself. Hopefully we'll get another sequel to what has become my favorite branch of the Grand Tour universe.
