BOVA, Ben (Bejamin William)

(1932-)

   US writer and editor. He worked as technical editor for Project Vanguard 1956-8 and science writer for Avco Everett Research Laboratory 1960-71 before being appointed editor of Analog (ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION) following the death of John W. CAMPBELL Jr in 1971. When he took over at ASF it was a moribund magazine; although commercially healthy, it had stagnated in the later years of Campbell's editorship. BB maintained its orientation towards technophilic sf but considerably broadened the magazine's horizons. In doing so he alienated some readers, who shared Campbell's puritanism - such stories as "The Gold at the Starbow's End" (1972) by Frederik POHL and "Hero" (1972) by Joe W. HALDEMAN, inoffensive though they might seem in the outside world, brought strong protests - but he revitalized the magazine. In recognition of this, he received the HUGO for Best Editor every year 1973-7; although he missed out in 1978 he gained it again in 1979 for his work during 1978, his final year as editor. BB also involved the magazine's name in other activities, producing Analog Annual (anth 1976) - an original anthology intended as a 13th issue of the magazine-initiating a series of records and inaugurating a book-publishing programme. In 1978-82 he was editor of OMNI. From both journals he extracted several anthologies (see listing below).BB was active as a writer for many years before his stint at ASF, his first published sf being a children's novel, The Star Conquerors (1959). Considerable work in shorter forms followed over the next decades, the best of it being assembled as Forward in Time (coll 1973), Viewpoint (coll 1977), Maxwell's Demons (coll 1979), Escape Plus (coll 1984), The Astral Mirror (coll 1985), partly nonfiction, Prometheans (coll 1986) and Battle Station (coll 1987). His best-known stories, those about Chet Kinsman, an astronaut during the latter years of the 20th century, were assimilated into the Kinsman Saga, whose internal ordering is Kinsman (fixup 1979) and Millennium (1976), the two volumes being assembled as The Kinsman Saga (omni 1987); Millennium, his best novel, is a tale of power- POLITICS in the face of impending nuclear HOLOCAUST as the century ends. Colony (1978), set in the same Universe, carries the story - and humanity - further towards the stars, embodying the outward-looking stance BB has held throughout his writing life, and about the necessity for which he has been unfailingly eloquent. An earlier sequence, the Exiles series-Exiled from Earth (1971), Flight of Exiles (1972) and End of Exile (1975), all three being assembled as The Exiles Trilogy (omni 1980) - is children's sf, as were all his novels before THX 1138 * (1971), based on the George LUCAS filmscript. Other novels of interest include The Starcrossed (1975), a humorous example of RECURSIVE SF whose protagonist is a thinly disguised Harlan ELLISON (The STARLOST), The Multiple Man (1976), a suspense-thriller built on the concept of CLONES, and Privateers (1985), which - along with its sequel, Empire Builders (1993) - succumbs to an assumption common to US sf: that governments will sooner or later fail to conquer space, and that individual entrepreneurs (vast multinational corporations exercising Japanese foresight need not apply) will take up the slack.More tellingly, the Voyagers sequence - Voyagers (1981), Voyagers II: The Alien Within (1982) and Voyagers III: Star Brothers (1990) - treats humanity's expansion within a framework of SPACE-OPERA romance, with technology-dispensing ALIENS establishing First Contact with emergent humans, star-crossed lovers, biochips and a great deal more. The Orion sequence - Orion (1984), Vengeance of Orion (1988) ,Orion in the Dying Time (1990) and Orion and the Conqueror (1994) - puts into fantasy idiom a similar expansive message. Triumph (1993), based on the somewhat precarious premise that Winston Churchill poisons Stalin in 1943 with a radioactive ceremonial sword, is an ALTERNATE HISTORY tale which posits a more favourable outcome to World War 2. In his nonfiction and fiction alike, BB is making it clear that survival for the race lies elsewhere than on this planet alone, a thesis underlined in Mars (1992) by the lovingly detailed verisimilitude with which he describes the first manned flight to that planet. BB was president of the SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS OF AMERICA 1990-92.

   MJE/JC

   Other works: Star Watchman (1964); The Weathermakers (1967); Out of the Sun (1968), which was assembled with the nonfiction The Amazing Laser (1971) as Out of the Sun (omni 1984); The Dueling Machine (1963 ASF in collaboration with Myron R. Lewis; exp 1969), assembled with Star Watchman as The Watchmen (omni 1994); Escape! (1970); As on a Darkling Plain (fixup 1972); The Winds of Altair (1973; rev 1983); When the Sky Burned (1973; rev vt Test of Fire 1982); Gremlins, Go Home! (1974) with Gordon R. DICKSON; City of Darkness (1976); The Peacekeepers (1988; vt Peacekeepers 1989 UK); Cyberbooks (1989); Future Crime (coll 1990), made up of City of Darkness and a number of short stories; The Trikon Deception (1992) with Bill Pogue (1930-); Sam Gunn, Unlimited (fixup 1992), To Save the Sun (1992) and its sequel To Fear the Light (1994), both with A. J. Austin; Challenges (coll 1993); Death Dream (1994 UK).As Editor: The Many Worlds of Science Fiction (anth 1971); Analog 9 (anth 1973); The Science Fiction Hall of Fame vols 2A and 2B (anths 1973; vol 2B designated vol 3 in UK); The Analog Science Fact Reader (anth 1974); Closeup: New Worlds (anth 1977) with Trudy E. Bell; Analog Yearbook (anth 1978); The Best of Analog (anth 1978); The Best of Omni (anth 1980) with Don Myrus, and its sequels, all with Myrus, The Best of Omni Science Fiction \#2 (anth 1981), \#3 (anth 1982) and \#4 (anth 1982); Vision of the Future: The Art of Robert McCall (anth 1982); The Best of the Nebulas (anth 1989); First Contact: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (anth 1990) with Byron PREISS, containing fiction and nonfiction.Nonfiction: The Uses of Space (1965); In Quest of Quasars (1970); The New Astronomies (1972); Starflight and Other Improbabilities (1973); Workshops in Space (1974); Through the Eyes of Wonder: Science Fiction and Science (1975); Notes to a Science Fiction Writer (coll 1975; rev 1981); The Seeds of Tomorrow (1977); The High Road (1981), on the space programme; Assured Survival: Putting the Star Defense Wars in Perspective (1984); Welcome to Moonbase (1987).

   See also: AMAZING STORIES; CHILDREN'S SF; ECONOMICS; HISTORY IN SF; JUPITER; MOON; NEBULA; OUTER PLANETS; SF MAGAZINES; SPACE FLIGHT; WRITERS OF THE FUTURE CONTEST.