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Test of Fire

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Test of Fire

By: Ben Bova
Narrated by: Dean Sluyter
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About this listen

Earth has been devastated by a massive solar flare. Now a small group of survivors fights to rebuild civilization.

Cities became ovens, grasslands seas of flame. As the touch of dawn swept westward across the spinning planet, its fiery finger killed everything in its path. Glaciers in Switzerland began to melt; floodwaters poured down on burning Alpine villages. Paris became a torch, then London. North of the Arctic Circle, Laplanders 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, but as it did, the sun dimmed as quickly as it had flared.

The Americas escaped the sun’s wrath … almost.

©Ben Bova (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Adventure Fantasy Fiction Science Fiction

Critic reviews

“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)
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[SPOILER FREE] The premise itself is absolutely fine, in fact a cracking premise from the get go. The earth is devastated and the last bastion of civilisation is a moon base, who have to revisit the planet to restock their fissionable fuel. Good, fine, excellent.

The problem is the characters who in the main just don't make sense. There are character-based plot holes through which you could drive a truck, and many occasions where lead characters behave in a wholly unsatisfying fashion - largely because if they'd acted with any common sense much of the drama of the story would be gone.

It's worth a listen and is well performed, but expect to find yourself yelling at the characters on a regular basis for being just plain dumb.

Entertaining tale let down by stupid characters

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This was up to Ben Bova's usual standard, a great listen, the only exception was not having Stefan Rudniki narrating the storey, I have come to expect him reading Bens books, he gives them the extra edge, that nicely rounds off the story line.
I am looking forward to the next three releases, The Winds of Altar, The Kinsman Saga and New Earth (all read by Stefan Rudniki).
Mark H

Another Good Book from Ben

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