RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 2009, Featured Articles, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Return to Mars by Ben Bova
Ben Bova has been a presence in science fiction for more than four decades. He is a past president of the Science Fiction Writers of America and the former editor of Analog. The recipient of the Hugo and other awards, he has written dozens of novels, including Mars, Voyagers, and Death Dream-as well as Moonrise and Moonwar, the firsts two books of his acclaimed Moonbase Saga. He lives in Florida with his wife, Barbara Bova.
This hard science fiction story combines speculative fiction with psychological thriller set in the near future. Fleshed out characters and tightly paced plot combine in a novel that keeps the suspense up without becoming too predictable and transparent. Stefan Rudnicki does a wonderful job reading this story, and is it quite possible to lose oneself in his performance. There are a overdubs throughout the reading that are plainly obvious to the listener as production value is clearly different. Those overdubs do not detract from the reading as a whole. This audio book is excellent and any fan of hard science fiction should do him or herself a favor and pick it up.
Bova, Ben. Return to Mars. Read by Stefan Rudnicki. 13 CDs. 15.4 hrs. Blackstone Audio (Unabridged). 2008 ISBN: 9781433263798 $110.00 SA
The remainder of this article is not available.
To see the rest of the article you may:
- Pay for a Premium subscription to this publication
More Featured Articles
The Old Willis Place by Mary Downing Hahn
Mary Downing Hahn, a former children’s librarian, is the award-winning author of many popular ghost stories, including Deep and Dark and Dangerous. An avid reader, traveler, and all-around arts lover, Ms. Hahn lives in Columbia, Maryland, with her two cats, Oscar and Rufus.
The Closing of the American Borders by Edward Alden
Edward Alden is the Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and the former Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times. He has been a guest on numerous television and radio shows, including The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and The McLaughlin Group, as well as on NPR, the BBC, CNN, and MSNBC.
Happy Days by Laurent Graff
LAURENT GRAFF was born in 1968. Happy Days, his first novel to be published in English, was awarded the Prix Millepages. He lives on the outskirts of Paris.
The Empathy Gap by J.D. Trout
J. D. Trout is professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of the Parmly Sensory Sciences Institute at Loyola University in Chicago. He has held fellowships from the National Science Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities. His previous books include Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment and Measuring the Intentional World.
Rapt Attention and the Focused Life by Winifred Gallagher
Winifred Gallagher’s books include House Thinking, Just the Way You Are (a New York Times Notable Book), Working on God, and The Power of Place. She has written for numerous publications, such as Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times.
Teatime for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
This novel is the 10th entry in McCall Smith's internationally best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series
Etta by Gerald Kolpan
GERALD KOLPAN was born in New York City and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. He now lives in Philadelphia.
Medusa by Clive Cussler
This is Cussler's 8th Kurt Austin NUMA Files novel.
God's Trombones by James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) was an African American author, poet, and civil rights activist.
The Likeness by Tana French
Tana French's debut, In the Woods, hit the New York Times best-seller list and drew rave reviews from the Times (London) and Booklist.
King Henry IV by William Shakespeare
L.A. Theatre Works, founded in 1974, produces audio plays, both classical and contemporary.
Thriller, 2 by Clive Cussler, Editor
Authors in this collection include Jeffery Deaver, Kathleen Antrim, Gary Braver, Sean Chercover, Blake Crouch, Robert Ferrigno, and Joe Hartlaub
Realistic Visionary by Peter Henriques
Peter R. Henriques, Professor of History Emeritus at George Mason University, is the author of The Death of George Washington: He Died as He Lived.
Red Orchestra by Anne Nelson
Anne Nelson is an author and playwright, and teaches at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 1989 Livingston Award for international reporting. Her books and articles have been published widely, and her play The Guys has been staged throughout the world. As a war correspondent in El Salvador and Guatemala from 1980 to 1983, Nelson published reports and photography in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. She is a graduate of Yale University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling Saxon Tales, as well as the Richard Sharpe novels, among many others. He lives with his wife on Cape Cod.
The Pluto Files by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON is an astrophysicist with the American Museum of Natural History, director of the world-famous Hayden Planetarium, a monthly columnist for Natural History, and an award-winning author. He lives in New York City.
Joseph P. Kennedy Presents His Hollywood Years by Cari Beauchamp
CARI BEAUCHAMP is the author of Without Lying Down. She has written for the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Variety.
Sarah's Key by Tatiana DeRosnay
Tatiana de Rosnay was born in the suburbs of Paris and is of English, French and Russian descent. She is the author of nine French novels. She also writes for French ELLE, and is a literary critic for Psychologies magazine. She is married and has two children. Sarah's Key is her first novel written in her mother tongue, English.
The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, Guillermo del Toro made his feature directorial debut in 1993 with the film Cronos, and has since gone on to direct Mimic, The Devil's Backbone, Blade II, Hellboy I, Hellboy II, and Pan's Labyrinth, which garnered enormous critical praise worldwide and won three Academy Awards. He will direct two films based on The Hobbit, to be produced by Peter Jackson.
Nothing to Fear by Adam Cohen
Adam Cohen is Assistant Editorial Page Editor of the New York Times, where he has been a member of the Editorial Board since 2002. He was previously a senior writer at Time, and is the author of The Perfect Store: Inside eBay and co- author of American Pharaoh, a biography of Mayor Richard J. Daley. Before entering journalism, Cohen was an education-reform lawyer, and he has a law degree from Harvard.
