Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good read, I thought...
Review: Not quite as bad as the review below suggests (at least I don't think so)
Admittedly the story is a little tenuous at times, but that, in part, is what SF writing is about - testing the boundaries of speculation.
I actuallly enjoyed the characters and Bova's development of them. Though not as good as Mar's or Death Dream, this one's a reasonable read for the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Not necessarily a bargain, even in the bargain bin.
Review: Perhaps Ben Bova heard my complaint that science fiction is filling up with the same old 600 page third person omniscient dreck that rules the mass market. Here we have a book where the omniscient folderol has been rewritten into the first person. Oh joy. But basically Brothers is all the lowlights of the "moral dilemmas of science" debate from Contact, an accompanying science gimmick hardly ever described in more than one sentence, and a cast of boring and neurotic characters that are unworthy of empathy. Very tedious and very mundane.
Rating:
Summary: Not necessarily a bargain, even in the bargain bin.
Review: Perhaps Ben Bova heard my complaint that science fiction is filling up with the same old 600 page third person omniscient dreck that rules the mass market. Here we have a book where the omniscient folderol has been rewritten into the first person. Oh joy. But basically Brothers is all the lowlights of the "moral dilemmas of science" debate from Contact, an accompanying science gimmick hardly ever described in more than one sentence, and a cast of boring and neurotic characters that are unworthy of empathy. Very tedious and very mundane.
Rating: 
Summary: Hey, it's not that bad!
Review: When I first examined "Brothers" I was a bit dismayed to find its construction utilizing the "different chapter, different viewpoint" technique, the very same style which had forced me to read Monsarrat's "Kapillan Of Malta", in two unsatisfying operations... all the odds, and then all the evens.
But Ben Bova has done a rather better job with what is, in fact, a very difficult technique. His chapters are short, so that the reader does not lose the thread of the narrative, and the register and voice of each viewpoint's dialogue is authentically maintained. Even the many flashback or flash-forward sequences are well signalled and slip seamlessly into the structure. Perhaps those of my reviewing colleagues at Amazon, who so panned this work, should try their hand at this genre....Folks, it is harder than it looks, and Bova has done it well! Working in pharmacy, and also serving, from time to time, on a panel which examines potential names for newly patented prototype medications, I was naturally interested in the medical research background to this story...and could well imagine the authenticity of the underlying conflicts as the factions representing medical and social ethics, academic lobbying, political aspirations, avarice versus selflessness, and humanitarianism versus personal ambition fought it out against a University laboratory background ...test tubes at ten paces! The theme of genetic modification , in this case the viability of empowering the human body to grow its own replacement parts,thus requiring no donor organs and no surgery, is probably even more keenly debated now than when this book was written five years ago...and the points this book makes, or leaves for us to ponder, are still the subject of much media exploration, and a lot of bandwagonning and bandstanding! ..... The brothers of the story, Arthur, the protective elder, and Jesse , the indulged younger, represent the conflict of research for financial gain versus research to aid the poor and needy...though, as in real life, the two philosophies waver, weaken at times, even change direction, the whole issue complicated by the fact that both men have been engaged to the same woman, but only one has married her! Add to this a few potboiler subplots.......a mother dying of cancer, too late for the research to help her, a suicidal, cancer-prone genetic researcher in love with the lab's experimental , near-human chimp, an ultrasound that predicts a spina-bifida child (who COULD be helped), an evangelizing clergymen, ambitious politicians, patent-poaching foreign firms, agressive journalists, and the inevitable animal-rights liberationists , and you have something for everyone here! And with the New York background so vividly described, and the details of each character's appearance, wardrobe and restaurant selections made so available to us, one need almost not wait for the movie to be made.... except that one has the sneaking suspicion that Bova intended this novel to be televised.......pity Sean Connery and Robert Redford are getting a bit long in the tooth.....suppose we'll just have to settle for John Travolta and Hugh Grant...and fake New York accents! READ "BROTHERS" BY BEN BOVA...IT ISN'T AS BAD AS EVERYONE SAYS!
DARE I ADMIT I ENJOYED IT?
Rating:
Summary: Hey, it's not that bad!
Review: When I first examined "Brothers" I was a bit dismayed to find its construction utilizing the "different chapter, different viewpoint" technique, the very same style which had forced me to read Monsarrat's "Kapillan Of Malta", in two unsatisfying operations... all the odds, and then all the evens.
But Ben Bova has done a rather better job with what is, in fact, a very difficult technique. His chapters are short, so that the reader does not lose the thread of the narrative, and the register and voice of each viewpoint's dialogue is authentically maintained. Even the many flashback or flash-forward sequences are well signalled and slip seamlessly into the structure. Perhaps those of my reviewing colleagues at Amazon, who so panned this work, should try their hand at this genre....Folks, it is harder than it looks, and Bova has done it well!
Working in pharmacy, and also serving, from time to time, on a panel which examines potential names for newly patented prototype medications, I was naturally interested in the medical research background to this story...and could well imagine the authenticity of the underlying conflicts as the factions representing medical and social ethics, academic lobbying, political aspirations, avarice versus selflessness, and humanitarianism versus personal ambition fought it out against a University laboratory background ...test tubes at ten paces! The theme of genetic modification , in this case the viability of empowering the human body to grow its own replacement parts,thus requiring no donor organs and no surgery, is probably even more keenly debated now than when this book was written five years ago...and the points this book makes, or leaves for us to ponder, are still the subject of much media exploration, and a lot of bandwagonning and bandstanding! ..... The brothers of the story, Arthur, the protective elder, and Jesse , the indulged younger, represent the conflict of research for financial gain versus research to aid the poor and needy...though, as in real life, the two philosophies waver, weaken at times, even change direction, the whole issue complicated by the fact that both men have been engaged to the same woman, but only one has married her! Add to this a few potboiler subplots.......a mother dying of cancer, too late for the research to help her, a suicidal, cancer-prone genetic researcher in love with the lab's experimental , near-human chimp, an ultrasound that predicts a spina-bifida child (who COULD be helped), an evangelizing clergymen, ambitious politicians, patent-poaching foreign firms, agressive journalists, and the inevitable animal-rights liberationists , and you have something for everyone here! And with the New York background so vividly described, and the details of each character's appearance, wardrobe and restaurant selections made so available to us, one need almost not wait for the movie to be made.... except that one has the sneaking suspicion that Bova intended this novel to be televised.......pity Sean Connery and Robert Redford are getting a bit long in the tooth.....suppose we'll just have to settle for John Travolta and Hugh Grant...and fake New York accents! READ "BROTHERS" BY BEN BOVA...IT ISN'T AS BAD AS EVERYONE SAYS!
DARE I ADMIT I ENJOYED IT?
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