Type of bind: Audio Cassette
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9781574534757
Format: Abridged
ISBN number: 1574534750
Label: Audio Literature
Manufacturer: Audio Literature
Quantity: 4
Printing Date: February 09, 2002
Publishing house: Audio Literature
Sale Popularity Level: 1116491
Studio: Audio Literature
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
It is the most desolate place in the universe. With a surface blasted by temperatures hotter than any oven and an atmosphere heavy with sulphur, months from Earth by even the fastest spacecraft, Venus remains almost unknown even after a century of space travel. But Alex Humphries, son of ruthless space tycoon Martin Humphries, disappeared along with his ship Phosphoros into Venus' infernal atmosphere, and now Humphries has offered ten billion dollars to anyone who can bring his son's body home. Two ships are soon racing against each other to Venus. But when they enter the poisonous hurricane winds of the unknown planet they find something so surprising, so unexepected, that it will change the whole course of space exploration.
Amazon.com Review:
Ben Bova picked his villains well for this fast-paced, popcorn-and-Milk- Duds matinee: Topping the playbill is our sister planet, Venus itself, which Bova matter-of-factly describes as 'the most hellish place in the solar system.' Sci-fi authors (Bova included) have all but colonized Mars by now, but few have boldly gone to the aluminum-melting, sulfuric-acid-soaked surface of the Morning Star. Venus proves a mighty, unthinking antagonist indeed--frustrating the efforts of sickly but likable rich kid Van Humphries to land there and recover the remains of his older brother Alex, who died two years earlier on another ill-fated mission.
Van gets pushed back and forth between the book's two lesser villains--his mean old cuss of a father, Martin Humphries, who's posted the $10 billion Venus Prize to the very first person to return Alex's body, and Lars Fuchs, a belligerent asteroid miner and Martin's arch-nemesis, who's also decided to make a go at the purse.
Characterizations ride coach on this high-adventure flight, but remember that we're talking about Ben Bova here. It's hard to dispute the master's choices as you're following Van's well-researched, thrills-and-chills descent through Venus's pressure-cooker atmosphere. With solid science, a palatable environmental message (how could you resist commenting on greenhouse gases in a book like this?), and an inspiring character arc for unlikely hero Van, Venus delivers guilt-free, man-against-nature SF in a tight, page-turning package. --Paul Hughes
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Rated by buyers 
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Martin Humphries, a hedonistic and cruel billionaire lost his favorite son to the planet Venus. Alex's remains still lie somewhere on the surface of the planet. Martin offers a $10 billion prize to the person who goes to Venus and returns with his son's body. At the same time he cuts off his other son, Van, whom he detests. With no source of income, Van decides to go after the prize, having a ship built and gathering a crew. Since it's still his father's money paying for the ship, Van has to take a captain of his father's choosing. Then he finds out that there will be competition for the $10 billion as his father's hated rival Lars Fuchs is also going to Venus. After a disaster on his ship, Humphries ends up on Fuchs' craft where a revelation shakes up Humphries fragile world. Despite everything, he and Fuchs continue to search for the remains as they battle creatures they have discovered living in the sulphuric acid clouds of the planet.
For me, Venus was too much about the characters and their relationships and not enough about the planet Venus. I expected more science and got a soap opera. Another problem for me was that I hated all the characters. I didn't care whether any of them survived or not. Even the main character Van Humphries was whiny and unmotivated. He grew up some during the story but not enough for me to care about him. In the end I wished Venus had been more about Venus.
Rated by buyers -
I am a great fan of SF and some parts of this book are excellent. The descent to the surface of Venus and the speculation about what could be there are great stuff. The story is well written and gripping in its drama. However the main character is completely unbelievable and Bova's politics are bolted on to both ends without any real connection to the story.
The protagonist is a spoiled degenerate who lives off his dad's wealth. Through a few unlikely twists he ends up on his way to Venus. After disaster, our young man becomes a hero. This deus ex machina may be necessary to the story, but given the man's demonstrated physical, emotional, and moral shortcomings it is unbelievable. The ending paragraph is laughable. Overall the ending reads like, "Oh, I've hit the publishers word count, time to wrap it up."
Many SF writers put their apparent political beliefs into their stories. Some are noticeably trotted out, while others are woven more subtly into the story. But at least they are an important part of the story, sometimes they are the story. Bova's opinion that the human race is destroying life on Earth is not an uncommon opinion and would be a good basis for an SF story, but has nothing to do with the story here. The obvious endeavor to reference global warming is transparently contrived and is not a part of the story except it happens to be written there.
So, why 2 stars and not 1? I almost threw this book away (a Christmas present) after starting it. The paid ad political presentation, the unbelievable hero really are annoying. Something pulled me back to it. Good writing, he tells the action part of the story well.
Rated by buyers 
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Both planet and book not as interesting as Mars, physically or written.
A family conflict dominates this book. One dead brother from a preivous Venus mission. One not in the best of shape and healthy decidedly not studly Roger Ramjet astronaut type, and an incredibly wealthy overbearing father. The brother wants to get his dead relative's body back, the father wants cash.
This was not very interesting at all, unfortunately.
Rated by buyers 
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Martin Humphries, a fabulously wealthy industrialist living on a lunar colony, passionately despises his second son, Van. Cruelly labeling him as "the runt" and bullying him relentlessly as a directionless, untalented weakling, Humphries blames Van for the death of his wife during Van's birth and, in fact, resents him for even being alive. Humphries' beloved eldest son, Alex, who Van also loved dearly, lost his life in the very first manned exploration of the surface of Venus. When Humphries announces that he is terminating his son's stipend and that he is offering a $10 billion prize to the very first person who recovers his beloved Alex's remains from Venus, it is quite clear that Van, who is without any other means of support, is being manipulated and forced by his own father into choosing a path that will likely lead to his death. The waters become muddied and the fight for that almost unimaginably large prize becomes a heated race when Lars Fuchs, a rock rat from the Asteroid belt and Humphries' long time corporate foe, announces he is also making a play for the prize.
"Venus" won't win any prizes when it comes to literary status. Nor does it convey any subliminal moral messages, political satire, mystical symbolism or any of those other things that deep thinkers often consider necessary for a novel to be deemed truly great. But if you're looking for a hard-driving plot with palpable suspense and superb hard science fiction supported by a wealth of current hard scientific fact, then "Venus" is a novel you'll want to read. Bova's ability to weave science seamlessly into a fast-paced plot is simply wonderful - orbital and celestial mechanics, plate tectonics, volcanism, planetary evolution, chemistry, biology, physics, aerospace engineering, rocketry and more. In fact, it's safe to say that Venus, with a hostile surface environment straight out of Dante's Inferno, is the major character in the novel!
But, let's take nothing away from the rest of the novel. Bova's characters, in a word, succeed! They evoke emotions in a reader fully ensnared in the action who will care about what happens. His heroes have their flaws and weaknesses but they're likable and they develop meaningfully over the course of the novel. His villains are despicable but they too evolve in an understandable human way. The dialogue is appropriate to the environment of a quasi-military space exploration vehicle. And the twist ending - well, suffice it to say that there is one! Let's not give anything away other than to say it will bring a smile to most reader's faces!
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Rated by buyers -
Legendary science fiction author Ben Bova has created a thrilling and exciting tale about the planet which is most compared to earth: Venus.
Van Humphries is a spoiled rich kid who is detested by his father, multi-billionaire Martin Humphries. As much as Martin hates Van, he loved his older son, Alex, who disappeared three years earlier while exploring Venus. His ship disappeared, and he was never heard from again. Desparate to find out what happened to his beloved son, Martin decides to offer 10 billion dollars to the person who can bring back Alex's remains. To Martin's surprise, Van decides to take him up on the offer. Van is determined to rid himself of his father's wrath and find the brother he truly loved. But there's another challenger to the prize: Lars Fuchs. Lars is an asteroid miner who has a long and dubious past of his own with Martin Humphries. He's just as determined as Van is to win the prize money.
Van has his own ship constructed and begins the two-month long journey to Venus. Upon arriving, His ship begins its descent through the thick clouds to the surface and, hopefully, to his brother's remains. But something unexpected has appeared in the clouds; millions of bugs who chew on the outside of the ship. Soon, Van and his crew are falling through the thick Venusian atmosphere. But, Lars' ship comes to the rescue and takes Van and his surviving crew members aboard his ship. Once on board, Lars wastes no time in declaring himself the leader of the mission, and Van and his crew are to follow all of his orders.
What happens throughout the remainder of the book is a collection of involvements between Fuchs, Van, and Marguerite, a biologist who came from Van's ship. Each of their lives will be forever changed as the ship begins its descent to the rocky surface of Venus. Will they find Alex's remains? What other secrets will be revealed between Lars and Van?
This is an excellent novel. The story is well-conceived and the characters are very life-like. Its exciting to watch the transformation of Van and Lars as the story goes along. This book is definitely a page-turner. If you're a fan of good science fiction, then you'll definitely want to read Venus; it's hot!
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