Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Science Fiction
Review: A throwback to the science fiction I grew up reading - Heinlein, Clarke and "newer" hard science types like Niven. A fine blend of sociological and scientific extrapolation. Bova's characters may be underdeveloped and lacking depth, but all in all a very good book. Excellent for advanced youth or teenage readers as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Losin¿ my religion
Review: A tough one to review, this. Without the backdrop of everyone's favourite planet beyond Earth, Bova clearly had a struggle on his hands to maintain the reader's interest. So, whilst Mars and Return to Mars still suffered from the usual Bova-esque paper-thin characters and heavy-handed politicising, the enthralling Martian landscape, often so tantalisingly close to Earth's, won the day and made for compelling reading. Bova obviously considered the nebulous attributes of Jupiter to be far less of an attraction and has therefore set 75% of the action on Research Station Gold, in orbit around the great planet. This somewhat claustrophobic setting offers rather more chance than usual for character development and interaction and, to his credit, Bova has made our hero - Grant Archer at least two-and-a-bit dimensional, as he struggles to reconcile his religious beliefs with scientific curiosity. Sadly, most of the other players, particularly Dr. Wo, Red Devlin, Krebs and Karlstad come over as gross and rather ridiculous caricatures. The plot, what there is of it, unfolds in hugely predictable chunks, and I'm not giving anything away by revealing that the religious inquisition (boo, hiss!) gets outfoxed by the scientific types (hooray!) and our hero saves the day at the expense of having his religious beliefs severely challenged. Now onto the blatant plagiarism. Sheena, the talking gorilla could have been lifted directly from Crichton's Congo, and the inspiration for the immense Leviathan has clearly come from one of Ian M Banks' far superior creations. The addictive feeling of having ones nervous system wired directly into the ship is suspiciously reminiscent of what happened to Lt. Barclay in a Star Trek TNG episode, and I also got a heavy blast of deja vu from the liquid-breathing scenario, but can't quite recall where from. But maybe I'm being a tad over-critical. The 400 odd pages do rattle past at a fair old lick and I've certainly read many worse sci-fi novels. I would class Jupiter as a good early teen read, but something of an insult to the intelligence of the more demanding adult sci-fi aficionado. Bova can certainly pull the right strings on occasion, but is clearly not in the same class as the far more visionary Ian Banks, Philip Jose Farmer or Stephen Baxter. Two and a half stars, maybe!
Rating:
Summary: Science fiction in the classic style
Review: Although he has been around for a while and I have read a lot of science fiction, this is only the second Ben Bova novel I have read, the first being one of his stories for teenagers. What I found with Jupiter is that Bova is a decent author, well-deserving of his longetivity in the genre. Bova's late 21st Century Earth is an unpleasant place dominated by the New Morality, a futuristic spin-off of the Moral Majority. Protagonist Grant Archer is a religious man who is used as a pawn of the New Morality in its efforts to spy on the Jovian explorers. Archer is sent to a space station above Jupiter and quickly learns there are mysterious goings-on, and as the story develops, he gets more and more involved with these happenings himself, until finally he must go on a high-risk exploration of the big planet itself. I say that this novel is in the classic style of science fiction because it is reminiscent of such sci-fi giants as Asimov and Clarke. Science and scientific exploration are the most important things, and plot and character are next on the list. Nonetheless, although his characters are not all that well developed, they are not one-dimensional. Archer, in particular, is a conflicted individual, torn between the New Morality who he often agrees with and offers his only chance to go home to his wife and his own feelings that the Jovian explorers are doing a necessary thing. I recommend this book for fans of hard science fiction, in particular, fans of classic hard science fiction. This book fits well into this genre and will not disappoint those readers.
Rating:
Summary: Pack it for the weekend away.
Review: An entertaining book, fast read. Loved the plot. A little too close to reality at times...
Rating:
Summary: Could this book be any MORE repetitive?
Review: Be prepared to be hit over the head again and again by the same ideas again and again through this entire book again and again. How many times must we read the word "baleful" or "sardonic". I wouldn't be surprised if the word "baleful" appears in this book 30 times. How many times must we be reminded that the crew is in discomfort on the deep mission. Yes... we know... let's move on. This book could have EASILY been edited to half its size without eliminating anything of importance.
Rating:
Summary: Readable but not very imaginative.
Review: Ben Bova has been around a long time, has written a lot of novels, and when he writes a novel it is bound to be a decent read. That is what this book is: a decent read for those of us who enjoy "hard" science fiction.
