The Winds of Altair

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing book by an accomplished writer
Review: A disappointing book by an accomplished writer.
"The Winds of Altair" portrays a future where the Earth teems with 17 billion mainly poor inhabitants. Crime and vice are rife on a world running out of resources. After making the leap to local space travel, humans discover a mechanism for faster-than-light travel A search begins for planets in other star systems that can be terraformed to allow some of the Earth's masses to be transported elsewhere, thereby alleviating terrestrial crowding. An expedition to the 6th planet surrounding the star Altair sponsored by a strict doctrinaire church and sanctioned by the World Government begins the preliminaries to terraforming a world that is occupied by alien life forms. The church leaders of the expedition see no problem with exterminating the existing life forms that could not survive in an earth-like atmosphere. The problem is complicated by the discovery that one of the species there may be intelligent.

The writing style is surprisingly simplistic for someone like Bova. The prose and structure is more appropriate for a "juvenile" level work than an adult novel. The characters are not well developed and appear shallow. For instance, the protagonist is a member of the church that sponsored the mission. The church has no black members, although it preaches racial tolerance. On meeting an African female member of the scientific team, he is initially perturbed by her black skin and exotic appearance. Soon, he comes to feel that she is beautiful despite being black. She is kind and friendly to him, and he then comes to believe that he is in love with her. Nothing is wrong with this evolution of events. The problem is that the development is sophomoric. A more fundamental problem that strains credibility is the idea sending Earth's unwanted away to terraformed planets at enormous expense. A few thousand or a few million people transported to another planet will not help when the problem is billions of poor. A flawed plot combined with puerile writing makes for an uninspiring novel.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointing book by an accomplished writer
Review: A disappointing book by an accomplished writer.
"The Winds of Altair" portrays a future where the Earth teems with 17 billion mainly poor inhabitants. Crime and vice are rife on a world running out of resources. After making the leap to local space travel, humans discover a mechanism for faster-than-light travel A search begins for planets in other star systems that can be terraformed to allow some of the Earth's masses to be transported elsewhere, thereby alleviating terrestrial crowding. An expedition to the 6th planet surrounding the star Altair sponsored by a strict doctrinaire church and sanctioned by the World Government begins the preliminaries to terraforming a world that is occupied by alien life forms. The church leaders of the expedition see no problem with exterminating the existing life forms that could not survive in an earth-like atmosphere. The problem is complicated by the discovery that one of the species there may be intelligent.

The writing style is surprisingly simplistic for someone like Bova. The prose and structure is more appropriate for a "juvenile" level work than an adult novel. The characters are not well developed and appear shallow. For instance, the protagonist is a member of the church that sponsored the mission. The church has no black members, although it preaches racial tolerance. On meeting an African female member of the scientific team, he is initially perturbed by her black skin and exotic appearance. Soon, he comes to feel that she is beautiful despite being black. She is kind and friendly to him, and he then comes to believe that he is in love with her. Nothing is wrong with this evolution of events. The problem is that the development is sophomoric. A more fundamental problem that strains credibility is the idea sending Earth's unwanted away to terraformed planets at enormous expense. A few thousand or a few million people transported to another planet will not help when the problem is billions of poor. A flawed plot combined with puerile writing makes for an uninspiring novel.

Rating:
Summary: Average sci-fi novel
Review: I first read The Winds of Altair in an airport when I was nine or so. It was my first truly sci-fi book, and I was thoroughly impressed. I read it again recently (seven years after my first read) and found it to be a disappointment. Not to say that this is a bad book, but it failed to live up to the five star novel that I had remembered it as. I couldn't really place my finger on what was disappointing: the plot is interesting, the length is fine. But a previous reviewer nailed it: the style of writing is juvenile. The descriptions aren't terribly inventive, the characters aren't very well developed, and the conflicts seem almost too easily overcome. I haven't read anything else by Ben Bova, so I can't compare Altair to his other, possibly better books. However, this seems to be a book geared more toward pre-teen readers. But if you want a quick, reasonably satisfying science fiction read, The Winds of Altair isn't too bad.

