Ben Bova's Grand Tour

Grand Tour is a series of space exploration novels written by American writer Ben Bova. Classified as science fiction the novels majorly focus on the themes of environmentalism and capitalism. The Grand Tour series of novels debuted with Privateers a novel published in 1985 to much critical acclaim. Ben Bova was born Benjamin William Bova in 1932 and went to South Philadelphia High School before attending Philadelphia's Temple University. He has been married three times and has two children from his first marriage to Rosa Cucinotta. As a young man, Bova was passionate about fencing and was the administrator and organizer of the Avco Everett's fencing club. He identifies as an atheist and has often written articles criticizing the unquestioning
Most of the novels of the series are bout the exploration of a planetary moon or particular planet. Many of the celestial bodies that are explored in the novels are shown as having had or having life. For the most part the expeditions sent out into space encounter serious challenges with the protagonists starting out as lacking in ability and confidence. They grow in character and confidence through their experiences to end up as heroes when they complete their mission successfully. The future of humanity is depicted as being a struggle between religious fundamentalist and scientists/secularists and the wealthy industrialists versus the environmentalists/greens. The conflicts are often introduced at the start of the narrative and will often be a background story throughout the book. One of the most important themes of the novels is the struggle between independent operators and wealthy industrialists for the vast untapped mineral resources in the solar system. There is also constant search for life on the different moons and planets being explored. Leviathans of Jupiter, Titan, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars Life and Mars all focus on the issue. After the explorers find life on a given planets what usually follows is a struggle between the scientist and religious fundamentalists with the latter denying its existence as it is in
America has given up on its quest to control the solar system and has let the Soviet Union their mortal enemy to fill in the void they left. The unknown but potentially massive wealth that could be found in the universe could now go into the hands of malevolent dictators that may not use it for the good of humanity. Dan Randolph is a rebel billionaire that runs one of the largest space exploration companies in the world. He is not going to take America's capitulation lying down and will do all that he can to loosen the stranglehold of the Russians on the lucrative ore industry of the solar system. But when he thinks he made himself some good profit by setting a mineral rich asteroid in orbit, he is shocked to learn that the Russians had commandeered the asteroid killing all his employees in cold blood driving him into a hot rage that can only be cooled by revenge. The tyrants have aimed the resulting cataclysm on a weak America in reply to the actions of the revenge seeking Randolph. Randolph must now put all his resources, cunning, and skills to outmaneuver the Russians in a ruthless and fast strike he cannot afford to miss. He has now become a proud space