Orion and the Conqueror - Hardcover

Bova, Ben

3.7

443 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312854471 ISBN 13: 9780312854478

Publisher: Tor Books, 1994

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John O'Ryan--transformed into the demigod Orion--sails the seas of time and awakens in ancient Macedonia, where he is challenged to bargain with the Creators for the continuation of the human species.

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About the Author:

Born in Philadelphia, Ben Bova worked as a newspaper reporter, a technical editor for Project Vanguard (the first American satellite program), and a science writer and marketing manager for Avco Everett Research Laboratory, before being appointed editor of Analog, one of the leading science fiction magazines, in 1971. After leaving Analog in 1978, he continued his editorial work in science fiction, serving as fiction editor of Omni for several years and editing a number of anthologies and lines of books, including the "Ben Bova Presents" series for Tor. He has won science fiction's Hugo Award for Best Editor six times.

A published SF author from the late 1950s onward, Bova is one of the field's leading writers of "hard SF," science fiction based on plausible science and engineering. Among his dozens of novels are Millennium, The Kinsman Saga, Colony, Orion, Peacekeepers, Privateers, and the Voyagers series. Much of his recent work, including Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, The Precipice, and The Rock Rats, falls into the continuity he calls "The Grand Tour," a large-scale saga of the near-future exploration and development of our solar system.

A President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science-fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, in 2001 Dr. Bova was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He lives in Naples, Florida, with his wife, the well-known literary agent Barbara Bova.

From Publishers Weekly:

The intrigues of fourth-century-B.C. Macedonia and Greece are brought vividly to life in this sweeping historical fantasy. To avert the possibility that the strands of space-time might unravel, Orion, rebellious instrument of the Creators previously encountered in Orion in the Dying Time , is sent to the court of Philip II to ensure that his son Alexander succeeds in his territorial conquests. Orion comes to admire Philip but falls under the control of his wife (and Alexander's mother) Olympias, an embodiment of the Creator Hera. Olympias is determined to arrange the assassination of Philip so that Alexander may gain the throne before a rival heir can be born to the king's new wife. Orion fights in the battle at Chaeroneia, where Macedonia defeats Athens and Thebes, and is sent to Persia where he is forced to desert when he has an opportunity to meet with his great love Anya, a Creator fighting other battles in a different time. She urges him to obey Olympias to save the Creators' universe. Despite Orion's admiration for the Macedonian king and all his attempts to flee his doom, he is drawn into a final confrontation. Bova's adroit use of detail makes the time setting ring true; his depictions of historic personages as well as his fictional creations are psychologically sound. The sounds, the scents and the sensibility of the ancient world permeate this well-wrought adventure.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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