VenusMacmillan + ORM, 2024 M05 1 - 420 pages A deadly race unfolds on the hostile planet in this science fiction adventure by the six-time Hugo Award–winning author. The surface of Venus is the most hellish place in the solar system. The ground is hot enough to melt aluminum. The air pressure is so high it has crushed spacecraft landers as though they were tin cans. The sky is perpetually covered with clouds of sulfuric acid. The atmosphere is a choking mixture of carbon dioxide and poisonous gases. This is where Van Humphries must go. Or die trying. His older brother perished in the first attempt to land a man on Venus, years before, and his father had always hated Van for surviving when his brother died. Now his father is offering a ten-billion-dollar prize to the first person to land on Venus and return his oldest son’s remains. To everyone’s surprise, Van takes up the offer. But what Van Humphries will find on Venus will change everything—our understanding of Venus, of global warming on Earth, and his knowledge of who he is. . . . Praise for Venus “Venus scorches.” —Kansas City Star “Bova proves himself equal to the task of showing how adversity can temper character in unforeseen ways.” —The New York Times “The author’s excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of the genre’s most accessible and entertaining storytellers.” —Library Journal |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 10 | |
| 13 | |
| 21 | |
GREATER LOS ANGELES | 31 |
MAJORCA | 39 |
LIFTOFF | 48 |
DREAM | 57 |
MUTTERINGS | 205 |
BELOW THE CLOUDS | 211 |
SPYING | 219 |
OVERHEATlNG | 225 |
MUTINY | 235 |
DEATH | 246 |
PUNISHMENT | 253 |
CONFLICT | 264 |
IN TRANSIT | 59 |
COMPETITION | 65 |
TRANSFER | 72 |
VENUS ORBIT | 82 |
RECONNAISSANCE | 91 |
ENTRY | 99 |
IN THE CLOUDS | 107 |
OUTSIDE | 116 |
DAMAGE ASSESSMENT | 123 |
BUG FOOD | 131 |
DEADLY DECISIONS | 139 |
COLLAPSE | 146 |
SINKING | 152 |
CATASTROPHE | 159 |
FALLING | 167 |
LARS FUCHS | 173 |
NIGHTMARE | 180 |
DEATH SENTENSE | 182 |
COMM TECH | 188 |
WAVERIDER | 196 |
SEARCHING | 269 |
FANTASY | 277 |
NODONS STORY | 279 |
MAKING HEADWAY | 283 |
NIGHTSlDE | 288 |
CONTACT | 295 |
REVELATIONS | 304 |
SIMULATIONS | 314 |
HECATE | 322 |
ERUPTION | 330 |
TIDAL WAVE | 338 |
CAPTURED | 344 |
RETRIEVED | 350 |
THE ESCAPE POD | 358 |
THE CYCLE OF DEATH | 369 |
BACK IN THE CLOUDS | 374 |
BEYOND DEATH | 384 |
A NEW LIFE | 393 |
SELENE CITY | 400 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aboard airlock Alex Alex's Amarjagal arms Asteroid Asteroid Belt asteroid mining atmosphere Bahadur bathysphere blinking blood bridge bugs bunk captain Celsius cermet cloud deck comm console command chair compartment crew crew's quarters crewmen Duchamp earphones Earth escape pod eyes face father feel felt Fuchs Fuchs's gas envelope going gondola Greenbaum guerite Gwyneth hand hatch head heard heat Hecate Hecate's hell helmet Hesperos hull inside killed kilometers knew looked Lucifer Majorca Marguerite asked Marguerite's Martin Humphries metal Mickey mother nodded Nodon Okay orbit passageway Phosphoros planet plate tectonics prize money pulled pumps realized replied Rodriguez Sanja seemed Selene sensors ship ship's sick bay sitting slid slightly smile snapped spacesuit stared suit sulfur sulfuric acid surface of Venus tell tether There's thick thought told took transfusion Truax turned Venus's Venusian virtual reality voice Waller watch wondered wreckage