Death Wave

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By Ben Bova

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Publisher Description

Six-time Hugo Award winner Ben Bova chronicles the saga of humankind's expansion beyond the solar system in Death Wave

In the precursor to the Star Quest Trilogy, New Earth, Jordan Kell led the first human mission beyond the solar system. They discovered the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. But one alien AI survived, and it revealed to Jordan Kell that an explosion in the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has created a wave of deadly radiation, expanding out from the core toward Earth. Unless the human race acts to save itself, all life on Earth will be wiped out.

When Kell and his team return to Earth, many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news. He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.

The Star Quest Trilogy
#1 Death Wave
#2 Apes and Angels

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

10 Reviews

3.0

Al Keller

Created almost 3 years ago

Minniewhop

Created over 3 years ago

“You really don't dislike the human race any less after reading this book XD!”

Graff Fuller

Created over 3 years ago

“3.5 Stars Well, I finally started my trek through a few books by Ben Bova. I started the Star Quest Trilogy, which seems to have FOUR books in it, and the three my wife bought me are (by Goodreads standards) books 2, 3, and 4. I was thoroughly confused. I then wrote Ben Bova via his website and got his editor (who was truly very kind). He told me that Ben Bova had recently passed (November of 2020), but he told me it was safe for me to read that trilogy the way it is...for the books are fairly self-contained, though they tell an overarcing story (Grand Tour). The main question was why Goodreads says that New Earth was the first book in the trilogy, but my wife bought three books in the trilogy starting with #1 Death Wave, #2 Apes and Angels and #3 Survival. I've just finished Death Wave...and I can see that there is a portion of information that would've been nice to have experienced before reading Death Wave, but the editor is correct, Mr. Bova writes a fairly self-contained story...that was fun and easily understood within the parameters of the book. I really enjoyed the main protagonist, Jorden Kell and his alien wife (from New Earth). I presume the previous book recounts their first meetings and the building of their relationship...and their eventual return to Earth. We have a crisis on Earth that has needed a strong governmental hand...and the main antagonist is up for the challenge. Intrigue and fumbles are fun to read. I was frustrated a few times where it seemed to convenient to have actually happened OR the main characters or the antagonists were during truly stupid things (that seemed uncharacteristic for their position). With minor problems like that, I really did enjoy this story. I will definitely read on...and will eventually go back and read New Earth...to understand the precursor to this trilogy. I am a child of the late 60's and have grown up in the Star Wars (1977) movie that was Episode IV. We don't always have to have the story told to us in chronological order. Also, I grew up on C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia...which were not told (or published) in chronological order. I'm okay with it. Now, on to Apes and Angels, the second book in the trilogy.”

MsMiharo

Created over 5 years ago

MimiOG

Created over 6 years ago

About Ben Bova

Ben Bova (1932-2020) was the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction, including Able One, Transhuman, Orion, the Star Quest Trilogy, and the Grand Tour novels, including Titan, winner of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year. His many honors include the Isaac Asimov Memorial Award in 1996, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award “for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature” in 2008.

Dr. Bova was 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. His writings predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), electronic book publishing, and much more.

In addition to his literary achievements, Bova worked for Project Vanguard, America’s first artificial satellite program, and for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, the company that created the heat shields for Apollo 11, helping the NASA astronauts land on the moon. He also taught science fiction at Harvard University and at New York City’s Hayden Planetarium and worked with such filmmakers as George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry.