Reading
I started reading this on March 10, 2006, and finished it on March
16, 2006.
Specs
Bova, Ben, Kinsman: A Novel,
written 1965-79, published by The Dial Press, New York. This is from
the Central Resource Library.
Overview
(Time: This is contemporary, or slightly in the future, probably
about 2000.)
This appears to be a series of short stories, which were published
separately, but with a common plot and characters. Therefore, it was
really written over a period of time.
This was also written during the Cold War, and assumes that war
would go on forever, as many people did. Also, the energy crisis of the seventies is
extrapolated in the last few chapters (short stories).
Chet Kinsman was brought up a Quaker, with their radical belief in
peace. However, he joined the Air Force, over the objections of his
father. His real interest is in getting into space, not fighting.
This leads to a conflict within Kinsman, as he works his way up the
ranks, and eventually gets into space.
In the first short story, he meets Diane, who is a singer, and
peacenik (this would have been during the Viet Nam war protests).
She tries to get him to join a peace demonstration, and he almost
does. He connects Diane with Mr. McGrath, who is politically
connected, and can help her career.
Meanwhile, he is estranged from his father over his Air Force
uniform.
Then he get into space in the Air Force space program, even though
he would like to be in NASA. This leads to him killing a Russian
cosmonaut, who turns out to be a woman. Throughout the rest of the
novel (and several short stories) this haunts him. He is actually
put on medical leave from the Air Force, and tries to make it with
NASA.
While with NASA he makes trips to the moon. On one trip, he saves
the life of a priest, who is also a NASA Astronaut. In doing this,
they learn about his killing the Russian girl, so he is forced back
to the Air Force, where he is not allowed to go into space.
Later, McGrath is a Senator, in line to be Minority leader of the
Senate. Kinsman, in a desperate attempt to get to
the moon, now his only goal, he attempts to get the Air Force, now
called the Aerospace force, to build a hospital on the moon. He was
talked into this by an older friend, who hoped the lower gravity
could preserve his life. (He died, however, before the end of the
novel.) This was held back by McGrath.
He met with Diane (who was now famous, and who had gone
with Kinsman for a while). Diane admits (without prompting) that she
is having an affair with McGrath, and that he intents to divorce his
wife as soon as he gets to be minority leader. Kinsman, who knew
McGrath when they were growing up, confronts him with this, but he
still will not approve the base.
Then, while talking with some industrial leaders, he decides to
reformulate this. It will not be a lunar mining base to supply
material for military satellites. This gets the full backing of the
military, and the president.
He went to McGrath's house to talk with him about it, but he is
not home because he is with Diane. Kinsman knows McGrath's wife, and
they end up spending the night together. This helps McGrath's wife,
who is really upset that McGrath is running around with Diane, and
Kinsman, because he finally gets over his killing the Russian girl.
McGrath finds out about it, and comes after Kinsman with fire in
his eye's, but Kinsman points out that what he did was actually much
less than what McGrath was doing to his wife. And Kinsman uses this
as leverage to get McGrath to support (or at least not appose) the
base on the moon.
In the end, Kinsman, now a Colonel, is to head up the moon base,
and is on his way to the moon. He tells people privately that he
will not allow fighting on the moon while he is there, and he sounds
like he means it.
Comments
This book is a series of short stories. It is also very much a
Cold War novel, and is dated as a result. I suspect that Ben Bova
thought the advancement in Space would continue as it had in the
60's, then the 70's, much as 2001
does.
He also assumes the lights were turned
off after dark in the latter chapters, presumably to save energy. I
seriously doubt the public would put up with this because of the
amount of spoiled food in refrigerators and
freezers. Also, Americans have grown accustomed, even in the 1960's,
to getting what they want without any trouble. People would not put
up with the results.
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