Pluto - (Outer Planets Trilogy) by Ben Bova & Les Johnson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Hugo Award winner Ben Bova and Les Johnson complete Bova's Outer Planets series (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), a Grand Tour of the human settled solar system, with a final encounter on Pluto. Major Larry Randall has been called to Pluto to retrieve Dr. Aaron Mikelson. Mikelson, no longer human after a horrific accident, is now melded to an AI. His enhanced senses have detected an alien artifact on Pluto's surface, and he's not leaving without it. Transferred to the research vessel studying Pluto, Randall and the other scientists are stumped as to the artifact's purpose and origin. Looking for similar signs of aliens they make their way to Pluto's moon, Charon, where, buried deep under its icy surface, something stirs--and wakes. Against a backdrop of unknown alien technology and potential interplanetary war, Mikelson's inhuman ego and obsession will risk humanity by calling something unknown to our solar system."-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Hugo Award winner Ben Bova and Les Johnson complete Bova's Outer Planets series (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), a Grand Tour of the human settled solar system, with a final encounter on Pluto.

Major Larry Randall has been called to Pluto to retrieve Dr. Aaron Mikelson. Mikelson, no longer human after a horrific accident, is now melded to an AI. His enhanced senses have detected an alien artifact on Pluto's surface, and he's not leaving without it.

Transferred to the research vessel studying Pluto, Randall and the other scientists are stumped as to the artifact's purpose and origin. Looking for similar signs of aliens they make their way to Pluto's moon, Charon, where, buried deep under its icy surface, something stirs--and wakes.

Against a backdrop of unknown alien technology and potential interplanetary war, Mikelson's inhuman ego and obsession will risk humanity by calling something unknown to our solar system.

The Outer Planets Trilogy
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto

Review Quotes

Praise for Ben Bova:

"Bova proves himself equal to the task of showing how adversity can temper character in unforeseen ways." --The New York Times

"Bova gets better and better, combining plausible science with increasingly complex fiction." --Daily News (Los Angeles)

"[Bova's] excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of the genre's most accessible and entertaining storytellers." --Library Journal

"An engaging introspection into tribes, humanity, and how much of academia is essentially tribal in nature." --Booklist on Apes and Angels

"[Bova's] excellence at combining hard science with believable characters and an attention-grabbing plot makes him one of the genre's most accessible and entertaining storytellers." --Library Journal on Apes and Angels

"Impressive." --Kirkus Reviews on Titan

"A guaranteed crowd-pleaser!" --Booklist on Mercury

About the Author

BEN BOVA (1932-2020) was a six-time winner of the Hugo Award, a former editor of Analog, former editorial director of Omni, and a past president of both the National Space Society and the Science Fiction Writers of America. Bova was the author of more than a hundred works of science fact and fiction.

LES JOHNSON coauthored Rescue Mode with Bova in 2014. He is also a futurist and NASA technologist, leading the development of solar sail propulsion for interplanetary and interstellar travel. His recent novels include, The Spacetime War, Saving Proxima, and it's sequel, Crisis at Proxima. Les is an elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics, a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and MENSA.