Powersat

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Amazon rating of 3.5 out of 5, Amazon sales rank: 390232

Two hundred thousand feet up, things go horribly wrong. An experimental low-orbit spaceplane breaks up on reentry, falling to earth over a trail hundreds of miles long. And it its wake is the beginning of the most important mission in the history of space.

America needs energy, and Dan Randolph is determined to give it to them. He dreams of an array of geosynchronous powersats, satellites which gather solar energy and beam it to generators on Earth, freeing America from its addiction to fossil fuels and breaking the power of the oil cartels forever. But the wreck of the spaceplane has left his company, Astro Manufacturing, on the edge of bankruptcy.

Worse, Dan discovers that the plane worked perfectly right up until the moment that saboteurs knocked it out of the sky. And whoever brought it down is willing and able to kill again to keep Astro grounded.

Now Dan has to thread a dangerous maze. The visible threats are bad enough: Rival firms want to buy him out and take control of his dreams. His former lover wants to co-opt his unlimited-energy ideal as a campaign plank for the candidate she's grooming for the presidency. NASA and the FAA want to shut down his maverick firm. And his creditors are breathing down his neck.

Making matters even more dangerous, an international organization of terrorists sees the powersat as a threat to their own oil-based power. And they've figured out how to use it as a weapon in their war against the West.

A sweeping mix of space, murder, romance, politics, secrets, and betrayal, Powersat will take you to the edge of space and the dawning of a new world.

Reader Reviews:

I found Powersat a fairly good read but it's pretty light weight stuff. The story can be classified as a prequel to Bova's grand tour series and follows struggling industrialist Dan Randolph as he attempts to build a solar power satellite with a view to making the USA independent of that nasty Opec energy cartel. On the way he has to battle evil terrorists and has an on again/off again romance with the wife of an aspiring US presidential candidate.

Everything about this novel is simplistic. While solar power satellites may play a role in energy production some day I don't see it being any time soon, the main problem being the enormous startup cost which is currently beyond national governments, let alone one small company. The characters in the novel are the usual Bova stereotypes and I took some offence at the politics too. Only the bad side of the Arab world is ever alluded to. It seems that struggling American capitalists are the only good people in this world and there even seems to be a dig at the Russians too.

Powersat, however, is not really a bad book if you accept it for what it is. It's just a lightweight yarn about the near future that would be good for reading on a plane trip. If you aren't expecting a work of literature then you will probably enjoy it.Ben Bova's greatest achievement in this book is to provide an innovator/entrepreneurial view to the creation of of a new energy-harvesting system in a reasonably believable voice. The book seeks a richer storyline by tying this process to larger political, foreign policy, law-enforcement, competitive/strategic and terrorist systems; herein lies a weakness: by trying to cover so much ground, the ground covered is left thin, the characters representing these worlds mildly caricatural, and the rich intricacies of these systems and their relationship to the story are completely obviated. If, however, the very same story is seen from the incomplete and partial point of view of an action-oriented protagonist (even if the book is written in the voice of an outside narrator), then the lack of depth can be seen as a useful perspective device.

All in all, this is a lightweight page-turner; nothing grand, no claims to literary history, but still an agreeable and somewhat thought-provoking summer read.Ben Bova is such a great near future sci-fi writer. He never disappoints. His books are totally credible, both the people and the circumstances. They are also alive with relevant details that make me believe I am in the environment he has created. POWERSAT is a little different. It is not about space exploration or building off world communities. It is about the dream of one man, Dan, to build a satellite to collect solar power and microwave it to Earth reducing the world's dependency on fossil fuels. It is also about another man, Asim, who works just as hard to sabotage the power satellite and terrorize the USA. POWERSAT spends little time in space, Bova jumps right into the story and offers few flashbacks. Dan needs funding now to keep the project alive. He knows there are serious strings attached to whichever funding source he chooses. He tries to make the best choice, but he is so blinded by his commitment to the project that he just messes up. He is our hero and he is doing what is right, but he bribes government officials and makes deals with shady characters to get the job done. This is not a book where everything comes out fine in the end. After everything wraps up there is a need for an epilogue to check on the consequences of some of the choices Dan made. I was left with the feeling that with the success of the power satellite Dan would become as wealthy and selfish as Asim. Dan was living too close to the line that separates good and bad. And he was left with no personal ties to keep him grounded. The romantic subplot did not work.

If you liked this book and want to read something similar but better (but more R-rated) try RED SKY by Mike Mullane.
Arab oil and Arab terrorists still threaten America, but industrialist Dan Randolph has a plan--he's built a satellite in geostationary orbit high above earth. Its miles of solar panels gather sunlight 24 hours a day. The plan is to beam that power back to earth in the form of microwaves, converting it to electricity in a huge antenna array in the desert. But the plan depends on a low-cost reusable spaceship Randolph's company has developed--and Arab terrorists have figured out a way to sabotage the spaceship sending Astro Corporation lurching toward bankruptcy.

Randolph can call for assistance, though. His ex-lover, a U.S. Senator, proposes a law with low-cost government-guaranteed loan for him, his former boss in Japan wants to offer a partnership, and a major oil company offers to buy into the company--but Randolph wants to keep control and keep his business American. Randolph's magnetic personality also makes everyone love him--the Senator, his secretary, the reporter from the Wall Street Journal, pretty much everyone--except the evil terrorists who plan to use his satellite to kill thousands and prevent the U.S. from achieving independence from the oil that has them now occupying most of the Middle East.

Author Ben Bova preaches a tale of adventure and high-technology. Energy from space could make our nation free of foreign power, but terrorists and foolish environmentalists will try to stop it. Bova takes a swipe at global warming threats and makes his environmentalists pathetic and misguided fools. His terrorists, by contrast, are very evil people--as are the oil companies. Good old-fashioned American capitalism, however, can prevail.

Okay, we have a pretty good plot line here and Bova has himself a message he wants to spread--return to space and solve our problems. So, what's the problem? A couple of problems, actually. First, Bova's writing is stiff. Too many characters think things to themselves, explaining to themselves why they are doing things. Give the reader some credit, Mr. Bova. We really can figure this out. Second, the Casablanca-like love story between Rick--uh, I mean Dan--and the Senator is just annoying. Randolph comes off as a lovesick puppy rather than humanized. For me, it would have helped if he hadn't run out from passionate sex with the reporter when he heard the Senator was coming. Third, the terrorists are a bit too obvious and too stupid for words. Would the evil Asim al-Bashir really let his chauffeur really handle the dirty work involved in corporate espionage? How about a few cut-outs?

POWERSAT is actually an early book (a prequel) in Bova's series on the exploration of space in the name of America and profit. It's a story I'm sympathetic to and Bova deserves credit for sticking to his beliefs in spite of the world's increasing disinterest in space. I wish he'd left some of the political baggage behind, but even more, I wish he'd let his editor clean up some of the language, letting Bova's strong story out. I'm not sure what book the reviewers who gave this book 5 stars were reading, but it sure wasn't the same one I read. There was hardly in "Science" in this Science Fiction book. I'm not sure what I would call this book - Perhaps a sappy Romance? I found the entire book "double damned", to use Dan's often repeated phrase.
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