Mercury (Grand Tour book 18) by Ben Bova (book review)
‘Mercury’ is a novel in Ben Bova’s `Grand Tour’ future history series and the fourth book that I have read by this author. So far, I have been most impressed by Bova’s quality of writing, scientific accuracy and believable characters. Indeed, I have thoroughly enjoyed my previously read volumes and so I have great expectations of ‘Mercury’.
As you might surmise, the book focuses at least at the start on the planet Mercury. This rather extreme environment is the location for a Yamagata Corporation research base. As the novel opens, we follow Saito Yamagata, patriarch and retired head of the corporation as he travels to his base on Mercury hoping to atone to the human race for some of his past actions. It seems that previously Saito had initiated a corporate war that culminated in the destruction of a habitat and the death of over 1,000 colonists. Having spent many years atoning at a Tibetan monastery and then dying of cancer only to be revived decades later by his son, Nobu, who now heads the corporation Saito now has inspiration to help the human race leave the Solar System and his base on Mercury is the start of that project.
Very soon we meet Dante Alexios who is the contractor managing the Mercury base for Saito. On the surface, Dante seems to be a very capable administrator who has unfortunate news for Saito in that technical faults will set his project back.
Shortly after this, we meet Bishop Elliot Danvers of the New Morality Church who has been invited to minister to the Mercury base and Victor Molina, who is a biologist who has received anonymous tip-off about potential life-bearing rocks found on Mercury. Bishop Danvers is slightly mystified by his invite. At this point in history, the religions of Earth are very strong and the New Morality not least. Danvers is therefore surprised that an off-Earth base of scientists and engineers would be happy to have a religious influence. Of course, the New Morality Church has declared nanotechnology to be thoroughly evil and Danvers is conscious that he must watch for such evils at the base. Danvers is also slightly surprised to be accompanied by Victor Molina, mostly because they have history. Danvers officiated at Victor’s wedding years ago. We also gradually meet Victor’s wife, Lara, who is lured under false pretences to meet them at the base a while later.
This is not the first hidden connection we are going to find between the characters. Indeed, we soon realise that Dante Alexios, whom none of them recognise, is greatly motivated by revenge against them all. Bova’s skill at writing is such that he can give this away early without demystifying the whole plot. This story surprised me quite a bit. In the other books I have read by Bova, it is usually the antagonist is the environment or maybe a stuffy administrator too hidebound to the rules to allow the protagonists to achieve their aims. Not so in ‘Mercury’. Alexios shares a hidden connection to all the other characters and is basically a fairly thorough villain.
After the end of the first part, the majority of the rest of the book tells the prior story starting some ten years earlier. Here, we find Victor Molina giving his biological advice to his friend Mance Bracknell, a nerdy engineer who is responsible for the construction of The Skytower, Earth’s first space elevator. This is being built at Ciudad de Cielo in the Dominican Republic and a small town has sprung up around the base named Sky City. Molina is needed as he has designed the virus-like organism that extrudes the Buckminsterfullerene structure. Of course, in many peoples’ eyes there would not be much to choose between a viral factory and a nanomachine but Molina assures everyone his tech is quite natural.
Reverend Elliot Danvers of the New Morality Church is sent to minister to Sky City. As a young and aspiring reverend, he is naturally suspicious of the technological Tower of Babylon being built and his highly sensitive to the possibility that nanotechnology is being used to build the thing.
Young Lara Tierny is madly in love with Mane Bracknell. The Skytower is a truly impressive feat. Bracknell knows that The Skytower is 100% structurally perfect and safe. The main structure is complete at the start of this section and technicians are filling out the various platforms such as the ‘low-orbit’ platform for launching satellites, etc. When Lara asks if it could fall over, Mance is confident that is impossible because `the laws of physics are on our side’. Unfortunately, the reader already knows the disaster will befall the project as this is clear in the first few chapters. We also recognise Lara as being Victor Molina’s wife, not Bracknell’s.
The story of Mance Bracknell’s fall from grace and subsequent adventures takes up most of the rest of the book but this story does eventually dovetail straight into the first part of the book and, by the end, we have come full circle. Suffice to say, by the end, the villain’s motivations seem most sympathetic even if his methods are a little extreme.
Bova writes here with his usual aplomb for scientific accuracy and evocative characters. One thing that surprised me is that I know Bova could happily write a multitude of plausible characters and weave a great tapestry from their iterations (see my review of ‘Titan’ by the same author). In ‘Mercury’, however, the characters I have described here are almost the totality with supporting characters flitting in and out for a page here or there. The whole book focuses itself on Saito Yamagata, Victor Molina, Bishop Danvers, Lara, Mance Bracknell and Dante Alexios. To be honest, no other characters are necessary to the plot but this still feels like an economical cast compared to the sumptuous roster of characters in other books.
‘Mercury’ is also different in that it has an almost thriller-like plot with the villainous antagonist arranging such dire revenge. The other books I have read by Bova don’t feature such evil characters per se. This does however show that Bova is not a one-note author and came as a pleasant surprise overall.
I have enjoyed this book. So far that scores four out of four and this increases my anticipation to read more of Bova’s work. I am happy to recommend this book both to those who already know Bova’s work and those who might not have come across it. In some ways this would be a great starting point for the reader who wants to dip their toe into Bova’s work. The presence of the strong `how did this happen’ plot would give the novice reader an enjoyable story to follow while the acclimatise themselves to Bova’s scientific accuracy. So this is a thumbs up from me all round.
Dave Corby
May 2025
(pub: TOR, 2005. 319 page small hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30412-0)
check out website: www.tor.com