Reading
(After a break in recording) I started reading this on February
15, 2006, and finished it on February 16, 2006.
Specs
Bova, Ben, Venus, written
2000, published by Tom Doherty Associates, Tor Press, New York. This
is from the Central Resource Library.
Overview
(Time: appears placed in the late 21st century.)
Written in the first person by "Van Humphries" (although later he
is called "Van Fuchs."
This is a story about Van Humphries attempt to recover the body of
his brother who killed trying to make the first landing on Venus (the
real Venus, as revealed by the Russian Space Probe [which makes a
cameo]).
Van is despised by his father Martin Humphries, which is a very
rich and powerful man. Martin Humphries always calls Van "runt"
for example, and is quite open about his preferring his older brother
Alex, who had been killed. Alex was actually was a good friend to
Van, however.
The action starts when Martin offers a $10,000,000,000 reward for
anyone who can recover Alex's body from the surface of Venus. Van's
allowance was cut off to pay for the reward.
Van decides to collect the reward, and organizes an expedition to
Venus. Meanwhile, Lars Fuchs, an enemy of Martin Humphries, is also
attempting to collect the reward.
The trip to Venus is accomplished by ferrying a balloon to Venus
via an existing ship. The balloon will be used to ferry the crew to
the surface (despite the heat of 400 degrees C, and pressure
equivalent to that about 1 kilometer below
the surface of the ocean).
On the trip Van runs into Desiree Duchamp, and her daughter
Marguerite, Desiree is a former mistress of Martin's, who was hand
picked by Martin to be captain. Desiree didn't really want the
position, and brought her daughter with because she thought Martin
was hitting on her. Marguerite is Desiree's cloned daughter. (The
book indicates their personality was different, but I don't think
that could happen. Of course, Ben Bova's idea of personality may be
different than mine.)
Alex and Marguerite are both members of the Green party. Alex
(before he went to Venus) was hoping to show Venus as the inevitable
result of runaway Greenhouse affect. By the way, it failed.
The expedition gets to Venus. Unfortunately, the atmosphere of
Venus has some form of life that actually eat the metal skin of the
balloon. The life is discovered by Marguerite. There are many
attempts to repair the damage, but all fail, and the balloon
eventually falls apart, obviously the same thing that happened to
Alex's ship. However, Van and Marguerite are rescued by Fuchs, all
the others die.
It is discovered accidentally that Van
is Fuchs' son (hence Van Fuchs). It appears that Humphries married
Fuchs wife. This had been arranged because Humphries had been taking
over Fucks' Asteroid mining business violently.
He eventually captured Fucks' wife, and forced her to marry him to
humiliate Fuchs. However, he didn't recognize the marriage, and his
wife eventually impregnated herself with Fuchs sperm without either
Fuchs or Humphries knowing. Van was the child, who had a congenital
health problem. Humphries had his wife killed. (Van was saved
because Humphries thought he'd die without him having to do the job.
His health problem saved his life.)
The theme of the book is Van's transition from being a totally
passive "Runt" to becoming someone who is totally in control.
His real father dies, but by the end of the book he could threaten
his adopted father. When his father threatens to not pay the
$10,000,000,000 reward, Van threatens him with revealing what he
knows about his background, etc.
In addition, there is the Green's message. That is, Venus is
different than Earth, so its overheating is not related to that of
the Earth. (A true statement. The sun is something like 20? larger
from Venus, something I noticed while researching The Gustave
Station.)
Comments
I actually liked this book. I enjoy this as I did Arthur Clark's
book in the years past, a good sign. There is some depiction of
global warming in a somewhat realistic way (rather than the stupid
depiction in Waterworld).
Theme
This book is about a man who has been abused to the point that he
has no real personality left. He grows up, and ultimately confronts
his abuser as an equal.
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