Venus
Ben Bova picked his villains well for this fast-paced, popcorn and MilkDuds matinee. Topping the playbill is our sister planet, Venus itself, which Bova matter-of-factly describes as "the most hellish place in the solar system." SF authors (Bova included) have all but colonized Mars by now, but few have boldly gone to the aluminum-melting, sulfuric-acid-soaked surface of the Morning Star. Venus proves a mighty, unthinking antagonist indeed--frustrating the efforts of sickly but likable rich kid Van Humphries to land there & recover the remains of his older brother Alex, who died two years earlier on another ill-fated mission. Van gets pushed back & forth between the book's two lesser villains--his mean old cuss of a father, Martin Humphries, who's posted the $10 billion Venus Prize to the 1st person to return Alex's body, & Lars Fuchs, a belligerent asteroid miner & Martin's arch-nemesis, who's also decided to make a go at the purse. Characterizations ride coach on this high-adventure flight, but remember that we're talking about Bova here. It's hard to dispute the master's choices as you're following Van's well-researched, thrills-&-chills descent thru Venus's pressure-cooker atmosphere. With solid science, a palatable environmental message (how resist commenting on greenhouse gases in a book like this?) & an inspiring character arc for unlikely hero Van, Venusdelivers guilt-free, man-against-nature SF in a tight, page-turning package.