Ben Bova, 1932-2020
November 30, 2020 2:47 PM Subscribe
Ben Bova, six-time Hugo-Award-winning editor and author of 140 futurist fiction and non-fiction works has died.
In addition to the six Hugos for his editing work, Bova has also been awarded:
In that time he's also been a member of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, a charter member of the Planetary Society, and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.
Bova was born in November 8, 1932; he died on November 29th, of complications from COVID-19 and a stroke.
In addition to the six Hugos for his editing work, Bova has also been awarded:
- the 1974 E.E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction,
- the 1983 Balrog Award for Professional Achievement for his writing and editing with Omni and Analog,
- the 1985 Inkpot Award
- the 1996 Isaac Asimov Memorial Award.
- the John W. Campbell Memorial novel of the year award for his 2006 book, Titan,
- the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein award for his body of work.
- a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation
In that time he's also been a member of the Board of Governors of the National Space Society, a charter member of the Planetary Society, and a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.
Bova was born in November 8, 1932; he died on November 29th, of complications from COVID-19 and a stroke.
Bova's The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells (1994) was the first book I ever read about how to write well (and tell stories in general) that resonated at all with me. Although I have not pursued writing fiction professionally, that early influence nevertheless gave me some of my first critical tools for thinking about the fiction I was consuming at more than a surface level.
Write like it might matter to someone some day. You never know which stake you put in the ground will become someone else's tent pole.
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posted by belarius at 3:25 PM on November 30, 2020 [8 favorites]
Write like it might matter to someone some day. You never know which stake you put in the ground will become someone else's tent pole.
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posted by belarius at 3:25 PM on November 30, 2020 [8 favorites]
His early works were an important part of my childhood.
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posted by bcd at 3:51 PM on November 30, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by bcd at 3:51 PM on November 30, 2020 [3 favorites]
His writing and editing were more reliable than the Vanguard boosters.
Sorry to see him go.
posted by skyscraper at 4:21 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sorry to see him go.
posted by skyscraper at 4:21 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Joe in Australia at 4:27 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:27 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by oneswellfoop at 4:29 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by oneswellfoop at 4:29 PM on November 30, 2020
I loved the Exiles books when I was a teen. RIP.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:37 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by SoberHighland at 4:37 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by triage_lazarus at 5:04 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by triage_lazarus at 5:04 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:29 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 5:29 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
He stepped into very big shoes when he took over as editor of Analog after John Campbell died and he did well, he did very well indeed. Sic transit...
posted by speug at 5:29 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by speug at 5:29 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
So many books!
Like bcd, I read a bunch of Bova as a kid. His novels and stories, plus Omni magazine under his editorship, and who knows how much else. I remember one - Millenium? - which spooked me with its nuclear war possibilities.
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posted by doctornemo at 5:33 PM on November 30, 2020
Like bcd, I read a bunch of Bova as a kid. His novels and stories, plus Omni magazine under his editorship, and who knows how much else. I remember one - Millenium? - which spooked me with its nuclear war possibilities.
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posted by doctornemo at 5:33 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by lock robster at 5:56 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by lock robster at 5:56 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by limeonaire at 6:15 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by limeonaire at 6:15 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by brundlefly at 6:41 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by brundlefly at 6:41 PM on November 30, 2020
Hey, my father worked on Project Vanguard! He helped develop the Minitrack system mentioned in the link upthread. It did launch successfully, eventually; and the satellite's still in orbit.
I'm a collector of the Winston Science Fiction series, for which Ben Bova wrote one, in 1959 (the year after Vanguard). In fact, it's available for download, at archive.org: The Star Conquerors.
posted by Rash at 6:59 PM on November 30, 2020 [4 favorites]
I'm a collector of the Winston Science Fiction series, for which Ben Bova wrote one, in 1959 (the year after Vanguard). In fact, it's available for download, at archive.org: The Star Conquerors.
posted by Rash at 6:59 PM on November 30, 2020 [4 favorites]
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posted by Halloween Jack at 7:31 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:31 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by dannyboybell at 7:41 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by dannyboybell at 7:41 PM on November 30, 2020
As someone else who knew the name, but never read any of his work, are there suggestions for books to check out? His name was always one of the bigger ones, but I never got around to any of his books.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:43 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by Ghidorah at 7:43 PM on November 30, 2020
Bova's work was my first exposure to the idea of a longue duree starship, requiring no massive breakthrough in physics but just a dedication to throwing a small self-contained human population out into the galaxy.
