EXCELLENT SCIENCE FICTION TALE OF CONFLICTS AND VENGEANCE

"Mercury" is the tenth Ben Bova book that I've read and the third that I've reviewed. I'm a big Bova fan and this is one of his best. A Lean & Mean entry.

THE PLOT

In part one of the book, we meet the main characters who are all connected with one project or another on Mercury. Bova includes interesting facts about the planet that I'd never heard including the fact that it does rotate very slowly (contrary to the old assumption that it never rotated). Being the closet planet to the sun and the hottest, I was interested in seeing how Bova could develop a story about the barren planet.

Bova's style is different in that the first section of the book "In the Realm of Fire" is set in the present (70 years from now). We meet Saito Yamagata who heads a corporation that wants to use Mercury as a launching pad for deep space exploration. We also meet Victor Molina who is searching for signs of life on the planet based on an anonymous tip. A third character is Elliot Danvers who represents the powerful "New Morality", an ultra-conservative religious group that is extremely hostile to science. Finally, the builder of the base on Mercury, Dante Alexios is described as a mysterious man who has a plan for destroying each of the other three characters.

Also on her way to Mercury is Lara Molina, Victor's wife and the former girlfriend of one of the other characters.

Section II, "10 Years Earlier", describes the building of a Skytower meant to cut the cost of transport to space to mere pennies per pound. Another character, Mance Bracknell is in charge of the project which is near completion. I don't want to spoil things but there are problems with the tower and Victor Molinas, Danvers, and Yamagata are involved in those problems.

Section III describes how Blacknell, who is blamed for the problems and is exiled from Earth plans his revenge.

The final section describes what happens to all of the characters,

WHAT I LIKED

Bova always develops his characters well. In this book, he managed to change my mind about almost every character throughout the book. Not only are the characters well developed but the story is believable.

I also like the fact that Bova mixes in real science with fiction. The Skytower is being studied at this time although it seems an impossible dream

Lastly, Bova is a big critic of religious fanatics who fight every scientific breakthrough. While this is a recurring theme in his books, it takes on some new ground here.