The Silent War

Book Three of The Asteroid Wars

By: Ben Bova

Narrated by: Amanda Karr, Christian Noble, cast

Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Ben Bova's The Silent War is the breakneck continuation to The Asteroid Wars series that can end only in earth's salvation - or the annihilation of all that humankind has ever accomplished in space. When corporations go to war, standard business practice goes out the window.

Astro Corporation is led by indomitable Texan Pancho Lane, Humphries Space Systems by the rich and ruthless Martin Humphries, and their fight is over nothing less than resources of the Asteroid Belt itself.

Fighting escalates and the lines between commerce and politics, boardroom and bedroom, blur - and the keys to victory will include physics, nanotechnology, and cold hard cash.It's a breakneck finale that can end only in earth's salvation - or the annihilation of all that humankind has ever accomplished in space.

It rocks! Don't miss any of the action in Ben Bova's Asteroid Wars series, including the first book, The Precipice, the second, The Rock Rats, and the fourth, The Aftermath.

©2004 Ben Bova (P)2005 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC

Critic reviews

"Vintage Bova, with intrigues, hardware, and action all applied lavishly to a fast-moving story." (Booklist)

Excellent

This has been one of my favorite books in the “Grand Tour/Asteroid “Wars” series so far. There was the right amount of everything to keep me listening. So much so that when it was at the end I was shocked we got there already. I do hope “The Aftermath” picks up nicely from where it left off. My only complaint, and it’s really not a complaint but something I noticed, is that I found some inconsistencies throughout. Not many but for example I could’ve sworn that Poncho was described differently when she was first introduced. There were other instances but I can not recall them now. Nonetheless they were minor and pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Probably not worth mentioning but in case someone else notices, just know you’re not alone there, hahaha. Oh I especially loved the scene when poncho was talking to herself after the warehouse. It seemed so, Poncho. Really great book, wish there was more to it.

Great story with mildly distracting changes in accents

Think it would have been best if the narrators just picked a character or two to voice. It was distracting to hear the characters keep changing their accents… the story was great and I’m super mad HE didn’t get his but now staring 4th book….can only hope but Bova seems to want to keep it realistic unfortunately…..

Wraps up a lot; opens new issues

One of the best in the series! Ties up a lot of conflicts involving the moon and asteroids and the key players.
And then… are the aliens coming? Are they here now? Are they gone forever? Hopefully there will be some answers and adventures as the Grand Tour continues!

Excellent Bova

Book 3 of the series is just as exciting and well done as the first two books, (And maybe even better than the books that came after this one).

It's easy (and unfair) to nit-pick a book after the fact, so I won't do that with some minor details that don't matter to the book as a whole..

But it did seem like there's a book missing between books 2 and 3. The saga of Poncho's sister in cold storage seems glossed over, and they don't explain the transition of her being hidden in the tunnels on the moon, to her rejuvenation and subsequent trip out to Saturn on the space habitat.. it's touched on in MANY books in this series, but never fully brought out as a plot or sub-plot, even though the basics of the sub-plot are well laid out... it just seems to be skipped over and foot noted.

I didn't especially like Bova in his early years when the books first came out, but I think I have now listened to everything he's written, and I hope this series goes beyond Titan (The last book as of this writing) since I think We've all fallen in love with Poncho.

"the Silent War" is good fun, and fast paced, and (as usual) not everything is "happy and clear cut", Bova has a gift of being able to keep the characters real, they're not perfect, they have their flaws, he keeps them in the realm of reality. You are almost ashamed of yourself when the characters are admonished near the end and you see the facts laid out as a bystander would see them... you look back and see the twists and turns and "Justifications" for what was done, and realize that your favorite hero isn't as "Up right" as you thought, and maybe you aren't either since you tend to agree with a lot of what she's done along the way. It's a true Gift to be able to draw a reader into a story that deeply.

I especially like Bova because he (semi)explains the science behind the fiction to make it more believable.. it seems like we could "almost" make the Fictional things in his book real.

The Silent War

As always, Mr. Bova has done a splendid job.
Well written and compelling.
Sleep well Mr.Bova.

Exciting

Another, and third book, in the Rock Rats series--this one covers corporate war in the asteroid zone. Corporations at war? Hmm, now that's a concept. There's good strategy in this book and just enough fighting to make it fun; too much more and it would be as exciting as reading US revolutionary war stores about battles in the counties of New Jersey (Yawn!). The book is chock full of really bad guys--our heroine tries like mad to kill them off. The crescendo at the end is followed by a bland war's end, which isn't an unrealistic one...just unexciting. On to the next Bova book.

eh...

I'm still hating the play-like narration. voices of characters switching and inconsistent. Just not what I want in an audio-book.

A good SF story

A good SF story.