I think of those books all the time, and a lot of imho lesser recent works riff on them.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:28 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
I think of those books all the time, and a lot of imho lesser recent works riff on them.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:28 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Silverstone at 10:10 PM on November 30, 2020
posted by Silverstone at 10:10 PM on November 30, 2020
I long ago lost track of how many times I read and reread Kinsman and its sequel, Millennium.
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posted by bryon at 10:30 PM on November 30, 2020
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posted by bryon at 10:30 PM on November 30, 2020
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One of the very first books of science fiction I read was Bova's As On a Darkling Plain. I wouldn't recommend that book today, but what was available to eleven-year-old me in Reykjavík in the early 90s as I fell in love with the genre was very haphazard, so everything was a treasure. I've always had a soft spot for him since.
posted by Kattullus at 4:44 AM on December 1, 2020
One of the very first books of science fiction I read was Bova's As On a Darkling Plain. I wouldn't recommend that book today, but what was available to eleven-year-old me in Reykjavík in the early 90s as I fell in love with the genre was very haphazard, so everything was a treasure. I've always had a soft spot for him since.
posted by Kattullus at 4:44 AM on December 1, 2020
His Welcome to Moonbase was one of my very favorite things as a kid. It's a very detailed "handbook" for living on a fictional moonbase based on the best scientific understanding at the time (1987).
posted by hydropsyche at 4:47 AM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by hydropsyche at 4:47 AM on December 1, 2020 [2 favorites]
Without his books my teen years would have been the pits.
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posted by james33 at 5:09 AM on December 1, 2020
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posted by james33 at 5:09 AM on December 1, 2020
Warning to those wanting to check him out: like many white male elder sci fi authors, his work is chockablock with sexism and racism. Hardly the worst offender, but of his time. You might honor him more by reading something new that has grown because of the soil he enriched.
posted by rikschell at 5:36 AM on December 1, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 5:36 AM on December 1, 2020 [6 favorites]
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posted by Faint of Butt at 7:15 AM on December 1, 2020
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:15 AM on December 1, 2020
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posted by pseudophile at 8:53 AM on December 1, 2020
posted by pseudophile at 8:53 AM on December 1, 2020
Aw. Crap. Sad to hear this, he's one of my favorite sci-fi authors. Read Mars a long time ago, picked it up at our local library because it caught my eye. Really enjoyed it, and have been slowly working my way through the Grand Tour novels ever since. I have quite a few to go still.
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posted by caution live frogs at 9:33 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by caution live frogs at 9:33 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
You might honor him more by reading something new that has grown because of the soil he enriched.
This is all true, but plenty of the soil he enriched is equally problematic, e.g. Cixian Liu's Dark Forest trilogy.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:55 AM on December 1, 2020
This is all true, but plenty of the soil he enriched is equally problematic, e.g. Cixian Liu's Dark Forest trilogy.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:55 AM on December 1, 2020
As far back as I can remember, my dad (now 70) has had a bookshelf full of 1960s-1990s back issues of Analog and Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. For a while, these doorstoppers proliferated in the bathroom as well. Mostly I remember thumbing through them as I waited out the consequences of some irresponsible food choice. They didn't much resonate with me, but Dad was (and remains) my personal hero, so I attributed some kind of secondary esteem to his own admired nerds.
In retrospect, I find I'm struck by a parallel between Asimov and Bova. Here were two genre giants, envisioning alternate realities, arguably with similar problematic blind spots. Here they are now, felled by different plagues, both of which proliferated on the watch of inept leaders who ignored said plagues in the name of political expedience.
Science a step behind fiction, always. Dystopia in real life.
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posted by armeowda at 11:51 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
In retrospect, I find I'm struck by a parallel between Asimov and Bova. Here were two genre giants, envisioning alternate realities, arguably with similar problematic blind spots. Here they are now, felled by different plagues, both of which proliferated on the watch of inept leaders who ignored said plagues in the name of political expedience.
Science a step behind fiction, always. Dystopia in real life.
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posted by armeowda at 11:51 AM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]
Count me as one who's seen Ben Bova's name since forever but never actually read his stuff. Looks like the Grand Tour series is a good place to start (?). I hesitate diving into 70s and 80s SF in case it's too dated, but the first book in this series is a kind of prequel, written in 2005. Anyway, it's 24 books, plenty to keep me busy.
posted by zardoz at 11:46 PM on December 1, 2020
posted by zardoz at 11:46 PM on December 1, 2020
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I haven't checked out any of his work, though the name is familiar. Will definitely do so now.
posted by Alensin at 2:51 PM on November 30, 2020