MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

snipenekkid · 03-29-2009, 05:15 PM

I have to agree with Nate. I first tried reading Bova as a pre-teen, about 11 or 12 with THX1138. Then I saw the movie a short time later when it first came to our ditch-water town, first time I ever saw a nekkid woman on the big screen, and she was NEKKID. The funny part was it was part of a Saturday Afternoon Movie Double Feature here where I live...fyi it should have been R-rated even back then but for some reason it was shown and a matinée for KIDS...I feel I lucked out because it was so good. I had read Heinlein's Stranger not long before seeing the movie so the theme questioning society's attitudes toward sex, sexuality and the vilification natural human behavior was fresh in my mind.

Next I read the Watchman books (there were just three back then) followed by whole Exile series and loved them. Mind that I cut my SF teeth on Heinlein works starting when I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. I read Stranger when I was just 10 and honestly totally missed the message in the story but still, it was so ingrained on my mind that I was constantly ruminating on it for years after until reading it again for the first time in my mid-teens. Anyway, I was ready for stories like the Exile books by that time. Still they were not easy reading for me as a pre-teen to early teen.

If you want a fun lite reading series I highly recommend what is without a doubt the most FUN Bova series and that is the Sam Gunn series. It is actually a collection of not really short stories but what I like to call story vignettes. While cohesive they are not necessarily presented in a proper cronology...but there are FUNNY parts. One of the funniest stories is just so fun, but if I talk about it here it might detract from the fun of the reveal in that story. Needless to say it involves a lawsuit against a rather significant icon of human society. I only found this collection the last part of last year and have not enjoyed a story line that much in a LOOONG time.

You really cannot go wrong with any of Bova's early works but do read each series in order. For some reason it matters a lot, more so that other authors. I tried reading Titan before any of the others in the Grand Tour of the Universe series. I thought it was HORRIBLE but pushed through because I felt I was just not getting it and even at the end I still was wondering what the heck I just read. But after working through the rest, I read it again and felt better with the story line.

If you are looking for FUN, read Sam Gunn but know it's a somewhat different style than most of his other works.

03-29-2009, 05:15 PM	#4
snipenekkid Banned Posts: 760 Karma: 51034 Join Date: Feb 2009	I have to agree with Nate. I first tried reading Bova as a pre-teen, about 11 or 12 with THX1138. Then I saw the movie a short time later when it first came to our ditch-water town, first time I ever saw a nekkid woman on the big screen, and she was NEKKID. The funny part was it was part of a Saturday Afternoon Movie Double Feature here where I live...fyi it should have been R-rated even back then but for some reason it was shown and a matinée for KIDS...I feel I lucked out because it was so good. I had read Heinlein's Stranger not long before seeing the movie so the theme questioning society's attitudes toward sex, sexuality and the vilification natural human behavior was fresh in my mind. Next I read the Watchman books (there were just three back then) followed by whole Exile series and loved them. Mind that I cut my SF teeth on Heinlein works starting when I was about 8 or 9 yrs old. I read Stranger when I was just 10 and honestly totally missed the message in the story but still, it was so ingrained on my mind that I was constantly ruminating on it for years after until reading it again for the first time in my mid-teens. Anyway, I was ready for stories like the Exile books by that time. Still they were not easy reading for me as a pre-teen to early teen. If you want a fun lite reading series I highly recommend what is without a doubt the most FUN Bova series and that is the Sam Gunn series. It is actually a collection of not really short stories but what I like to call story vignettes. While cohesive they are not necessarily presented in a proper cronology...but there are FUNNY parts. One of the funniest stories is just so fun, but if I talk about it here it might detract from the fun of the reveal in that story. Needless to say it involves a lawsuit against a rather significant icon of human society. I only found this collection the last part of last year and have not enjoyed a story line that much in a LOOONG time. You really cannot go wrong with any of Bova's early works but do read each series in order. For some reason it matters a lot, more so that other authors. I tried reading Titan before any of the others in the Grand Tour of the Universe series. I thought it was HORRIBLE but pushed through because I felt I was just not getting it and even at the end I still was wondering what the heck I just read. But after working through the rest, I read it again and felt better with the story line. If you are looking for FUN, read Sam Gunn but know it's a somewhat different style than most of his other works. Last edited by snipenekkid; 03-29-2009 at 05:24 PM.