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  • Powersat

  • The Grand Tour Series
  • By: Ben Bova
  • Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
  • Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (66 ratings)

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Powersat cover art

Powersat

By: Ben Bova
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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Publisher's Summary

Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And in its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of spaceflight.

Americans needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites that gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy.

Worse, Dan discovers that the plane was sabotaged. And whoever brought it down is willing—and able—to kill again to keep Astro grounded.

Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy idea as a campaign plank for the candidate she’s grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck.

Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they’ve figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West.

A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.

Listen to more in Ben Bova's Grand Tour series.
©2005 Ben Bova (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

“Bova gets better and better, combining plausible science with increasingly complex fiction.” ( Los Angeles Daily News)

What listeners say about Powersat

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

813 minutes of book

If you are after one-dimensional characters and don't feel like thinking then this could be the book for you

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1 person found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

long winded and boring

it takes way too long to get anywhere, about 15 chapters in they are still just talking about investigating a crash and talking about their jobs and love life.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not required reading

I guess I'm glad that I stuck with this, but for a lot of its length I didn't like any of the major characters much. Some of the most likeable ones are women, but many of them seem to be set up as objects of male fantasy at some stage if not throughout. I have heard several titles read by this narrator. I'm not sure that he handles the range of non-absorbent accents well, and many sound to me like the same attempt at a Japanese accent.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

meh

meh
meh
hem
men
meh
ehm
meh
met
meh
emh
meh
me
meh
meh

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