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Mercury
Mercury | Ben Bova
2 posts | 2 read | 1 to read
The closest planet to our Sun, Mercury is a rocky, barren, heat-scorched world. But there are those who hope to find wealth in its desolation. Saito Yamagata thinks Mercury's position will make it an ideal orbit point for satellites that could someday create enough power to propel starships into deep space. He hires Dante Alexios to bring his dreams to life. Astrobiologist Victor Molina thinks the water at Mercury's poles may harbor evidence of life, and hopes to achieve fame and glory by proving it. Bishop Elliot Danvers has been sent by the powerful Earth-based "New Morality" to keep close tabs on Molina's endeavors, which threaten to produce results contrary to fundamentalist teachings. Three of these men are blissfully unaware of their shared history and how it ties into one of mankind's greatest tragedies. Years before, visionary engineer Mance Bracknell made his own attempt to help man progress into space by building a ladder to the stars: a glistening tower stretching thousands of miles into the air, anchored by spans of steel to a satellite in geosynchronous orbit. But technological endeavor was no match for human passions, and greed and jealousy provoked terrorists to an act of sabotage that resulted in the death of millions. There's no telling how many more will have to die before Mance has his revenge...
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Rabbitandraven
Mercury | Ben Bova
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Panpan

Mercury: the only characters in this novel are white men. Everyone else is othered out of humanity and into crass props for an incredibly mediocre sci-fi tale. The casual sexism and racism make it jaw dropping that this book was published in 2006. Seriously, Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles contains female characters with more depth and believable motivations. It is not the first Ben Bova story I have read but it will likely be the last.

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Rabbitandraven
Mercury | Ben Bova
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I couldn't choose which of these prompts best relates my disdain. The "tell" of the book wants to suggest it's women are Empowered People but the "show" makes it abundantly clear that women are really only valuable to as sexual objects (all we know about most of them is their desirability to the male protagonists). It's only respect for my friend who chose this for our sci-fi book club that will get me to finish it. Commencing with the hate-read.

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