Capture by Robert K. Tannenbaum
The NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of fourteen Butch Karp novels, Robert K. Tanenbaum lives in Beverly Hills, California. The former Homicide Bureau Chief in the New York District Attorney's Office, Tanenbaum is also one of America's most successful and famous trial lawyers - who has never lost a felony case yet - and former two-term mayor of Beverly Hills.
Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
The late Georgette Heyer was a very private woman. Her historical novels have charmed and delighted millions of readers for decades, though she rarely reached out to the public to discuss her works or private life. It is known that she was born in Wimbledon in August 1902, and her first novel, The Black Moth, was published in 1921. Heyer published 56 books over the next 53 years, until her death from lung cancer in 1974. Heyer's large volume of works included Regency romances, mysteries and historical fiction. Known also as the Queen of Regency romance, Heyer was legendary for her research, historical accuracy and her extraordinary plots and characterizations. Her last book, My Lord John, was published posthumously in 1975. She was married to George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer, and they had one son together,
Even by Andrew Grant
ANDREW GRANT is a former telecommunications executive. He is the younger brother of Lee Child, author of the New York Times best-selling Jack Reacher novels. He lives in the United Kingdom.
The Noble Outlaw by Bernard Knight
Bernard Knight is the author of the Crown John Mysteries series and is a member of The Medieval Murderers.
The Rose of Sebastapol by Katharine McMahon
Katharine Mcmahon is the author of The Alchemist’s Daughter. She is a former English teacher, writing instructor, and actress.
Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
Mary Downing Hahn, a former children's librarian, is the award-winning author of many popular ghost stories, including The Old Willis Place, reviewed in this issue
Flinx Transcendent by Alan Dean Foster
Alan Dean Foster has written in a variety of genres, including hard science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective, western, historical, and contemporary fiction. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Star Wars: The Approaching Storm and the popular Pip & Flinx novels, as well as novelizations of several films, including Transformers, Star Wars, the first three Alien films, and Alien Nation. His novel Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction, the first science fiction work ever to do so. Foster and his wife, JoAnn Oxley, live in Prescott, Arizona, in a house built of brick that was salvaged from an early-twentieth-century miners’ brothel. He is currently at work on several new novels and media projects.
Juggler of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner
LARRY NIVEN is the multiple Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces. His novels Footfall, coauthored with Jerry Pournelle , and Beowulf’s Children, coauthored with Jerry Pournelle and Steven Barnes, were New York Times best-sellers. He lives in Chatsworth, California. EDWARD M. LERNER has degrees in physics and computer science, a background that kept him mostly out of trouble until he began writing SF full time. His books include Probe, Moonstruck, and the collection Creative Destruction. Fleet of Worlds is his first collaboration with Larry Niven. He lives in Virginia with Ruth, his wife of thirty-five years.
Thin is the New Happy by Valerie Frankel
Valerie Frankel has been an editor for Mademoiselle magazine and is a contributor to Self, Glamour, and Parenting magazines. She has written nine novels and this is her first memoir. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason
A. E. W. MASON (1865–1948) was born at Dulwich, England. A graduate of Oxford, he was first a professional actor before becoming a playwright. When he turned to writing fiction, he proved to be a versatile and prolific author, excelling at historical fiction, adventure fiction, social melodrama, and crime fiction. He is perhaps best remembered today for his tales of adventure and detection, often set in exotic locales.
Spyhigh by A.J. Butcher
AJ Butcher has been aware of the power of words since avoiding a playground beating at age seven because he "told good stories." He's been trying to do the same thing ever since. He currently works at a girls' grammar school in Dorset, England.
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Speak, as well as Catalyst, Prom, and Twisted. She is the recipient of the prestigious ALAN Award (2008), which honors those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Ms. Anderson lives in northern New York State with her husband.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was an American poet, short-story writer, writer of detective fiction, and critic. After publishing this novel he wrote TALES OF THE GROTESQUE AND ARABESQUE (1840) and THE RAVEN AND OTHER POEMS (1845).
Eye of the Cricket by James Sallis
JAMES SALLIS is the author of the Lew Griffin novels and over a dozen other books, including the biography Chester Himes, a New York Times Notable Book. He has been shortlisted for the Edgar®, Shamus, Nebula, Anthony, and Gold Dagger awards. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.
It's All Love by Marita Golden, Ed.
Marita Golden is the author of works of both fiction and nonfiction. Her books include Migrations of the Heart, Saving Our Sons, and most recently, Don't Play in the Sun. She is the founder of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, an organization that supports African American writers. She lives in Mitchellville, Maryland.
The Shadow Factory by James Bamford
James Bamford is the author of The Puzzle Palace, a national bestseller when it was first published and now regarded as a classic. He was until recently Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and has written investigative cover stories for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.
The Way of the World by Ron Suskind
Ron Suskind is the author of The Globe and Mail and New York Times bestsellers The One Percent Doctrine, The Price of Loyalty, and A Hope in the Unseen. From 1993 to 2000 he was the senior national affairs writer for The Wall Street Journal, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing. He currently writes for various national magazines, including The New York Times Magazine and Esquire. Suskind lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Cornelia Kennedy Suskind, and their two sons.