[Jupiter 02] • Tour 18 - Leviathans of Jupiter

In Ben Bova's novel JUPITER, physicist Grant Archer led an expedition into Jupiter's hostile planetwide ocean, attempting to study the unusual and massive creatures that call the planet their home. Unprepared for the hostile environment and crushing pressures, Grant's team faced certain death as their ship malfunctioned and slowly sank to the planet's depths. However one of Jupiter's native creatures--a city-sized leviathan--saved the doomed ship. This creature's act convinced Grant that the huge creatures were intelligent, but he lacked scientific proof.

Now, several years later, Grant prepares a new expedition to prove once and for all that the huge creatures are intelligent. The new team faces dangers from both the hostile environment and from humans who will do anything to make sure the mission is a failure, even if it means murdering the entire crew.

One of *Library Journal*'s Best SF/Fantasy Books of 2011

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

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### From Publishers Weekly

Multiple Hugo–winner Bova's 18th Grand Tour novel (after 2009's The Return) is a quick-paced space adventure. Physicist Grant Archer, part of the exploratory team in 2002's Jupiter, is now a research station director dedicated to proving the intelligence of the leviathans his team encountered 20 years earlier. He's aided by four newcomers to the station: biologist and art student Deidre Ambrose; deep brain stimulation expert Andy Corvus; cyborg Dorn (familiar to readers of Bova's Asteroid Wars novels); and engineering physicist Maxwell Yeager. Katherine Westfall, a powerful International Astronomical Authority member, is also en route to Jupiter, on a mission to shut down Archer's team. Bova is at his best writing about the leviathans and their perceptions. The human motivations and emotions (particularly romance) seem more shoe-horned in, with the exception of Archer's engaging scientific passion. (Feb.)

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### From Booklist

In the well-received Jupiter (2001), Bova introduced scientist Grant Archer and the city-size life forms he discovers in the vast oceans of Jupiter. Now Archer returns, seeking to discover if the leviathans are intelligent. With him is a young woman who wants the expedition to jump-start her scientific career; against him is a woman who blames him for the death of her sister. But as the expedition plunges deeper into Jupiter�s atmosphere, the planet itself becomes the real protagonist, with its bizarre environment of bone-straining gravity, storms the size of planets, and internal heat from the days when it was trying to be a star. And then there are the leviathans themselves, apparently thriving in that same environment�but how? Finding the answer will keep readers turning pages, particularly if they are aficionados of hard-science sf�of which this is a stellar example and Bova one of the major creators. --Roland Green