Answer, please answer by Ben Bova
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"Answer, please answer" by Ben Bova is a science fiction novella written in the early 1960s. The story unfolds at the South Pole, where two astronomers, drafted into military service, are tasked with monitoring meteorological patterns in the midst of an emerging global crisis. The book explores themes of communication, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the terrifying implications of nuclear technology. The plot revolves around the two main characters, an optical
astronomer and his colleague Rizzo, as they discover an inexplicable, repetitive signal emanating from a nearby Cepheid variable star. As they decode this mysterious message, they uncover a desperate plea from an alien civilization that has developed advanced technology and nuclear weapons. The narrative becomes increasingly tense as they realize that the civilization is transmitting its history and expressing a fear of impending doom, ultimately revealing that their star has exploded due to a catastrophic nuclear event. The story serves as a cautionary tale about the consequences of technological advancement and humanity's own vulnerabilities. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Bova, Ben, 1932-2020 |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Schelling, George, 1938- |
| Title | Answer, please answer |
| Original Publication | New York, NY: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1962. |
| Series Title | Produced from Amazing Stories October 1962. |
| Credits | Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 77.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature |
| Subject | Science fiction |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Interstellar communication -- Fiction |
| Subject | Astronomers -- Fiction |
| Subject | South Pole -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 72247 |
| ISBN (HTML) | 979-8-238-72247-4 |
| Release Date | Nov 28, 2023 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 206 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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