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  • Earth

  • The Grand Tour Series, Book 23
  • By: Ben Bova
  • Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
  • Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (12 ratings)

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Earth

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

Earth is the latest science fiction novel from multiple Hugo Award winner Ben Bova, author of Apes and Angels and Survival.

A wave of lethal gamma radiation is expanding from the core of the Milky Way galaxy at the speed of light, killing everything in its path. The countdown to when the death wave will reach Earth and the rest of the solar system is at 2,000 years.

Humans were helped by the Predecessors, who provided shielding generators that can protect the solar system. In return, the Predecessors asked humankind’s help to save other intelligent species that are in danger of being annihilated. 

But what of Earth? With the Death Wave no longer a threat to humanity, humans have spread out and colonized all the worlds of the solar system. The technology of the Predecessors has made Earth a paradise, at least on the surface. But a policy of exiling discontented young people to the outer planets and asteroid mines has led to a deep divide between the new worlds and the homeworld, and those tensions are about to explode into open war.

©2019 Ben Bova (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

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Racially insensitive

I was enjoying the book mildly up to a point. I felt all the characters to be simplistic and two dimensional. In all, rather immature. It does not have the feel of a mature, experienced writer.

I was especially disturbed, nay, horrified by the repetitive use of the word "abo" to describe an indigenous Australian character. That is horribly insensitive and offensive, on a par with the use of the "n***er" word in American culture. That alone makes this book unacceptable. I do not know how that got past any editors. This book should have been checked for cultural sensitivity before being published.

I have read and heard great things about Ben Bova but find this, my first introduction to his works very concerning and question whether it is worth reading any of his other works.

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