New Earth, Ben Bova
New Earth, Ben Bova
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New Earth

Author: Ben Bova

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Unabridged: 9 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/16/2013

Categories: Fiction, Science Fiction


Synopsis

Weve found another Earthlike planet, but what secrets does it hold? The entire world is thrilled by the discovery of a new, Earthlike planet. Advance imaging shows that the planet has oceans of water and a breathable, oxygen-rich atmosphere. Eager to learn more, an exploration team is soon dispatched to explore the planet, now nicknamed New Earth. All the explorers understand that they are essentially on a one-way mission. The trip takes eighty years each way, so even if they are able to get back to Earth, nearly two hundred years will have elapsed. They will have aged only a dozen years thanks to cryonic suspension, but their friends and family will be gone, and the very society they once knew will have changed beyond recognition. The explorers are going into exile, and they know it. They are on this mission not because they were the best available but because they were expendable. Upon landing, the team discovers something unexpected: New Earth is inhabited by a small group of intelligent creatures who look very much like human beings. Who are these people? Are they native to this world or invaders from elsewhere? While they may seem inordinately friendly to the human explorers, what are their real motivations? What do they want? Moreover, the scientists begin to realize that this planet cannot possibly be natural. They face a startling and nearly unthinkable question: Could New Earth be an artifact?

About Ben Bova

Ben Bova is the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction, including Able One, Leviathans of Jupiter, and the Grand Tour novels, including Titan, winner of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and in 2008 he won the Robert A. Heinlein Award "for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature." He is President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, and a former editor of Analog and former fiction editor of Omni. As an editor, he won science fiction's Hugo Award six times. Dr. Bova's writings have predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), electronic book publishing, and much more. He lives in Florida.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Josh on August 18, 2013

Wow. I must say that the ending of this book ruined the whole thing for me. I loved the concept, but the execution was very poor. Mr. Bova's other novels are far superior. Read Jupiter and the Leviathans of Jupiter. But it seems with New Earth, the author has reached preachy status. Earth is being d......more

Goodreads review by Scott on January 25, 2014

This is my first Ben Bova book. Can't say I'm aching for another. Bova tries to do a "first contact" story mixed with cautionary environmentalism, astrobiology, and something resembling a love story. Maybe if he'd taken any of the distinct elements seriously, it would have worked out, but each aspec......more

Goodreads review by Noah on September 12, 2020

It drives me nuts when the drama of a story is driven by an artificial lack of communication between two characters (or between groups of characters). Jack knows something, and everything would be resolved if Jill knew it too. But even though it would be natural for Jack to share the information and......more

Goodreads review by Jim on August 25, 2013

The New Earth by Ben Bova will only interest science fiction fans alone. It begins well with a crew of 12 arriving at a planet nicknamed New Earth, to investigate the possibility of living there, as our Earth as we know it is being destroyed by global warming. The story then takes a turn as they m......more

Goodreads review by Dan on November 30, 2016

[Audio Version] Imagine a future where climate change is threatening the human population. Imagine the good fortune of finding an earth-like planet waiting to be explored and possibly colonized. Unfortunately, it will take your team 80 years to get there, 8 years before earth receives their first tra......more