Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Bova is a master storyteller about planetary exploration! In this book Van Humphries is given a challenge by his rich father. The challenge is to go to Venus and recover the body of his dead brother who crashed during an earlier attempt to explore the planet. The prize is 10 billion dollars.Van, a type of playboy who is used to the fast pampered life-style of the wealthy is in danger of being cut off from his source of income so his father's prize is enough incentive to risk his life to maintain the type of life he is accustomed to or have to go get a job! Van is an anemic, who must have two injections a day or die. He is in a race to get to the deadly planet before a renegade asteriod minor (Fuchs) can get there and beat him to the prize. Venus turns out to be full of surprises and unthought of dangers. Van's ship is destroyed and he is rescued by Fuchs and put at his mercy. Additionally, Van's father had ruined Fuchs' life so Fuchs has a score to settle. The tension mounts as Van, deprived of his injections faces death from his disease, a mutinous crew, and a crazed Fuchs. Additionally, the terrors of Venus also loom. Bova does an excellent job presenting a science ficion thriller and presents a great deal of detail about Venus.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, predictable Bova cookie-cutter plot
Review: The plot of Venus is very predictable. The Characters are all paper-thin and even the descriptions of Venus and the science of being there is nothing better than what can be found in a book that focuses on planetary astronomy. If you want to read Bova's Tour 0f the Solar System series, then Venus is a required read. If you are looking for Hard SF that will make you think, go read Stephen Baxter, Gregory Benford or Greg Bear. This book will disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: Not one of Bova's best
Review: I'm surprised that people like this book as much as they did. I really liked _Mars_, reasonably liked _Return to Mars_, liked _Jupiter_, but I really really did not like _Venus_. Why? Somehow, nothing resonated for me. I found the characters boring, the dialog awful at times-- note especially the horrible exchange after Van tells his father that he will tell the media all of his secrets: --------------------------------------------
"You... you..." Martin sputtered. -------------------------------------------- I know that I'm not reading Bova for sparkling dialog and characterizations, but this really is sub-par. Even the descent into Venus just wasn't exciting. I often had trouble developing a mental picture of what was happening, something that was never a problem with _Mars_. Maybe it was Bova burnout? (I read _Mars_, _Return to Mars_, and _Venus_ over a 2 week period). Recommendation-- read _Venus_ last, or not at all. It isn't even that necessary for Bova's universe building.
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