The Precipice

I love the Grand Tour books by Bova, and this one fits right in with the entire saga he has created. The earth has reached greenhouse hell, and Dan Randolph knows that going out into the solar system to harvest minerals for industry is the way to save the earth's economy, and perhaps the earth itself, as well as make Randolph extremely rich. Martin Humphries agrees, but is only interested in the money potential, earth status be damned. Thus begins the race to the Asteroid Belt to claim this treasure, Randolph breaking every rule he can to get there and Humphries doing everything he can to sabotage the mission out of sheer jealousy. Bova manages to write a well-paced, tense journey for these characters, and it sets up well for future show more volumes in the Asteroid Wars series. show less

Dan Randolph is a space entrepreneur and owner of the Astro Corporation in this book set in the kind-of near future. A Global Warming cliff has struck and the Earth is a mess; the future of humankind seems to be elsewhere, like the Moon, where there is a thriving colony already, which has won independence before the start of the book. Dan concocts a plan to use a new fusion technology to travel more quickly than was previously possible to the Asteroid Belt, where the resources would now finally be possible to mine with this new tech.

Meanwhile, one of Dan's partners, Martin Humphries, is really plotting for the mission to fail so he can take over Astro Corp and add it to his already-massive holdings. Dan recruits his astronauts and gets show more the mission off with himself on it, but runs into complications that threaten to kill the crew.

Another important plot area is the use of nanomachines to construct the ship, and the politics of use of such things, which are outlawed on Earth due to their potential danger as a weapon (and due to bureaucratic small-mindedness and religious nuttery). Finally there are the two female pilots, Pancho, a highly competent and daring flyer, and Amanda, a stunningly beautiful and accomplished pilot who seems to cause all men in her vicinity to go weak in the knees.

Amanda's character is an embarrassment. Bova is already an old man when he writes this, but the one-dimensionality of this character makes it look like it was written by a 14 year old boy. He tries to have it both ways- to make the point that she's competent and her looks get in the way of men seeing that; and yet the author never stops ogling her on the printed page.

The book is gripping over the last 150 pages as the adventure ramps up. The ending is fine, but more of a setup for future books in the series. I don't think I'll keep going. show less

[b:The Precipice|267302|The Precipice (The Grand Tour, #8; The Asteroid Wars, #1)|Ben Bova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386919746s/267302.jpg|293551] does two things rather well: it introduces technology that will change the Grand Tour universe and it makes me actually ... kind of like Dan Randolph.

For the former, we finally have one possible solution to the fundamental problem of near future science fiction:

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space. -- Douglas Adams

In this case, if you want to have stories even on Mars, it takes months to get there. If you want to go to the show more Asteroids? Jupiter? It becomes impractical. There are a couple reasonable ways to solve the problem, in this case: fusion drives, small enough to drive a starship. A large chunk of The Precipice deals with building and testing this new technology which, as mentioned, has the potential to change the Grand Tour universe.

The other half of the plot is mostly corporate, with new baddie Martin Humphries trying to edge in and take over all the powerful corporations of Earth for... reasons? He's a bit one dimensional, but that's not terribly surprising. He makes a decent enough counterpoint to Randolph.

Speaking of which, you may recall that from the very beginning ([b:Powersat|267291|Powersat (The Grand Tour, #1)|Ben Bova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385225039s/267291.jpg|259144] / [b:Privateers|267332|Privateers (The Grand Tour, #2; Privateers, #1)|Ben Bova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1299514897s/267332.jpg|893485]), I have not cared overmuch for Dan Randolph. His heart is often in the right place and I'll admit that even before the Precipice, he was growing on me. But this time around... I actually find myself rooting for the man. Well done Bova. Well done. And then he has to go and die. Oy.

Once again, sexism abounds. In particular, just about every single description of Pancho and Amanda includes their description, especially to contrast them against one another. And Amanda ends up marrying a man she's never kissed in order to save herself from another man?. Eesh. Par for the course at this point.

It's a driving read though and I look forward to seeing where the Asteroid Wars go from here. Need to take a quick side trip to [b:Jupiter|267334|Jupiter (The Grand Tour, #9)|Ben Bova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442052818s/267334.jpg|293541] first for some reason? show less

Thoroughly entertaining adventure story. (He tries to tackle gender & beauty issues in the interplay between a female viewpoint character and the other main female character, and it sorta works, although jeez, can the descriptions of OMG TEH HOTNESS of the secondary character. Passes the Bechtel test too, IIRC.) Looking forward to reading #2, which I suppose says something.

Bova, Ben. The Precipice. Tor, 2001. Grand Tour 8.
The Precipice is the first of the Asteroid Wars sequence in Ben Bova’s Grand Tour future history. It pits Dan Randolph, the environmentalist head of Astro Manufacturing, against the villainous Martin Humphries as they compete to take control of the nascent asteroid mining industry. The story is most notable for introducing his pilot, Priscilla “Pancho” Lane. As is often the case in Bova’s writing, the plot has believable near-future tech, tense action, and bad romantic melodrama. The Asteroid Wars is one of the better subseries of the Grand Tour and it is worth a read with all its flaws. 4 stars.

Falling between Moonwar and Jupiter, The Precipice details Dan Rudolph's next venture, the asteroid belt. In true Bova style hardcore science-fiction is less favoured than intrigue, political backstabbing and bouts of gung-ho heroism. The Precipice villains are underdeveloped and somewhat stereotypical and although the story has an interesting concept and finale, as a whole it is somewhat flat. It reads like a story-by-numbers rather than an insightful piece of sci-fi and although it's never dull, it is the weakest of the Grand Tour so far.

A story set somewhere around the middle of the 21st century, when the Greenhouse Cliff has caused dramatic climate changes and flooded much of the Earth. Dan Randolph, around 60, is the owner of a space exploration and development company, who has determined to try to save the Earth's future by travelling to the Asteroid Belt to set up development of the vast resources to be found there. But he is opposed in this by many on Earth who distrust the scientific progress that has brought them to this state, and his financial partner, Martin Humphries, who secretly schemes to ruin his expedition and take over his failed company. A bit of a potboiler, which evidently continues an earlier continuity with the promise of more. But a pretty good show more read, with some interesting ideas about the positive and negative effects technology may have in our future. show less