Apes And Angels (Grand Tour book 21) by Ben Bova (book review),
‘Apes And Angels’ is a novel in Ben Bova’s ‘Grand Tour’ future history series and the fifth book that I have read by this author. Bova’s ‘Grand Tour’ can be broadly split into two halves. The Precursors are a race of artificial intelligence that contacted humanity and revealed a huge death wave of radiation emanating from the galactic core.
They then provided the technology to survive the Death Wave reaching our solar system. The first half of the stories details humanity’s exploration of our solar system. The second half of the stories are set following the Precursor’s visit with humanity, helping the Precursors by travelling to worlds hosting life to set up the technology and protect those worlds as well.
I have reviewed books by Bova set both prior to and after contact with the Precursors. ‘Apes And Angels’ is a post-precursor novel. In this book we find the starship Odysseus as it arrives in the Mithra system. The Precursors themselves identified this system as hosting life on the fourth planet, Mithra Gamma. This planet supports a pre-industrial society of humanoids living in scattered villages.
Given that star flight involves a long hypersleep, with spaceships unable to break the laws of relativity, all of the volunteers on board know they cannot return to Earth until approximately 400 years have passed. Most of the volunteers are relatively young, but nearly all carry emotional baggage from their past that motivated them to leave their society and not return until it has completely transformed.
The de facto leader of the expedition but not the captain of the ship is Dr Adrian Kosoff, one of the few more senior volunteers. An early scene establishes that a number of the more youthful crew are his students. Adrian is quickly established as a minor tyrant who wants to have the last word on anything, as well as taking most of the credit for the work of the expedition itself. As such, Adrian becomes the main source of antagonism, as he feels that anyone else trying to show leadership is something of a personal affront.
Enter the main protagonist, Dr Brad MacDaniels. He originally hails from the Mars colony, where he accidentally avoided a natural disaster that killed the rest of his family. Now he is haunted every night by nightmares about the event, and, specifically, he feels great guilt that he did nothing to help. In reality, there was nothing he could have done and he only survived by luck. This does not stop Brad from blaming himself. Brad is unusually tall, even for a Martian, so they sometimes call him by the nickname Skyhook. Anyone who has read Bova’s novel ‘Mercury’ will get this reference. Brad is a member of the expedition’s anthropology team. The team’s task is to observe the formation of societies among the rest of the expedition. The role naturally sets up a level of resentment between the rest of the crew and the anthropologists.
Soon Brad meets biologist Felicia Portman, whom he sees as really lovely. Soon, he has gallantly swooped in when Adrian Kosoff asks her to dinner by claiming he has already done so, and Felicia, rather relieved, goes along with the ruse. This sets up the first point of antagonism between Brad and Adrian, which can only deepen later on.
As a result, Brad finds himself exiled for three months while studying the lifeforms on Mithra Alpha. This means living in a shuttle for that time. Brad dutifully records lots of information about the octopoid inhabitants of the water-covered Mithra Alpha. In particular, he comes to believe that they have a rudimentary language.
On his return, he is lauded by the various scientific departments for the quality of his work. This irks Adrian Kosoff, as Brad has turned his exile into success and even minor celebrity status. So when Brad asks to be transferred to philology to continue studying the octopoid language, he is unsurprisingly turned down. However, he still has copies of all of his data, and Felicia agrees to help him study the language in his own time. Thus we see how Brad is becoming a natural leader and quite a driven researcher. Adrian Kosoff, however, is quite canny and wise enough to know when to use Brad as opposed to trying to control him.
Throughout the book, Brad will make a number of accidental discoveries that put noses out of joint across the various departments. Brad is, however, a very earnest and likeable character, so he tends to make allies rather than enemies. Crucially, he is fun to read. Of course, there are plenty of other characters, like James Littlejohn, the Australian Aboriginal head of anthropology, and Elizabeth Chang, head of philology. As an author, Bova is excellent at writing the supporting characters as if they are fully fleshed out, and this lends a real depth to the writing. Bova’s ability to blend reasonable-seeming science with well-portrayed and motivated characters has always been a strength.
In the past, I have noted but not criticised Bova for not actually featuring villainous antagonists. Quite often, overcoming difficult environmental challenges or scientific conundrums provides the main story. Of course, the tale is usually peppered with characters having all too human motivations, often forming relationships at the most inopportune moments. Bova appears to have consistently mastered this complex blend of elements. In ‘Apes And Angels’, the environmental challenge deepens significantly as the expedition makes further discoveries, often with Brad at the forefront.
By the end of the book, Brad will have realised his skills as a natural leader, along with most of the rest of the scientists. Adrian Kosoff, for example, has managed to relate to Brad without succumbing to his wilful brilliance. Despite the book’s inevitable conclusion, the reader is compelled to empathise with the scientists, who seem unwilling to part. Just as with them, it seems to the reader that there is much more to tell. Alas, the ship must return home while the inhabitants of Mithra Gamma watch the skies for the next human starship.
If you have read any other books by Ben Bova, then ‘Apes And Angels’ will deliver more of his signature well-written SF. It is actually quite hard to tell whether I would recommend this book to the first-time reader. Each of the books I have so far read in Bova’s `Grand Tour’ series happily stands alone, and thus the reader new to Bova could really start with any of them. However, Apes and Angels’ is both as good as any other starting point and certainly is a great example of Bova’s writing. Bova knocks it out of the park again!
Dave Corby
May 2025
(pub: TOR/Forge, 2016. 415 page small enlarged hardback. Price: $25.99 (US), $36.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-7952-8)
check out websites: www.tor.com and www.benbova.com
