Neptune
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Hugo Award winner Ben Bova continues his grand tour of the human-settled solar system with a look at life in the Outer Planets, among the moons of Neptune.
In the future, humanity has spread throughout the solar system, on planets and moons once visited only by robots or explored at a distance by far-voyaging spacecraft. No matter how hostile or welcoming the environment, mankind has forged a path and found a home.
In the far reaches of the solar system, the outer planetsâbillions of miles from Earth, unknown for millenniaâare being settled. Neptune, the ice giant, is swathed in clouds of hydrogen, helium, and methane and circled by rings of rock and dust. Three years ago, Ilona Magyrâs father, Miklos, disappeared while exploring the seas of Neptune. Everyone believes he is deadâcrushed, frozen, or boiled alive in Neptuneâs turbulent seas.
With legendary space explorer Derek Humbolt piloting her ship and planetary scientist Jan Meitner guiding the search, Ilona Magyr knows she will find her fatherâaliveâon Neptune.
Her plans are irrevocably altered when she and her team discover the wreckage of an alien ship deep in Neptuneâs ocean, a discovery that changes humanityâs understanding of its future ... and its past.
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Ben Bova (1932â2020) was the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction, including Able One, Transhuman, Orion, and Titan, winner of John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Novel. His many honors include the Isaac Asimov Memorial Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, the Robert A. Heinlein Award, and six Hugo Awards. Dr. Bova was a past president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and president emeritus of the National Space Society. In addition to writing, he was the editor of Analog and the fiction editor of Omni. He worked for Project Vanguard, Americaâs first artificial satellite program, and for the company that created the heat shields for Apollo 11. He taught science fiction at Harvard University and worked with such filmmakers as George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry.
Gabrielle de Cuir is a Grammy-nominated and Audie Award-winning producer whose narration credits include the voice of Valentine in Orson Scott Cardâs Ender novels, Ursula K. Le Guinâs The Tombs of Atuan, and Natalie Angierâs Woman, for which she was awarded AudioFile magazineâs Golden Earphones Award. She lives in Los Angeles where she also directs theatre and presently has several projects in various stages of development for film.
