Leviathans of Jupiter

Ben Bova's Grand Tour series is reliable, complex, and realistic. Here, he revisits Jupiter, and the curious creatures we met on the last visit. As always, this is a standalone novel with nice little connections to other books for the initiated. The science is credible, the human relations interesting, the plot intriguing.

In short, this was standard modern Bova, and enjoyable. I did feel that one of the key conflicts was a bit by-the-numbers, and could have done with more depth. Also, one key bit of scientific equipment never really saw much use; after introducing it with some fanfare, even Bova seemed to forget about it for a while, and it played only a small part in the end. It's a shame, because it was interesting, and I'd have liked to see him pursue this.

A good book for hard-ish SF readers, and definitely good for Bova fans. 3.5 stars