Answer, Please Answer

By Ben Bova and John Betancourt

Two soldiers stationed at an isolated outpost in Antarctica pick up mysterious signals coming from a distant star. As they decode the message, they uncover an alien civilization's history with nuclear energy - from its first discovery through its weaponization. Will the aliens find a path toward peace, or destroy themselves in nuclear war?

This thoughtful sci-fi tale explores humanity's own nuclear predicament through the lens of an extraterrestrial message.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667682846

Ben Bova

Dr. Ben Bova has not only helped to write about the future, he helped create it. The author of more than one hundred futuristic novels and nonfiction books, he has been involved in science and advanced technology since the very beginnings of the space program. President Emeritus of the National Space Society, Dr. Bova is a frequent commentator on radio and television, and a widely popular lecturer. He has also been an award-winning editor and an executive in the aerospace industry.

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Table of Contents

COVER

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

ANSWER, PLEASE ANSWER, by Ben Bova

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

New elements copyright © 2023 by Wildside Press LLC.

Originally published in Amazing Stories, October 1962.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

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INTRODUCTION,

by John Betancourt

Ben Bova is an acclaimed and award-winning author who has had tremendous impact on the science fiction genre over his long career. With over 120 books to his name, Bova established himself early on in the 1960s and 1970s as a major voice in science fiction, exploring thought-provoking futures, impacts of technology, space exploration themes and more in his work. Often focusing on scientists as main characters, his fiction brings real scientific detail and accuracy to the imaginative worlds depicted.

Throughout his career, Bova has won six Hugo awards and continues writing today at 90 years old, laying claim to one of the longest and most productive legacies as an author in all of science fiction. His novels have predicted a variety of future innovations including the 1999 prediction of a future discovery of ice on the moon. Compared often to contemporaries like Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov, Bova carried science fiction forward into the 21st century with a modern perspective, keeping the genre intimately entwined with relevant social commentary and real scientific developments.

Some of his best-known works are:

The Kinsman Saga (1976-1987): An epic series exploring humankind's expansion into the stars through the eyes of a powerful family dynasty that spans over a century from the year 2000 onward across the solar system.

The Orion series (1984): Six novels and a number of shorter works focused on the first space colony established on an asteroid orbiting between Jupiter and Mars and