Test of Fire - Paperback

by Ben Bova (Author)

A small group of survivors fight to rebuild civilization after the Earth is devastated by a huge solar flare. Cities became ovens. Grasslands became seas of flame. As the touch of dawn swept westward across the spinning planet Earth, its fiery finger killed everything in its path. Glaciers in Switzerland began to melt, floodwaters poured down on the burning, smoking villages dotting the Alpine meadows. Paris became a torch, then London. North of the Arctic Circle, Lapplanders in their summer furs burst into flame as their reindeer collapsed and roasted on the smoking tundra. The line of dawn raced westward across the Atlantic Ocean, but as it did the brightness diminished. The sun dimmed as quickly as it had brightened. The Americas escaped the Sun's wrath. Almost. "A hard, dark book, the story of mankind after the fall... compulsive reading... the battle to rebuild Earth after its almost total destruction by a gigantic solar flare." -Harry Harrison

Author Biography

Ben Bova is the author of nearly 125 futuristic novels and nonfiction books about science and high technology. In his various writings, Dr. Bova has predicted the Space Race of the 1960s, solar power satellites, the discovery of organic chemicals in interstellar space, virtual reality, human cloning, the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), the advent of international peacekeeping forces, the discovery of ice on the Moon, electronic book publishing and zero-gravity sex. Dr. Bova received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation in 2005, "for fueling mankind's imagination regarding the wonders of outer space." His 2006 novel TITAN received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year, and he received the 2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award "for his outstanding body of work in the field of literature." Dr. Bova has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. President Emeritus of the National Space Society and a past president of Science Fiction Writers of America, Inc., Dr. Bova was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been a member of the Arizona Astronomy Board. He is a columnist for the Naples Daily News and a widely-popular lecturer. Earlier in his career, he was an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry. He has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry. His "Grand Tour" novels, including his award-winning TITAN, show how the human race will expand through the solar system, opening a new era of wealth and opportunity -- and conflict. His nonfiction books, such as IMMORTALITY and FAINT ECHOES, DISTANT STARS have been honored by organizations such as the American Librarians' Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has won six Science Fiction Achievement Awards (Hugos) and many other awards for writing. More books from Ben Bova are available at: http: //ReAnimus.com/authors/benbova