Candidly, this book is not in the same league as Bova's "Mars" or even "Moonrise" or "Moonwar." Although the story takes place almost entirely aboard a space station orbiting Jupiter, one would never know it. They might as well have been at an Antarctic research station--few of the special issues that surely would exist in such an envirnonment ever come out. The book takes a crack at being imaginative by featuring some odd aliens: a genetically modified (more intelligent) gorilla, and whale-like intelligent Jovians. It doesn't work. The ape reminded me of my three year old son except with gorilla strength, and the Jovians act just like human beings. Not at all compelling, convincing, or interesting. Well, that's my opinion, anyway. Nor did I find the politics of the novel to be particularly interesting. In effect, the novel is set in a world where a caricature of the present American so-called "religious right" is in full control in both the future USA and other countries. Just as you'd expect, these folks (the "New Morality") are narrow-minded characters who you would not want to have a beer with. They are against science and progress because, well, they are narrow-minded characters. OK, so we know that Bova doesn't like the "religious right." We find that out in the first ten or so pages, which essentially constitute a recital as to how awful the "New Morality" is. The "New Morality" then basically drops out of the novel into the distant background, basically as a bunch of puritans who don't want the folks on the space station to explore Jupiter and find out that it contains life and maybe intelligent Jovians. They don't want people to know that there are intelligent aliens because, well, the New Morality is comprised of narrow minded characters. Ho hum. Basically, like all of Bova's books that I have ever read (most of them) Bova paints a depressing view of the future--one in which individual liberty is very limited, and anything resembling a Jeffersonian view of freedom is a thing of the past. In virtually all of Bova's books he postulates a future in which the authorities can pretty do whatever they like to whomever they like, and generally this is pretty ugly. That is certainly the case in this book--you'll find this recurrent theme throughout. Just like in Bova's "Mars" "Moonrise" "Moonwar" and I imagine the others. Bova's prose is good. As usual, his character development is serviceable, but none of the characters are compelling, and all are quite forgettable. Nevertheless, this is a readable book; good for an afternoon at the beach or whatnot.
Rating:
Summary: Readable but not very imaginative.
Review: Ben Bova has been around a long time, has written a lot of novels, and when he writes a novel it is bound to be a decent read. That is what this book is: a decent read for those of us who enjoy "hard" science fiction.
Candidly, this book is not in the same league as Bova's "Mars" or even "Moonrise" or "Moonwar." Although the story takes place almost entirely aboard a space station orbiting Jupiter, one would never know it. They might as well have been at an Antarctic research station--few of the special issues that surely would exist in such an envirnonment ever come out. The book takes a crack at being imaginative by featuring some odd aliens: a genetically modified (more intelligent) gorilla, and whale-like intelligent Jovians. It doesn't work. The ape reminded me of my three year old son except with gorilla strength, and the Jovians act just like human beings. Not at all compelling, convincing, or interesting. Well, that's my opinion, anyway. Nor did I find the politics of the novel to be particularly interesting. In effect, the novel is set in a world where a caricature of the present American so-called "religious right" is in full control in both the future USA and other countries. Just as you'd expect, these folks (the "New Morality") are narrow-minded characters who you would not want to have a beer with. They are against science and progress because, well, they are narrow-minded characters. OK, so we know that Bova doesn't like the "religious right." We find that out in the first ten or so pages, which essentially constitute a recital as to how awful the "New Morality" is. The "New Morality" then basically drops out of the novel into the distant background, basically as a bunch of puritans who don't want the folks on the space station to explore Jupiter and find out that it contains life and maybe intelligent Jovians. They don't want people to know that there are intelligent aliens because, well, the New Morality is comprised of narrow minded characters. Ho hum. Basically, like all of Bova's books that I have ever read (most of them) Bova paints a depressing view of the future--one in which individual liberty is very limited, and anything resembling a Jeffersonian view of freedom is a thing of the past. In virtually all of Bova's books he postulates a future in which the authorities can pretty do whatever they like to whomever they like, and generally this is pretty ugly. That is certainly the case in this book--you'll find this recurrent theme throughout. Just like in Bova's "Mars" "Moonrise" "Moonwar" and I imagine the others. Bova's prose is good. As usual, his character development is serviceable, but none of the characters are compelling, and all are quite forgettable. Nevertheless, this is a readable book; good for an afternoon at the beach or whatnot.
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating and Thought Provoking Book
Review: Ben Bova's Jupiter presents fascinating ideas about the possibilities of life forms that could exist on Jupiter and also includes thoughts about religion and different aspects of faith and politics that are quite applicable today.
Rating:
Summary: Embarrassingly flat
Review: Bova gets points for creating a hero with religious convictions, but beyond that this book was startling in its general lack of imagination. The characters had no dimensionality, the plot seemed predictable, and the spirit of adventure and tense anticipation that could've been created by the exotic setting was M.I.A. In all, a bland and excruciatingly juvenile read.
Rating:
Summary: Continuing our tour of the solar system...
Review: Bova has written about Mars and Venus and now he gives us a tour of Jupiter. I hope he continues this pattern as long as the books are written as well as these three (I haven't read "Return to Mars" yet). The format for Venus and Jupiter has been fairly simple- take a fairly generic suspense tale (will the explorers all die?) and wrap it in some hard sci-fi as well as some scientific speculation. The result is very enjoyable. I learned a great deal about Jupiter and comprehending the difficulties in trying to travel and (land?) there. In addition I got a good SF story, what more could I ask for? What's next for Bova? "Saturn" seems obvious, but my guess for some reason is "Neptune".
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