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Powersat by Ben Bova
01/11/2005 . Source: Paul Hanley 
pub: TOR. 400 page hardback. Price: $24.95 (US), $34.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-765-30923-8. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.tor.com
This is a book set in the near future and I suppose can be categorised as a techo-thriller. I thoroughly enjoyed it which is perhaps not surprising as it is written by Ben Bova, who is a prolific SF writer.
The story opens with a disaster. A spaceplane, privately built and funded, is destroyed on re-entry. The CEO of the company that owns and built the plane, Dan Randolf, faces utter ruin for himself and his company. They designed and built the spaceplane to service a solar energy array in space which is intended to supply the Earth with virtually unlimited and pollution-free energy. How will he keep his project going and get his solar power station into revenue earning service?
Thereafter this is a thriller. Dan is opposed by oil companies, Middle Eastern terrorists and much of the US government as he attempts to keep the company he heads in business. He is aided by a former girlfriend, a US Senator, who wants America to be free from dependency from foreign oil. The main antagonist, a suave Middle Eastern oilman determined to keep the US dependent upon Middle Eastern oil, has a dastardly plan to sabotage the solar energy array in such a way that the West will never again flirt with such an alternative to oil.
This was a great thriller as perhaps is to be expected from Ben Bova, who is an excellent story teller. It is a well-paced tale from start to finish with Dan gradually becoming aware or at least suspecting that the disasters and deaths that befell his enterprise were sabotage and murder rather than accident. The FBI, assassins, assorted villains and others all jostle together to make this a cracking story. How Dan and his various helpers overcome those hostile forces is the book.
It is well-written, a coherent story and well worth reading. Thoroughly recommended.
Paul Hanley
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