Rating:
Summary: Average sci-fi novel
Review: I first read The Winds of Altair in an airport when I was nine or so. It was my first truly sci-fi book, and I was thoroughly impressed. I read it again recently (seven years after my first read) and found it to be a disappointment. Not to say that this is a bad book, but it failed to live up to the five star novel that I had remembered it as. I couldn't really place my finger on what was disappointing: the plot is interesting, the length is fine. But a previous reviewer nailed it: the style of writing is juvenile. The descriptions aren't terribly inventive, the characters aren't very well developed, and the conflicts seem almost too easily overcome. I haven't read anything else by Ben Bova, so I can't compare Altair to his other, possibly better books. However, this seems to be a book geared more toward pre-teen readers. But if you want a quick, reasonably satisfying science fiction read, The Winds of Altair isn't too bad.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing!!!!
Review: I read this book as I was entering high school, about ten years ago...it is an awesome book. It is a book that questions ethics in a futiristic sense. In this book, earth is crowded, so people go to the new frontier, space. Humans find planets that are similar to earth and then change the planet's atmosphere. The humans mentally link with the life living on the planet (using machines) and then use the animals to set up the equipment that changes the planet. This book discusses a young man that is transforming Altair IV, and his ethical problems with the transformation. I could not put this book down. At times the book makes you wish that you could be a part of this new future and this fantastic technology.

It is a must read, even if you are not a science fiction fan.

Thank you Ben Bova.

Rating:
Summary: Quick, Entertaining Read
Review: I was expecting something slighty different when I started reading this book. Maybe just a little bit more complex. I had read a handful of Ben Bova novels before this one, and I had always been impressed by them. I think I read this in one day if I remember correctly. None of the other characters besides the main one were memorable, but the plot quickly moved itself forward and never bogged down. It's definetely worth a look.

Rating:
Summary: Not Bova's Best
Review: Light years from Earth a conglomeration of modules bunched together forms what its inhabitants have dubbed the "Village". The Church of Nirvan runs the Village...it is the Church's mission...a mission to terraform the savage planet of Altair VI. But the pre-sentient inhabitants of Altair VI -- large "wolfcats" and giant "apes" thoroughly...dislike...the human incursion. But the humans have an advantage...electronic probes surgically implanted in the brains of the animals of Altair VI enable humans to control them from the comforts of the Village...if they can get things to work correctly. Several scientists have already gone mad trying to operate the devices. This is where Jeff Holman comes in. He's a student aboard the Village...one of hundreds of devout followers of the Church...and the only person able to operate the electronic probes and literally link minds with a wolfcat on the planet below. But as the weeks and then months pass, Jeff finds himself facing a dilemma. For it is the task of every person living aboard the Village to help eliminate the harsh methane atmosphere of Altair VI and create a human friendly oxygen/nitrogen environment. But doing this will mean they must destroy the current ecosystem...including every animal now existing on the planet. It falls to Jeff Holman to manipulate the animals of Altair VI to help destroy their very home. A task that Jeff finds he can no longer perform. When this happens, he will not only clash with his fellow students living aboard the Village, but also the leader of the Village, the man who not only heads the terraforming effort, but also heads the Church Jeff Holman is sworn to.

As a big fan of Bova, I was eagerly looking forward to picking up this book. In all honesty, I was pretty disappointed. There are some interesting ideas in this book -- manipulating other beings through electronic devices for instance -- but the concepts just weren't enough to get past some pretty shallow writing. Jeff Holman is a somewhat interesting character, one that Bova seems to try and give some depth to, but he never succeeds very well. (This is a departure from both some of his earlier [e.g. Colony, City of Darkness] and his later works [e.g. Mars, Moonrise, Moonwar], where his characters are bright, vibrant, and provide an extremely enjoyable read.) The rest of the characters surrounding Holman come off mostly flat...with the troubled inventor of the brain probes that are used to control the animals on Altair VI involved in a romance with an African princess (who's also his laboratory aide). Even the "bad guy", Bishop Foy, just isn't really all that bad, showing some common ground with Holman towards the end of the book.

It wasn't just the characters that came off kind of shallow. The big moral dilemma of the book -- whether or not the wolfcats are "intelligent" enough to warrant a halting of the terraforming process -- comes off as...not particularily well thought through. Bova's arguments, through Holman just aren't all that persuasive. Bova doesn't present an argument for wolfcat intelligent much beyond the chimpanzee level. And according to the rules set down by the far off World Government, Bishop Foy must only halt the terraforming process if human level intelligence is detected on Altair VI.

What it all boils down to is that Altair VI is a rare (though not unheard of) fluke for Bova...a story that does not grab you and force you to turn page after page, a story that does not make you want to stay up into the wee hours of the morn just so you can find out what happens next. Personally, a rare dud for an author I usually truly enjoy will not turn me away from other stuff he has written...nor will I hope it will do the same to all who read this review...but Altair VI, standing by itself, should probably only be picked up by those who've really enjoyed Bova in the past, or those who simply want a quick read.

Rating:
Summary: Sweeeeeet!
Review: This is my first ever Ben Bova book, which got me hooked, so I thoroughly recommend this one