New Earth

I spend the first 100 or so pages of the book New Earth really hating the characters.  Then the plot grew interesting and the characters mellowed a bit (though I never did grow to like them) and I wound up finishing the story.  New Earth, by Ben Bova, tells the story of 12 explorers sent from Earth to investigate a planet orbiting a nearby (8 lys away) star.  Once there they discover a planet that is startlingly similar to Earth, peopled by aliens who are genetically identical to humans.  The rest of the book is spent investigating what is really going on.  I don’t want to spoil things so I won’t say more.

All in all I liked the book though I still don’t like the characters & this author apparently has absolutely no idea how actual women think & feel.  You have to just ignore the women in the book.  Fortunately, like most SF books, there aren’t a lot of women anyway so ignoring them is feasible.  Given all this you might wonder that I’d still recommend the book, but I would.  The plot is interesting and says things about the problems people face (even now) and how to deal with them.