A Sense of Doubt blog post #2115 - Ben Bova - RIP
Science Fiction giant Ben Bova has passed away from a Covid-19 infection.
It's a sad day.
Legendary Science Fiction Author Ben Bova Has Passed at the Age of 88
Scientist, Hugo Award winner, and prolific science fiction author and editor Ben Bova passed away on Sunday, November 29, 2020 at the age of 88, Tor.com is able to confirm. The author of more than one hundred books, Bova also edited some of the genre’s best-known publications and served as the president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
Word of Bova’s passing first came from Kathryn Brusco, who revealed that Bova had passed due to complications from COVID-19 and a stroke.
Born in 1932, Bova brought experience to the science fiction genre that few authors could match: he worked as a technical editor for the U.S.’s Project Vanguard, the first effort on the part of the country to launch a satellite into space in 1958. Bova went on to work as a science writer for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, which built the heat shields for the Apollo 11 module, putting man on the Moon and ensuring that science fiction would continue to increasingly define the future.
It was around that time that Bova began writing and publishing science fiction. He published his first novel, The Star Conquerors, in 1959, and followed up with dozens of others in the following years, as well as numerous short stories that appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Analog Science Fact and Fiction, Galaxy Magazine, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and others.
In 1971, he took over the helm of Analog following the death of its long-running editor, John W. Campbell Jr. — a huge task, given Campbell’s influence on the genre to that point. According to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Bova doubled down on the publication’s tendencies towards technological realism and Hard SF, “but considerably broadened its horizons.” While there, he published notable stories such as Joe Haldeman’s Hero (which became The Forever War), and earned the Hugo Award for Best Editor for numerous consecutive years before stepping down in 1977. From there, he became the first editor of Omni Magazine until 1982, and consulted on television shows such as The Starlost and Land of the Lost.
Bova’s best-known works involved plausible sciences about humanity’s expansion into the universe, looking at how we might adapt to live in space with novels such as 1992’s Mars, about the first human expedition to the red planet. He followed that novel up with additional installments, forming the Grand Tour series, which explored all of the solar system’s major bodies. The latest installment, Uranus, was published in July, and was scheduled to be the first of a trilogy. The second installment, Neptune, is scheduled for release next year. The ESF notes that “the straightforwardness of Bova’s agenda for humanity may mark him as a figure from an earlier era; but the arguments he laces into sometimes overloaded storylines are arguments it is important, perhaps absolutely vital, to make.”
https://www.sfwa.org/2020/11/30/in-memoriam-ben-bova/
In Memoriam: Ben BovaFormer SFWA President Ben Bova (b.1932) died from COVID-19 related pneumonia and a stroke on November 29. Bova served two consecutive terms as SFWA President from 1990-1992.
Bova published his first novel, The Star Conquerors in 1959 and published several novels and short stories throughout the 1960s. In 1972, he took over the reins of Analog following the death of John W. Campbell and edited the magazine until 1978, when he became the editorial director of Omni magazine through 1982. While serving as the editor of Analog, Bova was one of several editors that contributed to SFWA’s The Science Fiction Hall of Fame series.
In the 1980s, Bova began writing the Voyagers and Orion series, the former about humanity’s first contact with aliens, the latter about an eternal hero who Bova placed in a variety of different historical (and mythical) contexts. His publication in 1992 of the novel Mars kicked off what would eventually become a twenty-two volume series known as “The Grand Tour” which applied hard science fictional techniques to most of the planets in our solar system, most recently Uranus, published earlier this year.
Bova was the Author Guest of Honor at Chicon 2000, the 58th Worldcon. He was a lifetime achievement recipient from the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, a Robert A. Heinlein Award winner, a Skylark recipient, and an inductee into the First Fandom Hall of Fame. He won six Hugo Awards for his editorial work on Analog as well as four additional nominations. In 1995, his story “Inspiration” was a Nebula finalist.
In addition to serving as the President of SFWA, Bova also served as President of the National Space Society. He was a frequent commentator on science and space exploration and has published numerous non-fiction articles and books.
SFWA President Mary Robinette Kowal adds: “I am devastated that our community has lost Ben Bova. He was so welcoming to new writers and embodied the philosophy of paying it forward.”
November 30, 2020
https://sciencefiction.com/2020/12/01/stalwart-sci-fi-author-ben-bova-has-passed-away/
Stalwart Sci-Fi Author Ben Bova Has Passed Away
POSTED DECEMBER 1ST, 2020 BY TONY SCHAAB
Ben Bova, revered in the science fiction community for his work as an author, an editor, and a scientist, passed away this past weekend at the age of 88.
 |
| Ben Bova at Minicon 8, 1974 (from Wikipedia) |
First announced on social media by his family and later confirmed by sources, Bova passed away primarily due to COVID-related pneumonia. The former president of both the Science Fiction Writers of America guild and the National Space Society, Bova wrote over 200 works of fact and fiction, including over 100 sci-fi books. He was a six-time Hugo Award winner, and the former editor of Analog and Omni Magazine.
Kathryn Brusco, Bova’s niece by marriage, first shared the news on Twitter; later, Bova’s son Ken provided a proper eulogy on Bova’s website. In it, he said:
“It is a common wish to visit the future and report back to the present; to time travel. Ben Bova was that time traveler; his books and short stories: the journals from the future. In his various writings, Dr. Ben Bova predicted — years before they happened: the race to the Moon during the 1960s, satellites using the Sun to power the Earth’s technologies, the discovery of organic compounds in interstellar space, virtual reality and the internet, human cloning, the struggle to relieve the world of nuclear weapons, humans living on Mars, stem cell therapy, the discovery of ice and water on the Moon, electronic book publishing, robot police, and sex in space.
“While he experimented with some fantasy works (his Orion series is a good example) most of his novels were science fiction: no stories of a rocket’s roar in empty space (where sound cannot travel). He believed that a reader should feel, immersed in one of his books and short stories, that you were walking on the rusty, rock strewn surface of Mars, enduring the planet’s light pull on your cheeks, and tasting the stale air in your suit helmet. Newton’s Laws were not suggestions.”
Bova’s family will be making memorial and in-memoriam donation arrangements soon; please visit Bova’s website to stay updated on further details.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2012.02 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1979 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
No comments:
Post a Comment