Death Wave

The Star Quest Trilogy, Book 1

By: Ben Bova

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

Six-time Hugo Award-winner Ben Bova chronicles the saga of humankind's expansion beyond the solar system.

In Ben Bova's previous novel, New Earth, Jordan Kell led the first human mission beyond the solar system, where they discovered the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. But one alien AI survived, and it revealed to Jordan Kell that an explosion in the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has created a wave of deadly radiation, expanding out from the core toward Earth. Unless the human race acts to save itself, all life on Earth will be wiped out.

When Kell and his team return to Earth many years after their departure, they find that their world has changed almost beyond recognition. Not only has a second wave of greenhouse flooding caused sea levels to rise, but society has been changed by the consequences of the climate shift. Few people want to face Jordan Kell's news. He must convince Earth's new rulers that the human race is in danger of extinction unless it acts to forestall the death wave coming from the galaxy's heart.

©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audibooks

Problems in Paradise

I love the story except one glaring flaw. Why would a super advanced civilization depend on earth to rescue other civilizations across the Milky Way? Why would the robots who created them not step in. I’ll continue to listen. Maybe some one will come to the rescue!

kept thinking this was written in the 50s

based on the female characters lack of independence and the sexist gender roles I kept thinking this was of the same vintage as the foundation series I just listened to. nope, work of modern art.

Politics

The story has to much political mess but is true.
Not enough technology and true Aliens.

it's my first Ben bova

if this is not his best I can't wait to try the rest hopefully it will be great

Performance top notch

Stephan Rudnicki shines as always. From my first exposure to him in Ender's Game he has been a favorite reader of mine.

quite slow and kinda boring

kind of boring and slow. not super imaginative. but it was free on audible so it was worth it.

great concept

I enjoyed the premise that human beings are currently the most intelligent species but not the only species in the galaxy, what is also interesting was the idea of how little human beings evolved there thinking, still focused on gaining power and not helping others.

Not impressed

Although the narration was done reasonably well, the author and he couldn't create any real character depth. The plot also seemed somewhat forced and rambled.

Great book….

I enjoyed this story more than I expected that I would. The only shortcoming I found was that the villains, as distasteful as they were, lacked enough character development to create any sort of connection with them. I personally find that if you develop the villain characters enough and create them with depth they become harder to despise. The “bad guys” in this book are so distasteful and easy to hate that their characters are easy to dismiss. Other than that, I was happy to spend my time enjoying the story.

anticlimactic

it was ok. extra star because free. the politics are shallow and the climax anticlimactic.